International relations & co-operation minister Naledi Pandor is set to host Russian foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov for bilateral talks in the capital city, Tshwane, on Monday.
SA and Russia are part of the Brics bloc of emerging countries and share economic and political ties dating back to the liberation struggle. SA exports to Russia amounted to $410.7m in 2021, according to Trading Economics.
However, SA’s neutral stance in the Russia-Ukraine war has been criticised widely, including by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On Tuesday, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen is expected to travel to SA where she is expected to participate in bilateral meetings, including with finance minister Enoch Godongwana and Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago.
Apart from lunching with US ambassador to SA Reuben E Brigety and business leaders she will also visit the Ford Motor Company assembly plant in Pretoria.
On Friday, Yellen will travel to the coal mining-province of Mpumalanga where she is expected to underline the US commitment to SA’s Just Energy Transition Partnership. The tour will include a US-funded job training facility that is providing skills to local women to prepare them to work in the renewable energy sector.
Meanwhile, the DA, SA’s second-largest political party and the official opposition in parliament, will on Monday and Tuesday be in the North Gauteng High Court in Tshwane for an application to declare the ANC’s controversial cadre deployment policy unlawful and unconstitutional.
The policy has been blamed for many service-delivery failures, with the governing party accused of deploying unskilled cadres to head critical government departments, state-owned enterprises and agencies.
The official opposition party said it will argue that the abolishment of the controversial policy is a “fundamental prerequisite if we ever want to end load-shedding and halt the collapse of state institutions”.
Load-shedding protest
“We believe that this case is urgent and the single most important court case for rebuilding state capacity in SA’s democratic history. The effect of cadre deployment is nowhere demonstrated as well as with the electricity crisis that we are now experiencing,” the party said.
On Wednesday, DA members and supporters are expected to march from Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown to the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters in the Joburg CBD to protest against sustained load-shedding that has crippled the economy as factories and small, medium and macro enterprises — crucial to job creation — have resorted to closing shop due to the country’s unreliable energy security.
The march is expected to bring them in confrontation with the ANC Youth League, whose leadership has threatened to “defend” its headquarters.
DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi said South Africans had reached “boiling point with the ANC government’s failure to supply reliable electricity. Rolling blackouts are having a devastating impact on the lives of all our people.”
He said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s silence is deafening and “demonstrates the lack of political will by the ANC government to take action. The DA on the other hand has taken the fight to court to interdict Nersa’s [National Energy Regulator of SA’s] decision to increase electricity tariffs.”
Nersa announced recently its decision on Eskom tariffs for the next two years. It approved a 12.74% tariff increase for 2024/2025. The decision will allow Eskom to earn revenue of R318.9bn in 2023 and R352bn in 2024.
The 18.65% tariff increase for 2023/2024 is about 58% of the 32% increase the power utility applied for as part of its fifth multiyear price determination.
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