Democratic Alliance

And Then Along Came Omicron: Cartoons for November and December 2021

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After running a smooth, spirited campaign the Democratic Alliance snatched a historic victory in the hotly contested uMngeni Municipality, receiving 47% of the votes with 13 seats in the council, while the ANC had 39%, followed by the EFF with seven percent. uMngeni is the first municipality to be led by the DA in KwaZulu-Natal.

Outage turned to outrage as Eskom once again implemented load shedding with next to no notice. With the power utilities, woes showing no signs of improving CEO Andre de Ruyter came in for heavy criticism while industry, already battered by the economic effects of Covid-19, continued to suffer.

While politicians tried to make everyone believe that the coalition negotiations were being pursued in the interests of the residents in the country’s 70 hung municipalities the opposite appeared to be true. Rather than being about service delivery or good governance, they were used to advance narrow political interests to the detriment of voters.

With the reappointment of the old mayor, Mzimkulu Thebolla, and many of the same councilors there was a feeling that nothing much had changed in Msunduzi as a result of the recent municipal elections. In the same week, it was also announced that the municipality was drowning in debt, owing Umgeni Water an outstanding amount of R367 million.

The recently identified Omicron variant had fuelled a worrying surge in coronavirus cases in South Africa and is rapidly becoming the dominant strain, health officials warned. With the imposition of various travel bans to and from South Africa, the government complained it was being punished – instead of applauded – for discovering the concerning new variant of Covid-19.

Despite the fact that the majority of people in hospital with Covid-19 are unvaccinated the roll-out campaign faced continuing scepticism and resistance from a section of the public…

Minister Gwede Mantashe rubbed environmental organizations up the wrong way after saying protests against Shell’s seismic survey along the Wild Coast are examples of apartheid and colonialism of a special type.

While the holiday season should be about sending time with loved ones and doing things we enjoy, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to pose a threat to their health and well-being.

With the highly transmissible Omicron variant having driven cases of Covid-19 to record levels and with no end in sight to the pandemic, the prospects for 2022 do not look good. The one silver lining is that weekly cases appear to be on a downward trajectory.

Bracing for a Second Wave: Cartoons for November & December, 2020

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According to the opposition Democratic Alliance, Msunduzi is far worse now than it was before it was placed under the “selective” and “ineffective administration, which served only to placate ratepayers rather than deal with the problems that had bought the city to its knees”. It is a view shared by many ordinary citizens who continue to voice their concerns over the ever-increasing signs of neglect and poor maintenance.

The Arctic is unravelling faster than anyone could have imagined just a few decades ago. Scientists have warned that the Greenland Ice Sheet, for example, is no longer growing. Instead of gaining new ice every year, it has begun to lose roughly 51billion metric tons annually, discharged into the ocean as melt-water and icebergs.

In the United States, President Donald Trump was condemned by opponents for firing the senior official who disputed his baseless claims of election fraud as the president pressed on with his his increasingly desperate battle to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. This despite the fact that officials declared 3 November’s contest between Trump and Biden the most secure US election ever.

Former President Jacob Zuma continued to duck and dive and do everything thing he could to avoid facing justice. Having briefly appeared before the state capture commission to hear whether his recusal application for commission chair Ray Zondo had been granted he disappeared, without being excused, during the tea break. The commission adjourned to reflect on what to do next.

There were mounting fears that Msunduzi could face a massive blackout if the municipality does not urgently deal with the persistent outages that have severely compromised the network. The City’s electricity problems was also strangling the local economy and some businesses were even considering leaving Pietermaritzburg for towns with more stable power supply.

South Africa has entered a second wave of Covid infections, breaching 6 000 new cases, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a special television broadcast. The peak age bracket is now between 16 and 19. “It’s believed to be due to a large number of parties involving young people drinking alcohol with no adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions, wearing of no masks and social distancing and hand sanitising not taking place,” Mkhize said.

In an address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa, announced a tightening of Covid-19 restrictions, including the closure of KZN beaches during the main days of the festive season. He attributed part of the cause of the second wave of infections to a lack of compliance with safety measure such as social distancing.

In the wake of a year dominated by Covid-19, being cautious is probably the best thing you could do over the festive period so I decided to make that the subject of my Christmas cartoon.

2020 was a truly terrible year and I think most people were glad to see the back of it – hence my New Year cartoon…

No Room for Slippage: Cartoons for September and October, 2020

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In the face of a fierce and vitriolic fightback by the agents of corruption in the ANC, President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared to achieve a tactical victory at a meeting of the NEC with members finally committing to act against comrades accused of corruption. He now faced the challenge, however, to give effect to the resolution, no easy task in a party riddled by factionalism and internal power plays.

The Democratic Part (DA) wrapped up its annual policy conference by adopting numerous policies, including one that said race was not a proxy of disadvantage when dealing with issues of redress. This was followed by reports that the party risked yet another exodus of senior members after opening investigations against several leaders with the intention of charging them, while others were planning to leave because they were disillusioned with the direction the official opposition has taken.

