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The African National Congress (ANC) in Mpumalanga says it's unable to take action against one of its members who is accused of the kidnapping and murder of Hillary Gardee, saying that its hands are tied.

Explaining the party's dilemma to News24, ANC Mpumalanga spokesperson Ngelosi Ndhlovu said that in terms of the party's step-aside rule, a member who is criminally charged ought to be allowed to voluntarily step aside. The party can suspend a member who fails to do so.

"In this situation, [Philemon] Lukhele is in custody, and only once he gets out, should he be granted bail, then can he indicate to the party whether he voluntarily steps aside or not.

"We cannot terminate his membership for now because he is in custody, and he must step aside, as we have already [said] in our statement and as per the step-aside resolution. If he does not do that because we have a problem that he is in custody, we might be left with no choice but to request the region under which he is a member to write to him and inform him to step aside," Ndhlovu added.

She also said the ANC in Mpumalanga was in the process of writing to the branch of which Lukhele is a member to implore it to stop the accused from participating in party activities going forward.

"What we are going to do is that we are going to write to the branch and indicate to the branch that the branch must not assign him any duties until he has been cleared of these serious charges," the provincial spokesperson said.

Ndhlovu was also quick to clarify that Lukhele was "just an ordinary member and not a regional executive committee or a provincial executive committee member", but the party's step-aside rule still applies to him.

Lucky Mbuyane, the spokesperson for the ANC chief whip's office in the Mpumalanga legislature, where Lukhele worked as a research officer, told News24 that the accused had been suspended and that an investigation had ensued in the office.

Mabuyane said the suspension was without pay, but added that it was an employer-employee matter and had nothing to do with Lukhele's ANC membership.

Economic Freedom Fighters national spokesperson Sinawo Tambo, who has also been the Gardee family spokesperson, said it came as no surprise that the ANC failed to disassociate itself with the accused.

"It is not surprising to us that the ANC has failed to act swiftly against the murder, rape, and kidnapping accused, Philemon Lukhele. It's characteristic of them to fail to act on criminality because criminality is entrenched in the party's DNA and it is sustained and survived through corruption and other acts of criminality through the years. So we are not surprised that they have failed to act in terms of removing Lukhele's membership," Tambo said.

There were concerns that Lukhele's continued employment in the chief whip's office after would mean that he would have access to taxpayers' money for his defence.

Global warming made the heavy rains behind South Africa's devastating floods last month twice as likely as they would have been if greenhouse gas emissions had never heated the planet, scientists said on Friday.

Flash floods around the east coast city of Durban killed 435 people, left tens of thousands homeless and caused R10-billion worth of damage to roads, power lines, water pipes and one of Africa's busiest ports.

The World Weather Attribution group analysed weather data and digital simulations to compare today's climate to that of before the industrial revolution in the late 1800s, when the world was about 1.2°C cooler.

"The results showed that an extreme rainfall episode such as this one can now be expected to happen about once every 20 years," a report on the study said.

"Without human-caused global warming, such an event would only happen once every 40 years, so it has become about twice as common as a result of greenhouse gas emissions."

It added that when extreme downpours do happen, they can be expected to be 4-8% heavier than if no human-induced global warming had occurred.

Attributing specific weather events to climate change is a tricky business that deals in probabilities, never certainty. But co-author Friederike Otto, from Imperial College London, said the study had examined data from the wider region, not just Durban.

"Looking at the larger region is actually a very meaningful way of assessing the impact of climate change. (The study) means that, in any given year, there is a 5% likelihood of such an event occurring," she told a news conference, versus 2.5% in the absence of global warming.

Africa's southeastern coast is on the front line of seaborne weather systems that climate change is making nastier, scientists say. South Africa's tropical northern neighbour Mozambique has suffered multiple cyclones and floods in the past decade, including one in April that killed more than 50 people.

"The patterns we see in southern Africa are consistent with what we are seeing elsewhere in the world," Jasper Knight, a geoscientist at Johannesburg's University of Witwatersrand, not involved in the study, told Reuters.

The Public Servants' Association (PSA) has put the South African Revenue Service (SARS) on notice that it intends to go on strike after it reached a deadlock with the tax body during wage negotiations.

If the deadlock at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) is not broken ahead of time, the PSA strike is set to begin next week Thursday. The union served SARS with notice of a strike in terms of section 64 of the Labour Relations Act. The union is demanding a CPI plus 7% increase be applied to across the board.

