South Africa’s National Assembly approved the National Health Insurance Bill which aims to ensure all South Africans have access to quality healthcare, a plan its critics argue will be financially unsustainable and impossible to implement effectively.
The High Court delivered a fresh blow to ex-president Jacob Zuma when it brushed aside his attempt to privately prosecute President Cyril Ramaphosa…
President Cyril Ramaphosa blamed the COVID-19 pandemic, state capture and the continued economic downturn for why the new dawn he had promised when he took office had not materialised.
A possible diplomatic crisis was averted when the Presidency announced that Russia’s President Putin would not attend the BRICS summit in South Africa in August.
ANC Secretary-General called on Public Services Minister Pravin Gordhan to shape up or ship out, due to his slow pace in getting things to turn around at Transnet.
Julius Malema and thousands of his supporters chanted “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” at the EFF’s 10th-anniversary celebrations held in the FNB stadium.
Msunduzi Municipalities’s waste management came under scrutiny following sewage blockages in various residential areas and in and around the CBD. Service provision appeared to have taken a back seat while the municipality redistributed funds for the renovation of halls and funding a millionaire’s football club…
Seven political parties accepted an invitation by the DA to attend a national convention at the Emperor’s Palace, Kempton Park. They kicked off the event with a pledge to put aside their differences to dethrone the ANC from power after the 2024 national elections.
Six countries including two African countries made the cut to join BRICS. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will become BRICS members in 2024.
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.
As international tensions rocketed over the invasion of Ukraine, Russia reminded South Africa about its own role in the fight against apartheid. Earlier, International Relations minister Naledi Pandor called on Russia to withdraw but appeared to be then overruled by President Cyril Ramaphosa, supported by the ANC, who called for mediation – not withdrawal – creating tension among the political leadership and uncertainty surrounding South Africa’s official stance on the conflict.
Disruption in water and electricity supply in Msunduzi Municipality continued to keep both residents and businesses at their wit’s end. The outgoing municipal manager, Mdoda Kathide, admitted the city is now in a state of disaster while the Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business (PMCB) said it was in economic ruin.
uMngeni Municipality is owed R2,5million by government departments with most debts sitting on over 90 days. Democratic Alliance Mayor Chris Pappas, who has been vocal about money owed to the municipality, urged residents to pay their accounts “to help bring the long-waited change in uMngeni Municipality.
Opposition parties blamed the governing ANC – particularly the fumbling Department of Home Affairs – for the recent rise of xenophobia, exemplified by groups like Operation Dudula. The matter was being debated in Parliament.
There was a rapid increase in the cost of the household food basket in KwaZulu-Natal according to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMBEJD). “The surge in the Brent crude oil price (which is an output in everything from the farm to the plate) including the higher cost of wheat, sunflower oil and other foods and agricultural outputs which South Africa imports, will drive prices up as the conflict in Ukraine continues,” said Mervyn Abrahams, the PMBEJD programme coordinator.
Msunduzi Municipality’s proposed rates and tariff hikes were met with fierce opposition from residents who said they were “excessive” and “unjustifiable”. They pointed out that service delivery and maintenance of infrastructure had deteriorated significantly over the last several years and residents had been forced to deal with these issues themselves rather than wait for council.
Addressing the nation on the government’s response to the catastrophic floods which have devastated parts of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Finance Minister had made R1billion available to go towards rebuilding the affected areas. Instead of gratitude, the announcement was met with an overwhelming cynicism with most people believing the money will simply be stolen – as had happened during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With a fifth Covid-19 wave approaching, the Department of Health said it was keeping an eye out for new variants of concern. The warning came at a time when Covid fatigue had resulted in many disregarding the health protocols that are meant to protect them from the virus.
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.
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.
The Constitutional Court sentenced former president Jacob Zuma to 15 months imprisonment for defying its order to appear before the Zondo Commission to give evidence on state capture. In its judgement, the ConCourt gave police minister Bheki Cele three days to arrest Zuma should he fail to hand himself over to the police within five days.
Jacob Zuma finally surrendered himself to police less than an hour before midnight on Wednesday 7th July after a night of high drama during which a phalanx of heavily-armed police units was on its way to arrest him at his Nkandla home. The disgraced former president, who oversaw a decade of state capture and decline, spent his first night at the Estcourt prison after high-stakes-cat-and-mouse negotiations with the police.
In a week that marked the darkest point in South African history since independence, large parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng found themselves at the mercy of marauding gangs of looters, ostensibly protesting the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma. Extremely tardy in their response, the security cluster ministers would continue to insist the situation was being contained despite numerous lives being lost and billions of rands worth of property destroyed. President Cyril Ramaphosa, would, to his credit, later admit the Government had been caught unprepared.