Six months after lockdown measures were imposed, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country would move to lockdown level 1 from Monday September 21. He also announced that an Economic Rescue Plan was being fast-tracked which was only to be expected given the contraction in the economy and the fact that the country was, by his own admission, now effectively bankrupt…

According to various sources, South African National Treasury officials reluctantly complied with orders to find funds to bail out the state airline, fearing they may erode the nation’s fiscal credibility. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni had long argued that the government can’t continue funding the national carrier, putting him at odds with the top leadership of the ruling ANC and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who insist it must keep flying,

The high profile sweep on officials and businesspeople implicated in the R255 Million Free State asbestos audit deal scandal was universally welcomed because there has been an overwhelming perception among the public that thievery, as the modus operandi of the tenderpreneurs, would remain unchecked. According to opposition parties, however, the arrests marked just the tip of the iceberg and further investigations were needed to bring all those involved to book.

Meanwhile, the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa said that the practices at the KwaSizabantu – which involved allegations of human rights abuses and money laundering – were damaging to the reputation of other churches…

Msunduzi administrator Scelo Duma described the SAP financial system as “the Achilles heal of Msunduzi”. The top-of-the-range software package, installed in 2016 to integrate the management of finances, had already cost the municipality over R251 Million and had continued to be plagued with problems.

South Africa wouldn’t be able to meet its finance ministry’s debt targets and it may be undesirable for it to attempt to do so at a time when the economy is being battered by the fallout from lockdown, according to an advisory panel appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa. In a more than 100-page document advising the government on an economic recovery programme that Ramaphosa was due to unveil the Presidential Economic Advisory Council said spending cuts would hold back growth and have adverse consequences.

The news that Health Minister Zweli Mkhize and his wife May have tested positive for Covid-19 was a reminder that people are still vulnerable despite the diminishing rate of infection in South Africa. It was especially sobering considering what is happening in the US and Europe where infection rates have begun to soar again as part of the ‘Second Wave’ of the pandemic.

Tabling his mid-term budget Finance Minister Tito Mboweni stressed the country was in trouble and that something needed to be done. Acknowledging that there was “no room for slippage” he promised to put a break on expenditure and rein in civil service salaries – something that would have to be seen to be believed, given that he lost his SAA arguments and had been forced to extend a R10,5billion lifeline to the bankrupt national airline.

The Lights go out Again: Cartoons for September and October, 2019

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SUMMARY:

International concern continued to mount as thousands of fires broke out in Brazil, many in the world’s biggest rain forests, sending clouds of smoke across the region and pumping alarming amounts of carbon in to the world’s atmosphere. This was followed, shortly afterwards, by the unfolding devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian as it swept through the Bahamas and the eastern US seaboard, leaving thousands homeless and many dead.

None of this appeared to make any impression on US President Donald Trump, who continued on his quest to repeal the country’s environmental protection laws.

In a week best forgotten, South Africa’s international image took a huge dent as a wave of xenophobic attacks swept through the country. At the same time thousands of men and women all over South Africa took to the streets to signify unity and disgust against the ongoing violence and abuse against women and children.

There was slightly more encouraging news on my door step. Having got rid of the mayoral team for Msunduzi, the ANC next ordered the City’s top brass to act on officials implicated in graft. Seeing is, of course, believing but one can but hope…

In response to widespread protests across the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that R1,1Billion will be redirected to be used in the fight against gender-based violence and femicide. A firmer line certainly appeared necessary. As punishment for assaulting a female lecturer, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in its wisdom, decided merely that the offending student should step down from his position as SRC president and be given a suspended sentence barring him from the university for a limited period.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a huge blow to his premiership after the Supreme Court ruled that his five-week suspension of Parliament was unlawful. Seemingly undeterred, Johnson would go on to taunt his rivals, on his return to Parliament, goading them to either bring down his government or get out of the way and allow it to deliver Brexit.

Back in South Africa, the government continued with its plans to pass a National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill which would provide quality universal health care in South Africa. Although good in intention, the inconvenient truth, in the view of many of its critics, is that even with the most conservative assumptions the country simply doesn’t have the tax base to support the promises that have been tabled.

While Pietermaritzburg choked on the toxic fumes spewing from its burning dump, the MEC for Environmental Affairs, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, huffed and puffed about ‘how to penalise those found to be in breach with the environmental laws”. She didn’t need to look far, the New England Road landfill site being a testament to the egregious dereliction of City Hall. Her own ministry bore some responsibility, too, for not fulfilling its oversight role.

Eskom’s ‘no more black-out’ promises turned out to be yet more hot air when they abruptly re-introduced load-shedding; a move which caused widespread public anger. With this spectre continuing to hang over the country the chances of the economy growing significantly appear slight.

The double resignation of the opposition Democratic Alliance’s senior leaders, Mamusi Maimane and federal chair Athol Trollope – which followed on from the earlier departure of City of Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba – left the party in disarray and deeply divided. Their resignations appear to have been sparked by the return of former party leader, Helen Zille, who had been elected federal party chair. Speculation was rife that more resignations and defections would follow.