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Deputy President Paul Mashatile on Friday expressed his condolences to the family of Tiego Moseneke following his passing on Wednesday evening.

Moseneke, brother to retired judge Dikgang Moseneke, together with Mashatile, fought during the liberation struggle. Mashatile hailed him a fearless freedom fighter.

Mashatile said he respected Tiego’s intelligence and political and business acumen.

He considered Moseneke a “brother, comrade, and an advisor” and revealed that he had consulted Moseneke when he was approached to avail himself for Deputy President.

“His overall contribution to society as an activist, lawyer, and businessman will leave a lasting legacy that would benefit generations to come. With Tiego’s passing, we have lost a measured man with a lucid mind who remained an activist until his last day. We, too, will continue to reminisce about the time we shared with him in prison, in the trenches, underground as well as post 1994,” said Mashatile.

In the hope of ensuring that history is not repeated, the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) justice and constitutional development spokesperson, Glynnis Breytenbach, has asked for a copy of the country's request for the extradition of Atul and Rajesh Gupta.

Breytenbach told News24 their request for the documents was not to challenge them or be malicious but rather to try and assist.

She said: "I want to read it; I know about the extradition. If something was done wrong, we can fix it. [It's] not to punish anyone, not to humiliate anybody. I mean, we all want the Guptas back.

"If there were some conditions not met, [we must ensure] that we don't make the same mistake again in the future because, no doubt again, we will have to apply for an extradition in whatever country they now find themselves in."

In a statement released on Monday, Breytenbach said the DA would write to National Director of the Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi to obtain a copy of the extradition application.

Early this month, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola revealed that a request to have the Gupta brothers extradited from the United Arab Emirates had been dismissed.

South Africa only found out this month but the decision was already made in February.

She elaborated in the statement that the party also sought to understand why UAE officials took six weeks to communicate the final decision to Lamola and senior prosecution officials.

"We will also be seeking to understand why communication between the UAE authorities broke down to the point that the outcome of the extradition application was only communicated via a diplomatic note almost two months after the hearing took place on 13 February 2023."

Breytenbach said there was nothing to achieve from possibly acquiring the forms because "the extradition application had failed, the Guptas have been set free."

She added, "Who knows where they are in the world? They're certainly not in the United Arabs Emirates anymore."

News24 previously reported that the UAE judiciary had advised South African officials to prepare a new request if they wanted to extradite the Guptas.

The National Prosecuting Authority is still waiting for an explanation for the rejection of its Gupta extradition request and for the delay.

Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) president Zizamele Cebekhulu-Makhaza has called on the Department of Correctional Services to immediately terminate its contract with G4S for its failure to meet its service delivery obligations, adding that it is the government’s constitutional responsibility to oversee the care of prisoners.

This comes after serial rapist and murderer Thabo Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein and was later arrested in Tanzania with his partner Nandipha Magumudana.

Cebekhulu-Makhaza noted that private prisons were of no help in South Africa, saying they must be brought back into the mainstream, which was under the control of Correctional Services.

“Our wish is for the department to take over management of the prisons, and to start running them like a prison and not like a hotel. We also need to enter into a serious dialogue on how we can deal with issues in our criminal justice system and at prisons without taking shortcuts with private prisons. The challenges in the public sector are well-understood, but South Africa must demand public prisons, which we have control over, rather than private prisons. As Popcru leadership, our position is that all prisons must be controlled by the State,” he said.

However, he noted that Bester’s escape demonstrated that government as a whole had been ineffective in monitoring private prisons, as prison staff had raised numerous concerns of serious irregularities within the institutions.

He emphasised that the Department of Correctional Services and the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services must take the blame for the escape and their failure to perform proper oversight of private prisons.

He went on to explain that the spectacle caused by the Bester matter was an embarrassment to all stakeholders with a connection to the prison system.

“We are putting the blame for the escape squarely on the shoulders of Correctional Services, who have a responsibility to perform oversight regarding compliance at private prisons, and to ensure that the laws of this country are being adhered to,” he said.

