EFF to address factionalism and electoral decline at December conference:

The party said it acknowledges the need for reform as it gears up for the 2026 local government elections

– The Mail & Guardian

Lottery spent R1.5million on ‘lawfare’ to try stop Patel’s anti-corruption battle:

The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) spent almost R1.5-million in two financial years to litigate against the minister responsible for the lottery when he attempted to stem the rampant corruption that had overwhelmed the organisation.

New Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (TIC) Parks Tau revealed the expenditure on litigation against his predecessor, Ebrahim Patel, in a response to written questions from Democratic Alliance MP Toby Chance.

Chance had asked for details of the NLC’s legal and consultants’ costs “relating directly or indirectly to the ministry, any media house or journalist and parliamentarian”.

The “lawfare” revealed in Tau’s response was incurred during the 2019/20 and 2021/22 financial years.

Tau listed several matters in which the NLC had litigated against Patel.

Patel told Parliament in 2022 how “lawfare” and a “fightback campaign” were launched against him when he tried to address NLC governance issues and hold its board and executive to account.

Patel said that “funds of the NLC meant for the most vulnerable communities and projects (old-age homes, drug rehab centres and centres for young children), were cynically and brazenly stolen by an organised syndicate of persons.”

“Syndicates responsible for looting public funds were able to rely on a network of professional firms that enabled the monies to be redirected, and these syndicates had sophisticated methods to cover up their actions and deflect attention,” he said.

“Courageous individuals, ranging from whistle-blowers to journalists and investigators, were essential to uncovering wrong-doing and showing the channels through which monies flowed between the NLC and recipients, by-passing the intended community beneficiaries.”

Patel listed nine legal actions as examples of the NLC’s strategy of costly and sustained litigation against him that was funded by public money.

He said, “When it was apparent that the department was serious about acting against corruption, various measures were put in place by third parties and individuals in the NLC to frustrate the department.”

These included:

• In March 2020, a large number of people were “bussed in at great expense” to protest outside his office against the disclosure of information about the identity of individual beneficiaries. (The NLC finally relented when the portfolio committee ordered that the details of its beneficiaries be disclosed.)
• Threats of legal action and letters from attorneys “which appeared to be orchestrated and required detailed responses to be formulated”.
• Cases launched at the High Court and in one matter, a petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
• Reports of arson, tampering with vehicles and action against whistle-blowers.
• Numerous “anonymous and slanderous attacks in the print and social media against an investigative journalist [this reporter] and the Ministry” and its “motives for seeking to investigate the allegations of corruption”.

Patel eventually prevailed. A new NLC board and commissioner were appointed and it appears that they have made a concerted effort to improve the institution’s governance.

Litigation against the minister

Litigation against Patel included an application by former NLC Commissioner Thabang Mampane to force him to appoint a new NLC board. Her application was launched just days after Patel had told Parliament that he had instructed his lawyers to end the terms of the three remaining members of the NLC’s board and soon after applications and nominations closed for new NLC board members.

In 2020 lawyers acting for the NLC wrote to Patel to demand that he hand over a dossier into alleged corruption involving several dodgy Lottery-funded projects that had been handed to the Hawks to investigate. The projects were linked to Pretoria lawyer Lesley Ramulifho and Phillemon Letwaba, the NLC’s former chief operating officer.

The Pretoria High Court had dismissed an application by the NLC early in 2022 to set aside the appointment two years earlier of independent investigators commissioned by Patel to probe corruption involving the NLC.

Patel named three organisations – United Civil Society in Action (UCSA), Zakheni Ma Afrika and African Liberty Movement – which had litigated against him.

Although the NLC was listed as one of the respondents in all these matters, all three organisations put forward arguments similar to those the NLC has used to claim that it would be illegal for details of grants to be made public.

UCSA also attempted to sue GroundUp but withdrew the matter and agreed to pay the news agency’s legal costs (which it has not done).

UCSA, headed up by Tebogo Sithathu, who was close to the NLC’s previous administration, sent a lawyer’s letter to Patel demanding that he not release details of organisations that had received Lottery grants.

GroundUp reported earlier this month how Sithathu is involved in a new fightback to dislodge the current NLC board and commissioner.

