What a stinker of a year – but
Eskom revelations, infrastructure collapse, university mayhem, war in the Middle East: the list goes on, with only sport providing relief from the gloom. But next year’s elections bring a ray of hope. By
We begin with an exploded view because, as years go in South Africa, 2023 was no less of a white-knuckle ride. The crystal ball for 2024 is opaque, however, so don’t unbuckle your seatbelt quite yet.
Container constipation, avian flu, load shedding, water shortages, potholes, disappearing traffic lights, burning buildings, exploding streets, a cholera outbreak, assassinations, royal disputes, mass shootings, kidnappings, illegal mining and fake Tiktok doctors.
That’s what we had to deal with in general. In particular, we were hit with the explosive “Eskom Files”, former CEO André de Ruyter’s sensational revelations in April after his “release” from the ailing, failing electricity provider four months earlier in December 2022.
His book,
published in May, buckled bookshop shelves and sold like hot amagwinya at a taxi rank.
Fingering Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, claiming both he and national security adviser Sydney Mufamadi were aware that two high-ranking politicians had links to cartels that extract more than R1-billion from Eskom every month, the grey fox was set among the pigeons.
De Ruyter’s allegations brought all the worms out of the woodwork during a subsequent parliamentary inquiry at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. Let’s just say it was a steaming mess.
On 2 December, Judge Norman Davis, in the Gauteng High Court, handed down a ruling that the government had breached the Constitution and the human rights of citizens by failing to run Eskom efficiently. De Ruyter was vindicated.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was ordered by the court to ensure “sufficient” energy by January 2024 to prevent the interruption of supply to hospitals, schools and law enforcement. Meanwhile, we roll with the blackouts.
We lift our eyes up to the sun
The fallout from the Eskom debacle kept De Ruyter and Eskom in the headlines, where the utility will remain while private sector renewable energy provision shoots through the roof – literally.
Solar panel imports from China and elsewhere peaked at
R16-billion in the first nine months of
2023. You might have to wait in the new year, though, because as of 2 December, 52 vessels were anchored outside Durban port with a further 25,000odd containers destined for Pier 2.
All were awaiting offloading.
October 2024 and February 2025 are the dates that new shore and straddle cranes for Pier 2 are expected to be operational. Transnet has a R50-billion backlog in rail and port infrastructure development.
In the meantime, business has provided an economic enema with a freight logistics “road map”, which was drafted by business and government but still needs Cabinet approval.
Meeting officials in constipated Richards Bay at the end of November, President Cyril Ramaphosa pointed out that the “private sector is going to play a critical role through either concessions or cooperations”.
On 1 December,
Minister of Finance
Enoch Godongwana unveiled a R47-billion
“support package” for
Transnet, described as a
“guarantee facility”. We are praying it will put a cracker up everyone’s arse.
2024 stumping
With the Constitutional Court confirming the validity of the Electoral Amendment Act on 5 December, individuals and political parties are now poised for liftoff for Election 2024 – the biggest political event since 1994.
Some time between May and August next year, South Africans will be going to the polls to vote in what will be the hotly contested seventh general election.
Years of government mismanagement, broken promises and industrial-scale corruption have finally manifested in the real world with real lives lost in failed insurrections, floods,
burning buildings, cholera outbreaks, desperate hunger and large-scale poverty and inequality.
The levels of ordinary South Africans with established politicians are off the charts.
On 4 November the Constitutional Court ruled that the 200-200 split in the Electoral Amendment Act was constitutional and rational. This means that independent candidates will be contesting only regional votes with 200 seats reserved for “compensatory” or national votes. These seats will ensure the National Assembly is proportionally representative of elected parties. You’ll work it all out in good time.
Ramaphosa was out on a charm offensive at the end of last month in the killing fields of Kwazulu-natal, visiting a home to witness a recently installed single outside tap. EFF leader Julius Malema has already cottoned on to the effective theatre of a red hydraulic crane to physically hoist him above his supporters. We see you, we see you.
“Moonshot” pacts, a “Multiparty Charter” and the exploration of political coalitions are set to dominate the public landscape and debate, with politicians, both known and unknown, singing, dancing and kissing babies and gogos. First out of the starting blocks was former Firstrand chair Roger Jardine. Thoughts are that Jardine will run as the presidential candidate for a group of opposition parties.
Senior DA leaders, including lead astronaut John Steenhuisen and Federal Council chair Helen Zille, have had “conversations” with the banker, who has an MSC in radiological physics, is