Latest news with #AlphaRamushwana
Eyewitness News
2 days ago
- Business
- Eyewitness News
CoJ denies service delivery initiative driven by upcoming G20 Summit
Alpha Ramushwana 19 August 2025 | 10:53 G20 G20 Summit City of Johannesburg The Gauteng government, in partnership with the City of Joburg, Jozi My Jozi, and the Church of Scientology, led a clean-up initiative of the Ellis precinct, addressed safety concerns, and provided social services to vulnerable residents on 1 August 2025. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/EWN JOHANNESBURG - The City of Johannesburg has denied suggestions that its bid to improve service delivery is driven by the upcoming G20 Summit, which will take place in the metro. The city has launched what it terms an accelerated service delivery programme, aimed at improving cleanliness and maintenance across the city before November. The programme is targeting Sandton on Tuesday, where teams are repairing roads, streetlights, and other municipal services. City of Johannesburg Corporate and Shared Services MMC, Sthembiso Zungu, said these initiatives would continue beyond the G20 summit. READ: City of Johannesburg rolls out service delivery operation in Sandton ahead of G20 summit "This is not just for G20 but for future use as well. You can tell that something is being done. Traffic lights are working in the city now, and they haven't been working in years. The mayor said when he came in that he wanted to make the city what it used to be before. It's not easy, and he can't just turn it around in a few months, but with the support he gets from all of us, anything is possible."
Eyewitness News
14-08-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
National Dialogue risks failing before it begins
Charles Matseke 14 August 2025 | 10:59 National Dialogue (1) Government of national unity (GNU) The task team appointed to prepare for the National Dialogue held a media briefing in Johannesburg on Friday, 13 June 2025, to explain the planning process. Picture: Alpha Ramushwana/EWN South Africa is once again being summoned to a grand table of promises, where the rhetoric of renewal threatens to drown in the murky waters of political expediency. The much-anticipated National Dialogue, marketed as a panacea for our battered constitutional order, is set to cost the public purse an eye-watering R700 million. This, we are told, is the price of reconciliation, renewal, and recommitment to the ideals of our democracy. But the timing, design, and political choreography of this Dialogue suggest it may be less a cure than a costly diversion, a ceremonial gesture masquerading as reform. The preparatory convention, scheduled for 15 August 2025, mirrors the very uncertainty and dysfunction it is meant to confront. It is no accident that the Democratic Alliance, former President Thabo Mbeki, and several of his aligned forces have opted out, preferring the dignity of principled absence over the indignity of co-option into a clique. Their withdrawal is a political signal: a process that should belong to the people is in danger of becoming an elite ritual. The symmetry between this National Dialogue and the recent Summit of African Liberation Movements is telling. Both are framed as historic reckonings. Both promise to examine the legacy of political struggle and chart a renewed vision for governance. And both, if they fail to uphold citizen-centric values, face a crisis of purpose. While liberation movements gather inwardly, seeking renewal within their own political DNA, the National Dialogue must resist the gravitational pull of factionalism. Unless it is genuinely citizen-led, it risks becoming the very problem it claims to solve. Robert O. Paxton, in The Anatomy of Fascism , warns that corrupt political movements do not seize power through a single dramatic coup, but through incremental compromises, captured institutions, and the normalisation of bad faith politics. South Africa's political elite, consciously or not, seem intent on rehearsing this playbook, dressing up institutional decay in the language of 'engagement' and 'renewal.' The R700 million budget for this Dialogue is drawn from a state that already fails to deliver basic services. Roads crumble, hospitals run short of critical supplies, and schools remain unsafe, yet vast sums are allocated to talk about fixing precisely those failures. As with the commissions of inquiry before it, the state appears more comfortable funding conversations about problems than confronting the powerful interests that cause them. This is, as Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson would argue in Why Nations Fail , a classic symptom of extractive political institutions: structures that serve elites while draining public resources, eroding trust, and ultimately hastening national decline. It is now becoming clear that in South Africa, political authority lost its legitimacy when the state ceased to act in the collective interest. The gap between constitutional promise and lived reality is widening into a chasm. The idea of a National Dialogue is noble only if it embodies the public will and restores the moral core of governance. But when such processes are choreographed from above, excluding dissenting voices and over-representing party loyalists, they violate the very contract they claim to renew. Notably, the central authority's primary duty is to prevent societal collapse into a 'war of all against all.' That duty requires competence, fairness, and the protection of the commons. A Dialogue that is merely performative risks accelerating the breakdown of that authority. Citizens already fatigued by the unfulfilled promises of previous inquiries will view it as yet another elite exercise in self-preservation. 'Beware the one-party state' and 'Defend institutions.' South Africa is not yet an outright one-party state, but the dominance of the ANC, combined with its entrenched patronage networks, makes it dangerously close. If the Dialogue becomes another instrument of that dominance, it will weaken, not strengthen, the very institutions it claims to defend. The ANC's role here cannot be divorced from the recent Liberation Movements Summit, which despite being cloaked in the language of continental solidarity, was largely an exercise in political nostalgia. While some genuine conversations emerged about political integrity and youth engagement, much of it was inward-looking, more concerned with party survival than citizen empowerment. The National Dialogue now stands at a similar crossroads: it can either mirror the Summit's occasional flashes of principle, or it can sink into the same cycle of self-referential grandstanding. If the National Dialogue is to have any meaning, it must be grounded in this recognition. It must avoid the fate of the commissions that came before it, which were voluminous in their findings, toothless in their impact. The Dialogue must name and confront the political mafias that Timothy Snyder would identify as proto-authoritarian actors: those who capture institutions, intimidate dissent, and erode democratic norms from within. The urgency is plain. South Africa's youth, who comprise the majority of our population, have grown up in a democracy they were told was hard-won, yet which delivers little of the freedom it promised. To them, the Dialogue will be judged not by the eloquence of its opening speeches but by the tangible changes it produces. Inclusion must be more than a box-ticking exercise; it must be substantive, giving real voice to those outside elite political circles. If South Africa fails to mirror the best instincts of the Liberation Movements Summit, its calls, however imperfect, for integrity, inclusivity, and youth engagement, the Dialogue will be hollow. And hollow processes are dangerous: they breed cynicism, alienate citizens, and create the perfect vacuum for authoritarian tendencies to grow. Ultimately, this is not about R700 million alone. It is about political will, moral courage, and the humility to admit that trust in governance is not restored by stage-managed conversations. As Acemoglu and Robinson remind us, nations fail when leaders design institutions that perpetuate their own power instead of serving their citizens. The question, then, is not whether we can afford R700 million for a Dialogue. It is whether we can afford another performance of reform without the reality of change.