PSA general manager Marcus Ramakgale wrote a letter to SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter on Wednesday notifying him of the union's plans to strike if the employer was not willing to budge from its final offer of a zero-percent wage increase.

"The outcome of the conciliation was that the dispute remained unresolved, and the CCMA Commissioner issued a certificate to that effect on 31 March 2022. Parties deliberated on the picketing rules and the CCMA ruled on the picketing rules on 13 April 2022," Ramakgale wrote.

Ramakgale told Kieswetter in the letter that the PSA was prepared to resolve the dispute through negotiations to avoid a strike, if the employer was willing to adjust its position.

PSA said it demands full and equal medical aid and housing allowance for all employees. The union also demands an annual adjustment upwards on pay progression of 1.5%.

SARS spokesperson Siphithi Sibeko the tax body was waiting for formal documentation including approval from the local authority for industrial action to commence. Sibeko said SARS will respond in due course.

Law trust chair in social justice and law professor at Stellenbosch University Professor Thuli Madonsela on Thursday said that the dialogue to handle immigration in manner that is socially just and anchored in shared humanity or Ubuntu remains a challenge in the country.

Madonsela was speaking during an expert roundtable on Social Justice, Economic Inclusion and Immigration, organised by Stellenbosch University, where she said the divorce between social justices and the handling of immigration have been seen to influence politics all over the world.

Immigrants are being blamed for social strife, particularly an inadequacy of work opportunities, economic opportunities and security challenges.

Madonsela said the roundtable takes place at a time when the issue of immigration, as part of globalisation, has become a hugely divisive issue, with politicians mining it and ordinary citizens scrambling for resources, which causes social conflict to increase.

“Here in our country we have seen businesses owned by migrants attacked. We have seen local businesses that hire immigrants being challenged. And at the lowest point immigrants were burnt as part of this contestation of resources in shared space,” she pointed out.

Meanwhile, the Department of Home Affairs chief director on policy and strategic management Sihle Mthiyane noted that the asylum seeker regime is being abused by economic migrants and this results in over 90% of the claims for asylum being rejected.

Mthiyane explained that with these high demands being placed on the asylum seeker and refugee regime, the country’s ability to provide protection services to migrants in need of it is compromised.

“Most applicants are economic migrants who claim asylum to buy time in order to work, study and establish businesses in the country. Other irregular migrants stay illegally in South Africa without claiming asylum, with many seeking to regularise their stay through fraud and corruption,” he said.

He noted that South Africa is a product of historical flows of migrants from Southern Africa.

The South African economy still remains much bigger than the other countries in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) terms. SA’s GDP per capita is five to seven times than that of the rest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, he said.

For humanitarian, constitutional and practical reasons, South Africa has avoided encampment either for asylum seekers or for refugees, Mthiyane said.

“While the policy of non-encampment can be fully justified there, was no provision made for providing indigent asylum seekers with basic food and accommodation,” he noted.

He added that South Africa ratified the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees without reservations, saying this makes it very difficult to limit the movement of asylum seekers, including those that pose security threats to the country.

Deputy Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka told the Office of the State Attorney – which is representing Parliament – that Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's attorneys misrepresented her involvement in an investigation into a controversial text message.

Gcaleka made it clear that she was not involved in an investigation into the SMS that Ismail Abramjee sent, in which he alleged to have knowledge of a pending decision of the Constitutional Court. Mkhwebane uses this supposed "investigation", the police's investigation after she laid a complaint against Abramjee and the Office of the Chief Justice's investigation as reasons why Parliament should suspend proceedings to impeach her.

Reporting on Parliament's Section 194 committee's decision to forge ahead with its work despite Mkhwebane's latest legal manoeuvres, News24 reported that according to the Public Protector, Gcaleka was also investigating an SMS from Ismail Abramjee.

Abramjee, a self-described "qualified and respected legal analyst and a commentator", sent the SMS to Parliament's legal counsel, stating that he had it "on very good authority that the ConCourt has declined to hear the Public Protector's rescission application".

Mkhwebane laid a complaint against Abramjee with the police.

The Office of the Chief Justice is investigating the matter.

