ALL EYES ON SONA
Portfolio Committee appointments
ALL eyes will be on President Cyril Ramaphosa as he is expected to deliver his State of the Nation Address (Sona) today in Parliament at 7pm.
National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise said it was all systems go for today’s Sona.
“We have confirmation of almost all our guests. We’re expecting that we will start on time,” she said.
Modise also said rules would be applied “very equally across the board”.
Ramaphosa yesterday remained upbeat about his address, saying it would cover all South Africans.
“I’m quite relaxed, I’ve been taken through the process by the Speaker and the chairperson of the NCOP (National Council of Provinces).
“They were actually telling me what to say. They’ve already written the speech so I was reciting the speech they’ve written,” Ramaphosa joked.
Ramaphosa told the media that his address was very important, taking into account that the economy did not perform well in the last quarter.
The country is saddled with a 27.6% unemployment rate and a 3.2% drop in economic growth in the last quarter.
The president was in the National Assembly to assess readiness for Sona.
“There are quite a lot of challenges that we face as a nation, which we have to address,” he said.
“I’ll be addressing a number of issues that cut across the issues that are of concern to all of us as South Africans, and out of this we hope that we’ll be able to dream big as South Africans and reach out for the stars and be galvanised to build a South Africa that we deserve,” he said.
“This is the moment when we have to move forward with greater determination to that South Africa that we all deserve after the years of apartheid and colonialism.
“I think this is a great opportunity for all of us,” Ramaphosa said.
Trade unions, business, civil society groups and opposition parties have listed a catalogue of expectations which they say Ramaphosa should address.
They called for bold leadership and decisive action to deal with corruption, inclusive economic growth, job creation and the battling state-owned entities (SOEs), among other things.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said: “The president needs to exercise his new democratic mandate to act with speed and vigour to execute the desperately needed policies to save South Africa from a return to an economic recession.”
Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s Wayne Duvenage said: “We would like the government to start recognising that non-critical SOEs like SAA, like Denel and others, should be discontinued, sold off or privatised, obviously with responsibility to protect the jobs that are there. We don’t need to be in the business of those industries.”
Business Leadership SA chief executive Bonang Mohale said all eyes would be on whether Ramaphosa put paid to standing commitments to go through the gears and deepen the shift towards investment and growth, or whether he would opt for idle tinkering around the edges of an unsustainable growth trajectory.
“In light of the recent submission by the panel of experts on land to Parliament, it’s imperative that anxieties over the expropriation of land are settled without further delay.”
Mohale also said there was a need for a clear plan on rebuilding capacity of SOEs, particularly Eskom, SAA, the SABC, Denel and Transnet.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said: “The only question that must be on the agenda is how we ensure 10 million citizens who are unemployed have opportunities to find work. That requires us to focus on how we build better partnerships with business and improve the livelihoods of South Africans.”
There are quite a lot of challenges that we face as a nation Cyril Ramaphosa President
We are in discussions with an opposition party to chair Scopa
THE ANC has defended its decision to appoint people who are implicated in state capture to head portfolio committees in Parliament.
ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and chief whip Pemmy Majodina said there was nothing wrong with the appointment of these members as they had not been found guilty in any court of law.
The ANC yesterday announced former public service minister Faith Muthambi as the chairwoman of the portfolio committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Bongani Bongo was appointed to chair the Home Affairs committee, and former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo will chair the tourism committee.
Magashule said no court of law had found them guilty, and that they had also gone to the ANC’s Integrity Commission, which had cleared them.
He added that even when objections had been raised with the Electoral Commission of South Africa, it found they could not be removed from the list before the elections because they had not been found guilty of any crime.
Majodina agreed with Magashule. “There was a process where most of them appeared before the Integrity Commission, and were cleared,” she said.
They had been part of a group of 22 members who appeared before the commission a few weeks ago, she added.
This was after Deputy President David Mabuza had refused to be sworn in as an MP until he had cleared his name at the commission.
The commission had flagged him along with several other leaders of the ANC.
But the DA and Cosatu said it was wrong for the ANC to have appointed people with question marks hanging over them.
Magashule said the appointment of the chairs of committees followed consultations with the ANC’s alliance partners.
Magashule also announced that the position of chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts would go to the opposition.
He said they were in discussions with one of the opposition parties to chair Scopa.
Over the last 14 years, the position had been chaired by leader of the African People’s Convention Themba Godi.
However, he did not make it back to Parliament after the May elections.
The DA in the Western Cape has offered the Scopa position to the ANC. In return the DA said it wanted to chair Scopa in the National Assembly.
However, Magashule would not confirm the party that they were in discussions with over the position. The ANC’s continued infighting will soon destroy the governing party if its leadership fails to address the culture of factionalism among leaders and members.
This is the stern warning from the ANC’s integrity commission, which accused some of the highest ranking leaders within the party of fuelling factional divisions.
In its report – seen by Independent Media – which was sent to ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule late last month, and which the party was scheduled to deliberate on at its national executive committee meeting on Tuesday this week, commission chairperson George Mashamba said internal animosity has led to mistrust, assassinations, suspicions about the integrity of organisational processes and declining credibility of the ANC in the public eye.
“The disputes between different groupings within the ANC dominate the public discourse and the narrative about these disputes is carried forward by international news agencies and portrays the ANC at war with itself.
“The ANC’s lack of success in dealing with these matters is leading to political assassinations, comrades resorting to court to resolve disputes and eventually will lead to the demise of the ANC,” he said.
The report concerned the 22 ANC leaders who were flagged over allegations of wrongdoing and who were subsequently asked to present themselves before the commission.
Mashamba said the interviewing process of 17 leaders who eventually did present themselves to be questioned was dominated ANC factional divisions.
“These factions are being fuelled actively by some at the very highest echelons of the leadership of the ANC. The factions are also self-perpetuating. Some comrades spoke of how their dignity had been impaired.
“Others pointed to being sabotaged in government by fellow NEC members,” Mashamba said.
The commission pointed out that many members of the ANC’s top brass had not internalised the resolutions of the party’s 2017 national conference at Nasrec, where it called for the renewal of the party and the forging of internal unity.
The commission stressed that it was the responsibility of all ANC leaders to acquaint himself or herself with the Nasrec resolutions, including the one that says they must voluntarily and immediately account to the commission when allegations against them are reported.
“It is also necessary to initiate, encourage and support a culture of comrades voluntarily stepping aside in the interest of the ANC when facing damaging allegations,” Mashamba said.
Some of those who appeared before the commission, including Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association president Kebby Maphatsoe, have accused the commission of being factional in how it asked questions.
In its report, the commission said it had posed two questions to each ANC leader who appeared before it.
The leaders were asked why they had failed to immediately account to the commission when allegations against them were in the public domain and whether, in their opinion, those allegations had harmed the ANC.
Mashamba also complained about how Magashule’s office was sitting on the commission’s reports and correspondence.
“Based on the experience of the commission, of correspondence not being acknowledged or replied to, reports not being processed, and so forth, it will be necessary to examine and review the functioning of the office of the secretary-general, which is the engine of the organisation,” he said.
ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe had not responded to questions by the time of going to print.