“The DA has instructed its lawyers to continue to prepare for court action on both the process leading to the adoption of the Bela Bill, as well as its substance, on constitutional grounds,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said in response to the president’s announcement.

Ramaphosa signed the Bela Bill into law on Friday but said he will delay the implementation of two clauses — clauses 4 and 5 — for three months for negotiations with parties in the government of national unity (GNU) who have rejected its contents.

Ramaphosa’s move is an attempt to create some breathing space for both himself and the DA over the Bill, the signing of which was boycotted by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube.

On Thursday, Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen publicly allayed fears that tensions of the Bill could collapse the GNU ahead of the signing of the Bill, and the president’s opening of a window for negotiation in his speech at the signing indicates his intention to allow the  parties a chance to find each other over the next three months.

But Steenhuisen said in a statement responding to the president’s announcement that the DA would now go the legal route and have the Bill declared unconstitutional.

In his address at the signing, Ramaphosa said he had decided to use his prerogative as president to open a “window” for negotiations around the two clauses after being approached by a number of parties shortly before the signing.

Although he had not agreed to stop the signing, as they had requested, he had decided on the compromise to try to seek resolution to the impasse over the Bill.

“This will give the parties time to deliberate on these issues and make proposals on how the different views may be accommodated,” Ramaphosa said. 

“Should the parties not be able to agree on an approach, then we will proceed with the implementation of these parts of the Bill,” he said.

But Steenhuisen has rejected this, referring to it as a “threat”, and said the approach is “contrary to the spirit of the statement of intent that formed the foundation of the GNU, which requires the participating parties to reach “sufficient consensus on divisive issues”.

He further accused the ANC of “violating the constitutional rights of parents and governing bodies in functional schools”.

The Bela Bill suggests strengthening oversight of school governing bodies. 

Hours before the ceremony, Gwarube issued a statement saying she had written to Ramaphosa to notify him that she could not attend the ceremony until her concerns regarding the Bill were rectified.

Gwarube said she was always and remains opposed to the Bill in its current form and has requested that Ramaphosa to refer it back to parliament for reconsideration regarding section 79 of the Constitution.

This is despite her being the minister who is expected to ensure the Bill is implemented in schools.   

But she has also previously said she will adhere to her mandate as a minister and expeditiously implement “aspects” of the Bill should it be signed into law. 

“The Bill is the brainchild of the department that I lead and so if the president signs the Bill then we have to get on with the business of governing and implementing it,” Gwarube previously told the Mail & Guardian .

The Bill was tabled by former education minister Angie Motshekga and seeks to amend the South African Schools Act of 1996 and the Employment of Educators Act of 1998.

Clause 4 of the Bela Bill gives greater control over admissions policy to the department of education, rather than the school and also compels the school to admit and educate children who might not have the necessary documentation.

Clause 5 states that the school’s governing body must submit the language policy of a public school and any amendment thereof to the provincial head of department for approval.

Advocacy group Section 27 has hailed the clauses as “progressive changes to the Schools Act” and added that no learner should be denied the right to an education based on their citizenship status. 

Steenhuisen said that although the president had delayed the implementation date, he had also said the Bill would be implemented after three months if they failed to agree on the two clauses.

“This means that if there is no agreement, the ANC will proceed with implementing the clauses that empower provincial departments to override school governing bodies on the issue of the language policy of schools,” Steenhuisen said. “The DA rejects this threat by the president.”

Steenhuisen said they regarded this approach as contrary to the spirit of the statement of intent signed among the GNU partners, which required the parties to reach sufficient consensus on divisive issues.

The Bill also makes grade R compulsory. 

In addition it proposes measures to prevent the unnecessary disruption of schooling by protests or other causes and to criminalise such actions. And it will introduce penalties for parents who keep their children out of school for extended periods.

And the Bill addresses aspects of homeschooling, requiring parents to register their children with the department and specify the curriculum being used. It mandates independent assessments to monitor the children’s progress. 

It also offers an expansive definition of corporal punishment to include “any acts which seek to belittle, humiliate, threaten, induce fear or ridicule the dignity and person of a learner”.

Gordhan, who retired in May, had been scheduled to address the commemoration of an organisation which, as a young activist, he helped to revive as part of the resistance to the apartheid regime.

But, by the time the event was held, Gordhan, 75, was too sick to attend — or even address the commemoration virtually — and instead his message was delivered by longtime friend and fellow activist Ravi Pillay.

Gordhan made a call to the audience — most of them veterans of the fight for liberation and a younger generation of activists — for a “reset”, a return to the values which had sustained them during the struggle.

Rather than focusing entirely on the history of the NIC, Gordhan — typically — used the event to rally against state capture, to call on civil society to move away from self-interest and to ensure that the institutions of democracy “are made state capture proof”.

“We cannot again have a National Prosecuting Authority, certain arms of law enforcement and the public protector’s office recaptured for abuse by those whose only intent is to fill their own bank accounts,” Gordhan said. “Democracy will not survive on its own.”

It was to be Gordhan’s final political act of more than half a century of activism, which began when he joined the NIC in 1971 as a pharmacy student at the University of Durban-Westville.

Gordhan’s intellect, determination and organisational ability were to see him move quickly into the leadership of the NIC, which had been revived to mobilise the Indian community against apartheid.

By 1974 Gordhan was serving on the NIC’s executive council and was to play a key role in the setting up of student and civic structures in Durban — and in the rent and school boycotts which were to follow.

He was to be detained and banned several times for his activism during this period — and again in the 1980s — and was fired as an assistant pharmacist at the King Edward Hospital over his political activism.

A highly skilled backroom operator who shied away from the spotlight, Gordhan was at the centre of the network of student, civic, religious and cultural organisations that were to coalesce under the umbrella of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983.

Gordhan was also drawn into the ANC underground structures, while above ground leading the campaign to boycott the tricameral parliament in 1984 and being detained in terms of the Internal Security Act.

