Electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is on Monday expected to brief the media about electricity distribution and generation performance.
SA has gone more than 100 days without rolling power cuts, providing a boost to the economy and saving costs for businesses that have had to spend millions of rand in fuel to keep operations going. Bank of America has said SA’s economy could grow by about 2% in the medium term if Eskom maintains the momentum and keeps the lights on for the rest of 2024.
The Public Service Commission (PSC), which monitors and evaluates the performance of the public sector, is set to host a media briefing on its quarterly bulletin titled “The Pulse of the Public Service” for the period January to March.
The bulletin will focus on the 2024 general elections and the implications for the public service, and on the PSC guide on governance practice for executive authorities and heads of department. It will also report on the qualifications of senior managers in the public service, nonpayment of government suppliers, and the overall number of complaints and grievances handled by the PSC up to March 31.
On Thursday and Friday, the government is set to hold the first biannual planning meeting of SA’s new executive. It will be attended by ministers, deputy ministers and directors-general, to consider how to collate various party manifestos into coherent government policy.
The lekgotla will be the first meeting of the newly reconfigured cabinet, which includes ministers from parties that are signatories to the government of national unity. The outcomes of the meeting will be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on July 18 during the opening of the seventh parliament.
The new executive, which has 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers, took their oaths of office on July 3 after Ramaphosa announced their appointments on June 30.
The committees of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces are from Tuesday expected to embark on the budget votes process, which includes briefing on departmental budgets, annual performance plans, spending plans and departmental performance.
Thousands of National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) members who abandoned the production line and embarked on strike action at carmaker Ford SA are expected back on duty on Monday. The labour court granted the US motor company a temporary order interdicting the strike, which started last Thursday when workers downed tools in support of their demand the company share its profits.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said: “Ford globally has benefited hugely from the sweat and labour of workers and they have made obscene profits over the years, even during the hard lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, Ford has not made less than $21bn in profits since 2021, but its management simply refuses to share those profits with workers through profit sharing.”
Jim said the hearing to determine whether the interdict would be made permanent would be heard on August 28.
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