Stellenbosch mayor, Gesie van Deventer, says the Stellenbosch Municipality started fighting back in January 2021 to protect residents and businesses from loadshedding.

Van Deventer says the municipality has determined that the town needs 75MW of electricity, during peak times, to completely avoid the implementation of loadshedding.

She says the ultimate goal is to, in the near future, be completely independent of Eskom for electricity.

Van Deventer says the municipality supports the DA’s call for Eskom to be declared a state of disaster.

She agrees that drastic change is needed at the power utility to restore the country’s generation capabilities to full capacity.

The Democratic Alliance this week called on the government to declare a state of disaster at power-utility, Eskom.

The party says ridding the country of loadshedding is a whole of society approach anchored on making energy-generation South Africa’s biggest priority over the next 5 years.

DA spokesperson for Energy, Kevin Mileham says loadshedding has robbed unemployed South Africans of the chance of finding employment.

Mileham says the power interruptions also damage the country’s reputation as an investment destination.

Read the mayor’s complete statement here.

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Democratic Alliance leader, John Steenhuisen says the speaker of the National Assembly has until close of business today to respond to his request that Ministers be recused from the vote of no-confidence in Cabinet, scheduled for Wednesday.

Steenhuisen says he wrote to Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula about the matter.

He says he also urged the Speaker that a roll-call system be used during the voting process.

Read more here.

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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is heading to court to stop the government from extending the National State of Disaster month after month.

DA leader John Steenhuisen made the announcement this week and said all indications are that the government will continue to extend the State of Disaster indefinitely.

The DA leader says that if and when the government moves lockdown regulations to permanent legislation, his party will mount a legal challenge to those too.

Steenhuisen says the DA will continue to fight for the rights of South Africans and oppose all of the government’s efforts to further keep the country’s citizens under never-ending lockdowns.

He says the continuous and repeated extension of the regulations does more harm than good.

Read more here.

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Geordin Hill-Lewis has been inaugurated as Cape Town Mayor. At 34-years-old he is also the youngest Mayor ever to be elected to the position.

At the inaugural city council meeting, Hill-Lewis was elected with a majority vote of 141 out of 224 votes.

A seasoned politician, Hill-Lewis joined the Democratic Alliance while he was in Grade 12 at Edgemead High School. He also helped establish the party’s UCT branch of the  Democratic Alliance Students Organisation (DASO). The new Cape Town Mayor made tackling poverty one of his key priorities when he delivered his first speech in council chambers.

I am today proud to announce that the first major commitment of this administration is to increase our allocation to free basic services by over R600 million in the next financial year.
This constitutes a 20% increase in our city’s investment in the free basic services that vulnerable residents rely on the most. It will increase the total amount spent by the City every year on free basic services for the poorest residents from R3.1 billion to R3.7 billion.

Hill-Lewis added he wants to hit the ground running: “Tomorrow, on day one, I am going straight to Khayelitsha and Phoenix, where there are serious challenges with sewage infrastructure. We know that sewers will occasionally block and pump stations will sometimes break down. But when these problems are reported, they must be attended to with the same speed and service excellence no matter where you live in Cape Town.”

Alderman Felicity Purchase was re-elected as the Speaker of Council and former Springbok rugby player turned politician Eddie Andrews was nominated and elected by councillors to the Deputy-Mayor post.

Hill-Lews is yet to announce the councillors he has selected to be a part of his Mayoral Committee.

 

 

 

 

 

The Electoral Commission of South Africa says only three political parties declared donations above the R100 000 threshold.

During a press-briefing yesterday, the IEC revealed that only the ANC, DA, and Action-SA declared individual donations of more than this threshold.

When questioned about the EFF not reporting any donations, IEC commissioner, Dr Nomsa Masuku had this to say.

The EEF is one of 502 political parties that have not disclosed their funders as per the requirement of the new Political Party Funding Act.

Chief Executive for Party Funding, George Mahlangu said, of these 502 parties 108 parties have been written to by the IEC to request that they comply.

In March 2018, the EFF was the only party that opposed the bill when it was before the National Assembly (NA).

View the full briefing here.

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