Gordhan was forced to go on the run in 1986 and remained underground until 1990, when he was again arrested for his participation in Operation Vula, a mission by the ANC’s military wing to infiltrate weapons into the country.

He was granted indemnity the next year and became part of the negotiation team at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) and was to become co-chairperson of the transitional executive council which oversaw the preparation for the first democratic elections.

Gordhan served as an MP during the first parliament and was elected as chair of chairs, an influential position he held until he left the National Assembly in 1998.

Gordhan was appointed as commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (Sars) in 1999, a role in which he excelled and which he held for a decade.

He is widely credited with the modernisation of South Africa’s revenue regime — e-filing was introduced under his tenure — and in upping its ability to add to the fiscus by cracking down on sectors which had traditionally evaded tax.

Gordhan was named finance minister in Jacob Zuma’s first cabinet in 2009. It marked the end of Trevor Manuel’s long tenure and was seen as an attempt by the new president to oblige the left who had helped him to power.

In one of his first press briefings as treasury chief, Gordhan was predictably asked whether he remained true to his early communist leanings.

“Are you wearing red socks?” is how the correspondent for The Times phrased the question.

The minister replied that he was at that point no longer a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and was driven by reality and not ideology.

He said he aligned himself with the SACP in the 1970s and explored Marxist methodology as a set of humane values and a way of achieving greater social justice. The treasury’s mission, he added, would be to “do our damnedest for the best interests of all our people”.

Gordhan became finance minister during the tail-end of the global financial crisis triggered by the United States subprime mortgage meltdown.

In his maiden budget, he prioritised infrastructure spending and eased exchange controls in an effort to stimulate investment in the South African economy which had entered its first recession in 17 years.

Growth has yet to recover to pre-2008 levels, and throughout his two terms in the portfolio, Gordhan was compelled to walk the line between stimulus and fiscal sustainability. 

His routine exhortations to his colleagues to “tighten our belts” and “cut the fat” would see the left accuse him, unjustly, of austerity. Gordhan lost the battle to contain the public wage bill and to cut support for mismanaged state-owned entities.  

In 2010, faced with the reality of load-shedding and rattled lenders, he was forced to extend loan guarantees of R350 billion to Eskom to allow it to secure funding for the construction of Kusile and Medupi.

The man who would, as Sars commissioner, personally remind captains of industry to pay their taxes, continued as minister to lecture them about the national interest.

In 2011, he appointed Lungisa Fuzile as director general of finance. Their partnership was marked by mutual respect and loyalty and, increasingly over time, resistance to contracts designed in the first instance to benefit the Gupta family. 

Zuma had told Gordhan early in his tenure that he wanted a nuclear power plant project to be awarded to Rosatom, drawing a warning from the minister that not following proper procurement processes would amount to risking a repeat of the arms deal scandal.

He was moved to the cooperative governance portfolio in 2014, when Zuma appointed his former deputy Nhlanhla Nene finance minister. Eighteen months later, Nene was fired for refusing to relent on the nuclear deal with Russia and replaced by Des van Rooyen, a hapless proxy for the Gupta family.

In the four days that followed, the rand fell by 5.4% and bankers held crisis talks with ANC heavyweights, among them Cyril Ramaphosa and treasurer general Zweli Mkhize, who prevailed on Zuma to bring Gordhan back as finance minister.

His second stint frequently met the criteria for constructive dismissal. 

The treasury had become a target for the architects of state capture, the natural progression of their campaign to dictate spending and to dismantle the controls put in place at Sars on Gordhan’s watch.

Tom Moyane was overseeing the undoing of the revenue service, with the tacit support of Zuma. Gordhan ordered the commissioner to halt a disastrous restructuring plan devised with Bain & Co and soon found himself harassed by the Hawks.

Just before his 2016 budget speech, they sent him a list of 27 questions relating to the allegations that he had unlawfully set up a covert intelligence unit at the revenue service. 

He wrote back that he would respond in due course, and accused the police “and those who instructed them” of intimidation and disregard for the economy. In October that year, Gordhan was charged with fraud for approving the early retirement and re-employment of deputy Sars commissioner Ivan Pillay. 

The charges were withdrawn but in April 2017, Zuma fired Gordhan in an infamous midnight cabinet reshuffle that would mark the beginning of the end of his grip on power.

The SACP rejected the reshuffle and Mkhize, Ramaphosa and Gwede Mantashe publicly expressed reservations about the manner in which competent ministers were removed. 

Gordhan returned to the backbenches and played an active role in a parliamentary inquiry into corruption at Eskom, driven by a lasting commitment to the public cause and barely concealed anger. 

He used his inside knowledge to grill board members about the genesis of ruinous coal contracts awarded to the Guptas and told then public enterprises minister Lynne Brown her denial of complicity was not plausible. 

“Join the dots,” became a refrain as he urged colleagues to see and stem the corruption.

When Ramaphosa named Gordhan minister of public enterprises in his first cabinet in 2018, he handed him the burden of righting Eskom, Transnet, SAA, Denel and other parastatals after years of state capture. 

Ironically and inevitably, it would be his least successful years in cabinet.

“There are people among us, and perhaps outside as well, who perhaps don’t want these SOEs to find themselves on the right track, because they would like to explore the possibility of state capture version two,” he warned in 2022.

The opponents of Ramaphosa’s renewal drive had continued to use the “rogue unit” conspiracy to hound the minister though retired judge Robert Nugent, who headed up a commission of inquiry into Sars, in 2018 concluded there was no evidence he had acted unlawfully. 

Former public protector Busisiwe Mkwebane ignored his findings and delivered a report recommending that Gorhan be disciplined for misleading parliament. In 2022, the constitutional court vindicated the minister when it denied her leave to appeal the overturning of the report on review and ordered her to pay his legal costs.

