Last week Labour Court Acting Judge Dunstan Farrell delivered a written judgment outlining why the Office of the Premier’s (OTP) bid to oust former deputy director-general Arumugam “Roger” Govender, was unlawful.

Since 2016, the OTP has been fighting a number of rulings in favour of Govender, whose employment contract was terminated in 2016.

At the centre of the legal dispute between Govender and the OTP was the interpretation of his employment contract, which the General Service Bargaining Council (GSBC) found was “that of a permanent” nature while the OTP insists it was a five-year fixed employment contract which expired in 2016.

Govender was the OTP’s permanent Chief Operations Officer (COO) when he was transferred to the provincial public works department in 2011 as Head of Department (HOD).

HODs were normally employed on a fixed five-year contract. However, in Govender’s case the GSBC found that there was no proof that he signed the five-year contract.

In its ruling, the GSBC found that Govender took the public works HOD position with the understanding that he would be returned as the OTP COO in the event of him being replaced as HOD.

“The letter of appointment doesn’t specify that the employment of the applicant (Govender) is for a fixed period of five years. In addition, he was not supplied with a revised letter of appointment reflecting a fixed term of appointment.”

Following the OTP’s refusal to implement the GSBC’s ruling – which apart from instructing the OTP to reinstate Govender also ordered that he should be back paid to the tune of R9.4 million – the OTP then made an application to the Labour court for the GSBC ruling to be set aside.

However, Judge Farrell found that the OTP ‘s case was unwinnable.

“From the very outset of the first arbitration of the unfair dismissal dispute of the first respondent (Govender) it is clear that the applicant (OTP) had no prospects of success,” Judge Farrell said.

He rejected as “disingenuous” the OTP’s argument that there has not been any expectation that Govender would be returned after the expiry of his Public Works “five-year” contract.

“The first respondent was not employed in terms of a fixed term contract of employment, and to simply try and conjure up some other reason for the termination of the contract of employment, be it that there was no legitimate expectation of a renewal of the contract or that the contract was terminated for operational reasons, is simply disingenuous,” he said.

Farrell also ordered the OTP to pay the former Public Works HOD’s legal fees.

While the OTP said it had “noted” the Labour Court ruling, it made it clear that it intended to appeal the judgment.

“[The OTP] is of the view that neither the Arbitration Award, nor the Labour Court Judgment, are sustainable in law.
In the premises, and specifically considering the fact that public funds are involved, an application for Leave to Appeal is in the process of being prepared for filing and service as soon as possible,” KZN provincial government State Law Advisor, Heinz Kuhn, said.

When in 2023 the OTP failed to implement the GSBC ruling, Govender initiated processes to have the OTP assets attached. However, the process was put on hold pending the outcome of the OTP Labour Court application – which last week was dismissed with costs.

Govender, who at one point was the provincial transport department’s Chief Financial Officer and a senior official at the eThekwini Municipality, spent several years as a civil servant.

In his ruling, Farrell characterised the OTP’s attitude towards Govender as amounting to betrayal.

The premature termination of a long serving and clearly very skilled and experienced civil servant was simply unacceptable, he said.

“The first respondent (Govender) had a few years before retirement to continue contributing positively to the administration of this province,” he said.

Issues such as the one involving Govender and the OTP were usually handled by the provincial government Director General, Nonhlanhla Mkhize.

However, Farrel made a point of instructing that the judgment be personally served on the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal.

According to DA KwaZulu-Natal Legislature MPL Tim Brauteseth, the OTP has already spent R40 million on the case against Govender.

But Kuhn said the OTP’s legal fees was far less than Brauteseth’s calculation.

“The Office of the Premier is represented by the State Attorney, and as such the Office of the Premier is only responsible for the costs associated with the briefing of Counsel appearing on its behalf. To date, such costs have not exceeded R 1 million,” he said.

This after the MK party in the KZN Legislature had voted against the approval of all provincial department budgets in recent portfolio committee meetings.

The MK party — which has the highest number of MPLs in the KZN Legislature — failed to have the committees reject the budgets, after the 41 government of provincial unity (GPU) MPLs from the IFP, ANC, DA and NFP had voted in favour of the budgets.

Had the MK party succeeded in blocking the approval of the budgets by the portfolio committees, the departments would not have been able to access treasury funds to pay salaries and deliver services to the province’s residents.

DA KZN Legislature caucus chief whip Imran Keeka said the GPU did everything to ensure that the MK party and its ally in the KZN Legislature, the EFF, did not succeed in their attempts to “block the flow” of provincial government funds.

