Cartoon images by Anthony Stidolph (Stidy)

And the Word is…LOAD-SHEDDING: Cartoons for September and October 2022

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In scenes reminiscent of former president Jacob Zuma in the dying days of his presidency, President Cyril Ramaphosa again refused to answer questions in Parliament about the robbery at his Phala Phala farm citing “due process” as a number of law enforcement agencies were investigating the matter. Opposition members remained equally determined to not let him off the hook.

Former president Jacob Zuma summoned state attorney Billy Downer SC, who is the lead prosecutor in his fraud case, and News 24 journalist Karyn Maughan to court for allegedly disclosing his medical records. The case was expected to affect and cause more delays in Zuma’s corruption matter.

Six months into its financial year struggling power entity Eskom had spent R7.7 billion on diesel for emergency generators – far in excess of the budgeted amounts. The news came as the state-owned enterprise implemented yet more power cuts across the country.

Worsening power cuts forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to cut short his overseas visit to deal with the ongoing problems. Back home, he once again listed a number of solutions to fix Eskom and improve its fleet of power stations.

Former president Jacob Zuma’s home province decided not to support his bid to be elected the next ANC national chairman. The KZN provincial executive committee said it had resolved to throw its weight behind Limpopo Premier, Stanley Mathabatha, for the position.

It was a case of another day, another crash as a runaway truck lost control on the N3 at Townhill and crashed into a barrier blocking the main Jo’burg to Durban artery for hours. The problems on this dangerous section of the highway have been exacerbated by the ongoing roadworks near the Peter Brown off-ramp which had caused huge snarl-ups.

As the country endured yet another extended wave of load-shedding, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed an amendment to the ministerial handbook which would have seen taxpayers forking out for ministers’ water and electricity – as well as other benefits. After a vociferous public backlash, the new perks were later scrapped.

The term load-shedding was announced as the 2022 South African Word of the Year by the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB). The announcement came as Eskom painted another grim picture of the load-shedding schedule for the week…

Opposition parties slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa for failing to take decisive action against Cabinet ministers implicated in state capture. Among those listed in the Zondo Commission Report were Mineral and Energy Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe and Deputy State Security Minister Zizi Kodwa.

Own Goal: Cartoons for July and August 2022

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Following continued disruptions which Eskom blamed on striking employees, the power utility increased load shedding to stage six. With the economy already under heavy strain, the move, yet again, highlighted the fact that the Government had not been very successful in dealing with Eskom’s numerous problems.

Adding to local motorist’s woes was the news that they faced further large fuel price hikes as the petrol levy cut fell from R1,50 a litre to 75c. As a result, the cost of petrol was raised by R2,37 (93) and R2,57 (95) a litre while the price of diesel rose around R2,30 depending on what grade you bought.

Stuck in the past, wedded to the use of coal, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe continued to pour scorn on those seeking cleaner alternatives, calling them “climate imperialists”.

Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s suggestion that South Africa create a second SOE power utility to foster competition in the electricity space was greeted with derision by most political commentators – including me.

In an apparent blow to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the KwaZulu-Natal ANC voted against his alliance and instead elected leaders sympathetic to former president Jacob Zuma.

A sombre mood hung over the ANC policy conference. Although a rebellion against President Cyril Ramaphosa and his reformist agenda was neutralised many questions still hang over the future of the party.

KwaZulu-Natal treasury MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube was sworn in as Premier during a special sitting in Mooi River in the Midlands. She replaced outgoing Premier Sihle Zikalala who had resigned. The first woman to be appointed Premier, her swearing-in came at a time when there was widespread public dissatisfaction over the provincial government’s performance.

While President Cyril Ramaphosa continued to maintain a stoic silence in dealing with the question about the big money found at his Phala Phala farm in 2020, opposition parties in Parliament continued to pile on the pressure, calling for his impeachment and requesting an ad hoc committee be set up to look into what they believed was a cover-up and abuse of state resources.

Labour union Cosatu and affiliates embarked on a day-long “national shutdown” to protest against the rising cost of living – warning the ANC voters would punish them at the polls unless they did something to rein it in. In an unrelated incident, two lions and two rhinos escaped from Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve as the cash-strapped KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife struggled to resolve an ongoing conflict with the surrounding communities over, among other things, similar escapes.

