Sies, shame
Only in Mzansi can a “donation” develop legs, bypass its intended recipients and park itself comfortably in your children’s driveways.
Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe arrived before Parliament’s portfolio committee clutching her story tighter than a Joburg taxi driver clutches his steering wheel on the N1 – convinced, passionate, and going absolutely nowhere useful. And the denial, it wasn’t me.
Two gleaming Chinese SUVs, she maintained, were generous gifts for the ANC Women’s League. Yet somehow, like pigeons returning home, they ended up registered in her children’s names. As the township Gogos say: “Sies, shame!”
Meanwhile, a food aid employee was moonlighting as a nanny at Tolashe’s East London home – allegedly paying part of her salary back to Tolashe’s daughter. That, darling, is not social development. That is social redistribution, ANC-style.
Committee chair Bridget Masango – visibly exhausted – reminded everyone that the committee oversees government, not the ANC. Should we remind her that there is the ethics committee? What a week to be South African!
Gauteng’s metros have perfected a peculiar art form – pouring billions into systems without restoring a single one to working order.
Gauteng’s billion-rand mirage
Even the world’s most celebrated artists would struggle to match the precision with which Gauteng’s metros have mastered this peculiar art: spending billions without fixing anything. On paper, the numbers are impressive as budgets are allocated, projects announced and money flowing. But in reality, taps run dry, lights flicker and residents are left funding a system that rarely delivers.
The Auditor-General’s latest findings don’t expose a new crisis. They confirm a routine. Plans are drafted, ignored and recycled the following year with fresh letterheads and the same predictable outcomes.
Leadership, too, seems stuck in this loop – long on promises, short on consequence, and seemingly comfortable presiding over decline.
Maintenance is treated like an optional extra, while breakdowns become budget items.
At this point, the real question isn’t whether metros can fix the basics; it’s whether those in charge have accepted that failure is simply part of the model.
Joburg mayor Dada Morero was alerted by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana that the City of Johannesburg owed its creditors R25.2 billion while holding just R3.9 billion in cash.
Crisis. What crisis?
This week, a mixture of shock, anger and anxiety erupted after news emerged that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana wrote to Joburg mayor Dada Morero alerting him that the city owed its creditors R25.2 billion while holding just R3.9 billion in cash, had repeatedly violated municipal finance laws and was engaging in illegal financial practices with “the potential to destroy the sustainability of the city beyond this term of office”.
Godongwana forbade the city from fulfilling its agreement with the South African Municipal Workers’ Union, which would see it hike wages by R10.3 billion over the next two years. With a froth in her mouth, DA Johannesbrug mayoral candidate called a press conference to express her anger. The story was front-page news everywhere in the media, with a picture of the mayor accompanying all the stories. But the man in the middle of it, Morero, was as cool as a cucumber. Many a mayor so badly exposed would issue a mundane statement and hide from the media. But not Morero. He was out there fielding media questions, insisting that the situation was completely under control. He was going to meet with the finance minister, and it would all be good. What was the fuss all about, he seemed to be asking. “I want to assure residents, investors, and the broader public that there is no cause for concern,” said a laidback Morero. Give this man a Bells.
City Press was there at the height of the state of emergency in the mid-1980s, bearing witness as apartheid laws tightened their grip and human rights were systematically stripped away.
HOT: City Press readers
Since the birth of City Press in March 1982, our readers have been part of this wonderful journey that this news brand has undertaken over the years.
City Press was there during the height of the state of emergency in the mid-80s and the total onslaught on human rights as segregation laws tightened.
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ANC MP, Christina Tlhong, said the committee could not rely on ‘social media things’ and asked whether Sisisi Tolashe was aware of any cases lodged by the aide.
NOT: ANC MPs
This week in Parliament, while controversial Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe was in the hot seat trying to defend the indefensible mess she has made since becoming minister, there were, to the surprise of a few, some ANC MPs who tried to shield her despicable behaviour.
Among the allegations was that Tolashe’s daughter had forced their house aide to hand over half of her salary every month for “household expenses”. She was paid R15 814.47, and paid around R7 000 per month to Tolashe’s daughter.
An ANC MP, Christina Tlhong, said the committee could not rely on “social media things” and asked whether Tolashe was aware of any cases lodged by the aide. She called the allegations rumours.
Tlhong, a Mahikeng ruralitarian, also claimed that while on social media, there were calls to protect the aide because she is a woman, but “the minister is also a woman”. But in her defence, Tlhong follows best practice from her predecessors in the ANC benches. Remember that the reason the Nkandla and Phala Phala scandals, among others, have dragged on for so long was precisely because of the ANC’s culture to protect thieves, fraudsters and suspect leaders.
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