Protocols to allow the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to accept donor funding in order to solve complex cases have been finalised and are being implemented.

This is according to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola in response to a written parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Werner Horn.

Horn wanted details on the implementation protocols to enable the NPA to use donor funding for high-profile, complex corruption cases.

Lamola said, following consultations, the NPA was dealing with donor support in line with established protocols, prescripts and delegations.

"The current system where the accounting officer has delegated the acceptance of donations in-kind to the deputy director-general within the NPA will remain. Where a donation is in cash, the normal regime of channelling funds through the National Treasury will apply; the Office of the Auditor-General, as well as the internal audit team, will fulfil the role of oversight in line with relevant regulations.

"The NPA is currently in the final stages of approving the amended NPA donor funding policy, which will be aligned to the National Treasury donor funding guidelines and regulations. This will create internal control systems in dealing with all donations within the NPA. An internal register of all donations is being kept centrally and will enable the NPA to disclose in the annual financial statements as per the National Treasury requirements," Lamola added.

In June last year, Lamola promised that the protocols would be in place by the end of that month, but that never happened.

The idea of private donations first made headlines after then-head of the NPA's investigative directorate, Hermione Cronjé, mooted the idea of using private funds for the cash-strapped institution.

Last year, News24 reported that the NPA needed an additional R1.7-billion to deal with the slew of prosecutions that should stem from the State Capture Inquiry, prosecute those implicated, and modernise the organisation.

When Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled his Budget in February last year, it appeared that he had brought some relief to the perennially underfunded NPA and the other corruption-busting agencies.

However, according to the NPA, the money was not enough to bring everyone involved in state capture to book.

In the 2021-2022 financial year, the NPA spent 99.72% of its budget of R4.5-billion.

For 2023-2024, it got R4.8-billion, and the year after that, R5-billion.

The NPA received an additional R1.1-billion over the next three years.

Almost R394-million of this will go to the Investigating Directorate (ID), which deals with state capture cases, meaning that 91 investigators and prosecutors can be brought into the ID.

During a 2019 budget vote speech on the Presidency budget, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema raised concern about private donations to the NPA.

Malema warned that some of the donors could be among the "capitalists" who may be involved in financial crimes like tax evasion.

The African National Congress (ANC) has said it will lead a campaign against illegal electricity connections to eliminate load reduction, which it says is placing an added burden on communities, and the party wants South Africans to join energy-saving initiatives to alleviate the stress on the national grid.

Delivering the party’s January 8 statement on Sunday, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa said the insecurity of electricity supply continues to be one of the greatest impediments to economic recovery and disrupts the lives of all South Africans.

“We will continue implementing the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 which includes the procurement of over 18 000 MW of new generation capacity. This includes ensuring investment resources mobilised through the Just Energy Transition Investment Plan are used to speedily upgrade Eskom’s transmission network to facilitate entry of new generation capacity,” he said.

The ANC has also resolved to reduce its carbon emissions and highlighted that the transition must be just and inclusive and assure the welfare of those workers, communities and industries most affected by the transition.

“Just transition plans that address the interests of workers and communities must be developed for all sectors of the economy and regions of the country, particularly for the most affected provinces like Mpumalanga,” Ramaphosa said.

The party also urged Eskom and government to immediately focus on restoring additional units to operation as quickly as possible and to undertake critical maintenance of power plants.

It said Eskom should ensure that power stations have skilled and experienced personnel; tackle sabotage, theft and corruption at power stations; and streamline procurement processes.

“The Eskom board needs to recruit world-class professionals to fill the vacancies in executive management,” Ramaphosa acknowledged.

To further reduce stress on the national grid, government and Eskom must enforce demand management measures to reduce electricity consumption and ensure available energy is directed to areas and sectors of priority including support for health and educational institutions and municipal infrastructure, he said.

“Government should secure additional power in the short term by leveraging surplus capacity from existing generators and procuring additional power on an emergency basis,” he added.

Meanwhile, as the party builds an “outward-looking ANC” with a clear programme that is responsive to the needs of South Africans, the ANC is urging all its structures to focus on putting people and solutions to their daily struggles first.

“The journey of renewal has to begin in earnest and become unstoppable and irreversible so that we pay attention to and direct all our energies to the resolution of the pressing problems facing the people of South Africa,” Ramaphosa said.

EMPLOYMENT GROWTH

The ANC wants broad-based black economic empowerment to be undertaken with greater intensity. It said competition policy, preferential procurement and other instruments to address highly concentrated ownership patterns must be used.

“There is vast untapped potential for inclusive growth and employment creation in small, medium and micro Enterprises (SMMEs), cooperatives and informal businesses. Our conference called on government to remove the regulatory constraints on SMMEs and to support micro enterprises and cooperatives in the township and rural economies through the creation of trading spaces and industrial parks; access to value-chains and finance for small and independent retailers and wholesalers; and the provision of roads, digital connectivity and other economic infrastructure,” said Ramaphosa.