Eyewitness News
09-08-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Shivambu: Africa Mayibuye Movement will contest 2026 & 2029 elections
Alpha Ramushwana 9 August 2025 | 13:40 Floyd Shivambu Mayibuye Consultation Panel 2026 Municipal elections FILE: Former uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party member Floyd Shivambu during a media briefing on 27 June 2025. Picture: Sphamandla Dlamini/EWN JOHANNESBURG - Floyd Shivambu has confirmed that his Africa Mayibuye Movement will contest next year's local government elections. He made this announcement during a public consultation in Midrand on Saturday afternoon. ALSO READ: • Shivumbu says he's accepted his termination from MK Party, won't appeal decision • MK Party terminates Floyd Shivambu's membership Shivambu has been engaging South Africans across the country to gauge public opinion on whether he should form a political organisation. While the consultation process is still underway, Shivambu said that his movement would participate in next year's municipal polls regardless. "We will contest the local government elections in 2026 and we will contest the general elections in 2029 and we will win. However, that is not the only thing we must focus on. If we just become an electoral platform, we might as well not do it." [WATCH] Although the 'Mayibuye Consultation Process' is still ongoing, Floyd Shivambu has confirmed the movement will contest the 2026 local government elections. The consultation was launched to gauge public opinion on whether he should establish a political party. @ewnreporter — Alpha Ramushwana (@JusstAlpha) August 9, 2025
Eyewitness News
03-07-2025
- Eyewitness News
Xhakaza believes murder of City of Ekurhuleni auditor linked to his probe into missing R2bn
Alpha Ramushwana 3 July 2025 | 11:59 City of Ekurhuleni Doctor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza FILE: City of Ekurhuleni Mayor Doctor Xhakaza. Picture: Supplied/City of Ekurhuleni "It's one thing to prepare a charge sheet for suspended officials and once you submit it, something happens. We don't want to draw up linkages, but if you are involved in this type of work and you get shot, it can't be random thing," said Xhakaza. He added that it was difficult meeting the family without being able to divulge who they believe was responsible for Mafole's murder. "It's painful to stand before the family and not give them the names of those who are responsible," he said. Mafole's family is still struggling to come to terms with his violent death. However, they believe it was directly tied to his investigation into municipal corruption. A relative, Nomasonto Khasake, said Mafole had shared with them that he was making progress in uncovering serious corruption. "We knew Mpho was working on something big. He was getting close to exposing corruption in the municipality," she said. "The people who killed him knew what they were doing, they are clearly experts," she added. She also revealed that Mafole had been returning home from a work-related meeting when he was shot near his home in Kempton Park. "The people who killed him phoned him while he was driving. When he answered the phone, he was shot multiple times. His phone was left with bullet holes," she said. Mafole is survived by two teenage children - Gontse (14) and Kgaugelo (16). The siblings were overcome with emotion as their aunt recounted the horrifying details of their father's murder. Gontse broke down in tears, and a relative quickly stepped in to comfort her. While police are still investigating, the city is now calling for the Hawks to take over the case.
Eyewitness News
05-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
Employment Equity Amendment Act will worsen unemployment, says DA's Zille
Alpha Ramushwana 5 May 2025 | 12:50 Democratic Alliance (DA) Helen Zille Unemployment DA federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, addressed a media briefing in Johannesburg on 5 May 2025. Picture: @Our_DA/X JOHANNESBURG - The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes the Employment Equity Amendment Act will worsen unemployment instead of achieving its intended goal of promoting participation among disadvantaged party is taking its fight against the law to the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. It is seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional. While the DA opposes the entire act, this challenge specifically targets section 15(A) of the legislation. This section requires companies with more than 50 employees to meet numerical targets for the representation of black people, women, and people with disabilities. Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Monday, DA federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, said that the legislation would not help reduce unemployment. "It will continue to drive unemployment up, economic growth down and make far more people unemployed and marginalised in our economy than they already are. One thing I've learned in all my years in politics is that you never judge a bill by the intention of the government." She claimed that the DA was not against affirmative action or transformative policies. "And so, while we strongly support in the Democratic Alliance redress measures, they need to be fair, they need to be rational, they need to promote economic growth and they need to get people into jobs. That is the number one objective."