While fire-fighters, private security companies and local communities joined forces to try and protect the towns and cities, the ANC government was slammed for failing to be more visible on the ground while the country was gripped by riots and looting that brought the economy to its knees. Its slow and poor response was later blamed on budget cuts, poor intelligence and rifts between the security cluster ministers. Visiting the Liberty Midlands Mall in the aftermath of the wave of unrest, Police Minister Bheki Cele belatedly acknowledged the extent of the damage and warned that the country was “not out of the woods” even if it appeared on the surface that life was returning to normal.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assurance, to the nation, that his government would “leave no stone unturned” in its efforts to bring the anarchy that played out across parts of the country to an end seemed unlikely to convince a sceptical public, long inured to the ANC’s empty promises. This was especially so as most of the prime instigators behind the unrest came from within the party itself and the ANC had always shown a marked reluctance to deal with its wrongdoers.
Msunduzi Municipality warned that it might not be able to assist businesses that were affected by the unrest. With some of its commercial customers having had their businesses looted and destroyed, the municipality was also unlikely to collect the revenues it had estimated at the start of the 2021/22 financial year and this could also severely impact its ability to deliver services – already under strain as a result of the ongoing Covid pandemic.
Appearing before the State Capture Enquiry President Cyril Ramaphosa spent much time trying to avoid directly implicating ANC members in state capture. He did, however, admit that ANC factionalism had debilitated its ability to fight corruption because it led to people having “vested interests in maintaining certain activities.”
Following reports that KwaZulu-Natal schools had emerged as the biggest contributor to the rapid increase in Covid-19 cases in the province, there were calls for the closure of those most badly hit. According to KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala, more than 120 schools had reported clusters in their school settings and more than 800 teachers and learners had been affected. Learners made up 95% of the number, while educators accounted for the remaining 5%.
The Msunduzi Municipality Council agreed to sponsor Maritzburg United FC to the tune of R9 Million for the next three years despite warnings from opposition parties that it could not afford the expenditure. Questioning where the council’s priorities lay, the Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics (MARRC) said they would be seeking legal advice.
Appearing before the state capture enquiry, President Cyril Ramaphosa was asked to provide the commission with evidence about the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment. While acknowledging that state capture had occurred, Ramaphosa seemed reluctant to delve into details of how it had happened and why it was not stopped far sooner.
Confusion reined after embattled ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule issued a statement saying he would appeal his suspension and that he had, in turn, suspended President Cyril Ramaphosa. However, ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe insisted he had no power to suspend Ramaphosa because the decision could only be taken through party structures.
As scientists continued their warnings of a third wave, the figures coming through from some provinces, notably Gauteng, showed a definite upward trend. In comparison to many other countries, South Africa still lagged woefully behind in its vaccination roll-out.
The fraud and corruption case against former president Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales was postponed for the umpteenth time in the Pietermaritzburg High Court – and it seemed likely it would be postponed again when the parties meet on May 26. With the case having dragged on for over a decade, an increasingly cynical public was left wondering if the ex-head of state will ever get to answer the allegations made against him.
Ex-president Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty, before the Pietermaritzburg High Court, to charges of corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering linked to the multi-billion rand Arms Deal. In his 141-page plea for immediate acquittal, Zuma relied on arguments that had already been exhausted in other courts about his inability to get a fair trial. He also sought the removal of state advocate Billy Downer, accusing him of bias. The case was postponed to 19th July.
“ We can’t afford it and we object.” That was the message from the Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of business in response to Msunduzi Municipalities new approved hikes. With Covid having taken its toll and people have lost their jobs, the general feeling was that the increases couldn’t have come at a worse time for many individuals and businesses already battling to stay afloat.
Msunduzi residents mounting anger over ongoing power outages spilt onto the streets with protests in the Pietermaritzburg CBD and Sweetwaters – as some citizens complained they had been without power for seven days. Fuelling the frustration was the fact that Eskom yet again decided to implement load-shedding across the country, with virtually no notice being given.
Addressing the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa cited the sharp increase in infections as the main reason behind the government’s decision to reinstate alert level 3 lockdown restrictions. The latest measures were criticised by the South Africa Medical Association (Sama) for not going far enough. They felt the government should have honed in on the way people live their lives and not just on the alcohol trading hours and stricter curfew hours. The situation had also not been helped by the government’s tardy response to the virus in terms of vaccine roll-out.
Service delivery in Msunduzi ground to a halt after the city’s coffers apparently ran dry. Ward councillors were told during a Rapid Response meeting that there was no money to deliver critical services. Services not being delivered included repairing of traffic lights, grass cutting and attending to power outages.
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.
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…
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.
Stidy's Eye 