POOR WORKING CONDITIONS

He highlighted that during a recent fact-finding mission at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein, the prison run by security firm G4S, Popcru’s leadership discovered that Bester was not the first prisoner who had escaped from the facility.

Additionally, Popcru uncovered poor working conditions at the prison, with just one prison official for every 60 inmates.

It further received multiple allegations of victimisation, breaches of labour law, and warnings aimed at preventing employees from speaking out.

Cebekhulu-Makhaza explained that private prison companies were not interested in prisoner rehabilitation – they were only interested in making a profit.

“They were not prepared to employ more people to do the work needed. The department has paid the companies more and more money, and yet is receiving nothing in return. Furthermore, G4S is offering no assistance in as far as finding out what happened during the escape, or in solving the problem or assisting in the investigation – they are too focused on keeping their contract intact. Even their responses to the portfolio committee have not assisted, except to continue to conceal secrets,” he said.

He stated that serious questions remained, and that Popcru would not hesitate to confront the department if these questions remained unanswered following the investigation into the Bester escape.

In addition to questions about the body found in Bester’s cell, Popcru had also raised concerns regarding the prison contracts awarded to firms such as G4S.

“The process is not transparent, and we want to know how these contracts were awarded. Do private prison companies comply with the laws of the country, including our broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) laws? And if these companies have B-BBEE partners, who are they and why are they keeping qui...

ActionSA president Herman Mashaba highlighted on Thursday that putting forward a credible policy offering, or plan of action, that ordinary South Africans can believe in is vital to inspire the “unheard majority” to go to the polls and vote for change.

Mashaba was speaking during the party’s launch of a “ground-breaking policy process” in anticipation of its inaugural policy conference, to be held in September.

He said the plan must make South Africans believe that change was possible, and that their votes could help create a better future.

He noted that while it was “easy” to start a new political party in South Africa, despite the proliferation of new parties, very few have succeeded in providing a credible and compelling alternative that inspired hope.

He said the success rate for new parties was less than 1% and this was clearly seen in the declining voter turnout witnessed over the past three decades.

“In the 2019 general election, of the roughly 36-million eligible voters in South Africa, a mere 17.6-million cast a vote. Put differently, more eligible voters did not vote than those who did,” he said.

He explained that at the heart of the problem was that many of these new parties succumbed to internal leadership battles while failing to focus on the work of putting forward a credible alternative that would take South Africa forward.

He noted that the desire to inspire hope for change in South Africans was what guided the launch of ActionSA’s South African Dream plan in February this year.

“The South African Dream is our vision for an inclusive and prosperous future for South Africa. This is a vision for what we believe a future South Africa freed from the African National Congress (ANC) and led by an ethical and caring government can look like,” he explained.

INAUGURAL POLICY CONFERENCE

In September, ActionSA will hold its inaugural policy conference to solidify its policy offering that will serve as the party’s election platform next year.

The conference will bring together over 600 delegates, representing the party’s structures in all nine provinces.

Mashaba said the policy conference would be the culmination of an “expert-led, public engagement process” that will serve to refine ActionSA’s policy offering and it would solicit inputs from internal structures, but also from South Africans that had the knowledge and skills to enrich the party’s offering.

“We believe that drawing on the views of people with first-hand knowledge of dealing with the challenges we face will ensure that the solutions we put forward are not just based on academic research and international best-practice, but also on real-world experiences,” he said.

Mashaba noted that after spending the past three years engaging countless South Africans about the future of the country, he could say without fear of contradiction that South Africans were not interested in lofty ideals, grandiose speeches or endless analyses of the problems faced in the country.

“They want to know, in simple terms, how ActionSA plans to fix South Africa. What they are looking for is a party that can credibly put forward concrete plans to place our country on a path to a prosperous future. When we launched ActionSA in August 2020, this is exactly what we set out to do. We were not guided solely by a desire to unseat the African National Congress, but to provide an alternative to the failed political establishment in South Africa,” he said.

While the formal part of the public consultation process will commence in May, this is the continuation of a process that started with the wide-scale public engagements held during the People’s Dialogue, he said.

