President Cyril Ramaphosa will have his hands full this week, starting with a eagerly awaited cabinet reshuffle on Monday followed by questions in the National Assembly on Thursday.
John Steenhuisen and Julius Malema, leaders of the DA and EFF, the second and third largest political parties in parliament respectively, are set to quiz the president on the stubbornly high crime rate in the country.
Malema will ask the president whether police minister General Bheki Cele and national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola were up to the task of fighting the crime scourge. Cele has blamed increasing population, among other factors, for the spike in crime in SA.
On Wednesday, social services cluster ministers will answer questions in parliament, with the DA set to ask health minister Joe Phaahla whether “all hospitals and major public health-care facilities have now been exempted from load-shedding”.
The IFP will ask human settlements minister Mmamoloko Kubayi: “With reference to the national housing backlog that currently sits at an estimated 2.5-million families who are in need of housing, (a) what are the details of the progress her department has achieved to date with the digitisation process and (b) on what date is it expected to be completed?”.
The EFF will ask basic education minister Angie Motshekga what total number of schools in the republic have no sanitation facilities and no classrooms and have to conduct teaching in the open. The National Assembly will, on Wednesday, also consider the fiscal framework outlined by finance minister Enoch Godongwana in the 2023/2024 budget.
The corruption trial against former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and 21 others is set to resume in the Durban High Court on Monday. They are accused of flouting supply chain management processes in the awarding of tenders worth over R300m from the city’s solid waste department.
Mogale City executive mayor Tyrone Gray is on Monday expected to reveal municipality’s plans to “halve load-shedding” by 2024. He will be joined by DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga.
Eskom said its pattern of stage 3 and stage 4 load-shedding will be repeated this week until further notice.
On Monday night Ramaphosa is expected to announce changes to his cabinet. ANC deputy president, Paul Mashatile is widely expected to be appointed deputy president in line with ANC tradition to align party positions to government positions.
Business Day understands that ANC second deputy secretary-general, Maropene Ramokgopa, is being considered for transport minister as a replacement for Fikile Mbalula, who leads the ANC’s secretary-general’s office full-time while Ramaphosa’s infrastructure head, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, and former Eskom executive Dan Marokane, are being considered for the new minister of electricity position.
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