CRIME AND CORRUPTION

Having acknowledged the disturbing reality that there is a breakdown of basic security as a result of rising levels of lawlessness, criminality and violence, the ANC says it will take steps to strengthen law enforcement agencies and citizen involvement to restore peace and stability across the country...

African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) member Lindiwe Sisulu said the party cannot have leaders who threathen to take members’ jobs away for not towing the party line.

This after Members of Parliament (MPs) debated over whether to adopt the Section 89 panel report that found President Cyril Ramaphosa may have breached the Constitution and broken anti-corruption laws.

If the report was adopted by Parliament, Ramaphosa would have faced an impeachment process.

The motion to adopt the report was defeated 214 votes to 148, with two abstentions, on Tuesday.

Sisulu claimed ANC MPs were dictated to by the party’s national chairperson Gwede Mantashe to vote against adopting the report at an NEC meeting prior to the vote.

She said on the day of the vote she had received a text message, which said she and former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, who were both reportedly poised to vote in favour of adopting the report, had been targeted, and she walk out to read it.

Sisulu claimed that when she tried to re-enter to the chamber for the vote, the doors were closed.

"After being hounded in caucus, I went to the chamber and sat down. Then I get a message, which said, 'you and Zweli Mkhize are being targeted, we suggest you do not vote'. So, I go out to check what this message is about. By the time I come back, the doors had been closed," Sisulu said.

She said dictating how people should vote is reckless behaviour as “no one is owing the ANC and nobody has a right to take decisions like that”.

She said ANC members were not allowed to discuss the matter, and that they were deliberately blocked by Mantashe.

She said the ANC need a stronger integrity committee that operates on a daily basis.

“This [meeting] starts off with us discussing the matter of Phala Phala and the Section 89 report and we discuss it in the NEC and in the NEC both Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Zweli Mkhize and myself were aggrieved about the way the ANC Chairperson Gwede Mantashe was dealing with the matter. It became quite clear to us that his purpose was to protect president Cyril at all costs,” she said.

Sisulu said they wanted an opportunity to engage with the document to ensure a free vote for everyone. She claimed that there was an attempt to try to cushion the impact that the report would have.

She said the outcome of this week’s vote was the result of threats imposed on ANC members.

"Parliament was held by the scruff of the neck to vote the way that it voted. And it is wrong, that is dictatorship of the worst kind... even If I did not vote, I do not regret it," Sisulu said.

WORST SCANDAL

Sisulu described the Phala Phala matter as the worst scandal to affect the country.

She claimed the country was being held to ransom by people who looked to protect their access to Ramaphosa's "patronage".

“I must say this about Comrade Cyril, his first instinct was to run away, but it is the people around him who are dependent on his patronage that said, 'Mr President what about us?'” she stated.

She said what played out is an example of how one can erode the very essence of integrity of any economy.

She said the party should have allowed Ramaphosa to resign, and should have investigated the matter to ensure it does not happen again. Instead, she said the party covered up and created an untenable situation.

Meanwhile, Sisulu questioned why the country’s law enforcement processes were slow in dealing with the Phala Phala saga.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s rival in the race to head the nation’s governing party called for the review of a rule that compels members to relinquish their leadership positions if they’re found to have brought the organisation into disrepute.

Former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize will compete with Ramaphosa to lead the African National Congress (ANC) at a five-yearly elective conference that begins on Friday. Both men have been embroiled in scandals that have been scrutinized by the party’s integrity commission, whose findings will be delivered at the five-day gathering.

Ramaphosa’s critics argue that the so-called step-aside rule has been used selectively to neutralize his detractors. The party used the measure to suspend officials including ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule — one such adversary.

The integrity body also recommended Mkhize step aside last year after he was implicated in a tender scandal. He resigned as health minister in August 2021, while denying any wrongdoing, but remains a member of the ANC’s executive body.

“We are all complaining about this step-aside thing,” Mkhize, 66, told a rally of supporters in Soweto near Johannesburg on December 12. “You establish a rule that you can use to deal with some, while protecting others. That is a rule that is not ok.”

Ramaphosa, 70, has championed the step-aside directive as part of his efforts to clean up the party in the wake of his predecessor Jacob Zuma’s nine-year rule, when state corruption became pervasive in South Africa. A commission of inquiry into government graft found the ANC responsible for keeping Zuma in office and criticised Ramaphosa and the party for not doing enough to prevent the looting of billions of rands of taxpayers’ money.

Mkhize said the step-aside rule has been applied haphazardly without any input from the party’s rank and file, and in some instances it was applied retrospectively to eliminate leaders.