Contrary to forecasts, annual consumer price inflation is still heading higher – reaching 7.1% in March, up from 7.0% in February. Economists expected CPI to cool to below 7% in March.

Instead, consumer prices rose by a full percentage point from February to March – the biggest monthly rise since July last year, Statistics SA said.

This was largely the result of pricier food. Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 14.0% over the past year, the biggest increase in 14 years. This contributed 2.4 percentage points to the total CPI annual rate of 7.1%, Statistics SA reported.

Prices of milk, eggs and cheese rose by 13.6% over the past year, from an annual rate of below 4% a year ago.

But inflation has started cooling in the categories for bread and cereals (20.3%, down from 20.5% in February), meat (10.6% from 11.4%) as well as oils and fats (16.7% to 16%).

Prices for personal care items increased by 11.1%, the highest rate since 2009.

While fuel prices rose by 4.5% between February and March due to price hikes, the transport index cooled to 8.9% in the 12 months to March, from 9.9% in February. This was the eighth consecutive month of slowing fuel inflation, Statistics SA reported.

The latest inflation number included school and university fees, which are surveyed once a year in March.

Primary and pre-primary school fees were up 6.3%, while fees for secondary school rose 5.8% and by 5.3% at tertiary institutions. Textbook prices jumped 11.3%, the largest annual increase since 2009.

It's still unclear whether the hotter-than-expected inflation rate in March will convince the monetary policy committee (MPC) to hike interest rates even higher at its next meeting at the end of May.

In March, the MPC shocked markets by hiking rates by another 50 basis points after February's inflation number also surprised on the upside.

Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago estimated that load shedding is adding 0.5 percentage points to inflation.

The next monetary policy meeting is scheduled for 23 to 25 May.

Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has announced her intention to dissolve the board of SA Tourism by the end of the week.

This comes after SA Tourism's controversial proposal to sponsor English Premier League football team Tottenham Hotspur for nearly R1-billion.

On Wednesday, De Lille said she had written to former board chairperson Thozamile Botha, asking for representations on why she should not dissolve the board using the minister's powers under the Tourism Act.

"My letter outlined a number of serious concerns, such as the conduct of the board in respect of the Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship matter; the composition of the board and whether the members have the necessary knowledge, experience or qualifications as required by Section 13 of the Tourism Act; and certain serious allegations raised by the acting CEO of SA Tourism regarding the lack of a proper functioning board," she said.

In her letter, De Lille added that she had requested Botha to respond to her in writing by Tuesday.

"I asked why the three matters raised in my letter do not constitute good cause for me to dissolve the board in terms of Section 16 (3) of the Tourism Act. I have not received representations on why the board should not be dissolved," she said.

De Lille said eight of the eleven board members, including the chairperson, had resigned between 7 and 13 April.

"The remaining three members of the board cannot form a quorum, and the board is therefore no longer functional. In all the circumstances, I believe that good cause exists to dissolve the board, and I shall do so officially through the Government Gazette on Friday, 21 April 2023," she added.

De Lille said she would officially gazette the appointment of a team of three people to manage the affairs of the board until the appointment of a new board.

SA Tourism came under fire in February when Daily Maverick reported that it had proposed a three-year deal worth £42.5-million (nearly R1-billion) with Spurs, starting at the beginning of the 2023-24 English Premier League season, and ending at the end of the 2026-27 season.

In return, SA Tourism would receive kit branding, interview backdrop branding, match-day advertising, partnership announcements, training camps in South Africa, and free access to tickets and stadium hospitality.

In March, De Lille announced a decision to scrap the "unlawful and invalid" deal. She said public funds needed to be used sparingly, given the country's economic state.

The response by SA Tourism's board at the time was that there was no "unlawful and invalid" Tottenham Hotspur transaction to be cancelled since only an in-principle decision had existed.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will chair a special Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to examine a plan by electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to slow the decommissioning of old coal power stations as the country battles with energy supply.

News24 understands that the special Cabinet meeting was called after the African National Congress' (ANC's) national working committee (NWC) on Monday approved a plan that would slow down the retirement of old coal power stations.

