The ongoing SASSA debacle is setting off unprecedented concerns, including but not limited to ineffectual leadership by the Minister of Social Development, allegations and counter-allegations between SASSA and SAPO as potential service provider, and crucially that of dragging the justice system into administering a failing political process.
The Ad Hoc Committee on the Funding of Political Parties recently held public hearings on the Draft Political Party Funding Bill of 2017 (Draft Bill). The Draft Bill seeks to regulate the public and private funding of political parties. The underlying premise of the Draft Bill is that the contestation of electoral politics should be fought on an equal and fair basis, with the citizen as core consideration.
The reality however, is not the case as the increasing influence of money in politics appears to dominate electoral discourse, as opposed to an interrogation of positions, policies and principles.
South Africa is no stranger to the transactional nature of politics and in recent times #GuptaLeaks has exposed the invidious underbelly of politics in the country. This series of leaks has hastened the calls for greater commitment to transparency and accountability and for disclosure to become norm in political life and practice.
The chairs and tables have been packed away, the delegates are home and the myriad of reports of the ANC’s 5th Policy Conference are at Luthuli House for editing, publication and, in due course, for sending to regions and branches countrywide for discussion. The final policy decisions will be made in December, at the Elective Conference.
It is important to consider whether, from the verbal feedback and media reports, the Constitution is in jeopardy after the Policy Conference. What must be taken into account is that this Policy Conference was less about policy and more about the fierce leadership struggle between the delegates backing Mrs Zuma (“NDZ”) and Cyril Ramaphosa (“CR17”).
We are privileged to have with us today a number of eminent South Africans who are very well-qualified to address various aspects of our conference today. Judge Yacoob will give us his assessment of where we stand with regard to constitutionality; Moeletsi Mbeki and Christo Wiese will provide perspectives on governance – particularly with regard to the economy. Our goal will be to consider “The Constitution and Governance in South Africa” and to ask whether these are now “at another crossroads?”
The Day of Reconciliation was somewhat of a latecomer to the slate of negotiated and agreed on public holidays in the new South Africa.
On 23 November 2016, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) in the National Assembly called the Minister of Social Development, the Auditor-General and members of the Hawks, together with the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), to a hearing on the weighty matter of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The previous Public Protector’s report on state capture has been released and the political impact of the report and its findings have already been felt, and will be for some time. What happens after the Commission of Inquiry (the Commission) publishes its report, findings and recommendations? What influence will these have on the Zuma presidency and his successors?
The recommendation of the Public Protector is that the President appoints a Commission of Inquiry within 30 days. This must therefore take place by 2 December. For this to happen the President requires the name of the designated Chairman very soon – as identified by Chief Justice Mogoeng. The Commission has 180 days to complete its work.
On 16 November each year, since 1995, members of the UN pause (or not) to reflect on the meanings of tolerance and its destructive converse, intolerance.
In the 10th Annual Helen Joseph Lecture last month, Prof Njabulo Ndebele, the Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, mused about the burning earlier this year by UCT Rhodes-Must-Fall activists of portraits and commemorative objects symbolising the university’s “colonial” past. One of the objects was a plaque honouring Jan Christian Smuts. At first, Ndebele was shocked by this “burning of memory”.
However, after he had ‘mediated’ his thoughts, he saw the incident in a different light. It represented instead a clash between two historic periods – on the one hand “the legacy of the history of conquest” represented by Smuts – and on the other “the nascent moments” of the history that had begun in 1994.
