Mmamokolo Kubayi ‘vindicated’ in deputy director general ruling:
The deputy director general was found to have acted unlawfully by going against the department and hiring nine staff members without the minister’s say so
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Survey finds Zuma still most popular politician in KZN :
President Cyril Ramaphosa may have to rely on his political foes in KwaZulu-Natal — including former president Jacob Zuma, who tried to privately prosecute him — if he wants to reclaim the province.
The ANC Youth League has already declared that as the KwaZulu-Natal heavyweight, Zuma must be roped in to ensure a decisive victory in the 2024 elections.
A recent poll by the Social Research Foundation (SRF) sampling 2 434 registered voters across KwaZulu-Natal demonstrated Zuma’s popularity in the province despite being cast into the wilderness by the ANC.
According to the poll, Zuma was favoured at 80% in the party while Ramaphosa was favoured at 54%.
The poll also found that Zuma was still popular among all races, polling at 63.1%, while Ramaphosa showed 31.6% popularity.
But Zuma was, at 75%, more popular among black people, than Ramaphosa at 31.6%. The president was better favoured by white people (33%), Indians (20%) and coloureds (29%).
The poll suggested that 46% of all races felt Zuma was treated unfairly by the ANC, the majority of those black people (53%). But 31.7% of those polled from all races believed that Zuma had been treated fairly by the governing party.
When asked whether the ANC’s treatment of Zuma has affected how they would vote for the ANC, 28.4% said they would no longer vote for the party while 36.2% said it would not make a difference.
The ANC is likely to focus its 2024 election machinery in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, where it stands to lose its majority to coalition governments.
According to the SRF’s research, the ANC will dip to 42% in the event of a 66% turnout. But this decreases to 39% on a voter turnout of 59% and reduces further to 38% if the turnout is 52%.
In the provincial ballot, the ANC is unlikely to reclaim its majority in KwaZulu-Natal with or without a high turnout of voters, the poll found. It suggested the ANC would lose its majority, receiving 40% with a 66% turnout and 41% with a low turnout of 49% of voters.
KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng account for the lion’s share of the ANC’s voters. In 2021, the ANC received 5.25 million votes, with more than two million of them coming from the two provinces. This translates to 37.7% of the ANC’s national vote.
In 2019, the ANC received a little over 10 million votes, of which 4.44 million came from Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the equivalent of 44.3% of the voter share.
According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa, Gauteng has the largest registered voter block, with 23.45%, while KwaZulu-Natal comes a close second at 20.79%. The Eastern Cape has the third-largest voter registration numbers (12.42%).
“If you do badly in those two provinces and, of course, traditionally badly in Western Cape, you’re really going to struggle to get over 50%,” political analyst Richard Calland previously told the Mail & Guardian.
“If the ANC can’t get its act together in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, if there’s a hung parliament in KwaZulu-Natal, what that does is it gives the IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] quite a bit of leverage in terms of negotiations.”
The IFP and Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal have signed a cooperation agreement regarding by-elections, which has seen them win crucial wards. Just last month, the IFP’s Sibusiso Ndunakazi won ward 13 in uMhlathuze local municipality, which covers Richards Bay and Empangeni, in a by-election in which the DA did not field a candidate and backed Ndunakazi instead. The ward was previously held by the ANC.
As reported by the M&G, the strategy has also paid off in eThekwini, Mthonjaneni and in other KwaZulu-Natal municipalities and has helped change the balance of power at local government level away from the previously dominant ANC.
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eThekwini’s R2 million picnic has ratepayers fuming:
Ratepayers in eThekwini have demanded a breakdown of the municipality’s spending of R8.6 million on a slew of public events, including two picnics and a hip-hop festival.
The events were proposed for sponsorship during a council meeting.
The eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement has launched a citywide boycott of payment of utility bills, including municipal property rates, water and electricity accounts and the movement’s representative, Asad Gafar, said residents had a right to know exactly how the money is being spent on the events, such as expenditure on food, entertainment and venue hire.
The ratepayers movement started its boycott of utility bill payments after it called a dispute regarding the municipality’s 2023-24 budget in June. It called for ratepayers to transfer the money they would have used to pay their accounts into a private trust account where it would be preserved until the dispute with the city had been resolved.
According to a recent council decision circular, the municipality’s executive committee recommended that authority be granted for the deputy city manager: community and emergency services to approve sponsorship and implement “programmes related to arts and culture, health and commemoration of national holidays” in the 2023-24 financial year.
This included programmes “aimed at addressing issues directly affecting communities including youth, senior citizens and the community at large”.
“The overall objective is to invest in the people of eThekwini; embrace cultural diversity; and investing in community; social; and sustaining the city’s natural resource base … The cluster through implementing these programmes ensures that existing infrastructure is used to benefit eThekwini citizens in terms of developing arts personnel, developing arts and sporting infrastructure where communities live and interact creatively to stimulate economic growth,” the council document said.
It said the programmes are aligned with the city’s Integrated Developmental Plan (IDP).
Listed among 10 highlighted events costing R8.6 million with estimated budgets were:
- The Youth Hip Hop Festival in partnership with Richie R Entertainment CC (R2 million);
- Doek on Fleek picnic (R500 000);
- Ubuso Wamaciko (R1 million);
- Gcwalisa Picnic in partnership with Indlamlenze Development Foundation and MGSM Solutions Pty Ltd (R2 million);
- Sebenza Women’s Awards (R1 million);
- 503 Youth Music Festival (R500 000) and the Durban Spin Festival in partnership with Omni Evolution Expo (R500 000),
- Mother of Golf days at Mount Edgecombe Country Club (R350 000); and
- Nomfundo Moh (R300 000) and Girl Child Boot Camp that will include experts from the health department, motivational speakers and pastors (R500 000).
But ratepayers have questioned why the city is spending millions on entertainment when the city’s water and sanitation infrastructure is collapsing. This has led to repeated water cuts caused by burst pipes and beach closures after high levels of E coli were detected in river and sea water.
“Firstly from our standpoint, [the R8.6 million spending on events] is totally unnecessary when the city is falling apart. R2 million is being spent on a picnic; we have a right to know exactly how it is being spent and they have a responsibility to let us ratepayers, and everyone know exactly what those costs are. They [the council] are living in a bubble,” Gafar said.
eThekwini did not respond to repeated requests for a breakdown of the budgets for the events and for details regarding to whom the contracts to organise the events were being awarded.
In an earlier statement, the municipality said it was investing a total of R10.9 million “in an array of community upliftment programmes by investing in growing the creative industry which suffered financial losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic”, and several additional health and national holiday programmes.
The municipality said the programmes will “promote different music genres and create an enabling environment for upcoming developing artists within the city”.
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said sponsoring the events was a major boost to the economy and that big cities around the world have adopted similar strategies.
The ratepayers movement is embroiled in a Durban high court battle with the municipality after it filed an application to force the city to reconnect the electricity of five residents who joined the citywide utility boycott. Judgment has been reserved.
Gafar said the city had, in recent weeks, continued disconnecting residents in terms of its credit control measures and the movement received “calls every day from about 10 people” who had been disconnected. He said ratepayers were hoping for a precedent setting judgment.
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