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The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has allocated R5-million to parties represented in Parliament - and the African National Congress (ANC) will receive the most from the electoral commission pay-day, in line with regulations governing the multi-party democracy fund.

But ActionSA - which opposes the type of funding that gives a slight advantage to the ANC and others - has joined those questioning just how the party went from only having R100 000 in the bank, to managing to get into an out-of-court settlement with Ezulweni Investments over a R102-million debt for election campaign related work from the 2019 general election.

Social media was awash with questions about how the party was able to fund its 112th birthday celebration at the weekend, given its persistent financial woes.

The allocation means the ANC, as the biggest party, will receive the largest share.

The information about the R5-million funding is contained in a government notice, dated 12 January, and advises that a total amount available for allocation for the period 1 January 2024 until 31 March 2024 to represented political parties from the multi-party democracy fund is R5 001 319.

This will be shared among the parties with seat representation in Parliament.

ActionSA party chairperson Michael Beaumont has insisted that the ANC was concealing its source of funding given its announcement that it was debt free.

Beaumont said there is a "link" between Ezulweni Investments and state contracts which shows the "reasonable fear that South Africans may find themselves paying for this settlement".

He said ActionSA is awaiting confirmation from the ANC treasurer-general, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, on whether she will implement President Cyril Ramaphosa's offer to avail the documents in the interests of transparency.

"The revelation of this connection to state contracts has been revealed in a tender awarded by the Newcastle Local Municipality to Gladmod Transport and Shories Project 47, which lists Mr Renash Ramdas as its sole Director according to the Companies And Intellectual Property Commission. This is the same Ramesh Ramdas who is listed as the CEO of Ezulweni Investments in the court papers against the ANC and who is believed to be married to the sole Director of Ezulweni Investments, Ms Ashnee Ramdas," Beaumont said.

He went on to say: "The tender itself was for the amount of R200 000 issued on 27 October 2021 for the provision events services for an imbizo for the mayor of Newcastle Municipality, days before the 2021 local government elections. The reality is that no central repository exists for tenders across all spheres, departments and entities government in South Africa that would allow for a deeper assessment of how business interests connected to the Ramdas family may have benefitted more substantially from state contracts."

He said this shows that key players in Ezulweni Investments are registered suppliers who do businesses with the state and are beneficiaries of state contracts, "undoubtedly" of more than just the Newcastle example.

"Of further interest is that this tender was awarded in October 2021 [at] a time in which the ANC's debt would have been accruing legal costs and interest for nearly three years," Beaumont said.

"It follows that the nature of the debt settlement agreement between the ANC and Ezulweni Investments represents a reasonable and rational concern that part or whole of the debt may be paid through future business conducted between the state and the Ramdas family. This matter can no longer be purported to be a private matter between the ANC and its creditor, but now directly involves all South Africans."

He said in light of the liquidation process revealing that the ANC had less than R60 000 in all its bank accounts and failed to pay salaries for the most of 2023, there was no doubt that the sudden announcement of a solution, followed by the extravagant 8 January statement in Mpumalanga, brings into serious question the source o...

It seems the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party's left-hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing.

That much was evident when one party spokesperson told News24 that convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik was a member of the party, and another shot down claims of Shaik's affiliation with it.

Shaik's appearance alongside former president Jacob Zuma at a fundraising event for Gaza on Saturday sparked speculation that he supports the party Zuma is aiming to lead.

But, asked on Tuesday whether Shaik had joined the MK Party, spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela said, "No [Schabir] Shaik did not join MK Party, and neither was the event about the MK Party. The event was about reflecting on the atrocities that are taking place in Palestine."

However, in response to the same question, another party spokesperson, Sidwell Masilela, said, "He is. He had MK banners in the event and recruit[ed] more of the Indian community."

Shaik, who was found to have a corrupt relationship with Zuma, was jailed but was later released on medical parole.

The confusion over his relationship with the MK Party comes after Black First Land First leader Andile Mngxitama and National People's Ambassadors (NPA) leader Nathi Mthethwa said they had joined the MK Party.

On Tuesday evening, Mngxitama posted a picture of himself and Zuma on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: "It's done! BLF vote #MK full statement to follow."

The statement wasn't released.

But Mngxitama told News24: "BLF is not ceasing to exist. What we agreed upon with president Zuma is an electoral pact where BLF votes for MK. Naturally, BLF shall join MK. It's a dual membership process."