“Effectively, the GPU majority worked to block attempts by the official opposition and its EFF coalition partner to prevent the lawful flow of money to provincial departments and, ultimately, to the people of our province. Had they succeeded, services in KZN would have collapsed beyond recovery,” he said.

The MK party’s “obsession” with collapsing the GPU, Keeka said, had rendered the party ineffective in its role as KZN Legislature’s official opposition.

“Invective and naive chattering, a lack of understanding of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and its requirements, and a definite dearth of comprehension of the legislature rules saw the opposition make a mockery of themselves and the proceedings,” said Keeka.

“With no valid contributions or alternatives to make things work better — and in some instances absolute silence from the majority of their members — they simply opposed budgets. To their credit, they expressed their lack of information and abstained in the vote on the KZN Legislature budget.

“They have a lot to learn and will need to get up to speed with the realities of the province’s finances and the challenges facing residents to be able to effectively work as an opposition.

“Until recently, the MK Party had not even allocated members to committees, possibly caught napping in the process,” said Keeka.

The KZN Legislature will next week hold a debate on the provincial government department’s budgets.

“The GPU will remain effective and resolute to ensure that citizens are placed first and the DA is determined to play our role in ensuring this. The DA remains committed to being a builder and not a breaker,” Keeka said.

Addressing ANC Youth League (ANCYL) members in Durban over the weekend, Mabuyakhulu said the ANC cannot continue using the same strategies it used to mobilise support during the liberation struggle.

The ANC — which has been in power since the advent of democracy in 1994 — in last month’s general elections lost its outright majority for the first time.

While Mabuyakhulu maintained that the ANC did well in government during its three decades in power, he said the organisation has since fallen victim to its successes.

“In order to comprehend it fully, we need to contextualise it from a historical perspective. What happens to liberation movements after they have been in power for three decades and more?

“A governing party suffers from the sins of incumbency once it has been in power. To govern is far more complex and difficult than to mobilise society to join a revolution,” he said.

“The first lesson is that the liberation movements become victims of their own successes. This is critical in that the gains of the revolution are taken for granted and its strategic importance becomes a norm, and society always expects more.

“It is very critical that liberation movements must be adaptable and should always lead by example in dictating the agenda for change. Failure to do so would lead to political instability and extermination,” he said.

Mabuyakhulu said that is important for the ANC to understand the various phases of its mission.

“The revolution has an epoch and phases. Each of these is critical and should be properly understood. The current epoch is seminal in its own right. We have gone through some of the phases of the revolution. We transitioned from the apartheid regime and the liberation phase into democracy. We gained political power and removed the apartheid laws from our statutes. We continue to struggle to gain economic equality — we are still occupied by this phase of our struggle,” he said.

In the May general elections, the ANC lost most of its voters, particularly in KZN, to former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party.

Mabuyakhulu, who is also the former MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) said the ANC should accept the position it currently finds itself in.

“We need to humble ourselves before the masses of our people and stand up to be counted. We must outwit, outflank and outsmart the pseudo cult tendencies that are creeping into our body politic. We must all worry about the cult wave that has taken the KZN electorate by storm.

“We should not waste our time fighting internal battles when the enemy is planning its next attack,” he said.

Failure by the ANC to get an outright majority in the general elections compelled it to form a government of national unity (GNU), which includes the DA, IFP, Patriotic Alliance, GOOD, FF+, UDM, Rise Mzansi and Al Jama-ah.

“The GNU gives us a chance to regroup and to sharpen our spears to face our competitors head-on. We should reject with contempt, the notion that the GNU is a sellout approach to the capitalist class,” Mabuyakhulu said.

This article was first published by The Witness.

In a media statement released by the king’s prime minister, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, on Tuesday, Misuzulu cited the department’s decision to “terminate the employment contract of his imbongi (praise singer)” as an act of disrespect to the Zulu Royal House.

The imbongi, Buzetsheni Mdletshe, whose role, among others, was to usher in Misuzulu during traditional ceremonies, has been on the payroll of the premier’s department for several years.

According to the media statement issued by Buthelezi on behalf of the king, the department recently terminated Mdletshe’s employment contract.

“His Majesty King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has expressed his extreme displeasure in the disrespectful manner in which the KZN government continues to treat him.

“In the latest incident, the Office of the Premier has terminated the employment contract of His Majesty’s cultural advisor, Inyosi Buzetsheni Mdletshe,” the statement read.

The termination of Mdletshe’s employment contract, Buthelezi said, was done without any consultation with the king.

