Latest news with #KgalemaMotlanthe
Eyewitness News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
National Dialogue will go ahead as planned, says Ramaphosa
JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) is calling for an urgent resolution to disputes surrounding the upcoming National Dialogue after several legacy foundations withdrew from the preparatory task team. The party said the concerns, ranging from transparency and financial oversight to the need for a truly citizen-led process, must be addressed to preserve the dialogue's integrity and credibility. It has urged the foundations, including those of former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, to reconsider their withdrawal, calling their experience "invaluable" to the success of the process. In a statement, the ANC said the National Dialogue must be rooted in inclusive participation, guided by the spirit of the constitution and liberation values. President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking in Vereeniging, also weighed in, insisting that the event would go ahead as planned. He said that funds had been released, a venue secured, and an operation centre was already functioning with thousands of invites sent to community leaders, business, labour and government representatives. The ruling party added that it was ready to support improvements to the dialogue framework, including proper financial governance, transparent decision-making and clear accountability structures. It called on all stakeholders, including government, to work with urgency and humility to rebuild public trust, saying the initiative must rise above administrative shortcomings and focus on the collective good.
Eyewitness News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
ANC calls for urgent resolution to disputes surrounding the upcoming National Dialogue
JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) is calling for an urgent resolution to disputes surrounding the upcoming National Dialogue after several legacy foundations withdrew from the preparatory task team. The party said the concerns, ranging from transparency and financial oversight to the need for a truly citizen-led process, must be addressed to preserve the dialogue's integrity and credibility. READ: National Dialogue to go ahead despite withdrawal of legacy foundations It has urged the foundations, including those of former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, to reconsider their withdrawal, calling their experience 'invaluable' to the success of the process. In a statement, the ANC said the national dialogue must be rooted in inclusive participation, guided by the spirit of the constitution and liberation values. President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking in Vereeniging also weighed in, insisting the event will go ahead as planned. He said funds have been released, a venue secured and an operation centre is already functioning with thousands of invites sent to community leaders, business, labour and government representatives. The ruling party added it was ready to support improvements to the dialogue framework — including proper financial governance, transparent decision-making and clear accountability structures. It called on all stakeholders, including government, to work with urgency and humility to rebuild public trust, saying the initiative must rise above administrative shortcomings and focus on the collective good.
IOL News
15-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Joburg Property Company to reassess R2-a-year leases amid community concerns
The Johannesburg Property Company has denied claims that the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens overlooking the Emmarentia Dam are for sale. Image: Supplied The Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) could soon be relooking leases to some of the City of Joburg's iconic recreational facilities, including one paying rent as little as R2 a year. Petitions by angry residents across the municipality are being shared in a bid to raise awareness and stop the potential sale of parts of Marks Park, Wanderers Stadium, Ruimsig Stadium, Killarney Country Club, and Pirates Club in Greenside. Former president Kgalema Motlanthe and his wife Gugu at the Killarney Country Club. The City of Johannesburg-owned facility hosts a number of high-end events. Image: Bhekikhaya Mabaso / Independent Newspapers Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ JPC commercial and city-focused interventions general manager, Sizeka Tshabalala, said there was a misconception that Marks Park and Killarney Country Club would be sold to develop low-cost housing. She said the JPC was very concerned that the communities were also under misconception that the entity also wanted to sell the Westpark Cemetery, Johannesburg Botanical Gardens, and the Emmarentia Dam. 'There is no truth in all those allegations,' insisted Tshabalala. According to the JPC, what the city intends to do was review some of the leases, which are as old as 30 years. Tshabalala made the example of the Killarney Country Club (KCC), which she said only paid R2 as rental income to the city. She said from another popular facility, Marks Park, the city receives R49 per annum and also makes contributions. 'We are looking at terms of the agreements; you can see that doesn't make any business sense. It is incumbent on us as the JPC to ensure that we look and revise leases on these properties,' Tshabalala explained. She said leases under review were those not in line with the JPC's current business model. The JPC has identified the properties, submitted reports, and are now with different council committees. Tshabalala promised that the JPC would engage communities once council approval is received and advise whether the properties must be leased or further redeveloped, which looks at their usage. She said certain portions of Marks Park are underutilised and that the KCC has potential for other uses that would supplement its golf course usage. 