The Week That Was Feb 27, 2025 #Africa, #ANC, #Cyril, #DA, #South Africa

[Nat Quinn]

Hello again,

Most of our news this week, as you would expect, has been all about the budget being cancelled at the 11th hour. In fact it was cancelled as the Minister of Finance was about to get up to deliver his budget. It was in the 40th minute of the 11th hour.

I was interested to read Gayton Mckenzie’s comment after the budget was not delivered. McKenzie, our Sports & Culture Minister and leader of the Patriotic Alliance commented that at the Cabinet meeting that led to the  pulling back of the prepared budget Steenhuisen delivered the best speech that he had ever heard the DA leader make. He told the Finance Minister in no uncertain terms why the DA was not prepared to accept that budget.  The Afrikaans press called the result of that address, which led to the postponing, a nuclear bomb. Good!  Because it shows that the ANC have learnt that they no longer can run the country as they wish. The coalition is working.

Now you probably will not be surprised to learn that the Sunday Times chose the Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana as ‘Mampara of the Week’. And it was more than simply because his budget was blown out of the water and delayed. After his address in parliament Godongwana did not realise that the microphone was still on and he had sharp words for our Commissioner of Revenue Services (SARS), Edward Kieswetter, that all present could hear. The crass words were not simply because Kieswetter also was anti the budget. Apparently the two have been at loggerheads for years. What a Mampara! He owes Kieswetter an apology.

Making the ANC even more unpopular are the power outages we have been subjected to this week. Over the weekend the outages were up to four hours at a time and for as much as 10 hours in 24.  During the week Eskom was somewhat easier on us. My own problem with our (newish) inverter which blew-up because of the enormous power-surge after the electricity came back on after being off for more than 4 hours, was that we went off line. Being without WiFi made us even more aware of the majority who cannot afford inverters or solar panels and who suffer outages through joblessness and poverty. SA is in a sad state because of the disgustingly poor ANC leadership with the largest percentage unemployment figures in the world.

This week’s outages have nothing to do with old infrastructure not working properly. It has to do with Eskom not paying a supplier any of the R5 hundred million it owes for fuel used to keep the system working. Eskom disputes that a voice clip on the matter, doing the rounds, is genuine. But it doesn’t confirm or deny the reason for the outages.

 The way that the ANC has run this country is criminal. The harbours, the railways, airways, education,  health services  and even just paying accounts on time are too much for the cadres running our country. Ramaphosa must take the blame. He sets the standard and it is disgusting. Rob Hersov believes that Ramaphosa has become a liability to his party and is costing them votes.

Zapiro had this cartoon in Daily Maverick on Tuesday:

In a poll conducted this week by the authoritative Social Research Foundation, it found that the support for the ANC in the next election looks even worse than the last one. Only 32% of the eligible voters canvassed said they would vote for the ANC. That is almost a full 8% less than in the last general election. If Ramaphosa were booted out (or simply left) their support would drop even further to only 21% according to the researchers.  —Is that because the alternative leader, whether Mashatile or Mbalula are both so pathetic that they would cost the ANC even more support? —  If that were to happen the DA would likely receive 28% of the vote. That would then make them the largest party in the coalition. But many of those canvassed in this poll admitted that they were not yet sure how they will vote. The downside of the ANC slipping is that they may well then join-up with the MKP to continue to run the country. If that were to happen then we can really kiss SA goodbye.

According to Dawie, the political writer for the Burger, the ANC is busy shooting itself in the foot by finding new “leaders” for their party in Gauteng and KZN. Those were the two provinces where the party support fell the most in the general election. But what they are doing is creating factions in the party. Many members of ANC branches in these provinces have close connections to Zuma’s MK party.

Dawie writes that in the next general election, should the ANC indeed lose their leadership it will be Ramaphosa’s deserved legacy.

Peter Bruce’s article in the Sunday Times drew many knowing nods but Paul Hoffman, of Accountability Now took matters further with his letter to the editor of Business Day on Monday. Business confidence must be enhanced and corruption at the 286 State-funded entities must be seriously looked at. There are ways. Then the bloated government costs far too much and SA does not need a 2% VAT increase;  it needs to contain wasteful, illegal and unnecessary expenditure. One good way would be to shrink the Cabinet and curb some of its perks. But don’t hold your breath.

Hoffman, asks whether we are surprised that no new investments are coming into SA?

He also has a very good suggestion in Daily Maverick which you can read by clicking on this link:

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2025-02-24-instead-of-hiking-vat-recover-trillions-looted-in-state-capture

Not for the first time is our Deputy President, Paul Mashatile in hot water. The NPA’s reason to decline to prosecute him on fraud & perjury charges is being challenged. This has to do with false claims that Mashatile made under oath and relates to the appointment of a leadership team for the North West Province.

Then the minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni is getting closer and closer to being charged for corruption. The noose is tightening around her neck reports News24. This has to do with a mere R80 million of unauthorised expenditure when she was in charge of a Limpopo municipality. There is also the small matter of R250 million being investigated, linked to her but the NPA are not yet in a position to comment on that.

The DA has again called on Ramaphosa to fire her……………………… but don’t hold your breath.

I wonder which  cabinet ministers will be fingered next week.

This is David Doubell’s cartoon from BizNews last week:

When a top general calls our defence force a “Mickey Mouse army ” and points out that our borders are porous because our army is useless you can expect fall-out.

That is exactly what happened this week when Lieutenant-General Peter Maphaha made those statements. The ANC chairman of the parliamentary portfolio committee, Dakota Legoete went ballistic and charged that we don’t need generals like that. I’m not so sure. Clearly the general has a point and everybody knows he is telling the truth.

Our Defence Minister admitted in an report to SCOPA (the standing committee on public accounts) that staff is not fit for purpose and senior management is absent. She made these admissions in Parliament yesterday.

The last three days have seen a massive fire on two sides raging on Table Mountain. Needless to say the cable car has been shut down and all hiking trails have been closed to hikers. As I am writing the news is that the fire is all but contained and the water-bombing helicopters have done a good job.

Saturday was sport. Rugby, cricket and English football and we watched it all from the couch.

The Bulls beat the Lions in a brutal clash. Our rugby is bang, crash where everybody must tackle and even backs must join the loose scrum. It’s not attractive anymore. It’s brutal. The Bulls won 31-19. The cricket was from Afghanistan. Do they allow female spectators? Australia beat England in a really entertaining encounter.  We played England on Tuesday and……..h     Then the football. Spurs played away at Ipswich. Ipswich started like champions and inside the first 5 minutes had 3 top class chances at goal. Eventually Spurs won 4-1 but the score flattered the Tottenham team. But that’s now 3 league wins in a row.

Then last night against Man City Spurs lost 1-0 … an early goal but they couldn’t catch up.   Oh, dear.

As always,

Gerald

SOURCE:The Week That Was – Africa Unauthorised

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