The DA will hold its long-awaited elective congress this weekend where interim leader John Steenhuisen and KwaZulu-Natal MPL Mbali Ntuli will go head to head for the position of leader of SA’s biggest opposition party.
The congress was initially set to take place in May 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown imposed to curb it derailed political events.
The party is now taking on the mammoth task of hosting about 2,000 delegates in its fist virtual national congress, which comes just before 2021’s local government elections.
Voting for the DA’s leadership will take place completely online, while constitutional amendments and resolutions will be voted on using a mixture of a show of a red card or a green card at the physical venues, as well as the polling function on the online meeting platform Zoom.
At the congress, Gauteng chair Mike Moriarty will be contesting incumbent Helen Zille for the position of federal council chair.
The DA’s new leadership will have to ensure that voters buy into the party in 2021, after it took a beating at the polls in 2019 in the general elections.
It will also have to sell the policies adopted at the party’s policy conference earlier in 2020, which includes the rejection of racial categorisation. That has been a controversial issue in the party.
The DA has been governed by interim leaders since Mmusi Maimane resigned dramatically in October 2019 after internal turmoil in the party after the DA lost support at the polls for the first time.
Zille’s election as chair of the federal council, a position that opened up after James Selfe resigned in the wake of the election, preceded Maimane’s resignation, after which Steenhuisen was elected as the DA’s interim leader.
On Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa will answer questions in the National Council of Provinces. This comes a day before finance minister Tito Mboweni delivers the medium-term budget policy statement (MTBPS).
Ramaphosa will face questions about the ANC’s delegation that flew to Zimbabwe on an SA Air Force aeroplane with defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
The ANC and the government came under heavy criticism in September when it emerged that the delegation flew on a state aircraft. Ramaphosa has since reprimanded the minister over the saga and instructed that she take a three-month salary penalty. Her salary will be paid into the Solidarity Fund, established to tackle needs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ANC committed to reimbursing the defence department and later said it had paid back the R105,545.46 it owed.
At the oral question and answer session, Ramaphosa will also be asked questions about Covid-19 corruption and gender-based violence.
The National Assembly is also scheduled to debate corruption related to coronavirus tenders.
This comes after revelations of huge profiteering, including by family members of ANC politicians, in the provision of medical supplies to fight Covid-19.
Also on Tuesday, the National Assembly will consider the report of the ad hoc committee on the appointment of the new auditor-general.
Deputy auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke is tipped to become the first woman to head the chapter 9 institution after being unanimously recommended for the job by the committee.
On Thursday, there will be an oral question and answer session with the governance cluster of cabinet ministers, which includes co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu and minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu.
The ministers will be asked questions about lifestyle audits for members of the executive and performance agreements, the state of municipalities and how many are under administration, and public sector wages.
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