KASI BC AFRICA

EXECUTIVE MAYOR CONTINUES OVERSIGHT @KASIBC_NEWS  The Executive Mayor, Councillor Lucky Sele, accompanied by the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Infrastructure Development Services, Councillor Peter Modise, conducted a two-day oversight visit to the Kenmare Water Pump Station, Factoria Reservoir, Munsieville Reservoir, Dan Pienaar Reservoir, Western Bypass and Rand Water Depot on 23rd May & 24th May 2025.  The visit follows continued water supply interruptions which have severely impacted several residential areas within the municipality. The purpose of the engagement was to assess the root causes of the slow water recovery, monitor current infrastructure performance, and expedite coordination between the municipality and external stakeholders—particularly Rand Water.  On the 23rd of May, the Rand Water outflow was at 530.8 kl/h and made a significant improvement recording of 750 kl/h this morning.  During the oversight, technical reports and observatio...

STARLINK VERSUS BBBEE @KASIBC_NEWS  *Starlink, Equity Equivalents, and the South African Policy Labyrinth* by Stan Itshegetseng Member, Vuyani Mabaxa Branch (Ward 27, Zone 10) | NEC Member, Progressive Professionals Forum (PPF) (Writing in my personal capacity) *What is Starlink?* Starlink is a satellite internet service launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It is built on a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites that deliver high—speed broadband worldwide, particularly to remote and underserved areas. In technical terms, Starlink bypasses traditional terrestrial infrastructure like fiber optics or mobile towers and instead beams internet from orbit directly to user terminals. In a South African context, this is game-changing: • ⁠It expands internet access to rural schools, clinics, and farming communities; • ⁠Empowers black-owned SMMEs with reliable broadband; • ⁠Accelerates e-health and e-learning services; • ⁠Supports national imperatives under the National Development Plan (NDP)...

DA welcomes draft regulations by Minister Malatsi @KASIBC_NEWS  The DA welcomes the draft regulations released yesterday, 23 May 2025, by Solly Malatsi, Minister of Communications & Digital Technologies, to introduce new mechanisms to broaden internet access to all South Africans. Access to reliable, affordable internet is a key ingredient to economic growth. The Democratic Alliance joined the Government of National Unity to make a difference in the lives of all South Africans. These steps taken by Minister Malatsi are once again proof that the DA doesn't only talk change, we implement it as well. Currently, most South Africans have to travel to metropolitan areas for reliable internet, as latest statistics from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) from 2022 revealed that only 10% of South African households had access to internet, beyond mobile devices, where they live. This acts as a barrier to commerce in areas outside of metropolitan areas. It al...

DHET AND NSFAS ON FUNDING CHALLENGES IN THE UNIVERSITY SECTOR @KASIBC_NEWS  The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) acknowledge the recent challenges affecting funding within the university sector.  These issues primarily arise from three key areas:  1. Application Discrepancies: Some students from universities who applied during the TVET application cycle have experienced difficulties with their registration status due to errors encountered during the application process.  2. Late Registration Confirmations: Certain students, whose registration statuses were only confirmed after the official registration deadline, are currently facing delays in accessing funding support.  3. Appeals and Budget Constraints: Students whose appeals have been approved are experiencing funding shortfalls due to limited remaining budgets, impacting their ability to cover registration and related costs.  Both DH...

GAUTENG PREMIER LEADS TEAM GAUTENG AT SIDSSA 2025  @KASIBC_NEWS  The Gauteng Provincial Government, led by Premier Panyaza Lesufi, will showcase a bold portfolio of bankable, transformative infrastructure projects at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa (SIDSSA 2025) in Cape Town scheduled to take placed from 26-27 May 2025.  As a strategic partner of the Summit, Team Gauteng is participating under the theme: “Delivering Catalytic, Scalable Infrastructure for Inclusive Growth.” Gauteng will use the platform to demonstrate how infrastructure development is central to unlocking economic potential, creating jobs, and enabling the Just Transition, while accelerating the implementation of the Gauteng Infrastructure Masterplan and the South African Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP).  Strategic Focus at SIDSSA 2025:  • Elevating bankable infrastructure projects to attract private and blended investment.  • Advancing a cl...