The reference to Gcaleka in News24's report was based on a letter Mkhwebane's lawyers sent to Parliament, imploring the Section 194 committee to stop its work, pending these investigations and Mkhwebane's litigation.

The letter stated, "Thirdly, the Office of the Public Protector (under the guidance of the Deputy Public Protector) has initiated its own investigation into the suspected wrongdoing associated with the leaking of court information."

"In short, there are now three separate investigations in respect to the unfortunate SMS sent to your lead counsel, Adv Andrew Breitenbach, SC, by Mr Ismail Abramjee."

After the publication of the initial report, Gcaleka contacted News24 and said the claim that she was involved in a probe into the SMS was incorrect.

"I have no knowledge of any investigation being conducted by Public Protector South Africa in respect of the leaked SMS regarding the CC (Constitutional Court) matter. Thus, I am not involved in any such investigation," she stated.

She also repeated this in a letter to the State Attorneys which News24 has seen, and further stated: "The paragraph as far as it relates to me is a misrepresentation, thus the contents thereof are untrue."She also said she doesn't know Mkhwebane's attorneys and that they did not consult with her in this regard.

When Mkhwebane laid the charge against Abramjee on 5 May, she also said in an accompanying statement that her office would investigate, but she did not say that Gcaleka would lead it.

"I would also like to announce that I have decided to initiate a formal investigation by the Office of the Public Protector into this matter, in terms of sub-sections 6(4) and 6(5) of the Public Protector Act. It is not yet clear whether the leak came from members of the Constitutional Court, the administration or the judiciary," read the statement, which was an addendum to Mkhwebane's lawyer's letter.

Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises Ghaleb Cachalia on Thursday called for a State of Disaster to be declared on power utility Eskom following a heavy run of load-shedding this year.

The DA has also written to Presidency Director-General Phindile Baleni requesting a State of Disaster on Eskom and asking for the electricity sector to be placed on the agenda of the next Cabinet meeting.

The DA also wants an update on its request at the post-Cabinet briefing.

The party believes that the significance of a State of Disaster on Eskom and the electricity sector will help galvanise the national effort towards incremental energy projects with specific deliverables.

Cachalia said load-shedding is job-shedding and he called for an immediate response to the crisis.

“The failure to resolve load-shedding’s longstanding existential threat to the country’s economy and its competitiveness, has robbed unemployed South Africans of much needed jobs and damaged the country’s standing as an investment destination,” he stressed.

The DA went on to blame the ANC government and energy regulatory bodies for adopting a ‘business as usual’ approach and ignoring the lack of urgency on the electricity crisis.

“We need radical measures to avert disaster which is why we are calling for a State of Disaster,” Cachalia said.

He blamed government for not removing the red tape that is preventing new renewable energy projects.

The DA says more than 30 projects in the mining industry for self-generation, valued at more than R60-billion, were being delayed by red tape.

The DA wants an Electricity Emergency Response Plan in place to lay out short, medium- and long-term goals to bring additional generation capacity to the national energy grid.

Conceptualisation and finalisation of the plan should involve all stakeholders from government, industry experts, engineering bodies, Independent Power Producers (IPPs), civil society and members of the public.

“Contrary to what the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan appeared to insinuate recently, South Africa does not need to reach stage 8 of load-shedding before an emergency can be declared. The truth is, South Africa is already in an electricity shortage crisis, with a generation shortfall of between 4 000MW and 6 000MW right now, and the government is duty bound to respond with urgency,” said Cachalia.

He warned that should the electricity crisis be allowed to degenerate beyond its current stage, the consequences on the country’s economy, security, investment climate and socio-economic order will be severe.

DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Kevin Mileham said the underlying premise for the call for a State of Disaster is that South Africa should be making it easy for IPP’s to bring new generation capacity online, at scale and in the shortest possible time.

“We need to put the National Energy Regulator of South Africa into crisis mode to help lessen red tape and approve generation projects in shorter time lines and reprioritise budget resources from non-emergency expenditure towards accelerated spending energy generation projects,” he said.

AfriForum is on Wednesday appealing the finding that the gratuitous display of the old South African flag is hate speech.

They feel that the Equality Court's order is too over-reaching.

Lawyer Mark Oppenheimer submitted that the ruling of 2019 does not take into account conduct that is not unlawful.

"All public bans which don't meet the provision [of hate speech] is overbanning," he argued.