'We are not imposing what needs to be developed on these properties,' stated Tshabalala, adding that nobody will be left uninformed about the JPC's processes. In addition, she said, the land adjacent to the Ruimsig Stadium was prone to illegal occupation. DA Johannesburg caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said the party was not aware of any properties for sale. 'There are JPC reports to be tabled in council for public participation. As soon as these are tabled in council, we shall be able to comment further,' she said. However, Kayser-Echeozonjoku also issued a warning: 'The public participation is to get public comment on lease or sale. If the properties are already for sale without council (approval), then it violates council process and the Municipal Finance Management Act.' GOOD Party City of Johannesburg councillor Matthew Cook said the outrage over plans to dispose of key portions of public land was being stirred up by certain political parties and is rooted in a 'Not In My Backyard' mentality that protects privilege and preserves exclusion. The GOOD Party supports the initiation of public participation processes on three major land disposal proposals brought before council – Erf 1 Arena in Ruimsig, the KCC estate, and Marks Park in Emmarentia. 'The KCC represents over 100 hectares of prime public land in one of Johannesburg's wealthiest suburbs. 'It has an estimated worth of a minimum of R50 million but was leased for just R2 a year, later increased to a still-shockingly-low R1,000 annually with 8% annual increases,' said Cook, adding that this was less than the cost of renting a backroom in Soweto for a single month. He said Marks Park is over 20-hectares of city-owned land, zoned for public open space and currently underutilised. 'This land is located in a historically privileged, well-located part of Johannesburg, close to transport, amenities and jobs, it is primed to become well-located, dignified, affordable, or social housing,' Cook proposed. He said the process must genuinely reflect the voices of those left behind, residents on the periphery still waiting for decent housing, youth dreaming of sports facilities, and communities seeking access to opportunities.
Daily Maverick
14-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Explainer: Ramaphosa making sunshine out of RDP and RET shadows
After four presidents (stop trying to make the Kgalema Motlanthe 'era' happen) and no fewer than six different plans to grow the economy, South Africa is still in bad shape… Let's look back at the path that got us here. After a week of being the weird guy at the braai/birthday party/coffee shop/shopping mall asking every person of sufficient age: 'What comes to mind when you hear the letters RDP?' it has come to light that a number of South Africans don't know that each presidential administration has been guided by an economic policy. And now that the ghosts of State Capture (Molefe arrest, SAPS rot) and Radical Economic Transformation (Julius Malema's plan to nationalise the Reserve Bank) have had their time haunting the 2025 news cycle, it seems like the perfect opportunity to unpack the economic path Cyril Ramaphosa has had to travel, and what may lie ahead. The reality is that South Africa's post-apartheid economic story isn't just about presidents making speeches about transformation – it's about distinct economic eras, each with their own policy frameworks, promises and ultimately, their own report cards written in stunted GDP growth rates and lamentable employment statistics. Starting from the negative An uncomfortable truth for many apartheid apologists is that the old regime did the country no favours. In 1994, the newly democratic South Africa inherited what was referred to as a 'technically bankrupt' economy. FW de Klerk's administration had been shielding R86.7-billion in foreign debt (about $14-billion at the time), an economy crippled by sanctions, and the worst 10-year growth performance since World War 2. More fundamentally, decades of exclusionary policies had created what would become known as the 'triple challenges' – poverty, inequality and unemployment. These weren't just statistics; they were the lived reality of millions of South Africans who had been systematically excluded from economic participation. And then it grew, courtesy of a fully funded pension scheme. When the freedom writing was indelibly on the wall, outgoing officials made sure their own pensions and golden handshakes were bulletproof, even if it meant loading up the country's credit card. According to UN research, in 1989, government debt sat at R68-billion – but by 1996, it had exploded to R308-billion. Debt repayments jumped from R12-billion a year to more than R30-billion, while the Government Employees Pension Fund assets fattened up from R31-billion to R136-billion. The great reconstruction project When Nelson Mandela walked free, the country was hungry for redress. His Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was a moral and social lifeline to jumpstart the inclusive economy. But by 1996, fiscal reality bit hard. Enter Gear (Growth, Employment, and Redistribution), a pivot towards macroeconomic orthodoxy that prioritised fiscal discipline, deficit reduction and trade liberalisation. RDP was never officially scrapped, but Gear was supposed to fund it through growth. Haters see it as a failure, but the RDP's delivery was genuinely impressive. More than 1.1 million low-cost houses were built by 2001, benefiting around five million people. Clean piped water reached nearly 4.9 million people by 2000. Rural electricity connections