On the brink of a budget: Will the GNU survive this test? We interview Dr Mmusi Maimane
The ANC has been scrambling to get enough votes to pass the national budget today with the DA playing hardball.
The blue party has been refusing to support the Appropriations Bill or any budget tied to ANC ministers facing misconduct allegations, saying corruption shouldn't be funded.
In a dramatic twist, President Ramaphosa fired Minister Nkabane, but is that enough to save the budget?
If this Appropriation Bill flops, it's not just a political embarrassment; it could mean no money for schools, hospitals, or even salaries, explains Maimane.
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Daily Maverick
2 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
NMB council's ANC caucus accused of misconduct after walkout to avoid city manager discussion
The Democratic Alliance has asked the speaker of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro council to take action against members of the ANC caucus who left a city council meeting on Thursday, collapsing an urgent discussion on the fate of the suspended city manager. The Democratic Alliance has urged the speaker of the Nelson Mandela Bay City Council, Eugene Johnson, to take disciplinary steps against the members of the ANC caucus who walked out of an official council meeting. On Thursday, ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom, seconded by the DA's Rano Kayser, proposed a motion that a legal opinion – which concluded that disciplinary action against suspended city manager Dr Noxolo Nqwazi should be abandoned as the charges could not be sustained – should be tabled before council. This video of the walkout was recorded by ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom Both Grootboom and Kayser insist that the motion passed and that what followed was a walkout of the ANC caucus, led by Executive Mayor Babalwa Lobishe, that collapsed the city council meeting. Lobishe did not hold her usual post-council press conference, but instead posted a statement to residents, not to the media, stating that the motion had not passed. She did not respond to further questions. This is the second time in a week that Lobishe has exited a council meeting without dealing with the issue of the suspended city manager. Last week, she arrived late for a council meeting, announced that reports 'were not ready' and adjourned the meeting – at a cost of around R25,000 to ratepayers. Nelson Mandela Bay Deputy Mayor Gary van Niekerk said on Thursday night that 'she didn't have the votes'. He, too, said the motion had passed. 'The meeting was adjourned. The members of the ANC left. The speaker then called them back,' he said. 'But most of them had already left. So when the ACDP's motion was put to a vote, we (the coalition government to which Van Niekerk belongs) didn't have the numbers,' he said. Disciplinary action DA councillor Morne Steyn wrote to Johnson on Friday, asking her to investigate and institute disciplinary proceedings against the councillors who had left the meeting 'unlawfully and illegally' and to refer the matter to the rules and ethics committee. According to the video recording of the meeting, it had not adjourned, but went into a closed meeting, so it remains unclear why the ANC caucus left. In his letter, Steyn quoted from a 2015 ruling by the Constitutional Court that it was unlawful for councillors to stop the work of a council when the 'political tides' were against them. In this ruling, the Constitutional Court said: 'Councillors are elected to undertake the work of the council on behalf of the whole citizenry. Sometimes the tides of politics will place one party in the majority and sometimes another. 'But it remains the duty of all councillors to facilitate and not obstruct the workings of the council. For councillors to continue to draw their salaries, while refusing to attend meetings and seeking thereby to stultify the working of a council would be a breach of their obligations as councillors. It is a breach of the Code of Conduct that binds all councillors and obliges them to attend all meetings of the council and of committees of which they are members.' Steyn warned that if Johnson refused to act, the DA would approach the Eastern Cape MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zolile Williams, to intervene. 'The walkout staged by the members of the governing coalition in the meeting of 24 July raises grave concerns. Aside from the undemocratic actions of said individuals staging a walkout subsequent to a loss in the consideration of a motion, this action is legally [precluded],' Steyn wrote. He said that another ruling by the Gauteng Division of the High Court stated: '… the importance of serving in a municipal council is that party political affiliation and agendas are eschewed for the greater good of the communities served by those councils. … [E]very municipal councillor must comply with the constitutional injunction to municipalities, to prioritise the basic needs of local communities and to provide the basic minimum services to all members of such local communities.' Steyn said, 'These strong words of the [Gauteng] Judge President, together with the earlier strong remarks by the Constitutional Court, put to rest any debate about this issue. Walkouts are illegal. 'No matter how strongly a councillor disagrees with the proceedings in a meeting, there is no 'right to walk out', ' Steyn said. 'Councillors are expected (and paid) to attend council and committee meetings.' Walkout costs 'should be recovered' He said the wasted costs of the meeting should be recovered from the councillors involved. 'Such a walkout forces the municipality to convene another meeting. The municipality thus incurs fruitless and wasteful expenditure on a meeting that was entirely avoidable if everyone had simply obeyed the law. The municipal manager will be forced by law to recover these costs from the councillors [who] walked out and caused the meeting to collapse. 'The new powers of the Auditor-General have made this threat even more real than it was before. If the municipal manager does not make an effort to recover these costs from the councillors, the Auditor-General may come for the municipal manager and issue a certificate of debt to the municipal manager. 