President to speak on Moyane
President Cyril Ramaphosa is this week expected to provide more clarity on the future of suspended SA Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is this week expected to provide more clarity on the future of suspended SA Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane.
Moyane had until the close of business on Friday to make representations to Ramaphosa on the findings and recommendations of a scathing interim report by retired judge Robert Nugent, who is chairing the inquiry into Sars. In the report, Nugent recommended that Ramaphosa fire Moyane immediately regardless of the outcome of his disciplinary inquiry. Moyane has approached the Constitutional Court to challenge Ramaphosa’s decision to appoint the Nugent commission, as well as his disciplinary hearing.
The labour court in Johannesburg is this week expected to rule on Siyabonga Gama’s urgent bid to overturn his axing as Transnet CEO.
Ramaphosa and finance minister Tito Mboweni are in Germany to attend the G20 Africa Conference today and tomorrow. Delegates are set to discuss progress of the G20 Africa Partnership and the G20 Compact with Africa. They will also focus on the ways in which the G20, African countries and development banks can cooperate to promote private investment and economic participation in Africa.. As part of his working visit, Ramaphosa will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel. SA and Germany have a strong trade relationship: in 2017 Germany was SA’s third-largest global trading partner; SA exports to Germany amounted to just over R84bn and imports to about R128bn. More than 600 German companies in SA sustain about 100,000 jobs.
ORAL REPLIES
DA leader Mmusi Maimane and the party’s public enterprises spokesperson Natasha Mazzone will today present a private member’s bill to parliament aimed at ending Eskom’s monopoly. If enacted it will allow municipalities to buy electricity directly from independent power producers and end Eskom’s enormous financial threat to the economy, the DA says. On Tuesday the National Assembly is scheduled to debate: “The state of our nation what went wrong and what must be done to fix it.”
Wednesday’s sitting will be dominated by oral replies from the ministers of agriculture, forestry & fisheries, energy, communications, economic development, among others. The protracted battle between Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and the DA continues. It’s unclear whether she will still step down on October 31, as agreed with the party in August. This is after law firm Bowmans’ report recommended that criminal charges should be laid against De Lille. —