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Daily Maverick
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Lack of political chemistry between SA leaders spells big problems for the GNU
The spat over whether the DA is disobeying the President by refusing to join the National Dialogue is indicative of a major problem within SA's national coalition. There is no chemistry between the leaders of the DA and the ANC, which threatens to poison the entire arrangement. On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the DA's refusal to join the National Dialogue was the 'worst form of hypocrisy'. Others in the ANC have said that if DA leader John Steenhuisen refused to join the interministerial committee driving the process, it would be an act of defiance against the President. This shows that while the DA's announcement that it would not join the dialogue was initially viewed as a weak response to the sacking of the DA's deputy minister Andrew Whitfield, it has hit home with Ramaphosa and the ANC. It is more proof that, after the coalition has been in office for more than a year, personal relationships between the leaders of its two main parties have not improved. Both the ANC and the DA can point to incidents for which they can blame the other. The DA could say it started when Ramaphosa signed controversial Acts, including the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act and the Expropriation Act, into law. They can claim this was deliberately provocative, designed to weaken them. The ANC can argue that the DA's ministers have defied or contradicted policies adopted by previous governments, such as Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi's decision to withdraw the SABC Bill. While the ANC can argue that the DA should never have said it would vote against the Budget, the DA can respond that the ANC should have consulted with it on the two percentage point VAT increase beforehand. Within this are incidents that appear to be deliberately disrespectful. Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube would have been expected to attend the signing ceremony of the Bela Bill. However, politically, this was impossible as she had promised her DA constituency that she would oppose the Bill. ANC supporters might well feel she was wrong not to attend the ceremony; DA supporters will believe Ramaphosa deliberately put her in this awkward position. To go any further down the rabbit hole of who is to blame for what will solve nothing. Lack of trust What is clear is that there is a complete lack of trust between the two parties — and, without trust, it may be impossible for them to agree on anything. The importance of a personal relationship can be underestimated in difficult political times. An authoritative account of South Africa's negotiations towards democracy during the 1990s focused on an incident that helped engender trust between the ANC's chief negotiator, Ramaphosa, and the apartheid government's negotiator, Roelf Meyer: when a fishhook got caught in Meyer's hand, he asked Ramaphosa to remove it. At the time, all of those involved in the negotiations had a huge incentive to engender trust. All sides claimed to want a democratic solution and to avoid violence. Also, most of those involved knew very little about each other. When the process started, many of them had never met. Even then, there were angry words between Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, and moments of great tension. The situation now is very different. It is not just that the politicians know one another; it's that they all have long histories of shouting and screaming at each other. The ANC was in power for so long by itself, and the DA in opposition for so many years, that it is easy for members of both parties to fall back on what they know. It can almost seem as if their leaders are most comfortable when fighting each other. Another factor is that there was virtually no preparation for the leaders before they had to work together. Before the election, when the DA was trying to form the Moonshot Pact — a group of parties that could, together, beat the ANC — leaders understood how much work had to be done beforehand. Workshops The founder of the Democracy Works Foundation, Professor William Gumede, ended up running workshops between the leaders of the parties involved in that pact, trying to engender trust between them. There was none of that in this national coalition government. Another factor is the sheer social distance between the leaders of the parties in the coalition. They have grown up in such different circumstances that it may be difficult for them to understand each other. This might seem strange when there is plenty of evidence that millions of South Africans from very different communities interact productively every hour of every day. But in our politics, the more a leader can attack other groups, the more they are rewarded. While the ANC and the DA are in SA's political centre, their leaders have very strong views on issues, which makes it harder for them to work together. And it should not be forgotten just how tough our society is, how raw the disputes are. When the PAC recently brokered a meeting between the ANC and Afrikaner groups (in another indication of how interesting and complex our society is), it described the discussions as having 'blood on the floor, blood on the wall'. This is because of how far apart these groups are, and how their leaders have to manage difficult dynamics. Of course, one hopes that our leaders can rise above all of this.