“You don’t run the organisation like that,” he said. “This is undermining the branches and their authority where the power of this organisation lies.”

The party’s National Executive Committee had been scheduled to discuss the integrity commission’s findings at a meeting last weekend, before deciding the reports would be presented at its upcoming conference. Under ANC rules, members who are asked to step aside are unable to stand for office.

“If the conference says we are accepting this recommendation that you should step aside, then you will immediately be disqualified,” Livhuwani Matsila, secretary of the party’s electoral commission, said in an interview. “There is nowhere to appeal if the conference accepts the recommendation because it is the highest decision-making body.”

The electoral commission has already disqualified former Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini from contesting position because she has a criminal conviction. Both the electoral commission rule that disqualifies compromised candidates and the step-aside rule are expected to be targeted for review at the conference, Mkhize said.

Ramaphosa and Mkhize are the only two names on the ballot to lead the ANC for the next five years, with the incumbent the frontrunner having secured the most nominations. In the event that both are disqualified, members would have to nominate other candidates from the floor.

Mkhize also criticised the party for dragging its feet when it came to implementing policies with the potential to address the rampant poverty and unemployment, and questioned the government’s plans to reduce the use of coal.

“We can discuss everything but closing down coal mines,” he said. “Those mines create jobs. We can use solar, wind and others, but coal-powered electricity is not going anywhere. We will not shy away from saying that.”

The former minister called on the ANC to implement its previously agreed resolutions to make it easier to expropriate land without compensation and establish a pro-poor state bank. He was non-committal about whether central ban...

The High Court in Johannesburg will this morning hear the urgent court application of nine disgruntled members challenging the party's list of 200 African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee candidates.

The matter will be heard virtually.

The nine unhappy members who were initially calling on the courts to compel the ANC's electoral committee to provide the raw data on all nominations and not the publication of only the final list after gender parity considerations had been taken into consideration are now calling on the court to set aside the entire list.

Their proposal is now to have all 200 nominees be selected from the conference floor when the party's national elective conference gets under way on Friday.

The Electoral Committee opposes the application.

Committee secretary Chief Livhuwani Matsila told News24 that the secretary general's office had instructed the committee to oppose the application.

The committee has since submitted its court papers. The court challenge should not have any bearing on the conference going ahead.

Still, it could have significant implications on its programme should the court find that the nomination for the additional member should indeed be redone.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe from his duties pending a decision of the National Assembly.

The Presidency in a statement said the decision was based on advice from the Judicial Service Commission.

"In order to ensure continuity and stability in the work of the divisional high court, the suspension which is in effect immediately, is on condition that Judge President Hlophe completes all part-heard matters and reserved judgments."

André de Ruyter, Eskom’s group chief executive, has resigned.

News24 understands that he notified board chairperson Mpho Makwana of his decision earlier in the week. Makwana has also informed Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

This follows a barrage of public attacks on him led by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and Gordhan's and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s subsequent failure to publicly support him and his management.

Last week, Mantashe said that Eskom was "actively agitating for the overthrow of the state". Neither Ramaphosa nor Gordhan responded to Mantashe's allegation. They also did not offer support to De Ruyter and his management.

This seemingly made De Ruyter’s position untenable.

It is understood that De Ruyter’s resignation could lead to the departure from Eskom of a number of other senior executives and engineers. Jan Oberholzer, De Ruyter’s number two and the chief operating officer, will also retire in April 2023.

South Africa has been gripped by worsening bouts of load shedding this year, with Stage 7 now within reach. Eskom has repeatedly said that the dire state of its aging coal fleet means that breakdowns will increase, and that maintenance cannot be postponed. The government has, however, dragged its feet to install additional generation capacity.

De Ruyter, who assumed his position on Christmas Day in 2019, has in recent times been severely criticised for Eskom’s performance, despite the company providing regular briefings and detailed information about the decrepit state of the country’s electricity infrastructure.

He could not be reached for comment.

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that she did not vote to remove President Cyril Ramaphosa from office but, rather, she was agreeing with the Section 89 Panel Report, which said he had a case to answer for.

On Tuesday she defied the African National Congress (ANC) directive to tow the party line and vote against the adoption of the controversial Section 89 Report on the Phala Phala farm saga.

If Parliament had voted to adopt the report, it would have paved the way for an impeachment process ahead of the ANC’s Elective Conference, which is expected to start on Friday.

Dlamini-Zuma is one of the ANC hopefuls who are in the race to lead the ruling party ahead of the 2024 elections.

Her decision, on Tuesday, to agree that the report be adopted by Parliament generated excitement from the opposition benches, particularly the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Dlamini-Zuma gave an interview to Newzroom Afrika on Wednesday, where, when asked about not complying with the party’s directive, she said she will remain a member of the ANC.