“His Majesty is disappointed that the KZN government operates as though the king does not exist,” he said.

Mdletshe, who was also the Imbongi of the late Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, has been a Zulu Royal Family praise singer since 1977.

“He is a trusted and senior official attached to the daily activities of His Majesty. His Majesty cautions the KZN government that the disdain with which they treat the royal family in general, and His Majesty in particular, is an affront to the Zulu nation,” Buthelezi said.

The king’s criticism of the premier’s office comes weeks after he launched an investigation into the conduct of KZN MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), Siboniso Duma, following an incident during an event attended by the Misuzulu and President Cyril Ramaphosa in kwaCeza, outside Ulundi, a month ago.

Duma, who was the programme director of the event, grabbed the microphone from Buthelezi as the Zulu traditional prime minister was delivering a speech.

The premier’s office said Mdletshe’s contract as an employee expired in 2020 when he reached the retirement age of 65. The contract he had following that was that of a service provider, it added.

This article first appeared in The Witness.

On Tuesday, the Electoral Court overturned the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) decision to bar Zuma — who in 2021 was handed a 15-month jail term by the Constitutional Court — from contesting as a candidate in the upcoming elections.

Immediately after making its finding, the court issued the order, but is yet to release the full judgment with reasons for the decision.

This has led to significant discussion, as the Constitution provides a seemingly contrary view that individuals who have been given a prison sentence of more than 12 months without the option of paying a fine cannot be sworn in as MPs.

Volker, who in the 60s served as a National Party (NP) MP in the National Assembly, said he was not surprised by the judgment.

“What people should understand is that the requirements for contesting are less stringent compared to those of taking up a seat in Parliament.

“The Constitution makes it clear that a person who has been sentenced to more than twelve months imprisonment without the option of a fine, can’t take up a seat in Parliament.

“So, after the elections, the rules will kick in, and as a result, Zuma is likely to be barred from taking up his seat in Parliament.”

Volker said there was a precedent in the Zuma Electoral Court case matter.

In 1966, an election candidate, Theo Culwick — who served as a cabinet minister in the then British colony of Kenya — was allowed to contest as one of the MP candidates for Durban after having been in the country for slightly over a year.

However, after the elections, the court ruled that Culwick was not eligible to take up a seat as MP given that the law stipulated that a foreign national had to be in the country for more than five years to be allowed to take up a seat in Parliament.

“I was in Parliament in 1966 when Culwick was disqualified. What the Culwick incident tells us — even though it happened more than five decades ago — was that the legal requirements for contesting were different to those which allow an individual to take up a seat in Parliament. The bar for taking up a seat in Parliament is much higher.

“I’m not saying this because I have something against Zuma. In fact, I know Zuma personally. What I’m saying is in the Constitution,” he said.

Volker, who served as a KZN Legislature MPL from 1994 to 2004, has been one of the prominent politicians in the province and nationally. He was also involved in constitutional negotiations at a provincial level.

Volker also served as the national chairperson of the NP’s youth wing. He currently resides in Hayfields, Pietermaritzburg.

This article first appeared in The Witness.

Dirks, who was spotted wearing MK party colours during the newly-formed political organisation’s rally in Maqongqo, Pietermaritzburg, was on Monday served with a letter from ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, informing the ANC KwaZulu-Natal Legislature MPL that his ruling party membership has been terminated.

“This letter serves [to inform you] that you have been expelled from the African National Congress because you have joined another political party, contravening rule 25.17.13 of the ANC constitution,” said the letter.

A former Msunduzi Municipality deputy mayor, Dirks was recently transferred from the ANC National Assembly caucus to the KZN Provincial Legislature amid a fallout with the ruling party National Assembly caucus leadership.

In 2017 whilst an ANC MP in Cape Town, Dirks was accused of insulting and threatening to assault fellow ANC MP Thozama Mantashe.

In the same year, Dirks was kicked out of one of a National Assembly sitting for waving a middle finger at an opposition party MP.

While Dirks denied having insulted or threatened to assault Mantashe, he said he waved the middle finger after being provoked by the opposition party MP.

Dirks, who in his tenure in the National Assembly sat on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), also irked ANC party leaders when he called on Scopa to investigate President Cyril Ramaphosa. In his complaint to Scopa, Dirks accused Ramaphosa of being in possession of information showing that government money was being used to finance ANC internal elections.

According to Dirks’ complaint, Ramaphosa failed to pass on the information to law enforcement agencies as required by law.