Meanwhile, Mthethwa told News24: "Yes, I have joined to campaign with MK, since the NPA (a small party based in KwaZulu-Natal) is not going to take part in the national elections."

Asked about Mngxitama and Mthethwa, Masilela said: "Andile and Nathi... nothing confirmed yet."

Ndlela said: "[Former] president Jacob Zuma has been, and continues, to engage in discussions with progressive parties with the aim of forming a united front. There are no other political party leaders that have joined MK Party."

He said the party would announce the consolidated membership at its launch next month.

While Zuma continues to criss-cross the country to campaign for the MK Party, the ANC has chosen to not give any attention to the actions of its former president.

On Saturday at Mbombela Stadium, where the ANC held its 112th anniversary celebration, party chairperson Gwede Mantashe told News24 the ANC was not preoccupied with what other people were doing and was focused on its own programmes.

However, giving a message of support at the celebrations, SACP general-secretary Solly Mapaila asked the party to deal with the Zuma matter and not "dilly-dally" around it.

When greeting those in attendance, including the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans, party president Cyril Ramaphosa appeared to take a dig at the MK Party when he said: "This is the real MK."

On Saturday, Zuma will lead the MK Party's campaign in Limpopo.

The Free State's Grade 10 pupils were the province's worst performers in the final exams in 2023 after a staggering 37.2% or 23 671 of the 63 655 candidates who wrote went on to fail.

Their Grade 8 counterparts also fared dismally after 25.9% or 17 386 of the 66 889 who wrote, flunked.

Provincial education department spokesperson Howard Ndaba said they were concerned the pass percentage in both grades dropped by 4% from 78.1% in 2022 to 74.1% in 2023 in Grade 8 and from 66.8 to 62.8% in Grade 10.

"Both grades declined by 4% in 2023 while they showed an increase in the pass rate from 2021 to 2022."

He added that due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Grades 8 and 10 and the lower grades experienced high learning losses "that manifests itself in the lack of acquisition of basic foundational skills in the languages and maths".

A year before the pandemic, the department started to implement a support programme targeting Grade 8 and 10 "to ensure that more learners offer maths, science and accounting in grades 10 to 12," said Ndaba.

"The idea is to realise the National Development Plan of increasing the number of learners offering these subjects as well as an increase in the number of learners offering the subjects in the technical vocational and occupational streams."

He added the learning recovery programme was in full swing, focusing on maths and languages in Grades 1 to 11.

In addition to this, there was also a dedicated professional development programme targeting novice teachers and those struggling to teach.

Ndaba attributed the high failure rate in Grade 10 to the absence of foundational skills in Grade 8 pupils which resulted in poor performance in the languages and maths.

"Learners must pass maths at 40% and the home language at 50% to pass the grade.

"The cumulative nature of the learning gaps in literacy and numeracy requires the province to continue to sustain its support programme over a period to turn the tide."

Ndaba said Grade 10 was the first year in which pupils started with subjects of their choice and many could not cope with the workload in maths, physical science, accounting, and economics.

"The department started a special programme for Grades 9 and 10 in 2023 where more focus was placed on the development of Grade 10 teachers in especially maths, physical science and accounting."

He added the province would continue to step up this programme this year to address deficiencies in these subjects and the languages.

"As part of closing the learning gaps, the department together with the schools will be administering the baseline tests to give our teachers exactly the content areas that need attention before the end of the first term," Ndaba said.

Ndaba said more focus would be placed on Grade 8s this year and they were given readers in all home languages, a Grade 8 maths revision book, and an activity book for natural sciences.

Reacting to the Grades 8 and 10 failure rate, Professor Servaas van der Berg from Stellenbosch University added there was no similar data available on the 2023 pass rates for other provinces "so it is not possible to compare Free State with other provinces or nationally".

"But clearly, these pass rates are low which would lead many learners to repeat or even drop out. Before the pandemic, Grade 8 and 10 repetition rates in the Free State were the second highest after Limpopo."

He said in the past it was quite common for pupils who were over age because of failing previous grades and who then failed Grade 10 to drop out of school.

"Since the pandemic, more lenient assessment policies increased pass rates, especially in Grades 10 and 11. Yet it appears that such pass rates are again starting to decline."

Van der Berg added one of the possible factors for the high failure rate in Grade 10 was that pupils might only be held back once in each of the four school phases, namely, Grades 1 to 3, 4 to 6, 7 to 9 and 10 and 12.