Coming Back to Haunt Him: Cartoons for May and June 2022

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In the same week that Eskom implemented yet another round of load shedding, the Msunduzi Municipality announced it had assigned a team to investigate what was suspected to be a coordinated campaign to sabotage its electricity and water infrastructure. Ongoing outages caused by a persistent lack of investment in maintenance further added to the problems, continuing to cripple an already battered local economy.

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Edca) revealed that while 97 rhinos were poached in 2021, a startling 60 rhinos were killed between January 1 and March 25 this year. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife blamed budget constraints for the inadequate resources to curb the scourge. Meanwhile, COGTA MEC, Sipho Hlomuka announced additional support measures – including an amount of R25 million – for the embattled Msunduzi Municipality, still struggling to address crippling electricity supply problems and growing pothole challenges.

According to the latest data from the Central Energy Fund, petrol and diesel prices looked set for large increases in the first week of June. Grain prices also sky-rocketed on the back of shortage fears also brought about, in part, by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Nature’s wrath struck again as the second bout of floods damaged homes and infrastructure in parts of KwaZulu-Natal. The weekend’s heavy rains came as many of the April flood victims were still trying to rebuild their lives while others searched for their loved ones who had been washed away.

Businesses and consumers would have to tighten their belts as the recent fuel price hikes were predicted to have a devastating effect on everyone. They would also have an effect on the country’s repo rate as the government struggled to rein in rising inflation.

Questions were raised about whether President Cyril Ramaphosa was involved in criminal behaviour after former SSA director-general Arthur Fraser opened a criminal case against him. Fraser alleged that Presidential Protection Unit head Major-General Wally Rhoode and Ramaphosa were involved in a cover-up of a burglary on the president’s farm in 2020.

The public furore over the burglary of alleged millions from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Limpopo farm just before the ANC holds it its crucial provincial conference has left his enemies in the ANC – mostly the Jacob Zuma-aligned RET faction – scenting blood. A delegation of secretaries and chairpersons from all eleven of KwaZulu-Natal’s regions immediately descended on Nkandla to confer and receive “wisdom” from the former president.

The four-and-a-half-year State Capture Enquiry finally came to an end when Chief Justice Raymond Zondo released the final part of his voluminous report. Former president Jacob Zuma, who condemned South Africa to state capture, remained the golden thread running throughout the report although Zondo also said that President Cyril Ramaphosa could have done more to lessen its grip.

A Failure to Deliver: Cartoons for September and October 2021

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Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Commerce CEO Melanie Veness called on the City to protect its electricity structure or risk losing out on investment. She said some businesses in the Mkondeni area were at times forced to go without power for up to two weeks as a result of, among other things, illegal connections. This was having a devastating impact on confidence and some had already relocated to other parts of the country…

The situation in many South African municipalities remained dire with the Auditor-General warning, in a recent report, that the financial situation of just over a quarter of them was such that there was doubt that they would be able to continue operating as going concerns. Leadership instability, poor oversight by councils, significant financial health problems, protests and strikes, a lack of consequences and interventions that were not effective, were all contributing factors to a general inability to deliver services to citizens.

In KZN, the position had been exacerbated by the recent unrest and looting with more than half of its rural towns facing economic devastation.

The National Teacher’s Union (Natu) slammed the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government for using budget cuts as an excuse to deny pupils quality education. Natu acting president, Sibusiso Malinga, said the union would approach the courts should the KZN education department go ahead with plans to retrench 2 000 teachers.

Appearing before the Pietermaritzburg High Court, Jacob Zuma’s advocate, Dali Mpofu, said the former president continued to be “most concerned” by the alleged leaking of his confidential medical information by state advocate Billy Downer. This was but the latest in a long list of arguments put forward by Zuma in his attempts to get the Arms Deal corruption charges against him dropped. The judgement was postponed until 28th October.

Despite damning Special Investigative Unit (SIU) findings against former health minister Zweli Mkhize, his family and his local ANC branch (and President Cyril Ramaphosa himself) rallied behind him. In a report, which the president had sat on for three months, the SIU claimed that Mkhize failed to exercise oversight in relation to the Digital Vibes communications tender awarded to the company by the Health Department.