Gordhan’s last months in cabinet saw him refuting allegations that he improperly influenced the sale of SAA to the Takatso consortium. Pressed by parliament, he refused to disclose the details of the shareholder deal, insisting that it should be treated as confidential along with the shortlist of bidders. 

He camped on this position after announcing the cancellation of the deal. If the controversy, endlessly hyped by the Economic Freedom Fighters, confirmed anything, it was Gordhan’s attachment to the notion that the state should, as shareholder, retain an engaged role in public enterprises and by extension in shaping the economy.
His critics called it political meddling and correctly observed that Transnet and Eskom remained as troubled as ever and the unbundling of the latter had routinely stalled. After Gordhan, Ramaphosa shut the department founded in 1999 with the aim of restructuring public companies to become cornerstones of the economy. Gordhan stubbornly subscribed to that aspiration but the project had failed irredeemably by the time he was asked to salvage it.

Uruguayan tenderpreneur Gaston Savoi — who was charged along with former MECs Mike Mabuyakhulu and Peggy Nkonyeni and 20 others in 2010 — last week secured a sealed plea bargain agreement with the NPA to testify against “government officials” involved in the case.

Former KwaZulu-Natal treasury head Sipho Shabalala is already serving 15 years in jail over a R1  million bribe paid by Savoi’s Intaka Holdings in return for contracts to supply water purifiers and oxygen to the provincial government at inflated prices.

Shabalala secured a separation of trial for himself and his wife, Rosemary, a co-accused in the case, which rocked the ANC establishment in the province and has been clouded by claims of political interference over the past decade and a half.

Savoi allegedly used his contacts with the ANC and provincial government officials to supply the water purifiers and self-generating oxygen units to the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal health departments and to the department of traditional affairs and local government in KwaZulu-Natal in 2006 and 2007.

Savoi was able to influence the bid specifications through his contacts and was given the contract despite there being no need for the units in the provinces.

The initial indictment named Mabuyakhulu and Nkonyeni as being among the conspirators and a forensic report was presented to the court by PwC auditor Trevor White, who was in 2020 to give testimony about the matter to the Zondo commission’s inquiry into state capture.

After the initial arrests in 2010, the charges were withdrawn against Mabuyakhulu, Nkonyeni and four others in 2012 by the then provincial director of public prosecutions, Moipone Noko, under controversial circumstances that sparked an outcry from opposition parties.

Noko resigned from the NPA in 2021 after being told that the prosecution authority was preparing to act against her for decisions taken during the state capture period, including her handling of the Cato Manor hit squad debacle and matters involving associates of former president Jacob Zuma.

More than a decade after Noko withdrew the case against them, Nkonyeni and Mabuyakhulu appear set to be charged again when the remaining accused — who include former health department head Busi Nyembezi — appear in the Pietermaritzburg high court on 23  October.

In 2020, the Zondo commission heard several days of testimony from PwC’s White about how the group manipulated the tender process to ensure that its specifications favoured Intaka Holdings and ensure that the contract to service more than 50 provincial hospitals was awarded to Savoi’s company. It later recommended that charges be brought against all of those involved.

Neither the NPA nor the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) would comment on whether they were preparing to move against the two and whether the Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal cases would be consolidated into a single trial next month.

Savoi and fellow Uruguayan Fernando Praderi were charged for similar corruption in the Northern Cape with John Block, the former ANC chair, and others and pleaded guilty to six charges of corruption and four of fraud in the two provinces in the agreement with the NPA.

The prosecution authority has thrown a blanket of secrecy over the “sensitive” plea agreement, which was finalised in the Pietermaritzburg high court before KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Thoba Poyo-Dlwati last Friday.

The Witness, which had a journalist in court, reported that the court was told that Savoi had confessed to paying Nkonyeni and Linda Mkhwanazi R500  000 on two occasions as sweeteners for the provincial government buying R144  million in water purification plants and water purifiers.

The payments were made to a company associated with Mkhwanazi, who was Nkonyeni’s romantic partner.

The NPA has refused to make the contents of the plea agreement public, but it did confirm that Savoi had been given the deal in return for agreeing to “cooperate and assist the state in its further proceedings against other government officials”.

NPA spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara declined to comment on whether Mabuyakhulu and Nkonyeni — or any new persons of interest — would be added to the existing accused in the case when it goes back to the high court in Pietermaritzburg.

“The NPA believes that this guilty plea agreement is the most effective way of bringing this longstanding and serious matter to conclusion,” she said. 

“The sentences handed down are appropriate and the accused’s agreement to cooperate with the state will enhance further efforts to ensure accountability for related criminal acts linked to this case.”

Savoi has spent much of the past decade attempting to have the case against him set aside and approached the constitutional court in a failed attempt to have the Prevention of Organised Crime Act declared unconstitutional.

Savoi also made an application for a permanent stay of prosecution last year, in the process of which he was granted an order through which documents seized by the state could only be viewed in camera.

But the charges against him in the Northern Cape corruption case, over which Block has also been arrested, were transferred to the Pietermaritzburg high court for purposes of the plea bargain deal during a hearing last Thursday.

Last Friday, the plea bargain agreement was confirmed in front of Poyo-Dlwati in the high court.

Savoi was given a fine of R5  million or 10 years’ imprisonment and a further 10 years’ imprisonment, which has been suspended for five years. The court also made a confiscation order for R60  million in favour of the state and ordered Savoi to pay R15  million as a contribution to the costs arising from the curatorship in the asset forfeiture restraint application proceedings.

Nkonyeni, who was the KwaZulu-Natal finance MEC up until the May elections and who was health MEC when the Amigos scam took place, this week declined to comment.

“I don’t want to be reckless in responding to you now. I will have to appoint a lawyer,” she said.

Mabuyakhulu is a former ANC provincial treasurer who served as an MEC in a number of capacities. In 2021, he stepped aside as deputy provincial chairperson over corruption charges he faced at the time over a jazz festival that never took place. He was acquitted last year and is currently a leader of the presidential task team appointed to try to turn around the eThekwini municipality.