Daily Maverick
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
SABC Bill withdrawal crisis and South Africa's public broadcasting future
The six months of silence since Communications Minister Solly Malatsi withdrew the SABC Bill is unacceptable. The Speaker must urgently gazette that withdrawal, in line with the rules of the National Assembly. Silence is killing the SABC. For years, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has weathered waves of political noise, controversy, and intense public scrutiny — the kind of attention that once threatened its survival. But today, it is not the noise, but the silence that endangers its future. On 10 November 2024, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi withdrew the SABC Bill in terms of Rule 334 of the National Assembly Rules, following sustained pressure from civil society organisations, including the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS), and various broadcasters. In line with Rule 277(3), the Speaker of the National Assembly was required to formally gazette this withdrawal. Six months later, this has yet to happen. Instead, the process has evolved into political infighting. On 21 December 2024, the Parliamentary committee on communications and digital technologies issued a statement rejecting outright Minister Malatsi's decision, describing the withdrawal as both unilateral and unconstitutional. Deputy communications minister (also former minister), Mondli Gungubele vented on X, opposing the withdrawal, while civil society organisations, including SOS, supported the withdrawal of the flawed SABC Bill. On 8 February 2025, News24 reported that Deputy President Paul Mashatile had convened a meeting with the Speaker and Minister Malatsi to understand the reasons behind the withdrawal. However, by 2 March, TimesLIVE reported that the deputy president, in his role as leader of Government Business, was on the receiving end of a backlash from ANC ministers after he presented and supported Malatsi's rationale for withdrawing the Bill. To date, the Speaker has not gazetted this withdrawal, the Cabinet and the parliamentary committee have gone quiet, and the public has been left in the dark. This silence goes beyond mere procedural oversight – it is symptomatic of a severe lack of political will to protect and reform the public broadcaster. The SABC Bill In October 2023, former Minister Gungubele introduced the SABC Bill in Parliament. The Bill seeks to repeal the outdated Broadcasting Act 4 of 1999 and should ideally pave the way for the SABC to address its persistent financial woes, at which it dismally fails. Civil society organisations, including SOS, raised myriad concerns about the Bill's implications on media freedom and sustainability, warning it would erode the SABC's editorial independence, entrench political interference and delay much-needed financial reform. The SOS Coalition, in a joint submission with Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF), highlighted the following concerning flaws: Policy vacuum: The Bill is being introduced in the absence of pre-requisite policy, the Audio and Audio-Visual Media Services, and online content safety; Policy U-turn: It proposes the establishment of a commercial board when it is clearly stated in the first iteration of the Audio and Audio-Visual policy that 'the idea of the commercial division cross-subsidising the public division has been a failure from inception'; Retrogressive: The Bill proposes that the group chief executive officer, a business-oriented executive who lacks journalistic experience, be the editor-in-chief, while overlooking the head of news, who has the appropriate journalistic background and is involved in daily editorial matters; No funding model: The Bill promises that the minister will develop a funding model framework, but only in three years, and not a funding model, while the SABC's financial challenges worsen; and Ministerial powers: The minister is granted powers that are contrary to prominent court judgments that specifically require protection of the independence of the public broadcaster from ministerial interference. One case in particular is the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition and Others v South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC Limited and Others; SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition and Others v South African Broadcasting Corporation SOC Limited and Others (81056/14) [2017] ZA. In the Bill, the minister has powers to interfere with processes at the SABC and appoint board members of the commercial board, the interim board, and extend the board's term after the end of the second term by six months or until a new board is appointed. These concerns justify the withdrawal by Minister Malatsi, who agrees that the Bill is 'totally flawed'. The withdrawal of the Bill was within Minister Malatsi's purview, and he followed due process. The Cabinet has no formal role in this process and its subsequent involvement has caused further delays. Following the meeting between the deputy president, the Speaker, and the minister, and in particular the endorsement of Minister Malatsi's withdrawal by the deputy president, it remains unclear why Cabinet has not yet directed the Speaker to gazette the Bill. The sooner the withdrawal is formally gazetted, the sooner the department can begin the necessary consultations and revisions to address the flaws in the Bill. The continued silence is unacceptable. The Speaker must urgently gazette the Bill's withdrawal, in line with the rules of the National Assembly. Similarly, Cabinet and political parties must demonstrate the political will to support meaningful reform of the SABC rather than delay this reform through political infighting. The public broadcaster is a cornerstone of our democracy and provides millions of South Africans with critical information to make informed decisions about their lives – it needs to be safeguarded and supported to fulfil its public mandate. DM
Daily Maverick
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
South Africa's coalition Cabinet — the more things change…
While much has changed within our Cabinet because of the introduction of other parties, much remains the same. When it first became clear that a national coalition was being formed around the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA), it was already obvious that it would be incredibly diverse. This has led to a Cabinet in which it can sometimes appear that ministers are following different agendas. And the person at the centre of it all, President Cyril Ramaphosa, appears to be unable to instil discipline or ensure competence. Even now, a full year after the ministers were sworn in, the diversity of our Cabinet can be breathtaking. It is not just that two parties that have competed against each other so personally for so long are working together. It is also because the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the Freedom Front Plus, along with the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), appear to be rubbing along together fairly well. It is almost a part of our South Africanness that, for the moment at least, our politicians generally have warm personal relations, despite the very real differences in the constituencies they represent. When Ramaphosa visited flood-affected communities in the Eastern Cape last week, his delegation included ministers from the IFP and the DA, and it was clear they were being included in the same way ANC ministers were. It was somehow typically South African. Everyone has a chance to do their thing. Cooperation It was perhaps this element of our society that might have led to hopes that perhaps, despite their