Zakheni Ma Afrika and the African Liberty Movement both unsuccessfully tried to stop the publication of details of grants and sued Patel. Zakheni received a total of R1.2-million in Lottery grants between 2020/21 and 2021/22.

In a 2021 response to a written parliamentary question by DA MP Mat Cuthbert about the cost of litigation, the NLC said it had spent R380,000 on the Zakheni and R370,000 on the African Liberty Movement matters. The litigation by UCSA was also mentioned in the response, but a figure for the NLC’s legal costs was not stated.

The same response revealed how the NLC had spent tens of millions of rands on lawyer’s fees since 2016.

GroundUp reported last week how the NLC has spent over R73-million on litigation and disciplinary inquiries involving past and current staff.

This article was first published by GroundUp.

– The Mail & Guardian

Ramaphosa asks South Africans to rekindle their ‘love’ for ANC:

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to give the ANC their “love back” to the party after it failed to retain its majority in the 29 May elections. 

Ramaphosa made the comment while delivering his speech to mark 100 days of the  government of national unity (GNU) to hundreds of ANC supporters who gathered outside Luthuli House on Monday. 

The event was attended by members of the ANC national executive committee and various provincial leaders, but its alliance partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP) was not in attendance.

The SACP snubbed the invitation because it believes a better solution would have been to form a coalition with uMkhonto weSizwe party and the Economic Freedom Fighters, rather than with the Democratic Alliance (DA). 

A number of ANC supporters carried placards bearing the message “Don’t kill Chris Hani again,” — an anti-GNU slogan first seen on a T-shirt worn by Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi during a briefing at Luthuli House, when the party announced that talks with the DA to form a coalition in Gauteng had collapsed. 

ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula, who has been at loggerheads with Lesufi over his comments about the unity government, drew loud cheers of “hoi hoi” when he introduced the Gatueng premier and called him to the podium.

In his address, Ramaphosa said the GNU was not a construction of Mbalula or himself, but was what the ANC national executive committee decided should be done.

He said some surveys show that the majority of South Africans have embraced both the notion and the actions of the unity government and believed that the parties in the coalition should all work together for the good of the country.

The Social Research Foundation’s study on how South Africans feel about the co-governance agreement found that nearly 60% of those who participated in the survey believed that the GNU would succeed. 

“The survey also tells us that a number of people are also warming up to the ANC and they are beginning to say we support this movement and comrades this is the moment we should increase the standing of the ANC,” Ramaphosa said.

“This is the moment we should use to ensure that the ANC continues to lead society. The people of South Africa still love the ANC, that is clear. They still have a deep love affair with the ANC. As members and leaders, we must go out to our people and say ‘give us the love back, we want the love back’.”

He said that for the ANC to regain its majority, it needed to strengthen its branches, regions and provinces.  

Ramaphosa said the people of South Africa had also sent a clear message about the state of the ANC and had instructed the movement to “give full meaning and effect to renewal and rebuilding”.  

“While many recognise that progress has been made, we have not gone far enough. They are not convinced that the advances we have made will not be reversed,” he said.

“As the ANC, we have acknowledged that the outcomes of the 2024 election were a strategic setback for our movement. It was the first time since the event of democracy that the ANC did not achieve an outright majority at national level.”

Because the party that received the most votes nationally and in seven provinces, it now had to show leadership and act in the best interests of the country and its people, Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa also said the ANC went into the unity government knowing full well that it has significant ideological and political differences with some of the parties and that there were bound to be tensions. 

He said from many decades of experience, the ANC had the strategic clarity and the political capacity to work alongside a range of forces in pursuit of progressive goals. 

Ultimately, the unity government should not be judged by the political orientation of the parties that constitute this administration, but by the effect the GNU has on the lives of poor and working class South Africans, he said.

Speaking to journalists before Ramaphosa’s speech, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said the GNU was working well and that the ANC’s interest was in the 10-party coalition government’s success.

“We believe that the 100 days have been very successful in our work. Since the setting up of the GNU, the country is stable, there’s a stable government and a government that is working. We are happy about that,” he said.

Mashatile said all those in the cabinet see themselves as a team rather than individuals from different political parties, and the president is the only commander-in-chief.

– The Mail & Guardian

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