Mabuyakhulu did not respond to calls from the Mail & Guardian.

A source in the criminal justice sector who is not authorised to talk to the media said the contents of the plea agreement were being kept secret because they would be used as evidence against the other accused.

“You know that the Zondo commission recommended that all of the people who were involved in this matter should be charged. We are all waiting to see what happens now.” 

The source said the contents of the plea agreement were “very sensitive” and that Savoi appeared to have admitted guilt with regard to everything with which he had been charged in the original indictment issued by the NPA in 2010.

The source added that the case against Block and the other Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal cases were likely to continue to be tried separately and that the charges against Savoi had only been consolidated for purposes to his plea agreement.

Ramkisson-Kara said the NPA had used the plea and sentence agreement to bring the drawn-out matter to an end.

She said the case had been delayed numerous times because of the interlocutory applications brought by the accused over the years.

“The NPA considered many factors as part of its strategic case management approach, the most important being the accused agreeing to it. It also took into account the time lapse in concluding this matter and the fact that several key witnesses have since retired from their posts within the respective departments,’” said Ramkisson-Kara.

She referred queries about Mabuyakhulu and Nkonyeni being charged again to the Hawks.

Hawks spokesperson Colonel Simphiwe Mhlongo referred the M&G to the NPA for comment.

Ramaphosa used his question time in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and Steenhuisen used his address to the Cape Town press club to hammer home the message that Bela — and the National Health Insurance — did not pose an “existential threat” to their government.

Their parallel interventions came the morning after Ramaphosa convened a dinner for talks with leaders of parties involved in the GNU on Wednesday night to head off a crisis over the Bela Bill, which the DA has opposed since its inception.

Ramaphosa told the NCOP he did not see a threat to the future of the coalition.

“I don’t work on the basis that we are going to differ to a point of even parting ways. I have often worked on the basis of what Nelson Mandela taught us — that for every problem there is a solution,” he said.

“And so you try to find the solution. We confirmed this yesterday that we will find solutions to whatever may arise, because problems will arise and we should never kid ourselves and think that we will not have challenges.”

He said when this happens, the parties will settle the problem by talking it through until sufficient consensus is found.

“Will we take them to arbitration or mediation? No, we will engage among ourselves.”

Steenhuisen’s tone was more confrontational. 

He said he had met Ramaphosa to discuss the Bela Bill on Wednesday and that should the president go ahead with signing it, the DA would have to “consider all of our options on the way forward”.

“The same applies to the NHI. Our first instinct is to find solutions to the aspects of the NHI plan that will do lasting damage to South Africa, and our ability to deliver healthcare to all. If we can find those solutions collaboratively we would be delighted,” Steenhuisen said.

“If we can’t, we will pursue the interests of the South African people through every other legal means at our disposal.”

Steenhuisen reiterated the stance displayed by the presidency in a briefing by spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Wednesday that “conflict over policy in the GNU is not necessarily an existential threat to the government”.

“It is of critical importance to understand that conflict over policy in a multi-party government like the GNU is normal and indeed necessary in a democracy. It is not necessarily an existential threat to the government,” Steenhuisen said.

This did not mean that “the DA would never walk away under any circumstances” and that it would not be a part of a government which was not focused on creating jobs and growing the economy.

If the ANC implemented ruinous economic policy, or sought to compromise the Constitution or undermine the independence of institutions such as the South African Reserve Bank, it would be the DA’s “patriotic duty to leave the government” and join the opposition.

“The DA will not crash the government unless the government is crashing the economy or trashing the Constitution,” he said.

Steenhuisen said the DA accepted that “we cannot get everything our own way inside the government” with 22% of the vote and that the party’s long term and more recent supporters needed to do so too.

While it would be “undemocratic” for the DA to expect to dictate terms, so too would a situation in which “we get none of our priorities implemented”, which was something the party would not accept.

He said the DA held the balance of power because, without it, “the government does not have a majority in parliament” and would not “shy away from conflict when we are confronted with serious and lasting damage to our country or to the Constitution that underpins our democracy”.

“In a multi-party government leaders need to respect the constraints and imperatives of their partners,” he said. “Any leader that tries to ride roughshod over their partners will pay a price, because a time will come when the shoe is on the other foot, and they will need the understanding of those same partners in turn.”

Steenhuisen has warned that Ramaphosa would be violating the letter and the spirit of the statement of intent that formed the basis for parties’ coalition agreement if he signed the Bill.

Ramaphosa stressed that the statement of intent remained central to the coalition pact.

He said there would always be differences of view in the executive because these were normal in any relationship, and more so still in one between members of different political parties.

“Of course we are all from parties that have different manifestos, parties that adhere to different ideologies, but what unites us is the statement of intent.”

It also laid the foundation for forging consensus in the coalition, he said.

“Last night when we met we decided that in ensuring that we enhance good working relationships we will have what we call a processing team, a team that will process whatever needs to be addressed by the leaders of all the political parties.”

“That processing team will identify those issues that we need to discuss and, say, resolve from time to time.”

He acknowledged opposition to the NHI — both from political and business quarters —  saying Business Unity South Africa had sent him “a fairly long letter where they raise their objections, as have others”. 

“They have requested that I engage them, and I said to the minister: ‘We meet them.’ We are going to meet them and hear the concerns they have been raising over a long time.”

But he added that the NHI was provided for in legislation passed by parliament, which he signed in May, and suggested that discussions would revolve around how the scheme is implemented, not on whether it is done.

“This parliament passed the Act and in doing so it took into account the various inputs that had been made by multiplicity of people through the length and breadth of the country,” Ramaphosa said.

“There are people who still want to talk about the implementation of the NHI and I am that we talk about how this Act is going to be implemented and to hear the concerns that they have.”

He planned to have these discussions in the course of the next few weeks.
The DA had called the president’s decision to sign assent to the NHI Bill a fortnight before the elections a populist stunt.