He was suspended by the ANC in parliament and recalled as a Scopa representative.

In his letter dated February 25, Mtolo told Dirks that he will no longer be allowed to continue serving as an ANC MPL in the KZN Legislature.

“You will no longer represent the ANC as public representative in the KZN Legislature,” Mtolo said.

While ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele declined to comment on Dirks’ dismissal letter, he said the ANC would be “firm and decisive” when dealing with party members “who collaborated with rival political parties”.

Dirks, who confirmed having received the letter from Mtolo, insisted that he remained an ANC member and MPL.

“The ANC made me who I am today — I grew up in the ANC. The ANC has not done anything wrong to me, and I will never leave the party. What I refuse to be a member of is the Ramaphosa ANC, which is arrogant and is, as we speak, busy with neoliberal policies. I will work day and night to ensure that Ramaphosa’s ANC is defeated in the upcoming elections. From now onwards, I will mobilise to ensure victory for the MK party.”

This article first appeared in The Witness.

Ramaphosa, who laid a wreath at the grave of ANC founding president John Langalibalele Dube, told the volunteers who came forward to assist the ANC during the build-up to the upcoming general elections that their willingness to work for the ANC was proof that the ruling party was heading for victory.

“If you look at the opposition parties, including the smaller ones that have been recently launched, none of them have so many volunteers. As the ANC, we are expecting you to drive our elections campaign here in eThekwini.

“On Saturday we will be launching our manifesto here in Durban. The manifesto will demonstrate that in the last 30 years the ANC did a lot in terms of changing the lives of our people. The ANC manifesto will also show that the ANC is the only political party capable of taking this country forward,” he said.

Thousands of ANC supporters are expected to descend on the Moses Mabhida Stadium for the party’s manifesto launch.

The supporters, who are expected to arrive in Durban from the country’s nine provinces throughout the course of the week, have already booked most of the hotel rooms in the Durban CBD and surrounding areas.

By Monday afternoon, hotels and other accommodation facilities in Durban and uMhlanga were already fully booked.

The ANC, which has dominated the KwaZulu-Natal pollical landscape since the 2009 general elections, is facing a challenge from political parties such as the IFP, DA, EFF and the newly-formed MK party.

Ramaphosa told the ANC volunteers that the ruling party was “cruising to victory”.

“Our message to all the opposition parties is very simple: they will be defeated,” he said.

Ramaphosa will announce the date for the upcoming elections within the next two weeks.

This article first appeared in The Witness.

Khoza, who in 2017 resigned as both ANC MP and party member amid a bitter battle with the governing party’s leadership, raised eyebrows after posting a recent photograph of herself and Zuma on social media.

In 2016, Khoza led the campaign to have Zuma removed as the country’s president. At one point, she described him as a “disgrace and a dishonourable leader”.

Khoza started her own party in 2017, African Democratic Change (ADeC), but resigned less than six months later.

Some sources have now linked her to Abantu Batho Congress (ABC). ABC leader Philani Mavundla said his party would make “some announcements” this week.

In a recent FaceBook post, Khoza — who confirmed that the photograph featuring her and Zuma was authentic — did not say whether she was about to join the MK party or ABC.

“I have consulted widely. This includes former President Jacob G. Zuma, ABC President, Philani Mavundla, Gap Fixers of South Africa under the leadership of T. Buthelezi and many other political parties.” Khoza said she would be announcing her new political home next week.

In 2022, Khoza — who at the time was serving as ActionSA’s eThekwini councillor — was replaced by the partner in an acrimonious and very public split. She had accused ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba of allowing the DA in eThekwini, which at the time was in a coalition with ActionSA, to “bully” her.

ActionSA, however, had accused Khoza of voting with the ANC in the municipality, for which she was rewarded with the post of chairperson of the powerful Municipal Public Accounts Committee (Mpac). In a statement released after the outcomes of her disciplinary procedure were finalised, ActionSA said of Khoza that she had disregarded reputational damage to the party “for apparent publicity and self gain”.

“Her loyalties do not lie with ActionSA and instead, lie with aspiring to grow her own political aspirations, at the great cost of her constituency and ActionSA.”

After her stint at ActionSA, Khoza, who is also a former Msunduzi Municipality deputy mayor, ventured into business. However, she said the state in which the country was in made it difficult for her to stay out of politics.

“The majority of our native citizens remain dehumanised, linguistically excluded and stuck in poverty as perpetual objects of domination and economic discrimination. We must unite against fake white supremacy, morality, hypocrisy and corruption in all their manifestations,” she said.

