Polity.org.za Audio Articles

uMkhonto weSizwe Party's (MKP's) treasurer-general Dr Thanti Mthanti has served the party with his resignation letter, citing a need to balance his personal responsibilities and professional commitments.

Mthanti resigned with immediate effect. In a statement, the MKP said party president Jacob Zuma had "magnanimously" accepted the resignation, describing Mthanti as an astute leader serving in different roles.

"I firmly believe the MK Party requires a full-time treasurer-general to lead it effectively through this pivotal phase of its growth," Mthanti's letter to the party reads.

He was elected to the position in November, after Zuma removed Menzi Magubane.

He will also be stepping down as a Convenor of High Command deployees in the Western Cape, and chair of the Communications sub-committee, but will remain an ordinary member of the National High Command, and has offered his assistance to the party, to facilitate a smooth transition process.

Zuma extended his appreciation to Mthanti for his contributions, saying his offer to assist in ensuring a seamless transition "speaks volumes" about his dedication to the continued success of the party.

Mthanti expressed gratitude to Zuma for the "trust and opportunities" extended to him during his tenure.

"My appreciation also extends to the staff of the treasurer-general's office, the commanders of the High Command, and colleagues across provinces and legislatures. I take pride in the collective achievements we have made and the values of transparency, dedication, and hard work that we have upheld. It has truly been an honour to work alongside such committed and passionate individuals striving for the betterment of our people and the Republic," he said.

The party said Mthanti would remain a valued member of the National High Command as Zuma continued to assign him various advisory tasks, including helping to set up financial control systems.

The party said it was currently in the process of identifying a suitable successor to fill the role.

South Africa said it has "noted with appreciation" the recently announced ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with Portfolio Committee on International Relations chairperson Supra Mahumapelo calling it "a relief" that will hopefully bring about "normalcy" in the Gaza Strip.

Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal which will halt the war in Gaza and see the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that a deal to return hostages held in the Gaza Strip had been reached. Israel is expected to release about 1 000 Palestinian prisoners, some jailed for years, in return for the hostages.

The agreement is set to last 42 days. Negotiations for the second phase are scheduled to start on the 16th day.

"South Africa is vindicated once more; it gives great pleasure to realise that even Israel herself was not convinced about the correctness of indiscriminate genocidal attacks that affected so many children, women and other vulnerable groups in that region," said Mahumapelo.

He pointed out that although this had come at significant human cost to Palestinians, "South Africa is happy".

"We call on the international community to come to Gaza and begin to help Palestinians reconstruct their lives. This bout of aggression against civilians has never been seen anywhere possibly in history," he stated.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said immediate and massive humanitarian aid was urgently needed to provide relief to civilians in Gaza.

"All obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian aid must be lifted immediately and unconditionally, allowing civilians unrestricted access to essential food, water, shelter, and healthcare," it said.

Dirco called for the implementation of a "just and lasting peace", highlighting the human rights of Palestinians and that Israelis are "protected and promoted".

It noted that the ceasefire agreement was a crucial first step toward ending the severe humanitarian crisis faced by the 2.3-million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) deemed to be plausibly genocidal.

"The ceasefire must lay the basis for a just peace which should include the establishment of a contiguous, independent, and viable Palestinian State. Palestinian sovereignty and territorial integrity must be upheld. It is imperative that no land is annexed in either Gaza or the West Bank following the ceasefire, and that illegal settlement expansion is halted," it said.

Dirco pointed out that in accordance with the successive rulings of the ICJ, the provisional measures prescribed by the ICJ must be adhered to by the occupying power.

International law and humanitarian law must be respected and upheld, it added.

SUSTAINABLE SECURITY

Meanwhile, the GOOD Party highlighted that stopping the violence, freeing hostages and political prisoners, and facilitating humanitarian aid, without addressing the broader injustices of Israeli apartheid, illegal land occupations, and infrastructure destruction and genocide in Gaza, would not provide sustainable security for the people of Israel or Palestine.

GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron said sustainable peace required the equal dignity and human rights of Israelis and Palestinians to be upheld, Gaza to be re-built, and a viable independent Palestinian State to be created.

"…it requires the generational hatred and despair fuelled by the past 15 months of terror and inhumanity to be acknowledged for it to be addressed. Justice and morality demand that those who invested in the destruction of Gaza, including Israel and its arms suppliers, pay for its repair," he added.

The party said it was hopeful that the ICJ judgment would provide clear direction on accountability and the reconstruction of Gaza.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said while the agreement steps offer a glimpse of hope, it does not erase the "catastrophic destruction" inflicted on Gaza or the "genocidal intent" ...

AfriForum, Solidarity and the Solidarity Support Centre for Schools (SCS) have given President Cyril Ramaphosa and Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube 10 days to resolve the promulgation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act, which the organisations claim is irrational.

The organisations announced on Thursday that if there is no resolution, then they will approach the courts.

Ramaphosa signed the Bela Bill into law, in September last year, despite a significant degree of public rejection and concern over its constitutionality.

He placed on hold two clauses of the Bill for three months to find solutions to the concerns around them.

Should no solutions be found, it would be implemented fully, he said.

Some political parties and civil society organisations have been vocal about the Bill, saying in its current form, it will deprive children of mother-tongue education in single-medium schools.

The organisations claimed that Ramaphosa acted "irrationally and in breach" of various agreements by promulgating the Act in its entirety, on December 20, 2024, without considering the recommendations of Gwarube, who also co-signed the proclamation despite her recommendations to the contrary.

Gwarube recommended that the implementation of the language and admissions policy be postponed owing to the absence of appropriate norms and standards.

The organisations also highlighted that Gwarube acted "irrationally", because she co-signed the promulgation notice, acting against her own recommendation two weeks prior that the Act must not be promulgated in its entirety.

Gwarube also made recommendations to Ramaphosa that would have afforded protection to, among other things, mother language education and Afrikaans schools, said the organisations.

"The promulgation of the Bela Act in its entirety is an act of aggression by the government against Afrikaans schools and children. The promulgation indicates that the African National Congress (ANC) is busy turning the Government of National Unity (GNU) into the government of national disagreement that aims to coopt parties like the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) to help the ANC carry out its policy," said AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel.

Solidarity COO Dr Dirk Hermann indicated that his organisation was "unpleasantly surprised" to see that the Bela Act was promulgated in its entirety, without any of the conditions the Minister recommended to the President.

Hermann viewed the promulgation as a "dishonourable breach" of the agreement that the government signed with Solidarity at the National Economic Development and Labour and Council.

"The Constitution and case law confirm that the Minister's recommendation, as the person responsible for implementing the Act, carries weight. The promulgation of a law is not the sole task of the President. The purpose of the Minister's recommendations is to postpone the Act's enactment so that the necessary steps can be taken to implement the Act effectively," he explained.

SCS CEO Leon Fourie said Ramaphosa provided no explanation for ignoring Gwarube's recommendations and the agreements reached.

"It appears that the President's irrational promulgation of the Bela Act in its entirety succumbed to the political pressure from the anti-Afrikaans elements within the ANC," he highlighted.

Solidarity Movement head of operations Werner Human indicated that the institutions of the Solidarity Movement would, apart from the legal steps against the promulgation notice of the Bela Act, focus on seeing to it that the norms and standards, and the regulations regarding the language and admissions policies of schools that the Gwarube must now compile, contained provisions that would aim to prevent education officials from abusing their power and targeting Afrikaans schools.

"The institutions of the Solidarity Movement also reserve the right to take legal action against the unconstitutionality of the Bela Act itself, after concluding the legal process aga...

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has emphasised the urgent need for a comprehensive investigation into the Buffelsfontein mine in Stilfontein, in the North West, with the GOOD Party urging Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to focus law enforcement on illegal mining kingpins.

