President Cyril Ramaphosa was speaking at the anti-corruption dialogue in Boksburg where he reported that so far nine separate cases, involving 47 individuals and 21 companies, have been brought to court and freezing orders amounting to R14 billion have been authorised by the Asset Forfeiture Unit and a total of R5.4 billion has been recovered and returned to the State.

Ramaphosa said government departments, municipalities, and professional bodies were taking disciplinary action against individuals identified by the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council as part of its mandate to provide advice on the implementation of the policy and institutional reforms contained in the recommendations of the State Capture Commission.

The President pointed out that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) has collected R4.9 billion in unpaid taxes as a result of evidence brought before the State Capture Commission.

“While there is a long road ahead, the fight against corruption is gaining momentum. This dialogue is a valuable opportunity to mobilise all key stakeholders behind this effort, from civil society, business, and labour to academia, government, and political parties.

“We meet here as diverse constituencies, but with a common purpose. We are here to identify the further measures we need to take to build a South Africa that does not allow for corruption or capture. We are here to strengthen our shared determination to build an ethical society founded on the values of our democratic Constitution,” Ramaphosa added.

President Cyril Ramaphosa concurred with the sentiments that there should be accountability but said interfering in corruption probes is not in his mandate as the first citizen.

However, he warned that If corruption is not arrested, the greatest damage will not be in the funds stolen, the jobs lost or the services not delivered. But the greatest damage will be in the belief in democracy itself.

“It is therefore our shared responsibility, as we celebrate 30 years of democracy, to build a society in which corruption has no place. To do so, we must challenge the contention that corruption is a creation of our democratic order. Corruption in South Africa has much deeper roots”.

Ramaphosa continues to bombarded by calls from legislators to see the 

through the recommendations of the State Capture from the Zondo Commision of Enquiry into State Capture report released over a year ago. 

The report details more than 200 recommendations on criminal investigations and the possible prosecution of people implicated in stealing State funds.

Ramaphosa said that over the last five years, the government has invested significant resources to rebuild the law enforcement agencies and other bodies that were devastated by State Capture.

“While there is a long road ahead, the fight against corruption is gaining momentum.”

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ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula is expected to visit Tumahole, Fezile Dabi region, Free State and to meet with party’s structures on Tuesday afternoon, the ANC regional spokesperson Sello Pietersenhas said.

“The visit by the Secretary General seeks to strengthen and support the election work by the Region and the Province leading towards the Provincial and National elections in 2024,” he said adding that Mbalula will have interactions with various stakeholders in the community.

“We are therefore encouraged and looking forward to the visit by the Secretary General who will, undoubtedly, marshal all ANC structures in the region” he said.

The area is home to expelled former ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule and on June 16, a group of angry residents who are also members of the ANC, burned ANC t-shirts in protest over his expulsion from the party after he was found guilty of misconduct.

The angry residents blamed the outcome and expulsion of Magashule and continued lack of service delivery for their actions.

The Fezile Dabi Regional Chairperson Thabo Mabasa said at the time that the party is aware of the intentions of the group of people who were burning ANC regalia which is “to create confusion among our people”.

The visit by Mbalula also follows confirmation by sources that Magashule will launch a new party this weekend called the African Transformation Congress in the Vaal and in Gauteng..

“It’s a preemptive strike by Mbalula who knows well that Magashule has support in the Tumahole and Free State in general,” the source said.

Last week, Mbalula accused Magashule of recruiting ANC members for his new party saying his predecessor was hard at work mobiling in areas of the Free State for ANC structures to join his political party.

“He has been mobilising, hard at work in the areas of the Free State, mobilising ANC structures to join his movement and the pronouncements that other political parties are actually talking to him,” he said.

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The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) has accused the ANC of being complicit in the water crisis that has left many residents of Free State without a stable water supply.

While the heatwave has rapidly increased the evaporation rates, adding more pressure to the dams which supply the high demands of Free State residents, the FF Plus is adamant that the current situation has the ANC’s “incompetency” written all over it — especially in the case of the Mangaung Municipality.

The heatwave that has hit most parts of the country has had a devastating impact on the state of dam levels. In the Free State, the overall capacity of dam levels stood below 35%. As of Wednesday, 30 October, Free State dam levels read as follows:

Free State water crisis: The current state of dam levels as of Wednesday, 30 October:

Kalkfontein Dam (23,7%)
Rustfontein Dam (25,9%)
Groothoek Dam (30,2%)
Sterkfontein Dam (91,5%)
Gariep Dam (74,4%)
Krugersdrift Dam (78,6%)

In a bid to save water, the local government has ordered water restrictions in the metro.

However, the FF Plus says that all of this would have been avoided if the ANC-led metro had taken care of preventative water loss issues in 2018.

In a statement, the party’s Armand Cloete noted that water losses “caused by poor upkeep and leakages that are not repaired are the greatest contributing factor to the water shortage in the Free State.”

He further went on to state that, in the 2017/2018 financial year alone, the Mangaung Municipality wasted as much as 36-million litres of water per day due to preventable water losses.

“The municipalities under ANC control appear to be the greatest water wasters. If Ntombela and ANC municipalities do not take urgent action to address the poor maintenance and lack of expert officials in municipalities, Day Zero will become a reality in the Free State,” Cloete warned.

While the ANC certainly can do very little to influence the impact of climate change, Cloete noted that preventable wastage is something that rests in the hands of the governing party.

“The Free State may not lose water, even in normal rainy seasons, due to leakages and illegal connections. The Free State cannot afford to suffer due to the ANC’s crisis management any longer,” he noted.

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Eskom has denied that it will supply businesses in Harrismith directly with power as part of a new agreement.

The Rapport newspaper reported Sunday that the Harrismith Business Forum signed a contract with the utility to deliver power directly to the town’s 100 biggest power users.

Eskom said in a statement Tuesday that this is not the case, but will, in an unusual step however, directly collect payments from the businesses.

“No agreement was concluded with the Harrismith Business Chamber in isolation and Eskom did not side-line or bypass the Municipality in this process. In fact, the 100 customers will still be supplied by the Municipality.”

Municipalities collect electricity payments and are supposed to pay it to Eskom.

The Maluti-a-Phofung municipality in the Free State owes Eskom more than R4bn in unpaid electricity bills – the biggest outstanding municipal power account in the country.

The municipality has a monthly electricity bill of R180m, which was last paid years ago.

Across the country, municipalities now owe Eskom R25.1bn – and this has grown by R5.2bn since April.

Some rural municipalities are not paying Eskom the money they receive from businesses and households, who faithfully pay their power bills. Eskom cut power to these non-paying municipalities – affecting those who have been paying their bills too.

The decision to allow Eskom to collect payments directly was taken by a local consultative committee that was established – by court order – in 2018.

Representatives of the Harrismith Business Chamber, Eskom and the Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality all serve on the committee, which is chaired by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and the Department of Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

“One of the initiatives that the Committee agreed to assisting the Municipality with was to technically normalise the top 100 Large Power Users (LPU) accounts and also for Eskom to collect,” Eskom  said.

Together, the 100 biggest businesses in the town pay electricity bills of R20m a month. The businesses include Nestle, Shoprite Checkers, the plastic company Alpla and the carpet producer Nouwens.

Eskom says the municipality paid the full R2.9m bill to install new electricity meters at these businesses, denying the Rapport report that it was split between the municipality and the local businesses.

“It is therefore factually incorrect to say that Eskom will deliver power directly to the 100 biggest power users bypassing the Municipality completely. Only the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and the Courts can make such a decision,” said Eskom.

Additional reporting by Fin24

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