A version of this story first appeared in The Witness.

As the Zulu nation’s prime minister, Buthelezi, who delivered his maiden speech to the Zulu nation on Monday, believed that one of his roles was to handle the king’s communication.

Further, Buthelezi said the king had already given him the green light to oversee all communication from his majesty’s office.

However, it has since emerged that the king did not share his prime minister’s view on the matter of communication – which he believed should be handled by his official spokesperson, Prince Afrika Zulu.

In a media statement issued by the office of the Zulu King on Tuesday evening, Misuzulu kaZwelithini made it clear that the duties of Buthelezi do not include those of communication.

“In the interest of providing clarity, we wish for the general public to be assured that the Office of Communications and Stakeholder Relations remains duly appointed and supported by His Majesty the King and is entrusted with the vital task of facilitating effective communication between the Throne and its esteemed stakeholders – both internally and externally,” read the statement from the King’s office.

Buthelezi, who was appointed two weeks ago to replace the late Zulu nation prime minister Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi – who died in September – is also the IFP Mayor of the Zululand Municipality.

Despite the new Zulu prime minister’s assertion that he worked closely with the late prime minister and familiarised himself with the role of a Zulu nation prime minister, the king’s statement suggested that there might be things around the role of the Zulu nation prime minister which Thulasizwe Buthelezi did not understand.

“The new incumbent has not yet had the benefit of being fully upraised of the multiple functionaries within the Office of His Majesty. It ought to be therefore expected that he assumed that the Prime Ministerial office subsumes all other departments,” the statement from the king’s office said.

This article first appeared in The Witness.

Perceptions that some within the MK party were promoting Zulu nationalism recently resulted in KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial deputy secretary Sipho Hlomuka reminding the local community in Mkhambathini Municipality that they were all part of the broader South African community.

Hlomuka was part of the government delegation, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, which recently opened a bridge in Embo, Mkhambathini.

“KZN is part of South Africa, you should be free to speak in any language, even Tswana,” he said.

Hlomuka was speaking amid concerns about a recent statement made by former president Jacob Zuma — who is the face of the MK party.

Addressing MK supporters in Pietermaritzburg, Zuma said he was surprised that people in KZN could also communicate in Tswana.

“They filled the Moses Mabhida Stadium here in Durban and sang the song Ramaphosa re o rata kaofela (we all love you Ramaphosa). I was shocked, I did not know that KZN people can speak Tswana,” he said.

Zuma’s comments were soon followed by social media posts where people claiming to be MK party supporters altered the name uMkhonto weSizwe — meaning the spear of the nation, to uMkhonto weSizwe samaZulu — spear of the Zulu nation.

Despite no longer being the country’s president, Zuma — who in December announced that he would vote and campaign for the MK party in the upcoming elections — still has a large following in KZN, whose residents are mainly Zulu speakers.

However, MK party provincial co-ordinator Simpiwe Mpungose denied that there had been Zulu nationalism tones in some of the statements made by the organisation’s members.

“Firstly, it’s not true that the MK party is a KZN regional party. We are all over the country, the MK is in Gauteng, Limpopo, Free State and all the other provinces. This narrative that we are a regional party is being pushed by those who are intimidated by the support we are getting across the country.

“They are worried that they will be left out in the cold now that it’s becoming clear that the MK party will win next year’s elections.

“Secondly, some people are interpreting political statements made at rallies out of context.

“As the MK party, we have never been asked to clarify any of the political statements which our members are alleged to have made.

“The fact that those who choose to interpret the statements do so without seeking clarity from the MK party, goes to show that there are individuals bent on discrediting our organisation,” he said.

But political analyst Aubrey Mashiqi said there were “worrying signs” that the MK party could turn into an organisation purporting to represent members of the Zulu nation.

“There are people who are quite strongly invoking a very narrow Zulu nationalistic impulse. They are positioning the MK party as uMkhonto weSizwe sama Zulu (the spear of the Zulu nation). This has the potential to create instability in KZN.

“We must be sensitive to any attempt at mobilising support on the basis of a narrow nationalistic impulse,” he said.

In the build-up to the ANC 2007 national elective conference, where Zuma defeated former president Mbeki in the race for the ruling party presidency, some of Zuma’s supporters wore T-shirts branding him as a “100% Zulu Boy”.

Mashiqi said Zuma had a history of not calling to order those saying inappropriate things in his name.

“What he does is not to be critical of those who, in his support, act in a poor manner,” he said.

This article first appeared in The Witness.