"This means that learners who failed Grade 8 cannot be held back again ...

The Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Khume Ramulifho has announced that he will be joining RISE Mzansi, as he resigns as a member of the DA and as a Member of the Provincial Legislature in Gauteng.

He said while the decision was not an easy one, he strongly believed that RISE Mzansi could unite South Africans to build a South Africa that all citizens deserved.

"I have observed diverse South Africans raising their hands in support for RISE Mzansi. Today, I will relax, refocus, spend time with my family. Tomorrow, when I wake up, I will take my children back to school, and thereafter join other RISE Mzansi volunteers and supporters as we build stronger communities," he said.

Ramulifho joined the then Democratic Party in 1998 and the DA in 2000. He served as a student activist at the then Vaal Triangle Technikon now called Vaal University of Technology.

He served as the DA Youth regional chairperson, Gauteng Provincial Youth leader and Federal Youth leader.

"Moreover, I have proudly served as an elected representative of the people. In 2006 I was elected as a PR Councillor in the City of Johannesburg. I was then elected to serve in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature following the May 2009 Provincial and National General Elections, up until Tuesday," he added.

He expressed his belief in the possibility of building an inclusive political alternative that would take South Africa forward.

Ramulifho noted that he had built relationships with many patriotic South Africans over the past 25 years.

Ramulifho has played an active role in ten elections contesting or campaigning for candidates at all spheres of government.

"Thus far I can proudly say that I have given my best in serving the people of this country. My commitment to improve the lives of our people and build a prosperous country remains unchanged," he said.

He explained that he believed that South Africa had the potential to succeed, adding that a culture of accountability and responsibility must be instilled. He said more people needed to be involved in decision-making.

The African National Congress (ANC) and its allies the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and the Friends of Cuba Society (Focus) are urging African countries to take a principled stance and mobilise all its people and additional resources in solidarity with Cuba.

The alliance is hosting the seventh African Continental Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba in Mpumalanga this week.

The alliance and Cuban solidarity civil society organisations said they stand united against the "unjust" US economic, trade, investment and financial blockade of Cuba.

A 2021 estimate by the Cuban government found that since the blockade began in 1962, it has cost the country close to $144-billion, a figure that has been acknowledged by the US, said the ANC-led alliance.

The alliance described it as an "imperialist blockade" that is inclusive of unilateral sanctions outside of and undermining the US' legal and multilateral frameworks.

"It is, altogether with the immoral sanctions, illegal. Through economic warfare, and in addition political and propaganda attacks on Cuba's sovereignty and government, the US seeks to takeover Cuba's fundamental right to national self-determination, drive regime change and impose its development path on Cuba," said the ANC-led alliance.

The US blockade on Cuba has far-reaching extra-territorial impact, blocking other countries and their companies from building or enhancing trade and investment relations and engaging in financial transactions with Cuba, explained the alliance.

"Our solidarity with the Cuban government and people is based on our support for their right to choose their own path of transformation and development, free from external interference or domination," it added.

The alliance said that it stands united in its support for the Cuban government and people's just demand for the US to end, unconditionally, its occupation of Guantanamo Bay, an inseparable part of Cuba's territory.

STRENGTHENING AVENUES

The ANC-led alliance highlighted that the African Continental Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba aims to explore and strengthen avenues for deepening international solidarity with Cuba.

The Meeting is a pan-African platform for nations, organisations and individuals to come together and strengthen global solidarity with Cuba and will focus on honouring the country for its contribution to the struggle for human dignity, recognising its social and political achievements, exploring deeper and meaningful economic cooperation, and the struggle against the "inhumane" blockade.

"By bringing several role-players together, including delegates representing governments, organisations and individuals, the meeting aims to identify international solidarity tasks and promote long-lasting internationalism with Cuba," said the alliance.

South Africa hosted the first African Continental Solidarity Meeting with Cuba in 1995 and the other five meetings took place in Ghana in 1997, Angola in 2010, Ethiopia in 2012, Namibia in 2017 and Nigeria in 2019.

ActionSA has nominated Dr Nasiphi Moya for Tshwane deputy executive mayor, who has assured opposition parties in council that the deputy mayor position is not about prestige but about delivery, adding that opposition parties will find her door open if they would like to "rise above partisan politics" and prioritise the needs of their communities.

