The expropriation bill, which President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law on Thursday, has pitted the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), Dean Macpherson, against his deputy, Sihle Zikalala. This was after the two expressed contradictory views on X (Twitter) today, 24 January 2025, with Mcpherson dismissing Zikalala’s eagerness to implement the expropriation law as nothing more than a personal “opinion.” The Expropriation Act is the latest policy battleground between the DA and the ANC, Mcpherson and Zikalala’s political homes,…

ACTIONSA President Herman Mashaba has denounced President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Government of National Unity (GNU), saying his party would never join it because it would mean working with a “criminal ANC”, and a “dishonest and arrogant” Democratic Alliance (DA) which pays lip service to the fight against corruption.   The former Joburg mayor said the DA joined forces with the governing party because it wanted power, positions and “to control the ANC” rather than serve the people of South Africa.  In a…

Following the ANC’s underwhelming election performance, South Africa is currently embroiled in a gruesome process of coalition-building. Although this is not necessarily a new problem as it is often portrayed, there was ample time to develop rules and guidelines seeing huge problems the coalition created at the local government level. However, the primary concern now is how political parties are approaching the task of forging working relationships, whether they term them as coalitions or as a ‘government of national unity’…

After a two-week delay marred by frosty talks between his governing ANC and opposition parties, President Cyril Ramaphosa finally unveiled his grand coalition cabinet, allocating several cabinet posts to the Democratic Alliance (DA) and eight other opposition parties. In a televised address to the nation, Ramaphosa appointed six DA ministers, including party leader John Steenhuisen, who took over the Department of Agriculture, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) president Velenkosi Hlabisa, Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) president…

African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa has been inaugurated as head of the Republic of South Africa, which enables him to officially kick-off his second term at the helm of the nation. Ramaphosa took his oath of office at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Gauteng, witnessed by South Africans from all walks of life, as well as dignitaries from various countries across the continent and beyond. The event marked a significant milestone in the country’s democracy following the elections…

In public discourse, there is a tendency to incorrectly equate fundamentally dissimilar entities in nature and purpose. The governments of national unity (GNU) established in 1910, the 1990s and 2024 only share a name but are vastly different in context and outcome. Some commentators’ insistence on justifying this ‘sameness’ is intellectually dishonest and misleading.  It is akin to comparing Newcastle in Natal with Newcastle in the UK; they share a name but are distinctly separate places. In mainstream political literature,…

The MK Party has strongly condemned the DA’s claims that it poses a threat to national security, labelling the official opposition’s call for the US to intervene in South Africa’s upcoming general elections a “treasonous act.” The newly launched political party led by former President Jacob Zuma threatened legal action against the DA unless it withdrew the “derogatory” allegations against it. South Africa’s independent elections body, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), also expressed reservations about the DA’s unorthodox approach which…

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga and ActionSA are on a collision course over maladministration allegations dating back 20 years ago. This week, DA member of the provincial legislature, Trudie Grovè-Morgan, called on Mandla Msibi, the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, to launch an investigation into ActionSA’s provincial chairperson, Thoko Mashiane. According to Grovè-Morgan, Mashiane was embroiled in a R45 million sports facility project that failed to take off in 2003, said the DA MPL. ActionSA dismissed the…

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is taking on review Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka’s Phala Phala report, which it labelled a “white-wash” and “pro-Ramaphosa public relations exercise” aimed at securing the public protector’s job.  Accusing Gcaleka of muddying the waters and misinterpreting relevant laws in her final report, DA leader John Steenhuisen said the acting public protector sought to project Ramaphosa as an “innocent bystander” who knew nothing by the inner workings of his administration and the presidential protection unit (PPU).…