The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

Lots of news this week was centered around the election of a chairperson for the Phala Phala impeachment committee. The DA made it quite clear they would not support an ANC chair and in the end the DA voted with the ANC to elect Makashule Gana, chief whip of the Rise Mzansi Party, who now chairs the committee.  Previously Gama had served as a DA member. Interestingly, the EFF & MK parties voted against Gama.

Things are heating up for our President.  The Advocate Busisiwe Mkhebane Foundation (Mkhebane is our former Public Protector and is now a member of Zuma’s MK Party) has asked US authorities (FBI) to go after Cyril Ramaphosa for currency irregularities including money laundering, kidnapping and defeating the of justice. The Foundation believes an investigation into his dealings are necessary because of the mounting evidence against him. In terms of the law he should have declared the amount of foreign currency brought into the country– it substantially exceeded the legal limit–it also contravenes our tax laws. Remember that Mkhebane was impeached from her prosecuting job by Cyril so no love lost there. She wants a criminal investigation. 

Political commentator, Prince Mashele believes that Ramaphosa is a criminal President and that he will step down rather than subject himself to cross-examination by the parliamentary committee. This is Brandan’s take on the current state of play from Business Day earlier this week:

Geordin Hill-Lews,  Democratic Alliance leader was ecstatic that the DA last week won a municipal ward from the ANC  in a by-election in Emfuleni, south of Johannesburg.  The ward is 100% black and the DA narrowly (by just 8 votes) took the ward in what commentators described as a significant breakthrough result for the party. The DA were aided by the fact that the Communist Party (SACP) also contested the election on their own this time and not as part of the ANC.  The results show that the DA doubled their support from the last election and the ANC’s support fell by almost 22%. The fact that Emfuleni is a predominantly black township area is indeed an unprecedented win and it is heartening for those who see the ANC as corrupt and ineffective. 

The left-wing Parties got together in Boksburg this past weekend to explore greater cooperation between them. The parties present were the EFF, MK, Socialist Party of SA, Pan African Congress and several trade unions (COSATU). It is noticeable that the ANC were invited but declined to participate. Tony Yengeni, now an MK member called for an alignment of the parties and for black people to stand together. Julius Malema also spoke saying more or less the same thing but pointing out that the “competition” between the ANC and MK was not good for the unification of black people in the country. Of course they want control, not only of government but of businesses and farms too.   Paul Hoffman of Accountability Now has written a full summary of the ‘Conference of the Left’ for the Daily Friend and you can read it by clicking on the following link:

RW Johnson writing in Politicsweb, yesterday makes the point that the ANC lacks leadership talent. There really is no one that can easily take over the leadership of the country or even the Party.  That, according to Johnson is their biggest problem.

Only white SA’ns can legally emigrate into the USA as refugees. President Trump has allowed another 10,000 to come as refugees as people from every other country are banned from permanently entering the USA. 

Woolworths our up-market retailer has had two explosions  in two seperate stores in the middle of the night while packers were filling the racks in the middle of the night. The stores are in Pretoria and Bloemfontein.  Both explosions seem to have been well-planned and fortunately no one was hurt. But it is scary and no one seems to know much about it at all. A front page article in the Argus asks the question we all are thinking: Is this terrorism? Woolworths have now employed Belgium snifffer-dogs to help keep their stores safe.

Some good news is that the Rand is strengthening. Our credit ratings have been upgraded by Standard & Poor and SA’s outlook is looking much better, with investor confidence having improved. Then, Bank of America’s country executive, Anthony Knox said that the bank sees SA, with excellent well run companies, with excellent deal-making capabilities, in the volatile environment as attractive to local and international investors.   This is how Rico in Business Maverick sees it:

Some more good news is that Time Out has placed Cape Town in fifth place in the world for art and culture. On their list Cape Town is placed above two African cities, Marrakech and Cairo, so heading the African contingent of cultural capitals. In the article the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in the Waterfront and the Norval Foundation in Tokai got special mention.

SA (Bafana Bafana) plays in the very first football game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup next Thursday, June 11. We play hosts Mexico  (well, one of three host countries–the other two host countries are USA and Canada) but I’m not expecting stellar results. Their warm-up game last weekend against Nicaragua (ranked 131 in the world) ended in a tame 0-0 draw. To add to Bafana Bafana’s frustration was the manner in which the SA Football Board (SAFA) stuffed-up the application for visas for our players. They were supposed to leave on Sunday to give themselves enough time to prepare for their match but couldn’t because the staff of SAFA are useless. Has anybody been held accountable for the Visa delay?………. Don’t be silly. Anyway they are now in Mexico and the coach and I will be watching the game. By the way, vuvuzelas have been banned at all the World Cup games.

On Saturday afternoon the coach came over early to watch the rugby with me. We watched both quarter-final knock-out games in the URC and I am pleased to advise that the Bulls won at Loftus Versveld and the Stormers won in the Cape Town Stadium. The local game cost, however, with a serious injury to our star fly-half, Sascha Fienberg-Mngomezulu. The late quarter-final match saw The Lions go down to Leinster. We play Leinster (away) this coming Saturday.

Then Arsenal played Paris St Germain in Budapest in the European UEFA Champions League final. The game ended 1-1 but the French champions held onto their title by winning the goal kicks 4-3.

As always,   

Gerald