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The Namibian Police Force (Nampol) has denied doing "dirty work" for President Cyril Ramaphosa in relation to some US$4-million in cash that was stolen from Ramaphosa's Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo.

Ramaphosa has come under fire after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal complaint against him following the break-in on 9 February 2020.

In his affidavit submitted in June, Fraser claimed that Ramaphosa had conspired with the head of the Presidential Protection Unit Major General Wally Rhoode to track down the men behind the cash robbery, instead of reporting the matter to the police.

Fraser named Imanuwela David, Errki Shikongo, Petrus Muhekeni, Urbanus Shaumbwako and Petrus Afrikaner as the perpetrators of the farm heist.

Fraser claimed that the men conspired with a domestic worker to steal the money, which had been hidden in a couch.

The men were found in Namibia and allegedly tortured, along with the domestic worker, who reportedly conspired with the men to arrange the theft.

But in a statement released on Thursday, Namibian police denied the torture and abduction of David. According to Nampol, David entered Namibia illegally by canoe via the Orange River through an ungazetted entry point near Noordoewer in the Karas region.

He was then assisted by a police officer identified as Sergeant Hendrick Hidipo Nghede, from the Tourism Protection sub-division in Luderitz, and Paulus Alfeus Ngalangi, acting CEO of FishCor in Luderitz, to get to Windhoek.

"The trio drove to Windhoek in the acting CEO's BMW X5 and arrived after midnight," Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga said.

He said David was arrested at a hotel in Windhoek on charges of violating the Immigration Control Act and the State of Emergency Regulation that was in place at the time.

Ndeitunga said he was found in possession of N$300, eleven 100 US dollar notes, a TAG Hauer watch worth N$28 000, a Rolex watch worth N$280 000, a gold chain worth N$163 000, and four cellphones.

David also tested positive for Covid-19. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a fine of N$5 000 or 12 months' imprisonment for violating the Immigration Control Act.

He was further fined N$15 000 or 24 months' imprisonment under the Customs and Excise Act for failure to declare goods.

Ndeitunga said David paid the fine of N$20 000 and was released.

According to Nampol, immigration officials issued David with a 48-hour notice to leave the country and he subsequently left Namibia via the Noordoewer Border Post on 14 November.

Nghede and Ngalangi were also arrested and charged under the Immigration Control Act, aiding and abetting illegal immigration, and contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act.

Their trial was postponed to August.

"It is worth noting that indeed the two police authorities met on 19 June 2020 at what is termed 'no-mans' (sic) land near Noordoewer to share operational information pertaining to David Imanuwela and other Namibian nationals suspected to have stolen money in South Africa and fled to Namibia.

"The Namibian Police Force identified individuals, bank accounts and various properties, including lodges, houses and vehicles, suspected to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime, and consulted the Office of the Prosecutor General to consider a preservation order of the assets," Ndeitunga said.

Ndeitunga said a preservation order was issued, and a formal request was made through the Ministry of Justice to South Africa to confirm whether a crime had been registered in South Africa.

"However, no response was received from SA authorities, resulting in the cancellation of the preservation order and release of the assets."

The statement by the Namibian police calls into question the actions of the South African authorities and their pursuit of the matter.

Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola has denied that South African authorities are at the mercy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government in relation to the extradition of Atul and Rajesh Gupta to South Africa to face charges related to the looting of State funds.

Lamola said it should be noted that extradition can be a protracted legal process that is also a policy-centric and politically diplomatic process across the globe.

The Gupta brothers fled the country as the news surfaced during the State Capture Commission, led by Justice Raymond Zondo, that they allegedly looted State funds under the Jacob Zuma administration, dubbed the “nine wasted years”.

Speaking to a local media broadcaster, Lamola gave assurance that the brothers would definitely come back to South Africa, although it could take time.

He said the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) was preparing the extradition papers that his department will be sending to UAE counterparts, through diplomatic channels, within 60 days, as per the extradition treaty.

He said court processes on whether the pair were extraditable or not were also due to take place.

It has been reported that the brothers were placed on Interpol’s red notice list last year for the R25-million Nulane investments matter.

“Our role is to convey a diplomatic engagement between ourselves and the central authority in the UAE. The NPA is dealing with the charges, evidence and other processes. Our obligation will be to ensure that the papers are in line with the extradition treaty as we take them to the UAE,” explained Lamola.

He said the extradition treaty allowed for the NPA to provide charges that they believed comprised extraditable conduct and that they believed they can prove in court beyond any reasonable doubt.