ideological differences, members of the Cabinet would all work together to move in the same direction. There are some areas in which this has happened. For example, there have been virtually no leaks from Cabinet meetings, even though some parties would stand to gain from doing this. Some have indeed given an account of what happened during the most tense moment of this coalition, the argument over the Budget, but even so, very few details have emerged in the public domain. Also, considering that there are many departments with a minister from one party and a deputy or deputies from another, instances of open conflict have been rare. Of course, there are some. Particularly in the two situations where the current minister is from the DA, while the deputy minister is the previous ANC minister. Both in the Communications Ministry and in Public Works and Infrastructure, there have been brief public spats involving the DA's Solly Malatsi and the ANC's Mondli Gungubele (over Malatsi's withdrawal of the SABC Bill) and the DA's Dean Macpherson and the ANC's Sihle Zikalala over several issues (including the Expropriation Bill and how the department has been run). But in some areas, which could be considered political flashpoints, there has been relative peace. In the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, for example, which administers BEE, it appears that the minister, the ANC's Parks Tau and one of the deputies, Andrew Whitfield, have avoided open conflict. This is no small achievement. Considering the previous habits of both the ANC and the DA, and the very real differences on issues like the National Health Insurance, the fact that there has been no public conflagration is in itself important. Cohesion That said, there is an apparent lack of cohesion within the Cabinet. This was on full display two weeks ago. While Malatsi was making it easier for a service owned by the world's richest man to come to South Africa, Mineral Resources and Petroleum Minister Gwede Mantashe was unveiling new proposals that place onerous new transformation conditions on the mining industry. In some cases, it appears that individual ministers, no matter which party they are from, are making important progress. But strange things still happen. Last year, Home Affairs Minister, the DA's Leon Schreiber, unveiled new regulations for digital nomads. The government had promised these changes for many years, but he did it within months of taking office. This led to speculation that either Schreiber was just more competent than the ANC or that his predecessor, the ANC's Aaron Motsoaledi, had refused to publish the changes. This forced Ramaphosa to issue a statement, confirming that Schreiber had his full support. Renegades But two other factors so far also stand out from the behaviour of this Cabinet. The first is that several members have not moderated their behaviour, despite now holding national office. PA leader Gayton McKenzie, for example, appears to be in continual campaign mode. While it may be significant for a political party leader to make prejudiced and xenophobic comments, it is much more significant when those words come from a Cabinet minister. Despite very strong criticism of his comments, the President has not taken action against him. Meanwhile, the country's best-known public masticator, Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane, has shown complete disrespect for Parliament and accountability. Worse, it appears her claim that the list of names of people she would appoint to chair the Setas came from an independent panel is a complete lie. If and when this is confirmed, Ramaphosa will be under pressure to remove her as she will have lied to Parliament. Coalition weakness All of this demonstrates a major weakness of the current arrangement. Ramaphosa cannot really take action against a minister who is not from the ANC. To do so could risk the entire coalition. This probably explains why he has not acted against McKenzie. And even if he were to speak to the PA about this, McKenzie is its leader. And even if the party agreed to his removal, it would probably replace him in the Cabinet with their deputy leader, Kenny Kunene. It would not be long before he made comments very similar to those made by McKenzie. Or, given Kunene's track record, something much worse. This reveals the second dynamic. Ramaphosa also appears unable to act against ANC ministers. If he can't act against ministers from other parties, can he act against those from his own? It may still be important, though, to remember that some of these dynamics are also the result of old ANC habits. For example, there was at least one example of a deputy minister contradicting a minister in public (when Godfrey Oliphant was the deputy minister of Mineral Resources, he publicly criticised Mosebenzi Zwane during the State Capture era). And of course, there are plenty of examples where a minister appeared impervious to presidential discipline. The most public example was Pravin Gordhan, who took on Jacob Zuma in the most public way in 2016 and 2017. Competence Another old ANC habit may well relate to the fact that several people in the Cabinet have been shown to lack competence. Nkabane's handling of the Seta debacle may be a good example. But Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni's statement that the government would 'smoke out' illegal miners during an incident in which at least 80 people died may be another. There is still no indication that Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni (formerly Ndabeni-Abrahams) has acted as a cheerleader for business. The Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, PAC leader Mzwanele Nyhontso, has been largely absent from debates and discussions about his portfolio, while there are other examples of ministers who appear to have made little progress in their portfolios. This suggests that while much has changed within our Cabinet because of the introduction of other parties, much remains the same. DM
Eyewitness News
15-05-2025
- Business
- Eyewitness News
SABC board confident it can survive without bailout but wants 'government guarantee'
JOHANNESBURG - The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board is confident that the public broadcaster can survive without another government bailout. But the struggling entity says it can't survive without a "government guarantee", which it requires when it must go out to the market to do business with other companies and institutions. The SABC has also called for the speedy finalisation of the SABC Bill to address the company's funding challenges by creating a new funding model. The board and management briefed Parliament's finance watchdog, SCOPA, on Wednesday about its audit outcomes and performance. Members of Parliament also questioned its financial sustainability and whether it will need another bailout, after receiving just more than R3 billion two years ago. Deputy chairperson, Nomvuyiso Batyi, said the SABC can survive without a bailout, but will need a guarantee from the government as the sole shareholder. READ: SABC requests broader concessions from Treasury to implement sections of PFMA "I need to contexualise that, yes, the SABC can survive without a bailout, however, this needs to be contexualised that any person who runs a company, a shareholder has a responsibility to plough back into that company." Group CEO Nomsa Chabeli said they are pushing for the passing of the SABC Bill because a new funding model has become urgent. "The current funding of the SABC is unsustainable. It would be remiss of me not to say that," said Chabeli. Chabeli said what the SABC is asking for is not another bailout, but to be properly funded to deliver on its public mandate.