jumped from 12% to 42%, with 1.75 million homes connected. Around 500 new clinics were built. Gear delivered macroeconomic stability – the fiscal deficit was slashed to 2.2%, inflation brought down to 5.4%, and negative GDP growth was reversed. But despite Gear's consonant success, it failed spectacularly on its employment and redistribution vowels. The hoped-for private investment boom never materialised sufficiently. Growth was concentrated in the tertiary and financial sectors, not in labour-absorbing industries. Agricultural employment collapsed from 1.4 million to 637,000 between 1994 and 1998. The rise of the technocrat When Thabo Mbeki picked up the Gear baton of 'jobless growth', he articulated its structural flaws in a 'Two Economies' thesis. This notion, introduced in 2003, acknowledged that macroeconomic stability hadn't translated into widespread job creation. There was a 'first economy' (modern, skilled, global) and a 'second economy' (marginalised, informal, poverty-trapped). This analysis led to the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) in 2005 – a targeted, evidence-based policy aiming for 4.5% annual growth from 2005-2009, then 6% from 2010-2014, with the highfalutin goal of halving unemployment and poverty by 2014. And boy, did it make an impact. For the first time since 1994, economic growth seriously addressed unemployment, with the official joblessness rate falling from over 31% in 2003 to around 22% by late 2008. The AsgiSA period (2004-2007) saw the economy expand robustly, averaging more than 5% annual growth. Massive infrastructure investments were launched, including the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link and 2010 Fifa World Cup infrastructure. The country's fiscal health was further strengthened, with public debt significantly reduced. A crash felt around the world AsgiSA's momentum was brutally interrupted by a savage one-two combination of the 2008 global financial crisis and Mbeki's knockout-blow political recall by the ANC in September 2008. The era's darkest shadow was Mbeki's HIV/Aids denialism, which led to an estimated 330,000 preventable deaths – a devastating human cost that overshadowed economic achievements. Officially, the Jacob Zuma era promised a 'developmental state' through various policy frameworks. The New Growth Path (2010) aimed to create five million jobs by 2020. The National Development Plan (NDP) 2030, introduced in 2012, was a comprehensive long-term vision to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. By 2017, 'Radical Economic Transformation' (RET) was the rallying cry (alongside Zuma's obsession with being brought a machine gun), officially aimed at fundamental changes in economic ownership. In practice, RET became a synonym for wholesale looting of state-owned enterprises. Nine wasted years Okay, we felt it and it was here: the 2010 Fifa World Cup was successfully hosted (though much infrastructure planning occurred under Mbeki). We also gained free higher education for poor and working-class students in 2017, but, as we have come to find, without a concept of sustainable funding plans. This era represents the most catastrophic failure in South Africa's post-apartheid economic history. State Capture – the systematic repurposing of state institutions for private gain – is estimated to have reduced potential GDP growth by up to 4% per year. Key institutions were systematically weakened. SOEs such as Eskom and Transnet were crippled by corruption and mismanagement, leading to load shedding and logistics failures that continue to plague the economy. The country suffered multiple credit rating downgrades to 'junk' status. The NDP, widely lauded by economists, was never meaningfully implemented. Its tenets directly contradicted the political project of State Capture unfolding in real time. A work in constant progress To clarify: Ramaphosa's 'New Dawn' narrative is actually called the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP). Introduced in 2020 in the face of another global crisis (read: Covid), the focus was on high-impact priorities: job-creating infrastructure projects, energy security, industrialisation through localisation and structural reforms in network industries. While some progress has been made – Eskom reforms, increased private power generation, and the SRD Grant cushioning the worst of the pandemic – South Africa remains bogged down in crisis mode. Logistics failures and persistent energy woes drag on growth, which has averaged a dismal 0.7% over the past decade. The pandemic knocked GDP down by 6.2% in 2020, and unemployment soared to record highs: 32.7% overall, with youth unemployment topping 60%. Freight rail collapse continues to sabotage export competitiveness. On a macro scale, the country's economic trajectory over the past 30 years paints a sobering picture. Averaging only 1.2% annual growth since 1994, the country has chronically underperformed – trailing far behind upper middle-income peers, which grew nearly four times faster, and lower middle-income economies, which outpaced South Africa by a factor of 2.6. This persistent stagnation has resulted in a classic 'middle-income trap', with the nation stuck well short of its economic potential. Meanwhile, the country's industrial base has eroded: manufacturing's contribution to GDP has shrunk by 13% since 1994, and mining's share has fallen from 15.5% to just 8.1%. Perhaps most concerning, job creation has consistently failed to keep pace with a growing labour force. The employment absorption rate stands at just 56.3%, which means that out of 100 new entrants into the workforce, only 56 find employment. Three decades after democracy, South Africa's economic gains remain fragile and incomplete. The challenge, now more than ever, is to break out of stagnation and ignite truly inclusive growth. DM