He gave the example of protesters carrying the flag to demonstrate how hateful apartheid was, and then setting it alight as a form of protest.

"The flag can bear a certain meaning, but the context tells you whether it amounts to hate speech."

Courts had already spoken out to say that there were benefits to be had in allowing people to express their views in a way that avoided potential violence, Oppenheimer said.

Free speech also provided clues to the temperature of society. He said the National Party had banned free speech to control people, but it had "backfired spectacularly".

"There are instances that clearly don't amount to hate speech.

"Just because the flag has a particular dominant meaning, doesn't mean that the display of that, endorses it," he said.

The appeal which is being heard in the Bloemfontein High Court, is being livestreamed by eNCA.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the SA Human Rights Commission took the case to the Equality Court, asking that the gratuitous display of the flag be stopped.

Handing down judgment in August 2019, Judge President Phineas ruled that the display of the old flag gratuitously demeaned and dehumanised, based on race and impaired dignity.

He found that the gratuitous display amounted to prohibited hate speech, unfair discrimination and harassment.

AfriForum is worried that this will have far-reaching consequences for freedom of speech.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation argued in 2019 that the display of the flag was a symbol of white supremacy, which was degrading and dehumanising to black people.

Oppenheimer said on Wednesday: "The system of apartheid invaded everyone's dignity to different degrees. It's an incredibly sinister system. And yes, in other words, the dominant meaning of the flag is that it represents that system."

However, he argued, the flag could be used to denounce another party and accuse them of racism, or oppression, but it is not necessarily an endorsement of apartheid.

The new South African flag was designed by a former State Herald, Fred Brownell, and was symbolically first raised on 27 April 1994.

The appeal continues.

A month after deadly floods hit KwaZulu-Natal, the provincial government is still locked in talks with the National Treasury on the allocation of disaster funds to the tune of R1-billion.

"We are told that R1-billion has been allocated to KZN, we have not yet received that money, but we are working with National Treasury and provincial treasury on the processes that need to be followed so that the money is allocated to relevant sector departments to municipalities," Cogta MEC Sipho Hlomuka said on Wednesday.

Hlomuka was briefing the media in Durban about various issues, including budgets for damages and repairs, after the floods.

He said provincial departments were also juggling their budgets.

"We will be guided by the national government, but I am aware that we need to reprioritise our budget as well to talk to the disaster. All departments affected by this disaster, they need to reprioritise the budget to speak to the disaster."

Hlomuka added that some of the worst-affected areas were identified in the western and northern parts of Durban, where water supply is in question.

The Tongaat Water Works was destroyed during the flooding, leaving tens of thousands of residents without clean running water.

Contaminated river water

In addition, there are high E.Coli levels in rivers, raising alarm bells for many rural communities that rely on river water daily.

"The infrastructure damages owing to recent torrential rains pose a risk of the contamination of water sources, such as rivers. As restoration of water has progressed in most areas, focus will now be on the protection of water resources to minimise deterioration.

"Most water resources (rivers) in the eThekwini District have been found to have a significantly high percentage of water contaminants (mainly E.Coli) due to raw sewer spillages, owing to water treatment works infrastructure damages.

"This increases the risk of a potential outbreak of waterborne diseases, like cholera, hepatitis, typhoid fever, etc. We are appealing to communities to exercise extreme caution when dealing with water from rivers."

He added that they were attempting to augment the supply of water in the northern parts of the city, with eThekwini having 263 water tankers. Tongaat and Verulam residents have complained that they don't see many water tankers in the areas.

According to Hlomuka, more than 400 lives were lost (386 in eThekwini, 31 in iLembe, seven in Ugu, four in King Cetshwayo, three in Harry Gwala, two in uMgungundlovu and two in uMzinyathi);

48 people are still unaccounted for;

77 600 lives were severely disrupted;

7 286 homes were destroyed;

12 062 homes were partially destroyed,

There is R25 billion (with assessments still under way) worth of damages to both public and private infrastructure across the province; and

Disaster management teams have conducted 748 search operations and more than 168 rescues.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is also getting in on the action to get State capturers behind bars, and recover some loot.

The SIU presented their annual performance plan to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Wednesday.

Before SIU head Andy Mothibi could present the part of their presentation dealing with the Zondo Commission's reports to the committee, he was cut short by committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe due to time constraints.