Lamola said the bail application would be discussed by the NPA and their counterparts in the UAE.

“We want to ensure that the process is not contaminated by unnecessary ulterior motives. It must be informed by the law, the NPA Act and the Extradition Act of our country and the extradition treaty between the UAE and South Africa. It is important that we are compliant with the treaty,” stressed Lamola.

Former spy boss turned apparent whistleblower Arthur Fraser has met with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) to provide more information on the theft that took place on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm in Limpopo in 2020.

Details of the new information he has furnished to the Hawks have not been revealed.

Ramaphosa is facing heavy criticism for not reporting the alleged theft of large sums of foreign currency.

Fraser, also known to be a staunch supporter of former President Jacob Zuma, has also opened a case against Ramaphosa for allegedly contravening the Code of Ethics.

Fraser authorised Zuma’s parole following the former President’s arrest, which is widely believed to have been the spark in the looting and death across KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng earlier this year.

Fraser said he appreciated the level of professionalism and speed at which the Hawks had responded to the matter.

There has been no improvement in the audits of South Africa's municipalities, Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke has announced, with only 41 out of SA's 257 municipalities receiving clean audits.

Of the 41, 22 were in the Western Cape, two in Gauteng, five in the Northern Cape, four in the Eastern Cape, one in Limpopo, four in Mpumalanga and three in KwaZulu-Natal. For the fifth year running, not a single Free State municipality received a clean audit.

Meanwhile, only a quarter of municipalities submitted their financial statements to her office on time.

"What we see looking at this year's audit outcomes is there is no improvement in the status of transparency, accountability, performance or integrity of local government," said Maluleke.

She said that compared to five years ago, 61 municipalities had improved their audit outcomes, while 56 had regressed. This showed that her office's interventions to improve financial management were not being taken seriously.

"There hasn't been much movement in the right direction."

The AG said that poor or non-existent record-keeping was again bedevilling many municipalities, who often employed expensive consultants to try to make sense of their financials.

At times, she said these consultants were employed to do the "very basics," such as VAT and tax returns, even though the municipalities have staff to do this.

The Chris Hani municipality in the Eastern Cape, for example, paid a consultant R34-million for VAT submissions.

"You have to ask the question, where is the municipal manager? Where is the mayor?"

Worst of the worst

Maluleke said that 25 municipalities received a disclaimer audit opinion from her office, while nine didn't even submit enough information for an opinion to be hazarded.

A disclaimer is the worst result a municipality can receive from the AG, indicating that its financial statements have no value.

"If you are unable to do the very basic thing of showing what you have done with public funds, it demonstrates that you have no commitment to living up to your moral obligation to serve as a steward," she said.

"It shows that you have absolutely no will in drive transparency and no interest in demonstrating accountability,"

She said her office dug into the financial statements of 10 of the worst municipalities to see if they could follow the trail of what they did with their money.

For six of these municipalities, her office could not find out who was paid or calculate the rand value of what they spent.

"We are none the wiser about where the money is gone," she said.

Kulula.com and local British Airways operator Comair was placed in provisional liquidation by the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The liquidation is necessary for Comair to preserve its fleet of aircraft, valued at about R3.5-billion, for the benefit of creditors, according to the company's business rescue practitioners (BRPs).

All affected parties have until 26 July to provide the court with reasons why the provisional liquidation order should not be made a final order.

Comair cannot pay aircraft storage, maintenance and insurance costs, so it cannot ensure the preservation of its fleet anymore. That is one of the reasons why its BRPs made an urgent high court application for its liquidation.

Comair operated its own low-cost airline, kulula.com, and domestic and regional British Airways flights as part of a franchise agreement, and accounted for some 40% of the domestic aviation market. It had to suspend flights on 31 May this year when it could not meet its financial obligations anymore.

"We are of the view that there is no longer a reasonable prospect of rescuing Comair so asking to discontinue business rescue and place it in liquidation. There is no longer a fair or moderate possibility of substantially implementing Comair's approved business rescue plan," BRP Richard Ferguson states in court documents.

"The company does not have access to any further funding necessary to fund its operational costs and cannot meet any of its obligations towards its funding creditors and trade creditors."

Court documents show that Comair had a net loss of almost R500 000 for the year to end-February 2020, compared to a net profit of almost R900 000 for the prior year. Its total debt had increased from R2.2-billion at the end of June 2015 to R4.9-billion at 31 December 2019. Its debt burden had been growing partly because of a disastrous order of Boeing 737 Max planes.