Delivering the parties so-called corrective manifesto ahead of the forthcoming local elections, President Cyril Ramaphosa promised that this time the ANC will do better. Considering his party has spent almost three decades in power, during which time they have delivered very little of their promises, his assurances were met with a certain degree of scepticism. Elsewhere, the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma intensified, prompting the evacuation of 6000 people.

Various businesses in the Pietermaritzburg area again warned that the prolonged power outages and load shedding were crippling them. The situation was exacerbated by the exorbitant price of electricity in Msunduzi.

Msunduzi’s attempt to boast about its service delivery achievements was blasted by irate residents who called the city out on its glaring failures. They were responding to a Facebook post where the municipality had a picture of the Moses Mabhida road which they listed as one of their success stories even though it had been funded entirely by the national Department of Transport.

With municipal elections looming in just under a week, Eskom announced it would be implementing Stage Four load shedding because of numerous breakdowns, including a key unit at the Koeberg power station. At a media briefing, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan and current Eskom group chief executive Andre de Ruyter both acknowledged the endemic corruption and mismanagement that had plagued the power utility for the last decade. Meanwhile, the latest Citizen Satisfaction Index dropped to a five-year low as South African municipalities continued to fail to meet basic delivery requirements.

One Year On: Cartoons for March and April, 2021

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A lack of financial controls and consequence management had resulted in the KwaZulu-Natal conservation entity, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, incurring more than R48 million in irregular expenditure, it was revealed during a virtual KZN Scopa meeting. Ezemvelo – currently struggling to find R100million to fix its porous fences, which have seen wild animals escaping from its facilities – is battling to comply with Treasury supply guidelines due to the entity’s weak financial unit.

Despite the ANC leaders describing their meeting with former president Jacob Zuma as “positive and constructive”, political analysts described the gathering as a waste of time. In the meeting, the ANC top brass led by President Cyril Ramaphosa could not convince Zuma to change his mind on his decision to defy the Constitutional Court order that he should appear before the Zondo Commission.

Msunduzi Municipality’s financial reserves continued to be a huge source of concern, with the City’s December accounts showing it owed a whopping R500 million to its suppliers. Further evidence of the general malaise gripping the municipality was then provided when large parts of the city were again plunged into darkness, for up to twenty-four hours, as two Eskom breakers tripped. This was in addition to the normal Stage Two load-shedding being implemented by Eskom.

On a happier note, the 70th MyLife Dusi Canoe Marathon got underway in Pietermaritzburg although, because of the Covid restrictions, there weren’t the usual large crowd of fans to cheer the canoeists on…

As South Africa acknowledged the first anniversary of the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the maladministration in the Msunduzi municipality once more came into focus. In a two-part package devoted to the failing city, the Witness provided a range of stories showing how ordinary residents (and city workers) felt they had been abandoned by the uncaring administration. The newspaper’s report also captured the frustration of the business, real estate, tourism and other sectors of the local economy who had suffered as a result of bad management, bad choices and lack of consequences.

Following a heated ANC meeting over the weekend, former president Jacob Zuma’s supporters, who had come out second best in the battle to control the party, were now at risk of being expelled from the party should they continue with their campaign against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the judiciary. Meanwhile, the election of mostly white males to key leadership positions, at the DA’s KZN provincial congress, seemed to suggest the party had ditched its “inclusive” policy, according to some political analysts.

At a time when he needed to be busying himself with the urgent business of running the country and fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, President Cyril Ramaphosa found himself having to ward off more attacks from former president Jacob Zuma and his supporters within the ANC. In 23 pages of speaking notes, Zuma complained that his comrades had left him high and dry and attacked Ramaphosa for stopping the state from paying his legal fees. Zuma also launched a broadside at the independence of the judiciary, questioning the legitimacy and credibility of South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

Plessislaer is now one of South Africa’s murder capitals. This was revealed by the country’s Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, who urged police to get tougher on criminals following a spate of murders in and around Pietermaritzburg. Cele said KwaZulu-Natal had become a problem area along with the Western Cape and more police would be deployed to the area to try and curb the violence that has been spiraling out of control.

While fires raged on in Cape Town and emergency services battled blazes around the clock, it was revealed that KwaZulu-Natal’s fire-fighting capacity had heavy shortfalls. Not only did it lack over 550 fire-fighters but it did not have enough Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) equipment or personnel. The problem was not confined to KZN alone with a Daily Maverick report revealing similar shortcomings throughout the country.