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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.

Deputy Public Enterprises Minister Phumulo Masualle has hinted that he will vote in favour of Parliament’s adoption of the Phala Phala report, adding to the voices wanting President Cyril Ramaphosa impeached.

Ahead of the crucial vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Masualle told News24: "Accountability cannot be swept under the carpet and, as far as Parliament is concerned, it must ensure that. Where the president has issues that he has pointed to, which he considers false in the report, he is free to explore avenues to get the necessary remedies. Once that is done, we should be able to proceed with accountability."

Asked which way he intends to vote, Masualle said: "I will be voting for a crafted resolution that speaks along the lines of ensuring accountability is not swept under the carpet, and that there are remedies for those who seek it."

Several sources within the African National Congress caucus have told News24 that the meeting was heated from the start, as several MPs questioned why they had to toe the party line, and vote against the report.

News24 understands that ministers Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Sisulu disagreed with this party line.

If the report is adopted, Ramaphosa will face an impeachment inquiry.

The ministers told the caucus that the threat to discipline them, should they vote in support of the adoption of the report, was unconstitutional.

Sisulu was seen leaving in a hurry after the meeting came to an end.

Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said, whatever happens in Parliament on Tuesday, it won't be the last time Ramaphosa hears of Phala Phala.

"We are hoping that all MPs will vote with their conscience. This is not the last time the president will hear of Phala Phala. Whatever happens here today," he said ahead of the parliamentary sitting," he said.

Inkatha Freedom Party MP Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi said the report had to be adopted.

"If it is not, it shows exactly what the ANC is," he said.

Buthelezi added that Parliament had requested this investigation and, with the information on hand, should adopt the report.

All 400 MPs are expected to be at the Cape Town City Hall to vote on whether to adopt the Section 89 panel's report on Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala dealings.

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula appointed the Section 89 inquiry panel, under leadership of former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, following a motion by African Transformation Movement leader Vuyolwethu Zungula for Ramaphosa's removal on the grounds of "a serious violation of the Constitution or the law and serious misconduct".

Ramaphosa has come under immense pressure following the release of the panel's report, which made damning findings against him in relation to the theft of $580 000 (about R10-million) from his game farm, Phala Phala, in Limpopo.

The African National Congress's (ANC's) electoral committee will oppose an urgent application some party members lodged at the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to compel it to provide raw data of all branch nominations for the 200 candidates for additional national executive committee (NEC) positions.

The nine disgruntled party members banded together to challenge the list under the banner of "The Kgalema disputed NEC list".

Electoral committee secretary Chief Livhuwani Matsila said on Monday said that "the instruction that we have received from the office of the secretary-general is that we should oppose the court application".

He was quick to add that the application did not seek to halt the elective conference, which is expected to kick off on Friday.

"They are seeking certain information and we are still getting clarity on that," Matsila said.

In court papers, the members asked the court to compel the party to release the raw data.

It asked that, "The First Respondent (chairperson of the electoral committee, Kgalema Motlanthe) be hereby ordered to publish an excel spreadsheet of all branch nominations received for all candidates nominated by branches for election in the 55th national conference of the African National Congress."

Last week, News24 reported that disgruntled ANC members wrote to Motlanthe to challenge the list he had released.

They questioned the criteria the party used to disqualify some qualifying members to achieve gender parity, and gave Motlanthe 48 hours to respond.

Leading the charge for the complainants was Isaac Mashaba, a member from Ward 30 in Sebokeng, Gauteng.

Mashaba told News24 last week that the list published on 1 December "failed to meet the minimum requirements in that it failed to tabulate the total number of branch and provincial nominations received by each candidate".

He argued that what the electoral committee published was a list that had already factored in gender parity.

Mashaba said it failed to satisfy the objectives of the 54th conference to establish the electoral committee so that electoral processes are conducted in a free and fair manner.

He added that "the fact that we are using an electoral college system that is easily manipulated through influencing a core of influential people, like branch, regional and provincial secretaries, who manage the membership and deployment system", was worrying.

He said it made the ANC's internal democratic process vulnerable to corruption by businesses, internal factions and outside interests.

Responding to the members' concerns, Matsila said the committee was "in the process of finalising the acceptance/decline of nominations and vetting of candidates".

Mashaba objected and questioned why Motlanthe released the list if all processes had not been completed.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that South Africa’s road to recovery will be a long one, however, he pointed to the resilience of South Africans and urged citizens to act decisively together.

In his weekly letter to the nation, Ramaphosa reflected on 2022.

“Like for many people around the world, this has been a tough year for many South Africans. Misfortune has tested us over the past year, but these hard times have brought to the fore once more the traits for which we are known as South Africans,” he said.

In the first half of the year, South Africans experienced devastating floods in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict sent shockwaves through global energy and food markets, leading to supply chain disruptions and rising prices that continued to be keenly felt, including in South Africa, said Ramaphosa.

Loadshedding has caused misery for South African households and businesses.

He also noted that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were still felt in an already struggling economy and added that public unrest had caused loss of human life and livelihoods.