ActionSA announced Moya's nomination on Monday amid other parties having welcomed the Democratic Alliance's proposal for a deputy mayor position to be created, although the Economic Freedom Fighters has rejected the move.

"…the party's nominee for the first-ever position of Deputy Executive Mayor for the nation's capital pursuant to the coalition arrangement agreed to by all parties that are signatories to the coalition agreement guarantees that the Deputy Mayor position be filled by an ActionSA councillor in consultation with our coalition partners," ActionSA said.

ActionSA said the creation of the deputy mayor position in the City of Tshwane's executive would help ensure that the principles of co-governance were applied while deepening power-sharing to produce stability within the coalition in service of the City and its residents.

The party is of the view that the election of a deputy mayor is imperative to stave off a replay of previous government missteps concerning pressing matters such as the three-month-long workers' strike and the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment saga, which put numerous Tshwane residents' lives in danger.

Moya explained that in addition to deputising, as outlined in the legislation, this role brought with it a unique opportunity to focus on transversal functions related to infrastructure development, repairs and maintenance.

She said her responsibilities would include overseeing capital projects, which she said would ensure that major development initiatives were effectively managed, monitored and completed in a timely manner.

"By providing strong leadership and coordination, we can deliver infrastructure projects that meet the needs of our residents and contribute to the economic growth of our city," she said.

Moya will oversee service delivery at a regional level and will also be working with the COO portfolio.

Moya served as group head in the Office of the Chief Whip, then as chief of staff in the Office of the Executive Mayor.

"I am humbled by the trust and confidence placed in me by the ActionSA leadership and our coalition partners. Most importantly, I respect the voters of our Capital City who have placed their trust in a coalition for our Capital City to be a source of pride to all," she said.

She explained that the opportunity to serve the residents of Tshwane was one that she did not take lightly, and she was fully committed to dedicating her time, energy and expertise to the betterment of Tshwane.

"I believe that anyone who has witnessed the past two years of this term of office will appreciate how important these functions will be to a City that has demonstrated some blind spots that an extra set of eyes in leadership will most certainly help to address," she said.

COORDINATED APPROACH AND SERVICE DELIVERY

She believes that a coordinated approach to infrastructure and service delivery will result in numerous benefits, adding that one of the key advantages is the proper coordination of how funds are allocated across various projects.

"By following the money, we can track expenditures, prevent wastage, and ensure that resources are directed where they are needed most. Through this coordinated approach, we can maximise the benefits to our residents and enhance the quality and efficiency of service delivery," said Moya.

She explained that through the City's collective efforts, it was imperative that an end be put to under-expenditure of the capital budget, the return of grants to national government be reduced, and the number of incomplete projects in the city be reduced.

"By actively addressing these issues, we can build trust among residents and sta...

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday wished "good luck" to the 2023 matriculants eagerly awaiting their results, and noted South Africa's gains in advancing access to education, which he says is the most critical area of any nation's development.

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga will announce the National Senior Certificate results on Thursday, and individual results will be released on Friday. Matrics will have until February 2 for both manual and online applications for remarks.

"We have no doubt they will make us proud, making it an auspicious start to an auspicious year," said Ramaphosa in his weekly letter to the nation.

He noted that this year coincided with the thirtieth anniversary of South Africa's democracy, and he urged South Africans to consider how far the country had come from an era where the educational prospects of young black men and women were greatly diminished, and where the inferior education they received was deliberately designed to prepare them to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water".

He explained that it was this deliberate marginalisation and discrimination that resulted in the scene captured by illustrious award-winning photojournalist and anti-apartheid activist Dr Peter Magubane in 1956.

Magubane was laid to rest last week.

Ramaphosa said that much had changed in South Africa since and he noted that while the task of ensuring that the economy grows at a scale and pace to absorb graduates and those seeking formal employment was a daunting one, South Africans must not lose sight of how far the country had come in this critical developmental indicator.

"From the results of Census 2022, we can glean insight into the gains we have made as a country in advancing access to education, the most critical area of any nation's development," he said.

He noted that in 2022, three-quarters of young people aged 5 to 24 years were attending school.

About 3.5-million children under five years received a form of early childhood development.

He added that the percentage of people aged 20 and older who have completed secondary education had more than doubled since the first census undertaken under democracy in 1996.

"The first census showed that some 62% of white South Africans had a matric or higher qualification compared to 18% of blacks. Today, 38% of all South Africans have completed secondary education," Ramaphosa highlighted.