MALATSI’S ANTI-TRANSFORMATION ICT POLICY  @KASIBC_NEWS  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) rejects, outrightly, the so-called policy direction issued today by Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, which gazettes a backdoor for foreign multinationals like Elon Musk’s Starlink to bypass South Africa’s Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) laws under the guise of “Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes” (EEIPs). The EFF expected this betrayal, and we have consistently warned that the Government of National Unity (GNU) is facilitating the erosion of transformation in the interests of white capital and Western imperialism.  This policy direction is unconstitutional and driven by external pressure, particularly from Elon Musk, a close ally of Donald Trump. This policy is tailor-made to allow Starlink access to operate in South Africa without meeting the mandatory 30% local ownership requirement as per the Electronic Communications Act. M...

DA Exposes ANC Hypocrisy @KASIBC_NEWS  The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape rejects the ANC's latest attempt to politicise elderly care. This latest debate is nothing more than a desperate bid to score cheap political points and distract from the ANC’s appalling track record in provinces under their governance - including their disastrous legacy in the Western Cape prior to 2009. It is astonishing that the ANC would presume to lecture on elderly care, given that during their tenure in the Western Cape, Social Development services collapsed under their watch. Key failures during the ANC's administration include: •Inconsistent and politically manipulated NGO funding, which forced many vital organisations to shut down or cut services to the most vulnerable, including older persons. •A complete breakdown in oversight, with old age homes left without adequate regulation or compliance monitoring, leading to unchecked neglect and abuse. •Rampant corruption and cadre deploy...

  EFF RESPONSE TO DONALD TRUMP @KASIBC_NEWS  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has taken note of the press briefing held jointly by the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa and the President of the United States of America (USA) Donald Trump.  The meeting, which came under the pretext of discussing diplomatic, trade and economic relations, ended up being a discussion about the President and Commander in Chief of the EFF Julius Malema and his correct and principled position regarding the return of the land to African people, and the return of the means of production into the hands of the African majority. In what comes as no surprise,  Cyril Ramaphosa and his delegation which was constituted by the likes of Stellenbosch racist billionaire Johann Rupert, Donald Trump’s golfing buddy Ernie Els, and Minister of Agriculture and leader of the racist Democratic Alliance (DA) John Steenhuisen, was an interaction dominated by white privileged men, who have amassed weal...

DA SUPPORTS BUDGET 2025 @KASIBC_NEWS  The Democratic Alliance cautiously welcomes the revenue and expenditure proposals in the Minister of Finance’s Budget Speech. We see this as a pathway to a National Budget which we should be able to support when it comes time to vote. Today, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presented a Budget proposal which is a manifestation of coalition politics in action. It is a workable outcome in the context of trying economic times. The DA was not prepared to get behind a budget that maintained unsustainable government expenditure on the back of raising VAT, making struggling South Africans pay for inefficiencies and waste in Government – but today’s version from Minister Godongwana has gone some way to undo this. It is a victory for all South Africans that the mooted VAT hike has now finally been removed from the Minister’s revenue proposals, after the DA court action in this regard. Overall we see this Budget Speech as a turning of the tide toward gro...

ANC STATEMENT TABLED BUDGET 2025 @@KASIBC_NEWS  Today, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, tabled the 2025 Budget in Parliament. In addition, the Minister introduced the Appropriation Bill and tabled the 2025 Division of Revenue Bill.  This represents a critical turning point in our legislative process, following extensive consultations with political parties within the Government of National Unity (GNU), labour, business, civil society, and other key stakeholders.  These engagements laid the foundation for a fiscal framework that seeks to balance the competing needs of the state whilst advancing inclusive development. The 2025 Budget was presented amidst a complex economic landscape—characterised by a global economic downturn, constrained domestic tax base, high inflation and unemployment, increased tariffs, and limited revenue streams. Despite these challenges, South Africa has made notable progress.  The country’s credit rating outlook has been revised from...

EFF Statement on the Third Tabling of the 2025 Budget @@KASIBC_NEWS  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) rejects the third version of the 2025 Budget tabled today by the Minister of Finance as weak, misguided, and utterly disconnected from the lived reality of South Africans. It is a budget that ignores the worsening unemployment crisis, fails to address poor economic growth, and continues the failed orthodoxy that has plunged our country into austerity, despair, and underdevelopment.   It has also ignored all proposals by stakeholders in their majority and of all political parties in particular, rubbishing the claims by the African National Congress (ANC), Action SA, Rise Mzansi, Build One South Africa (BOSA), Patriotic Alliance (PA), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), Good Party and Al Jamah-Ah, that the scrapping of the VAT Increases was a product of consultation and consideration of alternative revenue generation mechanisms....