'So a diligent and careful municipal manager will not hesitate to recover the costs from the councillors, even if only to protect him or herself from individual liability. There could also be individual liability for the councillors who walked out,' Steyn said. Nqwazi's precautionary suspension Nqwazi was put on precautionary suspension in late 2023 and again in early 2024, pending disciplinary action which had been instituted against her. In his legal opinion, senior counsel Olav Ronaasen said he had been asked to advise on the viability of the disciplinary proceedings against Nqwazi and the status of the criminal proceedings against her to enable the council to reach an informed decision on whether it should persist with the disciplinary proceedings or withdraw them and continue to pursue a settlement with her, in terms of which her employment with the municipality would terminate. The National Treasury has refused to approve a departure which would allow a settlement to be paid, suggesting that the disciplinary proceedings should first be pursued to completion. But Ronaasen said in his analysis of the charges against Nqwazi, the disciplinary action was likely to fail as all the allegations against her neglected to take into account that she had been carrying out instructions from the city council. Lobishe has not responded to questions sent by Daily Maverick to her and the metro's director of communications. Despite weeks of pleas from business and civil society for improved service delivery and leadership stability, she has failed to explain her conduct on the city manager issue. The metro is facing a precarious time as tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump are set to come into operation on Friday. Nqwazi was arrested by the Hawks in September 2022, along with the metro's former human settlements director Norman Mapu, businessman Xolani Masela, his spouse Nwabisa, former Democratic Alliance councillors Trevor Louw, Neville Higgins and Victor Manyathi, and Nelson Mandela Bay ANC secretary Luyolo Nqakula. They face charges of corruption, money laundering, fraud and contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act. It is alleged that kickbacks for a toilet tender awarded during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic were used to reward Louw, Higgins and Manyathi for voting for a motion of no confidence against former DA mayor Athol Trollip. However, an application is pending for Nqwazi to be discharged after the close of the State's case, with her legal team arguing that the State had failed to lead any evidence against her. DM
Daily Maverick
2 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
National Dialogue will be meaningless without honest leaders, warns Mbeki
The National Dialogue, which will be held in three weeks, aims to foster national unity and develop shared solutions to South Africa's pressing challenges. As South Africa prepares for the National Dialogue, with an estimated price tag of R700-million, former President Thabo Mbeki warned that without capable leadership, the process risked being meaningless. 'What will come out of that National Dialogue will need honest, capable hands with integrity to implement what people have said,' said Mbeki. He was giving a keynote address at UDM leader Bantu Holomisa's 70th birthday celebration in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Saturday night. In recent years, Mbeki has been critical of the ANC, speaking about what he refers to as a decline in ethical leadership and the growing problem of corruption in the party. On Saturday, however, he toned the criticism down, saying that although he had views about ANC leaders, he was not free to mention them by name. He admitted that he, too, was part of the broader problem and anticipated that this would come up during the dialogue. 'They [South Africans] will say uncomfortable truths about us. 'You were President, and look what a mess you have created in the country.' And this is therefore what needs to be done in order to respect the people and implement what they have discussed: you need a particular kind of leader. I am not free to talk about our leaders by name.' The National Dialogue aims to foster national unity and develop shared solutions to South Africa's pressing challenges, including failing public services, high unemployment, rising crime, corruption, food inflation and economic stagnation. It starts with a National Convention on 15 August, which will set the agenda for the broader dialogue. The dialogue has been widely criticised by political parties and ordinary citizens, some of whom have argued that these are not just topics for debate but their daily realities. They want a concrete plan to lead the country out of crisis. One of the the parties that has rejected the National Dialogue is the EFF. Addressing President Cyril Ramaphosa in Parliament two weeks ago, the party's Nontando Nolutshungu said it was not the people of South Africa who had wrecked state-owned enterprises, failed to create jobs and allowed drugs to destroy young people. She pointed to the ANC's performance in the 2024 elections. 'The people have spoken, and you don't need R700-million to repeat the message they gave you at the ballots in 2024,' said Nolutshungu. The uMkhonto Wesizwe party's John Hlophe said the ANC sought to use the National Dialogue as part of its election campaign ahead of the 2026 local government polls. 'Let me tell the people of South Africa what it really is: it is not a dialogue for them, it is an ANC election campaign funded by taxpayers' money. 'Mr Ramaphosa, you lead a broken ANC: a party with the lowest membership in decades, a party that has lost key metros, a party that has become a mere shadow of its once proud self. Branches are non-existent, communities are leaderless, and the people have lost faith,' said Hlophe. Last month, the leader of the DA, John Steenhuisen, announced that his party had withdrawn its support for the National Dialogue, citing Ramaphosa's failure to act against officials accused of corruption, some of whom were members of the Cabinet. 'It is clear that this dialogue will be nothing more than a waste of time and money to distract from the ANC's failures. This explains why President Ramaphosa and the ANC are so obsessed with it,' said Steenhuisen. 'It is an electioneering ploy, at taxpayer expense, to gloss over the serious crises that the ANC has plunged South Africa into. The dialogue also has no constitutional standing whatsoever to take or impose decisions.' Responding to the criticism, Ramaphosa said people must ask themselves: 'Do we want to break or do we want to rebuild?' The National Dialogue will be led by the Eminent Persons Group, made up of 31 prominent South Africans, including business leaders, former MPs, academics, athletes, actors, and traditional and spiritual leaders. Some of those in the group are Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, Miss South Africa 2024 Mia le Roux, the leader of the Zion Christian Church, Bishop Barnabas Lekganyane, and the award-winning actor John Kani. Mbeki wants the dialogue to be a 'genuine' one. 'Let the people get together and say this is the South Africa we want,' he said. DM
eNCA
2 hours ago
- eNCA
Ramaphosa calls for urgent solutions to Africa's challenges
KEMPTON PARK - Political freedom means little without economic justice. That was the message from President Cyril Ramaphosa as he addressed the final day of the Liberation Movements Summit in Kempton Park. Angola's MPLA, Namibia's Swapo, Mozambique's Frelimo, Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF, and Tanzania's CCM are attending the event. The President warned of renewed attempts at regime change and called for urgent solutions to Africa's challenges. Ramaphosa also stressed the need to resolve the land question, industrialise our minerals, and create jobs for the youth. "To meet present day challenges we require urgent substantial and sustainable solutions to Africa's challenges. We need to find innovative ways of resolving our problems and challenges. The question we must answer is whether our movements are able to provide the leadership that is required in the world of today and tomorrow," explained Ramaphosa.