POST-SCHOOL QUALIFICATIONS

He noted that at the time Census 1996 was conducted, 1.5-million South Africans had post-school qualifications, saying that in 2022, this figure stood at about 4.6-million.

Much of this progress had been made possible by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, which continued to play an invaluable role in supporting access to higher education, Ramaphosa said.

He explained that while the tertiary sector faced a number of challenges as it worked to meet the needs of the growing population, government was working to overcome them.

"However, given our country's history of marginalisation and exclusion, that we have made such substantial progress in expanding access to education over the past three decades is significant," he said.

Ramaphosa highlighted that in 2022, the matric cohort achieved an 80.1% pass rate, and last year more than a million candidates sat for the exam.

More than half of the successful matriculants were female, he noted.

There are also more women studying at tertiary institutions in South Africa, including in the once male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, he added.

Ramaphosa noted that in South Africa today, basic and higher education is accessible to the children and grandchildren of farmworkers, mineworkers and domestic workers, many of whom were denied such opportunities in the not-too-distant apartheid past.

Exams quality assurer Umalusi is "deeply concerned" about detected cases of group copying in last year's National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams involving 945 candidates, including 763 from KwaZulu-Natal and 164 from Mpumalanga.

Approving the release of the 2023 NSC results in Pretoria on Monday, Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi said, according to reports submitted, these were cases where the candidates displayed common answers and, in some cases, the same wrong and right answers. The NSC results will be released on Friday, a day after the Independent Board of Examinations results.

"These cases are not yet resolved because the numbers are still being verified."

He said another area of concern related to printing errors or poor print quality in some of the question papers.

"There was an omission of a subscript on the formula of an organic compound in Physical Sciences paper 2 in question 2.2 for 3 marks."

He said the Physical Sciences paper 2 in North West had missing grid lines in question 3.5 for six marks.

"The three Civil Technology specialisations (Civil Services, Construction and Woodworking) in both the English and Afrikaans versions had major printing errors in Limpopo.

"The poor print quality in the Civil Services specialisation affected questions worth 60 marks in the English version and 62 marks in the Afrikaans version.

"In Construction questions worth of 31 marks in the English version and 14 marks in Afrikaans were affected."

He said the marks affected in the Woodworking specialisation were 22 and 26 for English and Afrikaans, respectively.

He said besides the printing quality, the translation quality was also something that needs careful attention.

"Due to poor quality of translation from English into Afrikaans, candidates could not respond to questions 3.2.5 and 3.2.6 worth 3 marks in the Afrikaans version of Geography paper 1.

"To mitigate the possible impact of these errors on performance of candidates, the questions concerned were excluded from the marking process and the marks achieved upscaled using conversion tables."

Rakometsi said it was "regrettable" that one of the questions in the Mathematical Literacy Paper 1 naively used the words "mandatory Palestine".

"This was caused by the examiners and moderators being unaware of the political connotations of the words. Umalusi appreciates the fact that the DBE [Department of Basic Education] issued an apology in this regard."

He also provided an update on progress made in connection with the problem of selling and buying of fake and/or fraudulent certificates.

Since Umalusi's state of readiness briefing on the matric exams on 13 October 2023, 11 suspects were arrested by police, including seven in Burgersfort in Limpopo on 27 October and 13 December, and four in November.

Rakometsi said the Hawks arrested an employee of the Department of Higher Education and Training on 11 December for fraudulently issuing a diploma certificate for cash.

"The suspect has been charged with corruption and his court case has been postponed to 19 January 2024."

Professor Yunus Ballim, chairperson of Umalusi's council, said the Department of Basic Education is required to block the results of all candidates implicated in irregularities, including the candidates who are implicated in the alleged acts of dishonesty pending the outcome of the DBE investigations and verification by Umalusi.

"Umalusi is concerned about the recurring instances of printing and packaging errors in question papers and the ongoing practice of group copying.

"The DBE is required to address the directives for compliance and improvement highlighted in the Quality Assurance of Assessment report and submit an improvement plan by 15 March 2024."

Ballim said that the executive committee of council commended the DBE for conducting a successful examination on such a large scale.

A total of 898 520 candidates, including 717 377 full-time candidates, wrote the exams administered by the DBE.

The exams were written at 6 ...

Israel on Friday rejected as false and "grossly distorted" accusations brought by South Africa at the United Nations' top court that its military operation in Gaza is a State-led genocide campaign against the Palestinian population.

