Battle for new mayor of Joburg continues
The battle for control of Johannesburg, SA’s economic hub, will continue this week as the council sits again to try to elect Herman Mashaba’s replacement as mayor.
The battle for control of Johannesburg, SA’s economic hub, will continue this week as the council sits again to try to elect Herman Mashaba’s replacement as mayor.
The council sat on Thursday, but proceedings were stalled over the interpretation of what constitutes a majority vote.
This led to council speaker Vasco da Gama postponing the election to December 4 and 5 to get an independent legal opinion on what constitutes a majority when electing a mayor.
The DA, EFF and ANC are all fielding a candidate for the position. The EFF has nominated its regional chair and caucus leader, Musa Novela, while the DA has proposed its regional leader and finance member of the mayoral committee Funzela Ngobeni. The ANC’s regional chair, Geoff Makhubo, will represent the party in the contest.
Whoever wins will wield much influence on how Johannesburg spends the R65.5bn allocated to it for the 2019/2020 financial year.
A postcabinet media briefing is expected to take place on Thursday, with a possible announcement about the future of e-tolls in Gauteng. A task team established by President Cyril Ramaphosa whittled the options down to seven including the user-pays principle and these were presented to the cabinet, which is deliberating on the issue.
Gauteng motorists have not been paying their e-tolls bills.
Roads agency Sanral said it is collecting only 25%-30% of what it should be collecting from e-tolls on Gauteng freeways.
This is the last week in 2019 that parliament is sitting, after which it will go into recess until the end of January.
On Tuesday the National Assembly will receive three reports, one from the rules committee that deals with draft rules for removing office bearers and commissioners in institutions that support constitutional democracy, including the public protector.
National Assembly rules and section 194 of the constitution set broad parameters for removing office bearers or commissioners in these Chapter Nine institutions.
The new draft rules elaborate on these and specify the processes to be followed.
The National Assembly will also receive a report from the portfolio committee on justice that recommends not restoring advocates Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi to their former positions in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Jiba was a deputy national director of public prosecutions, the second in command at the NPA; Mrwebi headed the special directorate of public prosecutions. Last week the committee found there were no compelling reasons for them to be restored to office, in accordance with key requirements under the National Prosecuting Authority Act if parliament is to overrule Ramaphosa’s dismissals.
Parliament’s standing committee on finance will be briefed on Steinhoff on Tuesday by the Public Investment Corporation and the Government Employees Pension Fund.
At Wednesday’s National
Assembly sitting two recommended statutory appointments are on the agenda: the commissioner for the Public Service Commission and the deputy public protector.
The ANC majority on parliament’s justice committee controversially decided last week to recommend Kholeka Gcaleka as deputy public protector despite strong objections by opposition parties.
Gcaleka is the special adviser to public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu and was special adviser to former home affairs and former finance minister Malusi Gigaba.