Then it was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and related hard lockdowns in March 2020. Consequently, Comair decided to go into business rescue in May 2020, halting flights, and its business rescue plan was adopted in September 2020. The plan anticipated that about 1 800 jobs will be preserved if Comair could be returned to sustainability.

The Comair Rescue Consortium (CRC) comprising several former Comair board members and executives, among others, invested R500-million for a 99% share of the equity in the company.

Comair resumed flying on 1 December 2020. In April 2021 it was delisted from the JSE. The delisting allowed the company to apply for funding of R100-million under the Covid-19 loan guarantee scheme put in place by the SA Reserve Bank and large commercial banks at the time.

Due to Covid-19 adjusted level 4 lockdown restrictions imposed by government for leisure travel to and from Gauteng from the end of June 2021 to the end of July 2021 and Comair suspending flights from 5 July 2021, the company did not generate any revenue during that period. It recommenced flights on on 1 September 2021 but still required funding. It then sold its Slow Lounge airport lounge business to FirstRand for R250-million.

In December 2021 the Omicron variant and consequent international travel bans - especially by the UK - had a severe impact on flown revenue of Comair compared to projected revenue for the holiday season. Comair lost about R100-million in previously booked but unflown revenue during this period. Consequently, its financial position worsened and further funding became necessary to continue operations on a sustainable basis.

By January 2022 Comair required at least a further R500-million in funding. Investors provided $8-million (about R120-million) in March this year but Comair required at least R125-million more by 30 May. Neither investors nor lenders were prepared to provide any more funding and "confidential engagements" with other potential investors came to nothing.

A further blow came when in February this year Russia invaded Ukraine and oil prices...

Eskom warned on Tuesday afternoon that load-shedding may be implemented at short notice during the evenings this week, should there be any significant breakdowns.

Eskom said there's a continued shortage of generation capacity, and that the power system will be very constrained on Tuesday evening and the next few days.

Should there be any further significant breakdowns, load-shedding may be required at short notice, most likely during the evening peak of between 17:00 and 22:00.

Some 3 307MW in electricity capacity is out due to planned maintenance, while another 15 844MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.

"Eskom cautions the public that as the shortage of generation capacity persists, the system will continue to be constrained with an elevated risk of load-shedding over the coming weeks."

The utility asked consumers to use electricity sparingly especially between 05:00 and 09:00 in the mornings and 16:00 and 22:00 in the evenings.

South Africa was last hit by load-shedding two weeks ago.

South Africa has welcomed a R7.6-billion “low-interest” loan from the World Bank to support the country’s procurement of 47-million Covid-19 vaccine doses, as the country remains the epicenter of the pandemic in Africa, with the highest cumulative numbers of infections and deaths.

As of Wednesday, 536 new Covid-19 cases have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 979 126, and 25 deaths were reported.

Over 36.4-million vaccine doses have been administered as of Monday, with about 50.3% of adults and 29.9% of 12- to 17-year-olds vaccinated.

However, government wants to increase vaccine coverage to curb the spread of the virus and boost the country’s economic recovery.

The South African government requested assistance in the form of a loan to finance vaccine procurement contracts, which will retroactively finance the procurement of 47-million Covid-19 vaccine doses.

National Treasury acting director-general Ismail Momoniat explained that the loan formed part of government efforts to reduce debt service costs.

“South Africa welcomes this EUR 454.4-million World Bank loan to support Covid-19 vaccination as the spread of the virus continues to pose a threat to South Africa’s citizens, health system, and economic recovery. The loan forms part of government efforts to reduce debt service costs by making use of cheaper sources of funding through multilateral development banks, whilst supporting the health system to respond to Covid-19 through the roll-out of vaccines, critical research, and treatment measures," said Momoniat.

Treasury said the loan to procure vaccines would help government better cope with the pandemic and help create the fiscal space to strengthen the country’s health system and ensure financial and institutional sustainability.

World Bank country director for South Africa Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly said the loan would help with the country’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the population.

National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has ordered an investigation into allegations that female Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MPs were sexually assaulted during last week’s fracas with Parliamentary Protection Services (PPS) personnel.

Last Thursday and Friday, the National Assembly convened for the presidency budget vote, delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa, but was subjected to repeated points of orders by the EFF, who later violently clashed with security officials.

Allegations that female EFF MPs were touched on their private parts as they were removed from the parliamentary chamber and the assault of PPS staff are the critical matters of the probe.

The sittings descended into chaos when several EFF MPs were violently removed from the chamber, preventing Ramaphosa from proceeding with his speech for hours.