Arguing it was acting to defend itself and was fighting Hamas, not the Palestinian population, Israel called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to dismiss the case as groundless and reject South Africa's request to halt the offensive.

"This is no genocide," lawyer Malcolm Shaw said.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after a cross-border rampage on October 7 by militants from Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction. Israeli officials said 1 200 people were killed, mainly civilians, and 240 taken hostage.

"The appalling suffering of civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, is first and foremost the result of Hamas' strategy," the Israeli foreign ministry's legal adviser, Tal Becker told the court.

"If there were acts of genocide, they have been perpetrated against Israel," Becker said. "Hamas seeks genocide against Israel," he added.

South Africa asked the court on Thursday to impose emergency measures ordering Israel to immediately halt the offensive.

It said Israel's aerial and ground offensive - which has laid waste to much of the enclave and killed almost 24 000 people, according to Gaza health authorities - aimed to bring about "the destruction of the population" of Gaza.

Israel rejected the accusations, saying it respected international law and had a right to defend itself.

"When the cannons roar in Gaza the law is not silent," Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam told the court.

The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

SUFFERING

Israel, its defence team argued, was doing what it could to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in Gaza, including efforts to urge Palestinians to evacuate.

The court is expected to rule on possible emergency measures later this month but will not rule at that time on the genocide accusations. Those proceedings could take years. The ICJ's decisions are final and without appeal, but the court has no way to enforce them.

Palestinian backers with flags marched through The Hague and watched proceedings on a giant screen in front of the Peace Palace. As the Israeli delegation spoke in court, they chanted: "Liar! Liar!"

Asked what she thought of Israel's arguments that the Gaza campaign was a matter of self-defence, Neen Haijjawi, a Palestinian who recently came to Netherlands said: "How can an occupier that's been oppressing people for 75 years say it's self-defence?"

Israeli supporters were holding a separate gathering of family members of hostages taken by Hamas.

Israel has said South Africa is acting as a mouthpiece for Islamist Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, Britain and several other nations. South Africa has rejected that accusation.

Since Israeli forces started their offensive, nearly all of Gaza's 2.3-million people have been driven from their homes at least once, leading to a humanitarian catastrophe.

Post-apartheid South Africa has long advocated the Palestinian cause, a relationship forged when the African National Congress' struggle against white-minority rule was supported by Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation.

"My grandfather always regarded the Palestinian struggle as the greatest moral issue of our time," Mandla Mandela, a grandson of the late South Africa president Nelson Mandela, said at a rally in support of the Palestinians in Cape Town.

The FW de Klerk Foundation wants government to take "immediate and effective" steps to carry out its responsibility in terms of Section 165(4) of the Constitution to protect the country's judges and magistrates.

The foundation stated that ensuring the safety of the country's judges and magistrates was "imperative".

"Failure to protect them will have a direct and detrimental impact on South Africa as a whole as the rule of law deteriorates and more instances of mob justice and abuse of State power take hold," it said.

The foundation pointed out that the rule of law was one of the Constitution's founding values.

"It depends on a judicial authority that is subject only to the Constitution, which it must apply impartially and without fear, favour or prejudice. To achieve this, the State is required by Section 165(4) of the Constitution to "protect the courts" and to ensure their independence, impartiality, dignity, accessibility and effectiveness," it added.

The foundation said it was disturbing to learn, from a recent survey of the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit at the University of Cape Town, that one-third of magistrates were threatened or harmed in 2021/22, with some reporting they had experienced such threats multiple times.

The foundation explained that the country depended on a secure and respected judiciary for the protection of basic individual rights - the most significant of which were enshrined as justiciable rights in the Bill of Rights - saying without it, things would very quickly fall apart.

"People take the law into their own hands - as they did in Ekurhuleni, where four technicians responding to an electricity outage were tragically murdered by an angry mob who mistook them for cable thieves," the foundation said.

It noted that without the rule of law and a strong and independent judiciary, State officials "think they can abuse their power with impunity as they did in July 2023", when members of Deputy President Paul Mashatile's security detail brutally assaulted members of the public.

The foundation explained that it was gratifying that the victims had now gone to a civil court to enforce their rights and claim damages from their assailants.

The criminal prosecution of the security detail members for assault has been rescheduled for May, the foundation said, reiterating that this shows, once again, how important a strong and secure judiciary was in the protection of rights.