“With this difficult year coming to an end and several challenges still not resolved, we need to keep closely focused on what needs to be done to make next year better. But we have good reason to be believe things are getting better. Our great country will rise above adversity, as it has done so many times in the past,” he added.

Ramaphosa is certain that citizens will overcome the current challenges, and believes that South Africans are more than capable of bringing about the recovery the country needs. He said the recovery of the country’s economy and society was underway, and, despite the electricity challenges, the economy was recording growth.

“In the third quarter of this year real gross domestic product grew by 1.6%, and the size of the economy now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. Major industries and sources of job creation such as agriculture, transportation, construction and finance recorded increased economic output. Exports increased by 4.2%,” he pointed out.

Jobs are being created again, with around 1.5-million new jobs created in the last year.

A few months ago, the Presidential Employment Stimulus, reached one-million participants. Ramaphosa explained that more than 3-million youth were registered on the innovative SAYouth.mobi platform that connected them with prospective employers.

He said government was revitalising the National Youth Service to create work opportunities for 50 000 young people.

PIPELINE OF EMBEDDED GENERATION PROJECTS

Ramaphosa said the procurement of renewable energy had been accelerated and that many of the regulatory hurdles to greater private investment in embedded generation had been removed.

“For more than a decade, South Africa has been confronted with a shortage of electricity, with loadshedding now a daily reality. Over the last year we have taken urgent steps to remedy this dire situation by significantly and rapidly increasing the construction of new generating capacity,” highlighted Ramaphosa.

There is now a significant pipeline of embedded generation projects that are preparing for construction. He explained that government was working closely with Eskom to improve the performance of its fleet of power stations.

“We are undertaking far-reaching reforms to improve the capacity and competitiveness of railways and ports, to open up our telecommunications industry and to improve the supply and pricing of water,” said Ramaphosa.

LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

He noted that this year had seen several corruption-related cases enrolled in the country’s courts and some convictions had been secured.

Multi-disciplinary units that bring together a range of law enforcement agencies are identifying more implicated individuals and entities and preparing cases against them, he added.

After close to four years, the State Capture Commission has concluded its work and presented its final reports to ...

Former African National Congress (ANC) Veterans' League spokesperson Carl Niehaus has been expelled from the ANC.

The ANC’s national disciplinary committee (NDC) found Niehaus guilty of six charges of misconduct.

The charges are in connection with comments Niehaus made in July outside former president Jacob Zuma’s residence in Nkandla, northern KwaZulu-Natal, where he protested against Zuma’s incarceration for being in contempt of the Constitutional Court.

In a letter dated 12 December 2022, ANC NDC chairperson Ralph Mgijima cited Niehaus’ disparaging remarks against the judiciary as having led to him being charged by the party.

Niehaus had called the Constitutional Court's ruling "a travesty of justice”.

“The flimsy report of the state capture report of the Public Protector was used to force president Zuma to announce the state capture commission eventually. President Zuma did not want to do so of his own volition,” Niehaus said.

According to the findings, Niehaus also said, “The law is being used selectively as an instrument to fight political and factional battles.”

In his defence, Niehaus argued that the utterances were made while executing an order of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans' Association as its national spokesperson.

He also argued that the ANC does not have a policy on what utterances may not be made against the judiciary.

The NDC, however, indicated that the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) in 2018 supported the establishment of the state capture commission under then Deputy Chief Justice Zondo and called on all ANC members to give full cooperation to the commission and respect its recommendations.

Mgijima also highlighted that on 29 June 2021, ANC national spokesperson, Pule Mabe, reiterated the ANC’s position on the Constitutional Court judgment when he said that although the party was going through a difficult period, the party “reaffirmed its commitment to upholding the rule of law and fulfilling the aspirations of our constitutional democracy”.

ANC member Fikile Mbalula was among party leaders who testified against Niehaus. However, his testimony was later not given any consideration when passing judgment as the accused was not afforded the opportunity to cross-examine him.

Niehaus brought former MKMVA treasurer-general Des van Rooyen to give testimony on his behalf.

In his findings, Mgijima said the committee believed that the charges for which Niehaus had been found guilty were severe.

“As such, the charged member’s plea that he be sanctioned with a reprimand if found guilty is wholly inappropriate."

The NDC resolved that “the charged member [Niehaus] is expelled from the ANC".

In handing down such a hash ruling, Mgijima said the NDC had taken into consideration that the utterances were made by Niehaus “at a time when the circumstances surrounding the arrest and subsequent committal to prison of former president Zuma was very volatile as evidenced by the subsequent riots which took place in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng and resultant loss of life and limb and damage to and loss of property”.

The NDC found that Niehaus had not demonstrated any remorse and persisted in his view that the ANC was violating its constitution and his rights by disciplining him.

“The NDC took into consideration the fact that the charged member is a senior and long-standing member of the ANC, had served a term of imprisonment for his political beliefs, and held strong and sometimes contrary views on the policies of the ANC and positions adopted by the NEC from time to time."

Niehaus was not immediately available for comment.