Latest news with #Maimane
IOL News
03-07-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Appropriation Bill faces uncertainty as legal concerns mount
Standing committee on Appropriations chairperson Mmusi Maimane says if the Appropriation Bill fails to pass in its entirety, it will have to return to the committee to be processed. Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers The fate of the Appropriation Bill hangs in the balance as the Standing Committee on Appropriations is saddled with a legal opinion stating how voting should take place if the bill is to be passed. This came up when committee chairperson Mmusi Maimane briefed the parliamentarians about a legal opinion he received from the parliamentary legal services at the conclusion of the public hearing on the 2025 Eskom Debt Amendment Bill on Wednesday. Maimane said their job as the committee was not to get involved necessarily with the politics of goings-on inside the Government of National Unity. 'All I sought to seek is a legal opinion, guiding, whether, when we do scheduling of votes, what happens in an event when some don't pass and some do, given this was consultation on the Appropriations Bill,' he said. Maimane also said the National Assembly table has advised that the Appropriations Bill has to be adopted in its entirety if it is going to pass. 'Therefore, it will mean that if it fails to pass in its entirety, it will have to return to this respective committee to then be processed from then on as consistent with the Money Bills and Related Matters Act. I though it is important for members to be appraised,' he said. The parliamentary rules set out the process to be followed in passing the Appropriation Bill. 'The Assembly must first decide on the separate votes in the schedule to an appropriation Bill (in the case of a main appropriation Bill, when the debate on supplementary amounts has been concluded) and thereafter on the schedule,' reads rule 328. Maimane said he was really committed to making sure that the Appropriation Bill is passed so that it can be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. 'We have to make sure that the bill from that point on can then proceed as it is. I thought I have to appraise members on the question we have to be engaged with as we go forward,' he added. Maimane said he would share the legal opinion when it was written after DA MP Kingsley's Hope Wakelin asked whether he was going to seek or has sought the legal opinion. 'I have sought one and that was the advice that I was given. Hopefully once its all written up I will send it,' said Maimane when Wakelin asked to be given the copy of the legal opinion. He also said he would send a notification to MPs on the activities of the committee to finalise the processing of the Appropriation Bill. The turn of events come against the backdrop of the second biggest party in the GNU, the DA, having lived up to its promise to vote against the Budget of the department led by 'compromised ministers and deputy minister'. This after President Cyril Ramaphosa fired former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield after he undertook a trip to the US without authorisation. On Saturday, DA leader John Steenhuisen said his party will vote against upcoming departmental Budget votes for the departments headed by Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane, Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane, and other 'corruption-accused ANC Ministers'. He said they will keep voting against those departmental votes until those ministers were removed. 'In this way, the DA will strike the appropriate balance by allowing the broader GNU Budget process to proceed to ensure the stability of the country, while forcing the ANC to act against specific Ministers. 'If the ANC wants our support for those departmental budgets, they must replace the incumbent Ministers with alternatives that meet the very standard the President has set for himself through Whitfield's axing,' Steenhuisen said. The DA has already rejected the budget for the Department of Human Settlements in the National Assembly and the Higher Education Department's budget in the National Council of Provinces. The Higher Education Department's budget will be debated in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon.
The Citizen
24-06-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Will national dialogue fix SA or shield ANC?
With the economy faltering and race tensions rising, dialogue alone won't help if it's used to advance ANC agendas over national interests. Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane makes a good point when he expresses concern that the coming National Dialogue might be hijacked by the ANC to deal with its own problems and not those of the country as a whole. We agree with him when he says national dialogues should be held after significant crises – and that we should probably have held one in the wake of the Covid pandemic… presumably to discuss how it had been handled and, even better, to put in places mechanisms to insure that looting of public funds in a dire emergency never happens again. Maimane is also correct that our country is in trouble. Our economy is slowly imploding and race relations are probably at the lowest point they have been since 1994. ALSO READ: Is the national dialogue a futile exercise? The ANC, though, is also in trouble – one only has to look at last year's election results for confirmation of that. The temptation for the ANC would be to turn the National Dialogue into a platform for pushing more aggressively for transformation and black economic empowerment as a way to head off its more radical rivals like the EFF and uMkhonto weSizwe party. However, that might save the ANC and wreck the country. NOW READ: Afrikaners must be part of the national dialogue
The Citizen
10-06-2025
- The Citizen
Public protector launches probe into Madibeng mayor's office over crashed municipal bakkie
The crashed bakkie, which was used on a private farm without authorisation, has triggered a broader investigation. The Public Protector is investigating the use of a municipal vehicle by a nonemployee of the Madibeng municipality after the vehicle was written off in a crash while allocated to mayor Douglas Maimane's office. Public Protector spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe confirmed the probe was ongoing, but was at an early stage. The investigation follows the alleged unauthorised use of the vehicle by a private individual who subsequently crashed it. Crash on the farm The Isuzu bakkie, with registration KPX120NW, was allegedly used on Maimane's farm and was photographed carrying animals when it overturned near Madinyane village in ward 34 on 17 September last year. It was driven by an individual who was not a municipality employee. The use contravened the municipality's fleet policy, requiring that a vehicle should only be allocated to a municipal employee by the fleet manager. The accident was reported to the police and their incident report showed the bakkie was driven by a nonemployee. No report from mayor's office Maimane's office, which was allocated two other bakkies before this but grounded them through suspected reckless driving, failed to provide a report on the vehicle as requested by the municipality's fleet management division. ALSO READ: Nepotism claim haunts Madibeng mayor The fleet management division recommended an investigation, disciplinary action and the application of consequence management. It also requested a report from the mayor's office, to no avail. No action was taken against the person who crashed the vehicle and the mayor's office did not account for it, or state why the vehicle was driven by an outsider. Resident approaches Public Protector A concerned resident approached the Public Protector's office in Mahikeng to investigate the issue. The office confirmed to the unnamed resident it would investigate Maimane's failure to submit the report, which resulted in the municipality being unable to claim from the insurer. It would also probe the allegation that, although the matter was reported to the municipal manager, he failed to hand over the fleet management report to the speaker so that the matter could be reported to the municipal council. The resident also asked the protector to investigate the municipality's financial loss as a result of the write-off, who authorised its use and why it was used on Maimane's private farm. He also requested a probe into why the council speaker failed to exercise her oversight role regarding the matter. Mayoral chief of staff and spokesperson Senzo Ncongolo will look into the matter and respond today, as 'we are engaged with council tomorrow', he told The Citizen. NOW READ: Public Protector to reinvestigate Madibeng mayor's charity golf day fund controversy
