MPs in the National Assembly will on Tuesday vote on a motion sponsored by EFF leader Julius Malema on the possibility of closing the Israeli embassy in SA and cutting all diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.
The draft resolution was debated in a mini-plenary on Thursday, with the house was divided on the motion. The ANC, which has described the war between Israel and Gaza as a genocide against Palestinians, is expected to support an amended version of the EFF motion.
The ANC has called for a temporary closure of the embassy in SA “until Israel agrees to a ceasefire and commits to binding UN-facilitated negotiations whose outcome must be a just, sustainable and lasting peace”.
Last week, SA, along with Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti, asked the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, in a letter to launch an investigation against Israeli leaders for expressing “intent of committing genocide” and committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On Monday, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) is expected to give a clear picture of the past weekend’s voter registration drive. By the end of the first day, the IEC said more than 1-million people turned out to register at 23,296 voting stations.
Minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni will on Monday give an update on the outcomes of the cabinet meeting held on November 16.
On the same day, Transnet is scheduled to provide the market with plans to clear the backlog in unloading container ships at the ports ahead of the festive season. Broken equipment has caused a crisis at the Durban port, which handles about 60% of the country’s container traffic and suffers from long waiting times and penalty fees imposed by carriers.
Business Day reported previously that major retailers such as Woolworths and Truworths have raised concern about the worsening delays at the ports.
Later this week, Eskom’s executives will brief parliament’s public enterprises committee on its annual report and financial statements for 2022/23. The power utility’s loss for the period doubled to R24bn, as energy sales fell 5% and costs related to using diesel to run open-cycle gas turbines jumped 50%.
On Wednesday, the governance cluster of ministers will field questions from MPs.
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