ANC STATEMENT ON THE TABLING OF THE REVISED 2025 BUDGET  @KASIBC_NEWS  South Africans are awaiting in anticipation as the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana tables the revised 2025 Budget, the Appropriation Bill and the Division of Revenue Act. This follows a broad process of consultation to deliver a budget that is transformative and developmental, one that drives the imperatives of development, protects the poor, boosts investor confidence, creates jobs and stimulates the economy.  The ANC continues to provide leadership in moments of uncertainty. Working together with political parties, civil society, labour and business on a common vision of prosperity and development, in fostering national consensus and social compact, a peoples’ budget is a recipe that unites the country behind the common vision and agenda of development through a fiscal framework that elevates the poor to the apex of transformation.  The ANC applauds those who have contributed to this miles...

SIU ( SPECIAL INVESTIGATING UNIT )  CORRUPTION NLC ( NATIONAL LOTTERIES COMMISSION ) @KASIBC_NEWS  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) welcomes the damning and long-overdue findings of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into the grand-scale corruption that has ravaged the National Lotteries Commission (NLC).  We commend the work of the SIU in exposing the rot that has characterised the operations of the NLC, and we reaffirm our commitment to holding accountable all criminals who have looted public resources under the guise of serving the people.  The SIU’s investigation, carried out under Proclamation No. R.32 of 2020, has laid bare the depth of collusion, maladministration, and flagrant theft by senior officials and board members of the NLC most notably Philemon Letwaba, the former Chief Operating Officer, who was at the centre of corrupt grant allocations to entities linked to his family Professor Alfred Nevhutanda, a former Chairperson of the NLC Board, under wh...

CONSTRUCTION R82 ( OLD VEREENIGING ROAD @KASIBC_NEWS The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport is currently fasttracking the resumption of roadworks in the construction project of R82 (Old Vereeniging Road) between De Deur and Walkerville in the Sedibeng District Municipality.  The contractor was handed over back the site on 12 May 2025. The project is estimated reach completion in October 2026. This follows the Department’s decision to terminate services of previous consulting engineers due to poor performance.  A contractor, Maphutha Business Enterprise (MBE), has been appointed to carry out the construction of this major arterial road.  The contractor is currently on site to resume at the De Deur Post Office until Walkerville Manor, approximately fourteen (14) kilometres. Amongst the objectives of the upgrade include improving access and increase road capacity from the current single to a dual carriageway. Other installations include streetlights at various interse...

MISSING PRISONERS AT POLLSMOOR PRISON @KASIBC_NEWS  The DA has written to the Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu to confirm whether his Department has been informed of the possible disappearance of Me-Kayle Timmie and Mikyle Mentoor - two convicted offenders who, according to a High Court order, should be detained at Pollsmoor Correctional Centre until at least October 2025. It has now been almost a week since a DA oversight visit to Pollsmoor revealed that officials could not account for either individual. Despite this, no confirmation has been issued by the Minister of Correctional Services, nor has any response been received to the DA’s formal letter sent to him on 14 May. The Minister’s silence is troubling, particularly in light of the fact that Xolani Du Preez, a third offender who was subject to the same court order, was only re-admitted to Pollsmoor on 22 April after allegedly committing a robbery in Table View. That incident – and Du Preez’s return to Pollsmoor - should have ...

ARBITRARY CANCELLATION OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE MEETING @KASIBC_NEWS  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) strongly condemns the arbitrary cancellation of a critical Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans meeting, scheduled for 21 May 2025 at the Armscor Dockyard in Simon’s Town. This meeting was set to address the alarming dysfunctionality of the South African Navy, including the inoperability of numerous naval vessels and significant operational challenges at the Armscor Dockyard.  The unilateral decision by the Committee Chairperson, Honourable Legoetle, to cancel this meeting without consultation undermines parliamentary oversight and raises serious questions about efforts to shield the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ms. Angie Motshekga, from scrutiny. The Chairperson’s justification for the cancellation—a supposed scheduling conflict with the budget presentation on the same day—lacks credibility, as the meeting was planned for the morning, with no o...

ELON MUSK STARLINK APPROVAL @KASIBC_NEWS   The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) firmly condemns the reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to offer regulatory assurances to Elon Musk’s Starlink ahead of his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump this week.  This move is not only unconstitutional, but it also exposes Ramaphosa as willing to compromise on our sovereignty to massage the inflated ego of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.  We must remind the public and the presidency that Cyril Ramaphosa has no executive authority to unilaterally guarantee access to South Africa’s telecommunications sector, let alone bypass necessary Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws.  Any such commitments fall squarely within the legislative domain of Parliament, not Luthuli House or the President’s delegation.  These powers are governed by national legislation and independent regulators, not the whims of one man desperate for foreign approval. The EFF is not surprised, ho...