Last Friday, during Ramaphosa's reply to the speech, matters worsened when female EFF MPs fought with female security officials. At the same time, their male counterparts threw punches and resisted being thrown out by security officials.

Mapisa-Nqakula ordered the removal of the EFF MPs following their disruptive conduct and repeatedly raising points of orders over Ramaphosa's presence in the National Assembly, given the farm theft allegations against him.

On Monday, Mapisa-Nqakula's office confirmed EFF deputy leader and chief whip Floyd Shivambu submitted a complaint calling on Mapisa-Nqakula to conduct an investigation into the "allegations of gender-based violence" committed against female EFF MPs by PPS personnel.

Parliament's spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo, said, "Amongst those allegedly violated during both sittings on the debate of vote 1: presidency budget vote and reply to the debate by the president are Babalwa Mathulelwa, Noluvuyo Tafeni and Naledi Chirwa. The three are amongst EFF MPs who had to be removed from the chamber for a highly disruptive behaviour which saw the debate on the presidency budget vote delayed by over an hour and the subsequent reply by the president the day after being temporarily suspended."

Chirwa was one of the vocal EFF MPs who claimed that female MPs were touched on their private parts as they were removed from the chamber.

Given this allegation, Mapisa-Nqakula ordered on Friday that only female security officers remove female MPs.

Mapisa-Nqakula also received reports that two PPS personnel, Khunjulwa Sinono and Khaya Honey Vanqa, suffered abuse, assault and intimidation from the EFF MPs during their removal process.

"Sinono, in particular, sustained an injury to her face after being allegedly assaulted by a male EFF MP. She immediately received medical attention, and both have since opened criminal cases with the Cape Town [central police [station]. Gender-based violence, whether committed against female Members of Parliament or female members of staff, must be condemned in the strongest terms," Mothapo said.

Rules for MPs:

MPs may not engage in grossly disorderly conduct in the chamber and its forums.

Should an MP refuse to leave the chamber when ordered, a presiding officer must instruct the Serjeant-at-Arms to remove the MP from the chamber and the parliamentary precincts.

If the Serjeant-at-Arms is unable in person to effect the removal of the MP, the presiding officer may call upon the PPS to assist in removing the MP from the chamber and the precincts of Parliament.

If an MP resists attempts to be removed from the chamber, the Serjeant-at-Arms and the PPS may use such force as may be reasonably necessary to overcome any resistance.

Furthermore, Mothapo said the forceful removal of disruptive MPs was not a decision taken lightly.

"It is taken as a last resort after all other avenues have been explored to protect the rights of the rest of the public representatives to fulfil their constitutional obligations and that of the public, whose hopes and aspirations for a better future rests with Parliament, to have the institution perform its business," he said.

Mot...

South Africa will oppose any request for bail made by the two Gupta brothers after their arrest in Dubai this month, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said.

South Africa plans to request extradition for the Guptas, who are accused of working with former President Jacob Zuma to steal billions of dollars from the government.

Lamola spoke in an interview on Johannesburg’s 702 Talk Radio on Monday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday that government will continue to champion programmes and initiatives that limit the impact of unemployment on young people until the private sector starts creating more jobs at scale.

One of these initiatives is the Social Employment Fund, launched through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, which will create 50 000 new work opportunities in its first phase.

Eighty-four per cent of participants in the programmes are youth and 62% are women.

Ramaphosa said while government had made progress in creating opportunities for young people in basic and higher education, millions of young people remained unemployed.

Youth unemployment in South Africa is currently at 66.5%.

“While the latest employment figures give some cause for optimism – some 370 000 jobs were created in the first quarter of this year – we still have a huge mountain to climb in our quest to create more jobs, especially for young people. No society can expect to grow or thrive when the vast majority of its young people are out of work,” said Ramaphosa.

The Social Employment Fund will partner with non-governmental organisations to kickstart a new approach to public employment in areas that include community safety, food kitchens, urban agriculture, early childhood development and gender-based violence.

Ramaphosa said social employment sees people in communities as valuable resources for development.

“We have many real problems to address – from improving waste collection to creating safe and beautiful public spaces – that require work, and many people who are eager to do it. Not only does social employment provide an income for participants by supporting locally-driven initiatives to fulfil local needs; social employment can also unlock creativity and agency, build local participation and strengthen mutual support systems in communities,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Youth Service programme will create another 50 000 jobs for unemployed youth.

The President called on business to help in the effort to combat unemployment by hiring young workers, using the Employee Tax Incentive and by supporting small businesses owned by young people.