According to two insiders with knowledge of the discussions, the plan suggests that this would be done through public-private partnerships, limiting the financial burden to the fiscus.

Prolonging the life of Eskom coal stations will be in direct conflict with SA's just energy transition and the climate goals it committed to at the COP26 conference in 2021.

A group of foreign governments has pledged $8.5-billion (R155-billion) of concessional funding on the basis that SA meets its nationally determined contributions agreed at COP 26.

The special Cabinet meeting is also expected to focus on the ramping up of emergency power as power-utility Eskom implemented stage six loadshedding.

Ramaphosa called a special Cabinet meeting as the next ordinary sitting of Cabinet was only due in May.

One source privy to discussions said Ramokgopa’s plan, first submitted to the ANC’s NWC and now to the Cabinet, would see the retirement date of the Hendrina and Arnot power stations in Mpumalanga postponed.

Several of Hendrina's oldest units have already been closed and the power station is scheduled, under the Integrated Resource Plan 2019, to be fully decommissioned by December 2025.

It is one of Eskom's worst-performing power stations. Arnot is due for full decommissioning by 2029.

"Two other very old coal power stations are also being considered, but the immediate focus would be on Hendrina and Arnot," the insider said. It is understood that Ramokgopa suggested that the efforts to recommission old power stations should not be funded through the fiscus. "It will be done through public-private partnerships.

So a private company will take over the power station and maintenance, and then they will benefit by selling power to the grid at a premium," the insider said.

A second insider said Ramaphosa was seized with discussions around how to ramp up electricity supply amid heightened demand.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has defended the R1.4-million spent to bring Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana back to South Africa.

On Tuesday, Motsoaledi told the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs that they had to charter a flight to bring the pair back at the cost of R1.4-million.

"You can fly from here to Dar es Salaam and other places and pay R6 000. Which commercial flight do you think would have accepted [Bester]... and then passengers seated comfortably seeing two people in handcuffs entering an aircraft with several people to make sure they don't run away," he said.

Motsoaledi was adamant that the State agencies involved in bringing Bester back to the country had made the right choice.

"I don’t think any aircraft [company] would have allowed that situation. I don't remember where thugs of this nature flew around the world on commercial [passenger] flights. We have never deported anybody on a commercial flight."

"When we deported Congolese Papy Sukami. imagine we put that man into an aircraft with other innocent passengers on a commercial flight. I am sorry, but we cannot do that, as much as we want to save money."

Motsoaledi joked that had Bester been brought back on a commercial flight, he would have made the headlines.

"If we did that, you members of Parliament would be tearing me apart for being careless. We took the cheapest flight. This was the best option than going with a commercial flight," he said.

Bester appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on Friday for the first time since he was recaptured after his escape last year, and he will be back in court on 16 May.

Magudumana, who was Bester's accomplice, also appeared in court for her alleged role in helping Bester escape from prison.

Magudumana’s father Zolile Sekeleni was granted R10 000 bail in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court.

Sekeleni and his co-accused – Magudumana, former G4S employee Senohe Matsoara, and camera installer Teboho Lipholo – are charged with helping convicted rapist and murderer Bester escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein in May 2022.

Motsoaledi added that Tanzanian officials had wanted Bester and Magudumana to be handed over to immigration officials.

As the Department of Home Affairs doesn’t have its own plane, the 14 officials necessary for the operation would have had to fly commercially.

They would then have to hire minibuses and drive 600km from Dar es Salaam to Arusha, and back.

According to Motsoaledi, they had been forced to charter a flight and made use of Treasury's database. They took the cheapest option, at R1.4-million.

"We never asked anyone for a luxury flight," said Motsoaledi, adding that his department had only paid one third of the total costs.

South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has assured South Africans of a "corrupt free" election as the country gears up to vote in the 2024 national and provincial election.

IEC deputy manager for civic and voter education Mfundo Shabane spoke exclusively with Polity saying that the IEC’s “transparent system” will ensure that there is no corruption.

The IEC will undertake rigorous voter education leading up to election day, the dates of which will be announced in the coming months.