In the 29 May general elections, the MK party received 26.36% of votes from the ward, but in Wednesday’s by-elections, this dropped significantly to 14.51% of the votes. The ANC further slumped from the 28.9% it received in May to 4.93% this week, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) more than doubled its support from 39.21% to 80.56%.

The Economic Freedom Fighters did not contest the ward, or any of the three other eThekwini wards in which by-elections were held on Wednesday.

A total of 23 by-elections took place in 14 municipalities IN Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Limpopo and North West.

In KwaZulu-Natal, nine by-elections were held IN nine municipalities, seven of these were as a result of resignations by councillors who have assumed seats in the provincial legislature. Two vacancies occurred because the incumbents died.

KwaZulu-Natal electoral officer Futhi Masinga said the voter turnout was “not great”, averaging 40%. The lowest turnout was in eThekwini metro, at just 19%.

The province’s highest turnout was in the Mooi Mpofana municipality (54%) and Ray Nkonyeni municipality (52%), where the MK party won the only ward it took this week.

The DA retained five seats in the province, the ANC two seats and the Inkatha Freedom party retained ward four in Nkandla.

Masinga said that there had been no problems reported to the Electoral Commission of South Africa by the parties, which had until 5pm last Friday to raise any issues that might have had a material effect on the outcome of the by-elections.

After the MK party’s surprise by-election victory in Photsaneng in North West two weeks ago, the ANC in Gauteng took no chances and brought out its top guns to campaign for the party in Soweto, Lenasia and Mogale City on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ANC won two of the three wards it contested in Gauteng, with the third being won by Al Jama-ah in Lenasia. 

ANC first deputy secretary general Nomvula Mokonyane campaigned for the party in Soweto and Mogale City on Tuesday, while the party sent its provincial and regional leaders for the final push for votes in ward 21 in Tladi-Moletsane on Wednesday.

Among the leaders sent to counter the MK threat were Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi, provincial secretary TK Nciza, Johannesburg regional leader Dada Morero and Johannesburg regional secretary Sasabone Manganyi.

On Tuesday night, the MK party’s national organiser, Floyd Shivambu, told supporters in eThekwini who were campaigning for the ward 33 by-election that the process of small parties deregistering and joining Jacob Zuma‘s party had begun. He said four parties had already done so, and more were set to follow.

“I can assure you that before the end of the year, we’re going to have many other political parties including some that even have seats in parliament that are going to fold into uMkhonto weSizwe so that we can form one united front of progressive forces,” Shivambu said.

“President Zuma says a simple thing — that the reason why we were under colonialism is because the settlers fought us as separate small groups. We were never united as black people. They fought us and defeated us as small groups, and then later on they combined all of us and said they were in charge of us.”

Shivambu said parties should not make a similar mistake by fighting in different corners when there was already a revolutionary progressive platform “which we must consolidate to fight for total emancipation, for total freedom, that is the struggle we are signing up for”.

Former Johannesburg speaker and former South African Rainbow Alliance (Sara) president Colleen Makhubele said she had dumped her party in favour of the MK party because of the response of voters to it.

Makhubele said many of the small parties that had contested the 29 May general elections were “saying the same thing” and it was now time for “consolidating” and for black parties to put aside their egos and come together.

“People have responded to what MK stands for. Our parties could not even get seats. Over 26 parties on a ballot paper are sitting at home now, the electorate rejected them. Even those who had millions of funding maybe even got one seat which will not have an impact anywhere,” she said.

Former Xivula president Bongani Baloyi, who also collapsed his party to join the MK party, said he had done so because he saw it an alternative to the ANC and that smaller parties could help build it into a “solid force”.

Baloyi said ego and contestation for positions would not be an issue because he and other leaders had voluntarily deregistered their parties and joined the MK party.

“I don’t see the issues of egos being there. When you work with people, you are bound to have differences with people, but I think here the cause resonates better with us and many leaders,” Baloyi said, adding that it was “unfair” to judge former critics of Zuma who have now joined his party.

“If four million million people saw the value in the MK party, we see the value as well,” he said.

During Baloyi’s introduction as an MK member in Soweto last week, some of the party members present raised concerns that people like him would be parachuted into senior positions, elbowing out those who had been mobilising for it during the elections. 

The party has recently sent former Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe and former Transnet head Lucky Montana, both of whom are named in the state capture report, as well as impeached judge president John Hlophe and former Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Mzwanele Manyi to represent it in parliament.

Baloyi said people should not be “disheartened” because the party needed to have broad appeal and to attract “as many talented individuals as possible because different people will play different roles”.

“The revolution needs people of different credentials and talents as we are approaching key stages and attracting those. It should be welcomed and celebrated,” he said. “There have to be warm bodies to assist and grow the party and structures of the party.”

In Soweto last week, Baloyi said he would decline any offer to go to parliament or the provincial legislature because he wanted to work on the ground. 

The MK party also contested a significant number of this week’s 23 by-elections around the country to replace councillors who had resigned to move to provincial legislatures.

The party won its first by-election outside KwaZulu-Natal two weeks ago when it took Photsaneng in North West, trouncing both the EFF and the ANC.

The ANC brought out its big guns in response in Soweto, ahead of the ward 21 contest there.

Among the leaders sent to counter the MK threat were Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi, provincial secretary TK Nciza, Johannesburg regional leader Dada Morero and Johannesburg regional secretary Sasabone Manganyi. 

The EFF, Patriotic Alliance, MK party and the ANC were all visible in the ward, placing gazebos outside the voting station.

“MK party is not the first organisation to want to collaborate with other parties and remove the ANC,” Nciza said.

He said the ANC knew where it had dropped the ball and was committed to regaining the ground it had lost.

Morero said the ANC was taking by-elections seriously and that leaders from all levels, including second deputy secretary general Nomvuala Mokonyane, had been deployed to campaign in the last week.

“We have taken a view that we must win these wards,” Morero said.