Almost 250 illegal miners have been retrieved since the start of phase three of rescue operations this week, with 78 dead bodies recovered.

Last year, Mchunu appointed a task team to lead the retrieval of thousands of zama zamas occupying the Buffelsfontein gold mine.

DA spokesperson on Mineral and Petroleum Resources James Lorimer said his party delivered an official letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, urging him to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the ongoing disaster at the Buffelsfontein mine.

The DA said it believed that the crisis at the mine warranted a "full and transparent" inquiry into the causes and consequences of the disaster, calling on the inquiry to investigate the role of government agencies and the involvement of the private sector.

The party wants an investigation into the role of the mine's owners, management, and operators in ensuring safety and mitigating illegal mining activities.

The DA also called for an assessment of how government agencies have responded to the crisis, particularly considering the Gauteng High Court's order for a lawful rescue operation.

The party said the inquiry should propose recommendations for preventing similar disasters in the future, including regulatory improvements and stronger measures against illegal mining.

"The DA urges President Ramaphosa to act swiftly, while witnesses are still available, to ensure that this inquiry takes place. A transparent investigation will help uncover the full scope of the crisis and prevent future tragedies of this nature," said Lorimer.

GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron said his party supported the call for a commission into government's "delayed response" to the humanitarian crisis in Stilfontein.

"…it is astonishing that the situation was allowed to drag on for months and was only 'resolved' because our government was taken to court and forced to prioritise life. The bodies of illegal miners which have been brought to the surface, affirms the dire situation below ground, which is supported by the physical state of the zama zama's who have surfaced and been arrested," Herron said.

He said the inquiry must clarify the "grey area" of legislation and government's argument that the Buffelsfontein gold mine was not closed or in a state of disrepair but rather that the owners still maintained a valid operating licence and had merely paused operations.

ILLEGAL MINING KINGPINS

Herron pointed out that there was increasing evidence provided by the community and in the testimony of the illegal miners that mining kingpins were in control of the illegal mining situation.

"A vast majority of those trapped 2 000 m below the earth's surface, were merely victims of socioeconomic issues, like unemployment and the lack of economic opportunities. Many of the illegal miners claim to have been brought to the mine under false pretences, with some claiming kidnapping and forced work," he highlighted.

He said middlemen were alleged to have controlled access to food and water in the shaft, and that while a large proportion of the miners were foreign, the local community was made up of many foreign and local former miners who lived without livelihoods owing to the closing down of mines.

The party wants Mchunu to ensure that law enforcement focuses its attention on the illegal mining kingpins who "abuse the desperation of others for illicit financial gains" and put communities at risk.

Herron said government had failed to tackle the underlying socioeconomic issues that contributed to illegal mining.

South African rescuers ended their attempts on Thursday to find anyone left in an illegal gold mine where at least 78 people died during a police siege, as a local volunteer described the horror of extracting their bodies from deep underground.

Police had encircled the mine since August and cut off food and water supplies to try to force the miners out so they could be arrested, resulting in what the GIWASU labour union called the worst State-sponsored massacre since the end of apartheid.

Since Monday, rescuers have used a cylindrical metal cage to pull up 78 bodies and 246 survivors, some of them emaciated and disorientated, in a court-ordered operation at the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg.

The survivors, who are mostly from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, have been arrested and charged with illegal immigration, trespass, illegal mining and other offences.

The police have said they were enforcing a government crackdown on illegal mining and that to have allowed food and water down during the siege would have meant "allowing criminality to thrive".

Mzwandile Mkwayi, 36, was one of two volunteers from the local township of Khuma, where most of the miners lived, who spent three days going up and down in the cage to bring out the corpses and survivors.

"I was scared. Those people were happy to see us, they were very happy. We told them 'we are here to help you, please don't die'," he told Reuters on Thursday near the opening of the mine shaft.

"I put the bodies in the bags with my own hands. It was my first time to see a pile of dead. It will traumatise me for the rest of my life."

