IN BRIEF
Transnet execs out in cold
Three top Transnet officials, including chief executive Siyabonga Gama, have been suspended. Gama, chief procurement officer Thamsanqa Jiyane and supply chain manager Lindiwe Mdletshe have until Monday to tell the Transnet board why they should not be suspended. Transnet said reports from two firms of attorneys and a forensic investigation company had found evidence of malfeasance relating to the Constitution, the Public Finance Management Act, company law and Transnet’s own regulations. It is believed this has to do with Transnet’s questionable R38-billion purchase of 1 000 locomotives. Questions have also been raised about the help Gama received with his MBA from consulting firm McKinsey, which was contracted to Transnet at the time.
Abrahams faces life of service
Shaun Abrahams, until Monday the national director for public prosecutions (NDPP), has assured the nation that he will “not be lost to the legal fraternity”. The Constitutional Court ruled on that day that Abrahams’s appointment by then-president Jacob Zuma was invalid because the previous NDPP, Mxolisi Nxasana, was not removed in the correct fashion. Nxasana was given a “golden handshake” of R17-million, which the court now says he should pay back. (He says sorry, he’s spent it.) Abrahams, who was widely seen as a Zuma stooge and protector, said: “I look forward to serving society and the country going forward in a capacity in which I could meaningfully and impactfully contribute.”
Grants glitches still loom
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the minister in the presidency responsible for monitoring and evaluation, told the National Council of Provinces this past week that she couldn’t guarantee the full regular payment of social grants to beneficiaries at the end of this month. The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) had problems getting money to about 700 000 grantees last month, blaming “technical glitches” to do with its transfer to a new system run by the post office. “There could still be some hitches here and there‚” said DlaminiZuma. At least the minister is honest about this. Sassa has reported CPS, its former illegally contracted facilitator of grants payments, to the Constitutional Court for “interfering” in the transfer of payment services from CPS to the South African Post
Office.
Old charge haunts Ramaite
Replacing Abrahams, at least for now, is one of his deputies, Silas Ramaite, who has taken up the position of acting NDPP a few times before. Barely had the announcement been made than a story about how Ramaite was charged with drunk driving seven years ago surfaced. In 2011, he was arrested near Louis Trichardt in Limpopo after his Jaguar collided with a bakkie. Ramaite was not breathalysed but his blood was taken, and he spent the night in jail. The charges were dropped in 2013 because, said police, they didn’t think they had a winnable case.
‘Viva Hlaudi!’ — BLF and youth forum
Supporters of former SABC big chief Hlaudi Motsoeneng protested outside the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration this week as his case continued there. There were complaints of traffic being blocked and of general disturbance. The South African Arts and Culture Youth Forum, which wants Motsoeneng to take charge of the SABC again, and Zupta sock puppets Black First Land First were among Motsoeneng’s supporters. In the course of the hearing, the SABC’s advocate said Motsoeneng had made defamatory comments during the four-hour press conference he called in 2017 to defend himself, after a disciplinary hearing found him guilty of bringing the broadcaster into disrepute. We suggest a plea of
insanity.
Parking plan is ‘fake news’
Cape Town’s mayoral council member in charge of urban development, Brett Herron, has denied a mooted plan to charge up to R400 for kerbside parking of longer than two hours, calling it “fake news”. Actually, said Herron, after public outrage had drawn him to comment, the plan was meant to “ensure turnover of parking bays … so that people don’t hog a parking for the whole day”. He also said there would be a clampdown “on people who park on red and yellow lines, as well as [on] people who park on sidewalks”. Lazy Capetonian drivers are outraged anyway.
Evil red prawn thing danger alert
Water ecosystems in the Free State are in danger from an invasive crayfish, the department of environmental affairs said this past week. The red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, is native to Mexico and the southeastern United States on the Gulf Coast but is spreading across the world. In southern Europe, for instance, it is threatening native crayfish species. It is able to travel long distances on dry land and grows fast, reaching about 12cm and weighing more than 50g. “At this stage it seems that it [the presence of Procambarus clarkii] is a result of the pet shop trade,” said an aquatic scientist in the Free State department of economic, small business development, tourism and environmental affairs. Dr Leon Barkhuizen said the crayfish are “extremely invasive and they are omnivorous … it’s a breeding and established population”.
The queen of love is dead
Aretha Franklin, considered by many the finest soul singer of all time, died at the age of 76 of pancreatic cancer. She recorded her first album at 14, a year after she had her first child. She had her first great hit in 1966, by which time she was married and had three children, and went on to win the Grammy for best female R&B vocalist eight years in a row. She was a consummate artist who played a commanding role in her most successful recordings; she was never simply a singer of other people’s songs. Former US president Barack Obama said that in her work “hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope”.