A flurry of political outcomes is expected ahead of the festive season this week as politicians rush to close their working calendars by December 16.
While parliament is in recess, news this week is likely to be dominated by the outcomes of the EFF’s national conference.
EFF leader Julius Malema has declared the Jacob Zuma-led MK party its “biggest enemy” as senior members of the leftist party continue to defect to the official opposition, which has set it sights on unseating the government of national unity (GNU).
Malema’s stance is a deviation from his posture during the run-up to the May 29 elections, which resulted in the MK party overtaking the EFF as the third-largest party in SA. Malema then said he was willing to work with the newly formed party.
Earlier this year, Malema and Zuma seemed to have reconciled after a breakdown in their relationship years ago which led to Malema being expelled from the governing party’s youth league.
Malema is unlikely to face opposition in his bid to lead the EFF for a third term when the party gathers in Joburg next week for its elective conference.
The conference, scheduled for December 12-15, will choose leaders for the next five years, including its top six officials and members of the 40-member central command team, the party’s top decision-making body.
Though candidates are permitted to lobby party members they are barred from negative campaigning. The party usually allows branches to lead the succession process.
The decline in the EFF’s representation in parliament and the subsequent defections of some high-profile leaders to the MK party is unlikely to deter the more than 3,000 voting delegates from rallying behind Malema, said Marshall Dlamini, the EFF’s secretary-general.
Also, the SACP will go to a special national conference this week.
In the immediate aftermath of the election, the ANC met its alliance partners in Cosatu and the SACP, highlighting the problem it faced in setting up a government and laying out the options for doing so. Cosatu was against any form of a working relationship with Zuma’s MK party, and the SACP expressed similar discomfort with a Zuma tie-up.
The SACP is expected to decide at its big meeting if it will break away from the tripartite alliance and contest elections on its own.
The ANC meanwhile has not yet confirmed if it will have a national executive committee meeting (NEC) by the end of this week.
The future of the provincial leadership of the ANC in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal now lies with the party’s top brass, who will in December decide whether to disband or not.
The ANC performed poorly in the two provinces in the May elections, forcing it to coalesce with its former rivals in provincial governments of national unity. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula described the situation as “dire”, saying it could not be “business as usual”.
Mbalula said the party should claw back its electoral losses in the 2026 local government elections. Last week, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee pleaded its case before the ANC’s national working committee, which is responsible for the day-to-day running of the party.
On the government front it is also a busy week as the DA seeks urgent clarity from minister of higher education Dr Nobuhle Nkabane on clear action to address issues identified in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and to ensure accountability for those implicated.
This follows the late submission of NSFAS’s 2022/23 annual report — filed more than a year late — with alarming findings by the auditor-general (AG). The AG has flagged nearly R60bn in irregular expenditure between 2019/20 and 2022/23. A significant portion of this expenditure is linked to the NSFAS’s dodgy direct payment partner contracts and payments to students.
The NSFAS has long been plagued by mismanagement, leaving students vulnerable and underserved.
While NSFAS administrator Sithembiso Freeman Nomvalo is clearly working hard to turn the ship around, there remain crucial questions on how NSFAS will tackle the root causes of discrepancies in its financial reporting, including discrepancies between amounts owed by and to institutions, and the funds due to students.
If this continues, tens of thousands of higher education students are expected to again be left stranded in 2025.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is also expected to close the year with a heavy workload.
On Monday, he is expected to engage the ANC’s Mpumalanga leadership on governance challenges in that province.
Ramaphosa will also meet UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Wednesday.
“The secretary-general will underscore that with SA taking the G20 [Group of 20] helm and being the first African country to preside over the G20, there is a significant opportunity for the G20 to help advance Africa’s priorities,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has reportedly said.
SA assumed the one-year rotating presidency of the bloc on December 1. G20 members include both developing and developed countries, who together make up about 85% of the global GDP, more than 75% of international trade and account for about two-thirds of the world’s population.
Ramaphosa before the end of the week will also host state and working visits from the political leadership in Angola and Germany.
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