The presentation states that the SIU is considering a number of areas coming out of the State Capture Inquiry reports:

Identify matters that are highlighted by the report and are covered by the issued proclamations, and those that are not covered;

Identifying matters where civil litigation for cancellation of contracts and recovery is underway and those matters where SIU will institute civil litigation;

Holding officials, executives and directors to account based on evidence and findings;

Making referrals to NPA where the evidence points to a criminal offence;

Referrals of evidence to state institutions for disciplinary action;

Collaborate with other law enforcement agencies on common matters; and

Blacklisting of companies and directors;

and referrals to other Regulatory Authorities.

"The SIU constituted a committee, chaired by the Head of SIU, to consider the first three parts of the State Capture report and identified matters that will be further investigated to ensure that there is sufficient evidence to proceed," reads the presentation.

The SIU will also consider the most recently released fourth part of the report, particularly as it pertains to troubled state power utility Eskom.

"The SIU has extensive Eskom investigations, and there are already outcomes in this regard," reads the presentation.

From the first part of the report, the SIU has identified nine matters on South African Airways and South African Express Airways. Also, from part one, the SIU has identified a South African Revenue Service related matter that "could lead to civil litigation".

"The SIU has also identified three potential civil matters, mentioned in passing in Part 1, relating to City of Johannesburg, the Asbestos project (where civil litigation has already been instituted) with contract value of R255m and the Estina Dairy Project," reads the presentation.

From the second part of the report, the SIU identified 11 matters dealing with Transnet, and three potential civil matters relating to Denel.

"SIU Civil Litigation Team is considering the reports and investigations outcomes for further civil litigation matters," reads the presentation.

Furthermore, from the second part of the report, the SIU investigates SAA, Denel, Transnet and the now-defunct Gupta-owned The New Age media company, who received money from government departments to host breakfast events.

From the third part, they are investigating state-owned enterprises Eskom and Alexkor.

The previous day, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) informed the same committee that its Investigating Directorate (ID) intends to prosecute nine "seminal" corruption cases related to State capture within the next six months.

National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi said the nine prioritised cases were "seminal cases that will talk to the heart of State capture".

The ID has declared 82 investigations and enrolled 20 cases, with 65 accused. And it has prioritised nine corruption matters for enrolment within the next six months.

Dealing with State capture cases will be the NPA's main focus this coming year.

"We are determined to ensure that those implicated in state capture are held to account. This will rebuild public confidence, which is closely linked to investor confidence and also to economic growth, which will help the poorest and the most vulnerable in our country and also deal with the increasing inequality gap in South Africa," Batohi said.

While the SIU and NPA are taking action as the reports are published, ...

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga on Tuesday argued that President Cyril Ramaphosa can help the African National Congress (ANC) but only if the party allows him.

Speaking during a State of the Nation business breakfast in Johannesburg, Mathekga noted that South Africans look at the ANC’s experiences by looking at individuals.

“Whatever Ramaphosa is able to do within the society will have an effect within the ANC and that will limit how far he moves within the society,” Mathekga warned.

He added that this reform would not have symmetrical benefits, explaining that the more gains Ramaphosa makes in correcting things in society, the more costly it becomes within the ANC.

Mathekga noted that Ramaphosa is trying to bring the ANC back from the “back door”, through government institutions.

“Actually you can say he is trying to transform the ANC from above . . . going to government and saying this and that is not allowed. But in most cases the people that are going to be caught by those regulations and laws you put in government are the people who should have been sanctioned by just tapping them on the shoulder in your own party and saying don’t go out and do this and that,” he said.

Mathekga warned that if the President pushed to eliminate corruption in government it would result in crisis within the ANC. He stressed that if Ramaphosa succeeded in reforming government, he wouldn’t succeed within the ANC, as these two spheres were becoming mutually exclusive.

Mathekga believed that South Africa was experiencing a political fragmentation, noting that “the ANC is not holding”.

He argued that South Africans were already getting accustomed to declining authority.

“In the rural areas there is a lot of shift to traditional leadership as a new source of legitimate authority, despite controversy with the institution and its evolution,” he pointed out.

Mathekga was joined by Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse's Wayne Duvenage and StreamIn’s Michael Sham, who was of the belief there was no redemption for the ANC, citing the opposition to Ramaphosa’s faction within the ruling party, which he said was damaging to the country.