The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

Cyril is in trouble and he knows he is. He is now trying every trick in the book to delay or even block the Parliamentary impeachment process from asking him, in public, questions about the Phala Phala farm incident where millions of Rands (actually $) were stolen from his sofa on his farm in 2022. The obvious questions are; why was cash brought to buy the Buffalo’s?, why were the buffalos never collected?, why weren’t the police informed about the “theft”?, was the money for you or for the ANC? And many other questions about the “nefarious” manner in which the funds were recovered. I would expect the questioning to last for several days and it would be very interesting to hear what the President has to say.

Cyril, has now made an urgent application to court not to be quizzed by the impeachment committee until after his appeal (the action he has now begun) is heard and decided on.

Prince Mashele, the political commentator believes that if the impeachment committee calls him before December 2027 (when his term as leader of the ANC ends) he will resign from office because of all of the skeletons in his cupboard.

Mashele also believes that Cyril will end up in prison once he loses power. It happened to his predecessor, Jacob Zuma. And even Thabo Mbeki didn’t finish his full term as president before being given the boot by the ANC.

The EFF and the ATM Parties have immediately objected to this application by the President to delay the committee’s questioning of him, as have the committee chairman, Makashule Gana, a PA—Patriotic Alliance—MP (who completed the gruelling Comrades Marathon this past weekend in 10 hours and 35 minutes) and even the Speaker of Parliament, Thoko Didiza, who is an ANC member of Parliament. Interestingly, Didiza, an ANC MP, has broken ranks and is refusing the President his request. He is appealing.

Mashele also believes that SA is running on autopilot in a leadership vacuum. There is a widespread breakdown of law and order, foreigners are blamed for gangs causing problems, the police, from the chiefs down are involved in crime. And we learn daily from the hearings of the Madlanga Commission that drug cartels are running our ports. Mashele also believes the Ramaphosa projects himself as the strong man because of the weak state the country is in. 

This week the Minister of Finance, when quizzed on the Phala Phala affair responded that he is not allowed to answer whether there are, or were tax implications (paid or unpaid) on the “sale” because the Act does not permit him to divulge any information. So everything remains secret.

Stephen Grootes writing in Daily Maverick points out that Major-General Feroz Kahn, Deputy Head of police intelligence (SAPS) who is now appearing before the Madlanga Commission is in deep, deep trouble for………corruption. What is just as interesting is his relationship with Julius Malema and what Malema’s asked of him and what Malema received from the General. Julius, too, is in hot water and one wonders whether the Madlanga Commission will not very soon call him to give evidence. Malema has lots to answer for. Not only his relationship with Kahn but his relationship to the demise of VBS Bank, where he benefited so directly financially. I can’t wait for the next chapter of this story.

SA is lacking strong leadership and that became apparent this past week when it was reported that Ronald Lamola, our Foreign Affairs Minister, confirmed that Ramaphosa had ordered that Iran was NOT to take part in the naval exercises off the SA Coast, in which Russia and China were also invited and took part in January of this year. The exercise was called the “Will for Peace 2026” naval exercise. Notwithstanding the President’s instruction three Iranian vessels nevertheless took part in the exercise. The government subsequently launched an inquiry to determine whether the President’s instructions were deliberately ignored or simply misrepresented. 

Why has that report been kept a secret? 

The USA has imposed a 12.5% tariff on goods imported from SA. We are one of 60 countries so targeted.

This week in the press we have two diametrically opposite positions about the current SA.

1. We are being badly affected by the Middle East war & America’s attitude towards us and StatsSA is painting a grim picture of our economy struggling to grow. There is very little reason to believe that things will improve meaningfully anytime soon and our ability to expanding the economy looks decidedly unlikely.

2.  Gerrie Fourie’s, co-founder of Capitec Bank view;  “You can go to Switzerland, where everything works, but there are no opportunities,” the former Capitec CEO said. “The other option is to stay in South Africa, where nothing works, but there are plenty of opportunities. Choose where you want to go.”

Fourie also says that our high unemployment figure is a myth. He believes the real figure to be somewhere between 10%-15%. The reason he gives for the ‘inflated’ figure is that people receiving State grants don’t declare when the get jobs. 

According to our Finance  Minister, Enoch Godongwana Johannesburg’s visible decline is affecting the country’s growth.  The Minister had a long chat with the Mayor, Dada Morero of the ANC and told him NOT to pass the increase salary bill for workers which would cost the city billions. Joburg is bust. It doesn’t have the money so why promise a salary increases to staff? This cartoon from Siwela shows Joburg just as it is and again I ask “Why does Helen Zille want the job of Mayor?”

The tense illegal-foreigner situation is very much still with us. In the press this week we read that the government is looking for more than 1,000 buses to carry 7000 Zimbabweans back to their home country. They are all illegal and are  currently living in Sherwood township which is in Durban, but want to go back home. Then the  Malawian government is asking for donations to help bring back the 10,000 Malawians also wanting to leave Durban. They are threatened and in distress and want to leave.   Yesterday Ramaphosa, speaking at a Youth Day (Soweto day uprising 50 years ago) event,  promised that security forces will ensure that there is no instability in the country on the 30th of this month. I’m not so sure.
 

SA spends R11.7 million per day on housing foreigners in our jails. The Dept of Foreign Affairs wants all foreigners, particularly offenders, deported.

This is Siwela’s take on the local news situation from The Citizen:

I had a lovely coffee catch-up with Miriam this week and fortuitously Hendrik walked passed the coffee shop and saw us both so he joined his old pals for a chat. Lovely!
 

The 99th Comrades Marathon, this past weekend, was the up-run (85.77 kl) from Durban to Pietermaritzburg (where the cut off time is 12 hours) saw two SAns break the record for the race, which was contested by more than 20,000 runners —mad men & women. George Kusche and Gerda Steyn each won more than R2.3 million for coming first, and achieving winning in record time and being the first SAn over the line. Kusche’s time was 5 hours 15 min 56 sec.

As always,

Gerald