Asked why he had volunteered, Mkwayi said: "Those people are our brothers. We're living with them."

On Thursday morning, the cage was sent down one last time, with a camera inside, which police described as a way of verifying information from volunteers who went down on Wednesday evening and said they could see no one left in the mine.

Reuters reporters at the scene saw the cage being lifted out empty and being driven away in a truck.

Mannas Fourie, the CEO of a rescue company involved in the operation, said it was possible some of the dead had been left in the vast network of deep tunnels and would never be found.

"If somebody got lost, you will never know whether somebody got left behind," he told Reuters.

ABANDONED MINES

Illegal mining cost South Africa over $3-billion last year, according to the mining minister. Typically, undocumented miners move into mines abandoned by commercial miners and seek to extract whatever is left. Some are under the control of violent criminal gangs.

Ministers have consistently described the Stilfontein miners as criminals and one spoke of the need to "smoke them out".

But local community members, civil society groups and labour unions have denounced the Stilfontein crackdown, with GIWASU condemning what it called "the dehumanisation and criminalisation of these poor, desperate miners".

Thembile Botman, a community leader in Khuma, said local residents had been saying for months that people would die, and the deaths could have been averted had the rescue operation taken place sooner.

"The minister said they were going to smoke them out and they did. Congratulations," he said, speaking with bitter anger.

Throughout the rescue operation, police and contractors operating the cage have not been going down themselves but rather have relied on local volunteers.

Police have not explained why they were not going down themselves but Fourie said it was better for the volunteers to go because they knew the miners and could gain their trust.

During the siege, police removed a pulley system the miners had previously been using to get in and out and waited outside the opening for them to come out, but community leaders and lawyers have alleged there was no way for them to climb out.

The pulley was later restored and removed several times during months of negotiations and legal action, according to ...

The South African Communist Party (SACP) is calling for the State to intervene in stopping what it describes as the "erosion of our national industrial base" and "manufacturing de-industrialisation".

This after ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) announced that it would be shutting its long-products business - resulting in the closure of the Newcastle mill as well as facilities in Vereeniging and eMalahleni involving the shedding of 3 500 direct and indirect jobs.

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition is engaging with AMSA "until a workable resolution to the problems faced by AMSA and the steel industry is reached".

The SACP, meanwhile, said it stood with the affected workers, and stressed that ensuring AMSA did not mothball or shut down production must be a priority.

It stated that aside from the expected loss of 3 500 jobs, about 20 000 to 25 000 others in the medium- and longer-term multiples in the value chain would be affected.

The SACP said this was unacceptable in a country that already struggled with unemployment, with over 12-million active and discouraged work seekers unemployed.

It said State intervention should include the possible transfer of ownership or direct takeover of the affected productive capacity from AMSA to ensure the continuity of production, as opposed to allowing AMSA to close operations.

The SACP reiterated this call, further noting that any engagements that may have taken place between the government and ArcelorMittal had not translated into the "desired outcomes," given the decision by AMSA to continue with its plans to mothball or close production at the affected factories.

At least 78 illegal miners have been pulled out dead from a South African mine where police blocked food and water supplies for months in what trade unions described as a "horrific" State crackdown on desperate people trying to eke out a living.

A total of 78 bodies and 166 survivors - some of them emaciated and disorientated - have been hauled out so far in a court-ordered rescue operation that began on Monday, with hundreds more men still stuck 2 km below the surface in a gold mine at Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg.

Police had stopped food and water supplies from being taken into the mine since August until a court ruled in December that volunteers could send down essential aid for the miners, known locally as "zama zamas".

"Our mandate was to combat criminality and that is exactly what we've been doing," said Athlenda Mathe, national spokesperson for the South African police, speaking at the site.

"By providing food, water and necessities to these illegal miners it would be the police entertaining and allowing criminality to thrive," she said.

