Gwede Mantashe

Things Fall Apart: Cartoons for January and February 2024

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A Pietermaritzburg architectural landmark, the Post Office in Langalibele Street, was described as being in a state of “disrepair” and “unhygienic”. One of the reasons many of the South African Post Office facilities are falling apart is that the entity is bankrupt and hasn’t been able to pay rentals and utility bills for water and electricity.

An angry ANC Secretary-General, Fikile Mbablula dropped a bombshell when he admitted the ANC tricked Parliament into protecting ex-president Jacob Zuma in the Nkandla “fire pool” debacle.Commenting on his disclosure, ANC National Chairman, Gwede Mantashe, warned ANC leaders to count their words or they will “catch fire”.

While the ANC geared up for elections, former president Jacob Zuma continued to campaign for the newly-formed MK party while insisting he remained an ANC member. KZN was hit by yet more devastating storms which caused widespread damage.

With R4,8 trillion in national debt and a looming fiscal crunch, Finance Minister Enoch Gondongwana faced a difficult balancing act as he prepared the country’s budget. As is customary, he called on South Africans to share their suggestions on the matter.

In a widely expected move, the ANC suspended former president Jacob Zuma, just months before the national elections. Earlier, Zuma had denounced the ANC leadership and said he would be voting for the newly formed MK Party.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa rose to deliver his annual SONA address, opposition parties were smelling blood with polls indicating the ANC would not get a 50% majority. The president, however, remained bullish about the party’s prospects in the forthcoming national elections.

With the latest poll showing support for former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party in KwaZulu-Natal at 24%, the ANC leadership was in a desperate attempt to stop members from defecting to the party. ANC Musa Dladla regional chairman Musa Cebekhulu conceded that some members had joined the party but denied a mass exodus.

Budget 2024: The Treasury managed to avoid a debt blow-out and reverse a plan to implement big departmental budget cuts by asking the Reserve Bank for help. It planned to directly withdraw R150 billion from the accumulated fund of the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve.

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.

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.