In addition to taking votes from the ANC, EFF and Inkatha Freedom Party at national, provincial and municipal level, the MK party has contested the latest round of student representative council (SRC) elections at institutions of higher learning.

But in Gauteng, North West, the Free State and Limpopo, the party’s entry into student politics had little effect on the EFF student command and the ANC-aligned South African Student Congress (Sasco), taking only one SRC seat at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT).

EFF student command president Sihle Lonzi said that although MK had made some progress, his party was “not worried” about its rise on campuses.

“They didn’t find expression in the University of Free State, University of Limpopo, North West University Mafikeng campus. They only found expression at TUT in Soshanguve particular and a few of the other campuses. For us now there is no scientific indicator that says we should be worried,” Lonzi said.

Lonzi said the MK student movement had come third after Sasco and the EFF at the Elangeni TVET college in KwaZulu-Natal and his party looked forward, with confidence, to the results from the Mangosuthu University of Technology, University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Zululand.

“We are not worried at all about the MK party in higher education. We still believe the student movement of the EFF still enjoys a very huge and life hegemony over the young people in South Africa,” Lonzi said.

Baloyi said the performance of the MK party student movement was going to “shock a lot of people” and the youth saw it as a credible alternative future of the country.

“When young people are joining it confirms all of this and that actually, uMkhonto weSizwe [party] is on the right path. We are hopeful that we are going to see more than what we are seeing now,” he said.

“Having experienced people like Floyd Shivambu leading mobilisation, coordination and structures of the party is going to yield the type of growth we are seeing. The 2026 election is going to be a further indication that uMkhonto weSizwe [party] is going to take government in 2029.”

The dinner comes amid tension over Ramaphosa’s stated intent to sign the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill into law on Friday. The Democratic Alliance has warned that proceeding to do so would put the future of the coalition at risk.

Presidential spokesman Vincent Magwenya said the timing of the gathering should not be read as a sign of trouble within the so-called government of national unity, but in the same breath dismissed threats to its survival as “disturbing”.

“The purpose of the dinner is to provide an opportunity for a review on the functioning of the GNU thus far and to discuss in detail the formulation of a dispute resolution mechanism,” Magwenya told journalists in Cape Town.

“This evening is an opportunity for all party leaders to provide their own assessments and give feedback to the president. Leaders will be able to raise any issues of concern.”

He said Ramaphosa was “satisfied” with the work of the coalition government.

“The president is also enthused with the level of dedication and commitment that has been demonstrated by members of his national executive, as well as the level of collaboration that ministers from different parties have applied in resolving challenges facing the government and the country.”

He said one example of this was the cooperation between DA leader and agriculture minister John Steenhuisen and international relations minister Ronald Lamola in favourably renegotiating South Africa’s agreement with China on agricultural trade last week.

Steenhuisen on Wednesday said if Ramaphosa were to assent to the basic education bill, he would be violating “both the letter and spirit” of the joint statement of intent that underpins the unity government.

“During the negotiations, the DA made it clear that the BELA Bill was unacceptable to us in its current form, because it has constitutional implications for the right to mother-tongue education, amongst other issues.”

He recalled that his party urged Ramaphosa to send the measure back to parliament for amendments that would cure what the DA considers unconstitutional provisions.

“Despite this, and in violation of the provisions of the statement of intent, the president seems intent on pushing ahead unilaterally. I have moved urgently to meet the president before Friday to reiterate our objections in the strongest terms.”

“If the president continues to ride rough-shod over these objections, he is endangering the future of the government of national unity, and destroying the good faith on which it was based.”

Steenhuisen said the ANC could no longer act unilaterally and he would convey to Ramaphosa “the destructive implications it holds for the future of the GNU” if he assented to the bill.

He added that the creation of a dispute resolution mechanism within the coalition was now an urgent priority.

Steenhuisen’s remarks are the first indication of serious acrimony within the new government since it came into office three months ago.

Magwyena said it was worth recalling that there were limited grounds on which the president could refer legislation back to parliament.

Section 79(1) of the Constitution stipulates that the president must either assent to and sign a bill passed by parliament, or should he have reservations about its constitutionality, refer it back to the national assembly for reconsideration.

The Constitutional Court has made clear that the president cannot refuse to sign a bill for political reasons, Magwenya said. 

“The only ground on which the president can refuse to sign the bill is constitutional reservations.”

It meant, he continued, that the president must apply his mind to submissions regarding the constitutionality of legislation and if he felt that these were not persuasive, proceed to assent to the bill in question.

“There is no provision in the Constitution for the president’s decision to be subject to negotiation or agreement with any other party or individual. The president remains firmly committed to engaging fully with parties in the government of national unity on this matter and any other matter of concern.”

He said threats regarding the stability of the government of national unity were not helpful.

“It is disturbing that whenever there is a dispute you will hear threats being made to the stability of the GNU,” he said.

“It is disturbing because such threats are not only directed to the president, they are directed also to the stability of the country. They are threats directed to South Africans. The GNU must remain stable, must remain united.”

The bill imposes penalties on parents who do not enrol their children in school and provides for the admission of undocumented children.

The DA’s objections revolve around the provisions on language policy, where the bill strengthens the department of basic education’s oversight over the decisions taken by school governing bodies.

Basic education minister Siwive Gwarube, a senior member of the DA, has described the draft law as a threat to the autonomy of schools.

In doing so, Ramaphosa would bear in mind the need for the “highest levels of integrity within the national executive”, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya told a routine media briefing in Cape Town. 

“The president appreciates the importance of the justice ministry in the leadership of the justice, security and crime prevention cluster and the successful functioning of the cluster,” Magwenya said.

“He will consider all the facts of the matter before making any determination.”

Simelane on Friday told the portfolio committee on justice she had given Ramaphosa a full account of her decision to borrow R575 000 from Gundo Wealth Solutions while she was the mayor of Polokwane.