IOL News
28-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Maimane demands clarity from Ramaphosa on Starlink's economic impact
Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane says President Cyril Ramaphosa avoided the substance of the question entirely and offered a general commentary on whether the exemption or relaxation of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment regulations, which would allow Starlink to operate in South Africa, would apply equally to South African-owned companies. Image: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane wants National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza to instruct President Cyril Ramaphosa to submit a written reply to the question he passed about Starlink and relaxation of black economic empowerment in ICT sector codes. This comes after Ramaphosa skirted around Maimane's question when he was responding during a question and answer session on Tuesday. Maimane asked whether the exemption or relaxation of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment regulations, which would allow Starlink to operate in South Africa, would apply equally to South African-owned companies. When Maimane raised his concern that Ramaphosa did not answer the substance of his question, Deputy Speaker Annelie Lotriet stated that it was his prerogative to answer as he saw fit. 'You can write to the president if you have further clarity,' Lotriet said. EFF leader Julius Malema told Lotriet that she could not say the president has a right and a prerogative to answer the way he liked. 'You can't answer for the president. The president must decide whether he has answered or he thinks he can do much better,' he said. However, Malema and Lotriet got into an argument over the exact parliamentary rule on the matter of prerogative of the president and the response to the satisfaction of a member. This resulted in Malema's removal from the virtual platform. On Wednesday, Maimane said Ramaphosa avoided the substance of the question entirely, and instead offered a general commentary on redress that failed to address the core issue of equal treatment and economic fairness for South African businesses. 'We are of the view this constitutes a direct contravention of the Executive's constitutional responsibility to account to Parliament.' Maimane also said if an MP can be ruled out of order for asking questions that stray from the original topic, then the president, too, must be held to the same standard. 'A response must relate to the question posed. Otherwise, accountability is reduced to a performance, and not a meaningful democratic exercise.' He said the request to Didiza was that she should instruct Ramaphosa to submit a written reply to his question within two days. Maimane also said his request was aimed to 'uphold the principle of executive accountability and ensure that the president does not set a dangerous precedent of evasive non-answers in future sittings'. He added that South Africans deserved clarity on whether government policy was being applied fairly and consistently, or whether multinational corporations are being favoured over local businesses. Meanwhile, when asked at the symposium in Cape Town on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said the issue of Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX owned by billionaire Elon Musk, never even came up in the discussions with US President Donald Trump last week despite being there as part of the US delegation. He said the process of having low-orbit satellites providing Wi-Fi and internet connectivity is known in South Africa. 'We have been through that, and there are quite a number of other companies, Chinese companies, European companies, Russian companies, and many others, and local companies who are interested in getting into that space. 'People tend to focus on one company only, and yet we've got a plethora of companies that would want to get into this space. So the environment to enhance or enable investment to happen in that space is precisely what needs to be properly crafted, properly enacted to enable that to happen.' Ramaphosa said Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi, who has proposed policy directives on relaxing the black economic empowerment in the ICT sector, has unleashed a process that was going to elicit a lot of comment from the public, from various key stakeholders, including current role-players in the sector. 'That in itself is going to exhibit the true democratic process in our country, that when something new, something that is topical or even desirable, has to be flighted or implemented or initiated, it's got to be supported by a lot of discussion, by role-players, even by ordinary people.' [email protected]
Eyewitness News
14-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
BOSA's Maimane launches 'Budget to the people' initiative at Parliament
CAPE TOWN - Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane has launched his party's "Budget to the people" initiative at Parliament to mobilise and give citizens a chance to make inputs. The party said the initiative would ask South Africans exactly what they wanted to see in the national budget, which Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will table in exactly a week. The initiative will span the next seven days through budget community town halls, including a digital service to canvass South African views. Maimane said that BOSA would ask South Africans one simple question: "What do you want to see in the national budget?" He said that the last two attempts to table the national budget had been marred by "political infighting" and a "deadlock" within the Government of National Unity (GNU), paralysing Parliament while citizens continue to suffer. He said that it was time to listen to citizens and what they wanted to be included in the budget. "We begin and we launch this tour of going around and seeing people, asking them their input in what we would like to call the people's budget tour. It will be a seven-day mobilisation where we will hear from ordinary South Africans about what they want to see. We will be going around asking them." Maimane said that during the initiative, BOSA would be engaging citizens on the party's growth charter, a blueprint for how South Africa can grow the economy at 5% per year. "For too long, national budgets have served the connected first, and the citizens second. This budget is not just a financial document. It tells us who and what the government truly values. Our 'Budget to the people' initiative is about shifting that power back to the people of South Africa," said Maimane.
