ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini will learn her fate as a member of the party’s leadership in the coming days after her perjury conviction.
Last month Dlamini was found guilty of perjury and was ordered to face jail time or pay a fine of R200,000.
Last week the ANC’s top six officials met to discuss Dlamini’s political future and whether she should step aside in line with the party’s 54th conference resolution.
It calls for all leaders implicated in serious crimes to step aside pending the resolution of their cases before court, but the resolution is silent on what must happen if leaders found guilty in court have an option to pay a fine.
The newly elected ANC provincial executive committee in Mpumalanga has appointed the party’s deputy provincial chair, Speedy Mashilo, to act as treasurer. This follows Mandla Msibi’s stepping aside after his election in last week’s provincial conference. Msibi is facing charges of murder and attempted murder.
ANC provincial secretary Muzi Chirwa says Mashilo will continue to act until Msibi’s court case has been finalised.
Meanwhile, eyes will be on whether corruption accused Zandile Gumede steps aside if she is to be elected chair of the ANC in eThekwini after a weekend leadership conference.
Since 2018 the ANC eThekwini region has been led by the task team after its previous leadership, including chairperson Gumede, the former eThekwini mayor, was recalled over poor performance and corruption allegations.
eThekwini is the biggest ANC region in the country and plays a deal-breaker role in the party’s provincial and national politics.
It is expected to have an influential voice in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial conference in July and the ANC’s national elective conference in December.
The region is divided into two main factions, one supporting ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and the other former ANC president Jacob Zuma’s camp, part of the radical economic transformation (RET) grouping.
In line with the factions, there are two front-runners in the race for regional chair — Gumede for the RET grouping and eThekwini speaker Thabani Nyawose for the Ramaphosa faction.
Gumede, who is facing charges of corruption relating to a R320m waste contract when she was mayor, also has the backing of the ANC Women’s League.
The nearly 30,000 gold miners at Sibanye-Stillwater enter the second month of a strike.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and National Union of Mineworkers declared a strike at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold mines on March 9 after nine months of fruitless negotiations.
A sticking point is the R1,000-a-month increase over three years for entry level wages demanded by the two big unions.
Sibanye-Stillwater has made various amendments to its original offer, but has now refused to budge from its R700-a-month offer.
Zuma will be present at the high court in Pietermaritzburg on Monday for the resumption of his corruption trial.
It follows the recent dismissal by the Supreme Court of Appeal of Zuma’s leave to appeal against his corruption prosecution, including his attempt to remove state advocate Billy Downer from the trial.
Zuma and French arms company Thales face charges including corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering linked to a multibillion-rand arms deal.
“The foundation confirms that Zuma, contrary to speculations, will be at the court tomorrow, the 11th of April, he is going to be there. Zuma, through his legal team, will be responding to the supplementary affidavit served by the NPA [National Prosecution Authority] where they seek to introduce new evidence on the events of the last few days,” Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi said on Sunday.
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