News24
11-06-2025
- Politics
- News24
ANC tightens its rules on selection of local government leaders
The ANC is implementing stricter selection processes for party leadership positions in preparation for the 2026 local government elections. These measures aim to improve the party's image and enhance service delivery by appointing qualified leaders who can properly manage municipalities. The new rules reflect the ANC's effort to 'clean its membership' and ensure those in leadership positions are adequately qualified for their roles. The African National Congress (ANC) is implementing stricter selection processes for party leadership positions in preparation for the 2026 local government elections. Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has instructed provincial structures to begin selecting quality members with proper qualifications and without tainted histories. His views were supported by the head of the party's electoral committee, Kgalema Motlanthe, who emphasised educational qualifications. Motlanthe also highlighted the importance of considering women first in all positions. The party has given the provincial structure a strict task of selecting quality members with no criminal record or facing an internal disciplinary hearing. With the 2026 local government around the corner, Mbalula has called on the party structure to commence with the selection processes of the leadership, including the mayors. In a letter sent to provincial secretaries and ANC deployees dated 22 May, Mbalula informed them about the candidates' selection process deadline. According to Mbalula, all the selection processes should be done by the end of July 2026. He said this was to enable the party to be ready for the 2026 local government elections, which are expected to take place at the end of 2026. He instructed the provincial leadership and the party deployees to urgently establish the provincial list committees (PLCs). 'Kindly find attached the letter to all provincial secretaries and NEC deployees on the deadlines for the candidate selection process. This is for the establishment of the PLCs as a matter of urgency. The Elections Committee will be making follow-up on each province in this regard,' read Mbalula's letter. Insiders say the party is tightening the rules of deploying qualified people in government who would help redeem its dignity and improve service delivery. The names that are going to be nominated are going to be subjected to rigorous vetting processes and thorough educational background checks. Source The source said strict rules aim to change the image of the party, which had been appointing people who cannot read or interpret the financial report. 'We have a lot of problems in municipalities because many leaders are failing the communities as a result of not understanding simple things,' said the source. Mbalula's letter was also sent to the party's electoral committee led by the party's former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe. Motlanthe requested the provincial secretaries to submit the names of the recommended members of the provincial list committee, which shall manage and coordinate the 2026 local government elections candidates' selection process. The CVs and proof of qualifications for the recommended members must also be submitted, and failure to do so shall result in disqualification. The Electoral Committee shall submit recommendations for the appointment of PLC members for approval by the NEC, and names without CVs and qualifications will not be included in the submission Motlanthe Motlanthe said the PLC members must be respected and disciplined members of the ANC and Alliance who may not stand for any elected positions in the ANC and shall not be available for nomination and selection as public representatives. 'All PLC members must have a tertiary qualification coupled with political and/or government experience. All PLC members must have no pending criminal charges or ongoing ANC disciplinary proceedings against them,' read Motlanthe's letter dated 22 May. Insiders say this is part of the ANC's cleaning its membership campaign. 'The reason for starting early is to enable the party to screen all the people who would be running the structures and selecting those who will be leading or be deployed in local government, like mayors, speakers and chief whips,' said the source. To ensure that the people running the selection process do not have an interest in the party-political positions, Motlanthe requested the PECs to nominate three senior ANC members who no longer occupy elected positions in the NEC or PEC or REC, with no direct personal interest in the outcome of the candidate selection process. He also said two of those nominated three individuals must be women. Each of the leagues' provincial executives may also nominate one list committee member who meets the above criteria. Each of the Alliance partners plus Sanco may nominate one list committee member who meets the above criteria. Motlanthe According to the new rules, provincial secretaries and electoral committee members are not eligible to occupy leadership positions at the national, provincial or regional levels in their organisations. 'The Provincial Secretary will provide administrative support for the PLC and will ensure that all organisational structures implement the processes and abide by the rules determined by the Executive Committee (EC). The Provincial Secretary or Convenor shall not sit on the PLC. A provincial staff member or volunteer must be appointed as list administrator to assist the PLC by the provincial secretary and approved by the EC,' said Motlanthe. Motlanthe said all the structures must assume that the elections would be held before the end of November; all the processes need to be concluded by the end of July 2026.