The same company had solicited deposits of millions of rands from the Polokwane municipality on behalf of VBS, despite public finance rules barring municipalities from placing money with mutual banks.

The minister told MPs that she used the money to buy a coffee shop in Sandton as a source of income and employment for her extended family, and had repaid the loan in full, in three instalments from October 2020 to January 2021. 

She paid 50% interest, she said. This prompted incredulous questions as to why she had not only seen fit to take money from a company that was doing business with the municipality but charged unfavourable rates.

Simelane replied that the Polokwane municipality had not paid Gundo for serving as a middleman and that she had not been able to secure better terms from banks and financial service providers.

“I attempted a loan,” Simelane said. “The costs were as exorbitant as this cost. It was at that level,” she said, before adding that apart from First National Bank she also approached Old Mutual.

“It was not affordable for me at the time and I wanted the venture.”

She has since sold the coffee shop.

Simelane did not provide the portfolio committee with proof of the loan agreement and repayment but said she would consider doing so.

VBS collapsed in 2018 after its coffers were depleted by a fraudulent scheme in which money flowed from suspense accounts to bank officials and their family members. 

According to a leaked affidavit by Tshifhiwa Matodzi, the former board chair of the bank, local government officials were offered loans in return for persuading municipalities to deposit vast sums with the bank. He has been jailed for the theft of R1.9 billion.

Simelane has insisted that Polokwane — unlike other Limpopo municipalities — lost no money because she had ensured that all deposits were withdrawn.

The minister told MPs she saw no conflict of interest in the fact that in her present portfolio she has political oversight over the National Prosecuting Authority, which is pursuing charges against those implicated in the demise of the bank.

She briefly served as minister of cooperative governance after the May elections.

“The department of constitutional development and justice plays no role in the decision-making by the NPA on who to prosecute or not.”

Chili on Wednesday expanded on his reasons for dismissing that application in March, and said all Zuma’s grounds for pleading that Downer compromised his fair trial rights were without merit.

He set out his reasoning at the insistence of Zuma’s legal team, who argued that it was necessary to allow them to mount an appeal. The court had intended to give full reasons at the end of the trial, which the state said was the correct approach and would prevent further delay in the case that dates back to 2005.

Downer asked Chili to set down a date for hearing the application for leave to appeal this year still, but the judge said he would only be available from January next year.

The prosecutor said he was reiterating his plea that the court reserve the weeks from 14 April to 20 June, and 21 July to 19 September for trial, whatever the outcome of the planned application. 

“Those dates in April must remain and the trial must start, whatever the status of any appeal processes might be going forward, because no matter what your Lordship decides in January on the date which the court will insert.”

Downer said it was clear that if the application for leave to appeal were denied, Zuma would appeal to a higher court “in accordance with what we say is Stalingrad”.

“This cannot be allowed to continue,” he added.

“We will be ready for trial, the state witnesses will be briefed, the police will be available, the court will be available and my learned friends, certainly for accused number two [French arms maker Thales] have indicated that they will be available.”

Downer said Zuma’s chief counsel, Dali Mpofu, had also confirmed his availability.

“We must now make it clear that we cannot simply carry on moving the trial on to accommodate a long series of appeals which takes sometimes years, up to the SCA [supreme court of appeal] and the constitutional court,” Downer said. 

Advocate Nqabayethu Buthelezi, for Zuma, countered that it would be unfair to the court to reserve dates when Chili’s ruling is being appealed and that the process needs to run its full course.

“The appeal avenues that exist in as far as petitioning the SCA and further, make it unfeasible that we would sit here in good mind and good conscience and accept that we are going to start the trial as of April next year. That is not possible.”

Chili said he would consult the judge president of KwaZulu-Natal regarding available dates.

In his reasons for dismissing Zuma’s second tilt at dislodging Downer in the last three years, the judge referred to a ruling by the appellate court in which his attempt to institute a private, criminal prosecution against the veteran prosecutor was deemed a hopeless case and an egregious abuse of process.

The purported prosecution was one of the four pillars on which Zuma constructed his application for Downer’s removal. Like the other three, Chili said, it did not hold up.

Zuma’s lawyers had argued that Downer was disqualified by the fact that he faced charges, instituted by the accused himself, of breaching the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act by leaking his confidential medical records to the media.

But Chili said the high court, in a ruling by the initial trial judge, Piet Koen, held that none such happened. A full bench reached the same conclusion, and these findings were confirmed by the appellate. 

“It is important to note that every attempt to overturn Koen J’s judgment has been unsuccessful. Findings made in the removal and private prosecution judgments are binding on this court,” he stressed.

Therefore, Zuma’s further argument that it would make a mockery of the justice system if Downer were to appear as an accused one day, and the next appear in court to prosecute his accuser, stood to be dismissed.

Chili said had the charges against Downer stood, he would not have hesitated to grant an order for his removal.

“But that is not the position. As things stand there is no private prosecution. All attempts by Mr Zuma to prosecute Mr Downer have been unsuccessful.

“I might just add that as a debate of the hearing of argument in the present application, the supreme court of appeal had already made a factual finding that the attempt by Mr Zuma to prosecute Mr Downer amounted to an abuse of process.”

He quoted at some length from the SCA ruling.

“The facts demonstrate that a private prosecution of Mr Downer is an abuse of the process of the court for multiple reasons. First, as the high court found, it was instituted as a further step in a sustained attempt by Mr Zuma to obstruct and delay his criminal trial.

“This is an ulterior purpose and the institution of the private prosecution was accordingly unlawful. Second, it was instituted in order to have Mr Downer removed as the prosecutor in Mr Zuma’s trial. This too is an ulterior purpose which renders the private prosecution unlawful and, third, the contemplated private prosecution is patently a hopeless case. It is obviously unsustainable.”

Zuma had sought to bolster his application by reviving a complaint that Downer had impermissibly divulged details of the prosecution to investigative journalist Sam Sole in 2008. That too has been found to be meritless, Chili said.