“If I was tired of being a member of the ANC probably I wouldn’t be where I am. I am not tired of being a member of the ANC. I am very disciplined and a very loyal member of the ANC but I don’t know about a rule that says you can’t express your views in Parliament, especially because we were not voting on a motion to remove the President. We were voting to say whether we agree with the report that Parliament itself had asked for and I read the report, and I did not disagree with the report,” she stressed.

She added that before a party line is decided on, rigorous debates are meant to take place but argued that this was not done in the case of the Section 89 Panel Report.

She accused the ANC’s national chairperson Gwede Mantashe of not allowing her and other ANC members a chance to debate on the report at the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held before the Parliamentary sitting.

However, she denied that only a Ramaphosa faction was allowed to speak at the NEC meeting.

She added the panel’s report, which was overseen by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, was meant to give Ramaphosa a chance to clear his name.

“It wasn’t to remove the President but it was to allow the President to clear his name, to just answer the questions. That’s how I understand it,” she said.

Dlamini-Zuma was unable to say if she is still comfortable serving in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.

She said she served at the behest of the President.

When pressed on whether she still wanted to serve on his Cabinet she said, “It depends. Just wait. Let’s see.”

When asked if she was ready to resign or if she was waiting to be fired she replied, “Ask me that question in January, I’ll answer you.”

A tense council meeting in the eThekwini Metro saw the coalition between the Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) and the African National Congress (ANC) come to an abrupt end on Tuesday.

The ANC successfully removed the ABC leader and deputy mayor, Philani Mavundla, from the executive committee (exco), citing his underperformance as the chairperson of the human settlements and infrastructure portfolio.

Mavundla and the ANC joined forces in November last year when the ailing ANC was battling for votes to take over the exco and mayoral positions.

In supporting the motion to remove Mavundla, ANC councillor Thanduxolo Sabelo said 90% of the budget was in human settlements and infrastructure.

"If the ruling party cannot say where the money is and how it is working, the party has to act. We, as ANC, would have done so, even if it was a member of the ANC.

"If the ANC cannot account for 90% of the budget, how is it expected to account to the people?"

Even before the council heard the motion to remove Mavundla, there was already talk of a legal challenge.

Mavundla had been granted an urgent interdict on Monday.

The interdict stated that he could not be removed from his position, unless it was done so legally and in line with various municipal laws.

Prior to hearing the motion to remove Mavundla, the metro's legal head, Malusi Mhlongo, said that the relief the court application sought declared him duly elected deputy mayor until he resigned or ceased to be a member of exco.

"Another relief to interdict municipality and office bearers from taking steps to remove him from exco without following the processes of the law as prescribed by law."

He said that, as long as the motion was within the law, it could still be heard.

Mavundla lost his position after 125 councillors votes for his removal, 59 voted against, while five abstained.

The Inkatha Freedom Party's entire caucus was not in attendance and did not vote, while the African National Congress and Economic Freedom Fighters voted together to remove Mavundla.

The Democratic Alliance's caucus head Thabani Mthethwa, whose party voted against the motion to remove Mavundla, said it was unfair to blame one person for the ongoing infrastructure issues.

"The infrastructure problems have been ongoing for the last 10 years. Mavundla is a fall-guy here. You cannot blame Mavundla completely for this. We are worried about the instability of the human settlements and infrastructure portfolio," Mthethwa said.

Mavundla told the media he would fight his removal in court.

"The motion being discussed are the swimming pools, the beaches and the expenditure budget. If you look at this closely, I have nothing to do with those things. I will fight this issue, there is no basis for the motion," he said.

The Hawks descended on Tembisa Tertiary Hospital on Tuesday to conduct a search and seizure operation over allegedly illegal multimillion-rand contracts awarded at the institution.

Gauteng Hawks spokesperson, Colonel Katlego Mogale, said the operation emanated from an inquiry into allegations of fraud and corruption at the hospital.

She said they had received information about R850-million in irregular contracts awarded to 217 service providers by supply chain management at the hospital.

According to Mogale, these alleged irregularities concerned contracts of less than R500 000.

"These were allegedly issued as purchase orders between 2016 and 2022.

"These orders were reportedly conducted or allocated unlawfully and illegally, resulting in the hospital being prejudiced by over R850-million.

"In some contracts, hospital employees are said to have received gratification. The investigation team is to seize all relevant materials, including documents and electronic gadgets, which are deemed important in the investigation's progress," Mogale added.

The investigation comes after the assassination of whistleblower Babita Deokaran, a chief director of financial accounting at the Gauteng health department. Deokaran was killed outside her south Johannesburg home in August 2021 after flagging irregular and dubious payments at the hospital.