The death toll makes the crackdown on the Stilfontein mine one of the deadliest on miners in recent South African history. As the toll has mounted, so has criticism of the police and of the government, which says the siege was part of a much-needed crackdown on illegal mining.

"These miners, many of them undocumented and desperate workers from Mozambique and other Southern African countries, were left to die in one of the most horrific displays of state wilful negligence in recent history," the South African Federation of Trade Unions said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Democratic Alliance, the second-biggest party in the ruling coalition, said on Wednesday the situation at the mine had got "badly out of hand" and called for an independent inquiry.

All 166 of the survivors rescued so far were immediately arrested and charged with criminal offences including illegal immigration, trespass and illegal mining, police said. None were hospitalised and all were taken into police custody.

"If you come out and you are able to walk they take you straight to the cells," said Mzukisi Jam, a civil society activist, who has been at the site throughout the rescue operation.

CAGE LOWERED TO RECOVER BODIES AND SURVIVORS FROM MINE

Only two of the bodies have been identified and claimed by their families, said Mathe.

Rescue efforts were in their third day on Wednesday, with a red cylindrical metal cage being painstakingly lowered into the mine to extract survivors and corpses. The cage can hold about a dozen people or dead bodies at once.

"If you stand at the sides you can see the bodies being taken out of the cage and it's incredibly distressing," said Jessica Lawrence of civil rights group Lawyers for Human Rights, who was at the scene.

Mannas Fourie, CEO of a private rescue firm involved in the operation, said each round trip took up to 45 minutes.

"Even the illegal miners that are at the bottom, they're quite keen to get into the cage so we're loading as many people as we can at one time and we bring them up to the surface," he told Johannesburg's Radio 702.

Illegal mining costs the South African government and the precious metals industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost sales, taxes and royalties.

"It's a criminal activity. It's an attack on our economy by foreign nationals in the main," said Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe, speaking at the site on Tuesday.

Police said 1,576 unlicensed miners had emerged from the mine by their own means before the rescue operation began. All of them were arrested, and 121 of them have already been deported to their home countries, it said.

Most were from Mozambique. Many others came from Zimbabwe and Lesotho. Only 21 of them were South Africans, police said.

Typically, the zama zamas - from an isiZulu expression for taking a chance - move into mines abandoned by commercial miners and seek to extract whatever is left. Some are under the cont...

ActionSA announced on Wednesday that will be collaborating with the Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) party, amending its interim constitution to establish the position of an ActionSA deputy president, which F4SD president Dr Mbahare Kekana will take up.

ActionSA president Herman Mashaba pointed out that shortly after his party's refusal to join the Government of National Unity (GNU), and the party's exit from the Multi-Party Charter, Kekana approached him to discuss the possibility of the two parties coming together.

"I have been impressed by his vision and his selflessness in doing what he knows is correct for his party, its supporters and the people who look to the Forum 4 Service Delivery for leadership," he said.

Mashaba said F4SD was a natural first choice for ActionSA.

"…while not represented in Parliament, its makeup is entirely oriented to local government, as its name suggests. Without any resources of any kind, it managed to be the 10th and 16th largest political party in South Africa in 2016 and 2021 respectively while only contesting a limited number of municipalities. In both elections the Forum 4 Service Delivery won over 80 000 votes," he pointed out.

Founded in 2015, the F4SD cut its political teeth in the 2016 local government elections where it won several municipal seats.

The F4SD currently has thirty-eight municipal seats in North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Free State, eight MMCs and eight chairpersons of Municipal Public Accounts Committees.

The organisation has over 42 000 members, structures in six provinces and has enjoyed relatively stable leadership over the past 10 years, said ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont.

"…it is also important to say that they bring leadership, and leadership is not something that you can quantify in a way that you can, with votes and seats," highlighted Beaumont.

He said Kekana and the members of the F4SD were going to be important assets to ActionSA, and strong leaders in the country's political future.

Beaumont noted the mutual agreement between the parties, clarifying that the two organisations would campaign under the banner and identity of ActionSA.