The judge also quoted submission by advocate Geoff Budlender, for the NPA, that Zuma was attempting, through his multiple applications, to pick the prosecutor of his choice to conduct the trial stemming from alleged fraud, corruption and money-laundering related to South Africa’s 1990s arms acquisition.

“He proceeded to say that if such a process were allowed that would become a standard tool in the toolbox for well-resourced accused persons to abuse the process. He further expressed the view that our law does not tolerate such processes,” Chili said.

“There is merit in that argument.”

He noted that Downer had argued that the complexity of the case, and the financial prejudice his removal would mean for the state, were among the reasons he should be retained.

Zuma did not deal with these submissions in his answering affidavit, other than saying Downer was not indispensable, Chili noted.

Furthermore, Zuma had conceded that many of his complaints against Downer have been dealt with by the courts but said he was raising these again to demonstrate that the atmosphere surrounding the trial had become too toxic for him to prosecute the matter. 

The court did not agree. 

“Having considered all the grounds advanced by Mr Zuma, both individually and cumulatively, I was unable to conclude that Mr Zuma’s right to a fair trial will be violated if Mr Downer will remain the prosecutor in the matter,” Chili said.

They have asked Luthuli House to remove Mtolo over “unbecoming behaviour” which they say has soured relations with alliance partners and key provincial institutions.

Last week youth league provincial task team leader Lulama Mabunda wrote to ANC  secretary general Fikile Mbalula asking the party to remove Mtolo from his position over his actions, which they argue is part of the reason the party lost the province. 

“Over recent months, there have been growing concerns within the rank and file regarding the leadership style and conduct of Cde Mtolo. His actions and decisions have increasingly caused division and discontent among members, particularly in critical regions such as eThekwini,” Mabunda wrote in the letter, a copy of which the Mail & Guardian has seen.

“As the youth league, we have observed instances of leadership that seem to run contrary to the core values of the ANC, including transparency, inclusivity and accountability.”

KwaZulu-Natal had been the ANC’s biggest province in terms of membership numbers since 2009 . It was also the province most affected by the emergence of the uMkhonto weSizwe(MK) party, as the ANC’s support dropped from 54.22% in 2019 to 16.99% in May.

The MK party, contesting its first elections, won 45.35% of the provincial vote.

A Paternoster Group study indicates that, in 2021, the ANC received 5.25 million votes, more than two million of them coming from KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. 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 — in stark contrast with this year’s election failure.

The party lost multiple municipalities to the Inkatha Freedom Party after the 2021 local government elections and has lost several wards to the MK party since the May elections,  as voters expressed their frustration over issues like service delivery failures, corruption and internal factionalism​.

Mtolo has been a controversial figure, accused by some in the party of alienating key constituencies and failing to unite the province ahead of crucial elections​.  

Last week he had to apologise to the ANC’s alliance partner, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, for accusing its members of contributing to service delivery failures. 

The fallout led to a R2 million defamation lawsuit against Mtolo and the ANC, which was withdrawn after his public apology.

Mtolo’s detractors, including the youth league, believe his leadership is incompatible with the party’s goals in KwaZulu-Natal, especially in the face of growing competition from the MK party.

“While we respect the democratic processes that elected Cde Mtolo to his current position, we believe that his continued presence as provincial secretary risks further division and could erode the gains we are trying to make in uniting the province and regaining our support base,” the letter reads.

“There is currently no unity within the PEC [provincial executive committee] and we all know Mtolo is the main problem. He stands between us and the ability to clinch victory in the ongoing by-elections and local government,” they said.

The letter to Mbalula is part of a broader effort that has been supported by many branches and alliance partners to bring about change in the province.

Many in the ANC believe that neither Mtolo nor chairperson Siboniso Duma have the ability to steer the party through this difficult period and that a new leadership is necessary to revitalise the party and reverse its electoral decline​.

But, during the party’s two-day national working committee (NWC) visit in Durban last month, Mbalula downplayed talks of disbanding the party’s structures in KwaZulu-Natal.

“I can’t comment on that at the present moment. From where I was deployed in eThekwini, something like that did not arise from the structures on the ground. The preoccupation here is how we lost and what needs to be done in the province. I cannot comment about disbandment as disbandment is not the preoccupation of our visit,” he said.

Mbalula said while some wished for the disbanding, the party had advised against it.

“You don’t build by disbanding. There are important things that need to be done to strengthen this province. First, with a proper understanding and a diagnosis of what actually happened in this province from the point of view of the elections. Why we lost so many people, why people did not come out and vote in their numbers [for the ANC].”

This week ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli told the M&G that a possible disbandment had not been decided upon yet.

“These discussions are still at an early stage. Anyone speculating about the dissolution of structures is moving ahead of the discussions. We are still in the process of reflecting on these issues, and the final outcomes will depend on our assessment and engagement with the ANC’s structures and broader society,” Ntuli said.

He could not be drawn to answer on Mtolo’s position, but said although the party had not yet discussed the disbandment of structures, they would focus on increasing the support base which had seen a decline caused by loss of credibility in leaders. 

Ntuli said the party would select “quality” leaders who will bring unity to represent them ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

He explained that the PEC was partly to blame for the decline in support because of its failure to address high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality — especially unemployment. 

He added that the inability of municipalities, provincial government structures and national bodies to effectively address service delivery problems has been a significant factor contributing to the ANC’s declining support.

“The public is concerned with whether the chosen candidates have what it takes to enjoy their support. If we address these concerns and improve on critical issues like unemployment, the economy and service delivery, people may begin to focus on what the ANC is doing for them, rather than what the government of national unity is doing,” he said.

A member of the PEC said they expected disbandment to take place by the end of the month.

“The NWC visit concluded that the organisation is dead in KwaZulu-Natal and that we must start it afresh,” the PEC member said. “The NEC [national executive committee] must define what the means are to achieve that objective.”