When asked about the latest developments around the controversial Electoral Amendment Bill, which was signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, and which makes way for independent candidates to participate, Shabane said the IEC had begun preparations based on what was contained in the Bill.

The 2024 election will be the first time an individual candidate will be able to contest the election without falling under any political party.

While other parties have welcomed the Bill, some, such as the Democratic Alliance, have said it is a perversion of democracy as the legislation fails on the grounds of fair participation by independent candidates as well as general proportionality.

IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo said in a media briefing on Monday that the IEC welcomed the ascent of the Act and believed that it created certainty in the IEC’s planning framework.

Among the changes anticipated is that the IEC will have to print two ballot papers.

Voter Education

The IEC recently launched a Schools Democracy Programme together with the Department of Basic Education, where IEC officials will visit schools throughout the country to conduct voter education as well as voter registration, from April 12 to May 12.

In an effort to attract and increase the voting numbers among the youth, eligible voters are also able to register online, without having to go to an IEC station.

Tertiary institutions have also been visited throughout March, as Shabane explained that there had been low voter turnout between the ages of 19 and 29.

LOADSHEDDING

Shabane said that they were in continuous conversation with the ailing power utility Eskom to limit power disruptions.

He explained that the IEC also provided backup generators and used devices that did not rely on electricity, adding that voter management devices, which captured voters at their correct voting station, could also be operated by batteries.

Shabane also added that the IEC’s partnership with Home Affairs was critical.

Home Affairs offices will be open for longer during the voting season so that all those who require ID documents are assisted.

“We are already on heightened preparations for the elections and we encourage the youth to register. It is their right, their vote counts. It is important that you participate to become a voter,” said Shabane.

Shabane added that the youth must also look into becoming independent candidates, office bearers and public representatives.

He said if one doesn ot vote “it’s like saying you don’t mind what decisions are taken on behalf of the country”.

Six months after the term of the last board term came to an end, and following court action to force his hand, President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally appointed a new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board.

The Presidency announced on Tuesday that Ramaphosa had appointed the 12-member board to lead the State broadcaster for a five-year period.

"In terms of Section 13(3) of the Act, President Ramaphosa designated Mr Khathutshelo Ramukumba as chairperson and Ms Nomvuyiso Batyi as the deputy chairperson of the SABC board," it said in a statement.

Ramukumba is a chartered accountant by profession and is currently the chief financial officer at Unisa.

He previously worked for the SA Post Office and the National Youth Development Agency, while Batyi is an Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) councillor.

Notable figures on the new board include former Economic Freedom Fighters MP Magdelene Moonsamy, as well as former SABC head of news Phathiswa Magopeni.

"The SABC is a vital institution of our constitutional democracy. I trust the newly appointed board members will work hard at ensuring that South Africa continues to benefit from a stable, independent and effective national public broadcaster," Ramaphosa said.

The president was criticised for his delay in appointing the board and faced a scathing legal opinion from Parliament on his second-guessing of a list approved by the National Assembly.

In December, he was given a list of people to be appointed to the board, as required by law.

Earlier in March, Parliament's legal advisor, Andile Tetyana, said the president had acted unlawfully by questioning the status of three additional names given to him to consider should anyone on the list of 12 names be unavailable.

Ramaphosa further faced court action by Media Monitoring Africa, who asked the Constitutional Court to force him to appoint the SABC board.

William Bird of Media Monitoring Africa, said, "We are relieved that the appointments have been made, but there are still key questions about how this was handled by the president, and we are consulting with our legal team about the way forward with the Constitutional Court case."

Bird said they wanted to ensure that something like this did not happen again.

"For the board, we wish them luck. It will be a baptism of fire, and they will need to work night and day to stabilise the board, and we hope they will receive support from Parliament in their efforts," he said.

The full list of SABC board members are:

Renee Horne;

Tseliso Thipanyane;

Khathutshelo Ramukumba;

Nomvuyiso Batyi;

Phathiswa Magopeni;

Aifheli Makhwanya;

Magdalene Moonsamy;

Rearabetsoe Motaung;

David Maimela;

Dinkwanyane Mohuba;

Mpho Tsedu; and

Palesa Kadi.