Members of the F4SD will be encouraged to join ActionSA.

F4SD councillors will take up dual membership until the end of their term of office, with Beaumont explaining that these councillors will begin the work of governing under ActionSA policy and its constitution.

He announced that a joined elective conference will be held in future, in which these organisations will formally come together.

In the intervening period there will be an amalgamation of structures in which the presidents of the two organisations will determine the leaders at regional, provincial and national levels.

Mashaba pointed out that ActionSA had begun engagements with "like-minded" political parties with the explicit strategy of exploring opportunities to cooperate and unite the opposition space.

"…while it is still early days, I am delighted to report that there is growing political will to engage in these discussions with the aim of prioritising the needs and best interests of South Africans," he said.

SERVICE DELIVERY

Kekana said service delivery in rural municipalities was in shambles, accusing the African National Congress (ANC) of not being ready to co-govern, particularly in areas where it was in coalition with other political parties.

He further claimed that opposition parties in rural areas were "very weak and are bulldozed and forced into maladministration".

He pointed to the millions in fruitless expenditures wasted yearly, and said public officials were only interested in self-enrichment and lacked required educational skills to address service delivery.

"…as we are beginning in this journey today, the poor have no hope of being serviced, struggling with jobs, the poor are struggling with water, roads, electricity. This journey is not about ActionSA, is not about Forum 4 Service Delivery, this journey is a cal...

The Information Regulator (Regulator) of South Africa has given the Department of Basic Education (DBE) until close of business on Tuesday to provide it with the requested information regarding the alleged security breach concerning matric results.

The Regulator wrote to the DBE to request confirmation of the incident after it was made aware of social media posts alleging that matric results were being sold to the public on a private website for R100, ahead of its official release by the Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube.

The Regulator expressed concerns that personal information of learners may have been "unlawfully" accessed and compromised.

The Regulator said it cannot yet address the specifics of the security compromise on personal information until the DBE has fulfilled its obligations under Section 22 of the Protection of Personal Information Act, No 4 of 2013 (Popia).

"Section 22 of Popia states that when a responsible party has suffered a security compromise, the public or private body must notify the Regulator within a reasonable time.

"Section 22 also requires that the responsible party, such as the DBE, should notify both the Regulator and data subject(s) of the security compromise that it has suffered. The Regulator has not yet received such a notification from the DBE," it explained.

The Regulator says it takes seriously any unlawful access to, and usage of, personal information of data subjects.

The security compromise of learners' personal information under the custody of the DBE is no different, it says.

Traders scaled back their bets for South Africa's interest rate cuts this year, with markets now pricing in only one as they decipher the Federal Reserve's preference to move slower on rates and US president-elect Donald Trump's path on tariffs.

Forward-rate agreements, used to speculate on borrowing costs, are now pricing in just a single 25-basis-point rate cut in 2025, at the central bank's January 30 monetary policy committee meeting.

Marek Drimal, a strategist at Societe Generale in London, said in a note to clients the central bank may even delay the cut until March due to less favourable market and external financial conditions.

His and the market's view is contrary to what most economists expect for this year. They foresee two 25 basis point cuts this quarter to 7.25% and another by the third, bringing the bank's total reductions since it started its easing cycle in September to 125 basis points.

Governor Lesetja Kganyago has repeatedly said the monetary policy committee would proceed with caution on rates as the outlook remains uncertain, even as its modelling signals further cuts on the horizon.

"We should not be creating uncertainty by making moves that we would later regret," he said in an interview with CNBC Africa last month.

Since the MPC's last meeting on November 21, the rand has weakened 4.5% against the dollar on concerns that the Fed would make fewer rate cuts than expected because of the strong US economy and Trump's tariff threats.

The weaker rand has already led to higher gasoline prices and may impact the central bank's 4% inflation forecast for this year. It prefers to anchor inflation expectations at the 4.5% midpoint of its target range.