President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been criss-crossing the country before the 2024 general elections, is this week set to receive a report reviewing the country’s three decades of democracy.
Minister in the presidency responsible for planning, monitoring & evaluation Maropene Ramokgopa is set to hand over the review to Ramaphosa on Wednesday. It will then be released publicly.
The ANC has been running the country since 1994 but it is facing its toughest election yet as the electorate has grown disillusioned with its underwhelming performance in government.
ANC politicians including Thembi Nkadimeng, Lindiwe Zulu and deputy president Paul Mashatile have blamed apartheid — which ended 30 years ago — for the socioeconomic crises, including poor service delivery, dogging the country.
Several polls indicate the ANC’s electoral support could fall below 50% for the first time and force it into a coalition with smaller opposition parties.
Faced with this predicament, the ANC seems to be pulling out all the stops by calling on its former leaders — including former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe, former deputy president David Mabuza and former treasurer-general Mathews Phosa — to campaign for the party.
Minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is on Monday expected to brief the media on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan as the country has gone for weeks without implementing load-shedding.
Rise Mzansi national leader Songezo Zibi is this week set to campaign in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Eastern Cape. The political start-up led by Zibi, a former Business Day editor, is expected to outline its plan to “arrest the ongoing water crisis” in the country, said Rise Mzansi national communications director Mabine Seabe.
Steel sector
The issues of energy supply and access to potable water have become key electioneering themes before the May 29 poll, with political parties including ActionSA focusing on how they plan to address the crisis.
On Tuesday, communications & digital technologies minister Mondli Gungubele, with Northern Cape premier Zamani Saul, is expected to launch the Free Wi-Fi hotspot project at Nonzwakazi township in De Aar, Northern Cape.
Unions in the steel sector are set to meet employers in the bargaining council on Wednesday for a final round of wage talks. Trade union Solidarity is demanding a 6% wage increase annually for three years and says the increases should be based on the actual rate of pay and not on minimum rates of pay.
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA is demanding increases of 7% in the first year and 6% for the second and third years. The employers have offered increases of 5%-6%.
Stats SA reported recently that consumer prices eased for the first time in 2024 to 5.3% in March. The Reserve Bank and some economists expect inflation to average about 5% for the year, down from 6% in 2023.
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