The Weekend View

Newly crowned Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane will represent South Africa in the Miss Universe pageant in Israel despite backlash from civil society groups. Calls are mounting for the beauty to pull out of the event because it is occurring in a country that has been accused of apartheid-like human rights crimes against the Palestinian people.

A number of countries in the continent are opting to reserve certain jobs and businesses for the locals. One of the most protectionist countries in the region used to be Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe had a 51% local ownership for all businesses. However, many Zimbabweans feels that the poor perfoming economy of their country is because of the protectionist policies. Meanwhile, South Africa is following suite...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has paid tribute to the last apartheid era President, F.W De Klerk - hailing him for his contribution to South Africa's transition into a democratic state. De Klerk died of cancer at his Fresnaye home, in Cape Town yesterday morning. He was 85. Ramaphosa was speaking outside Parliament after Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana's mid term budget speech. He has sent condolen...

You have to have long-term and quick and short-term solutions at the same time". That was one of the key takeaways in a discussion with an international energy policy advisor on the current power crisis gripping the country. Ignacio Fernandez is a senior advisor at the primary electricity supply company in south California - the most populous state in the United States and by itself, the world's f...

Electricity blackouts not only lead to frustration due to the unavailability of power, but many are forced to spend thousands to repair damaged electrical appliances or buy new ones.  And if the appliances are not insured this could mean being without a flat-screen TV, computer, microwave, or fridge while trying to save some money.  Johannesburg's City Power says last year's stage 6 load...

City of Johannesburg's City Power has threatened legal action if Eskom did not heed its call to exempt Joburg residents from the lower stages of loadshedding. The City had written a letter to Eskom to notify it of the added capacity and thus requesting exemption from loadshedding. The municipality had recently secured additional power supply capacity of 220MW from the privately-owned Kelvin power...

Eswatini's main political opposition has generally welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa's meeting with King Mswati in the small Kingdom this week, in which they agreed on arrangements for a national dialogue to negotiate a way out of the country's political impasse. Ramaphosa met with King Mswati in his capacity as the chair of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) organ on politics, def...

Political Parties have started negotiations to form coalition partnerships. Some parties will likely be forced to swallow their pride and work with their opponents. But others have made it clear that they will not compromise their principles to form a marriage of convenience to govern in local government.

One South Africa Movement Leader Mmusi Maimane has rejected Parliament's claims that OSA accused the national legislature of being in contempt of court. This comes after the Constitutional Court  gave Parliament 24 months to correct the defect in the Electoral Act. The "New Nation Movement NPC" and others who support Independent Candidates, -  successfully challenged the constitutionalit...

Some independent candidates in KwaZulu-Natal say they are being threatened by members from the larger political parties in their areas. Over 3-hundred candidates will be contesting the November 1st election as independents, the most in any election.

Its all systems go for the country's sixth Local Government Elections on tomorrow Novermber 1st 2021. These elections are reported to be the most contested with the highest number of ward candidates. Between the logistical challenges of keeping the electorate safe during the Covid-19 pandemic and the dissatisfaction with politicians in general, a significant disruption to the balance of power in a...

An ANC candidate councillor in Tshwane Tshepo Malefane is in hiding following the murder of two residents and a local businessman. They were all members of the ANC's local branch in Soshanguve north of Pretoria. One of the deceased was his uncle, 42 year old Khehla Malefane

The Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, has called on all political parties to adhere to the Covid-19 level one restrictions this weekend as political parties make their final push ahead of the November first municipal elections. Phaahla says the infection rate is stable with a positivity rate of less than two percent. New cases declined by 22% over the last seven days, hospitalisations by 14.5% and...

Johannesburg residents continued to bare the brunt despite the promise that they will be exempted from the black outs since the City managed to secure extra electricity from Independent Power Producers. When that happened Joburg's City Power released a statement rejecting the latest round of load shedding. Saying the 220 megawatts secured from kelvin power station was enough to keep joburg off the...

The South African Human Rights Commission has called on the national government to take over the running of Water and Sanitation Department at the City of Tshwane.in Recommendations from its recent report on the water situation in Hammanskraal, the commission also called for the previous and current management at the City of Tshwane, to be held accountable for the water crisis. The SAHRC found tha...

Another one of our weekly local government election debates with different political parties.

Eswatini Pro democracy groups have  made a call to SADC to send  peace keeping mission in the tiny Kingdom. This come after the groups met with the delegation sent by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as chairperson of the SADC Organ on Defence, Politics and Security Cooperation. The groups believes that the talks with Troika is a sign to the right direction to bring peace in Esw...

The South African Paediatric Association has encouraged healthy dialogue between parents, guardians and children over the Covid19 vaccine. One dose of the Pfizer jab is  administered to children between the ages of 12 and 17. The Chairperson of the Paediatric Association, Professor Mignon McCulloch, has emphasized the importance of teenagers receiving the Covid19 vaccine - saying it decreases...

I was watching a newspiece just the other day of massive container ships locked in traffic jams across the globe as Supply chains around the world, disrupted by Covid are slowly getting back on their feet... Now we are heading into Black friday and the festive season.... With logistics companies bracing themselves for heavy demand in a climate where Covid has resulted in massive dislocations of th...

Political killings have become something of a norm in some parts of the country, mainly in Kwazulu-Natal during elections campaigning season. This year alone six people have reportedly been killed in politically related killings in the province. Meanwhile, Police Minister Bheki Cele says more police officers have been deployed to hotspots of political killings in the country. Cele was in Pietermar...

The Auditor General's report for 2019-2020 financial year…Shows that only 27 out of 278 municipalities in SA received a clean audit… It further shows… 26 billion rand in irregular expenditure…. What our AG also showed us is that…. Our municipalities by and large are still heavily dependent on Consultants… and that less than a quarter of municipalities can...

People with Disability say politicians use them to get votes whilst government use them as a front to meet disability employment quotas. They say they are continuously ill-treated and discriminated against when they go out to seek government services and assistance, including by law enforcement and health care workers. A newly established political party will be contesting the November 1st municip...

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has called on police to arrest those responsible for what appears to be politically motivated killings in the province. The call comes after a councillor candidate and a party member were killed in their vehicle after a door-to-door campaign in Cato Crest near Durban.  Friday night's incident was the second fatal attack ahead of the Local government elections.  L...

Government has strongly condemned the alleged hostage drama that occurred last night at a hotel in Irene, Pretoria. Defence Minister,  Thandi Modise, her deputy, Thabang Makwetla, as well as Minister in Presidency, Mondli Gungubele were allegedly held against their own will by former military veterans whilst having a meeting with them.  The hostage drama had to be defused by police

With load-shedding suspended since Thursday, Eskom says we are not out of the woods yet as a significant risks to the power system remains and load-shedding could again be implemented at short notice. The power utility says the recent loadshedding was due to some power units going offline due to breakdowns. However energy expects have criticised Eskom's poor maintenance planning with claims of sys...