DA SUPPORTS BUDGET 2025 @KASIBC_NEWS

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 growth and investment. It is turning away from unchecked government spending funded by South African taxpayers.

The DA realises our economy desperately needs to grow and government must budget for this, creating the environment that enable this growth in the private sector.

The most notable and welcome aspects of today’s proposal from the Minister of Finance are the following:

• No increase to VAT

• A R1-trillion investment in infrastructure over the coming 3 years

• No new bailouts for State-Owned Entities

• A national spending review, which must eliminate all unproductive and wasteful spending of public money

• Ending low priority projects, and eliminating government programmes that are not working for South Africans

• A full-scale audit of ghost employees across government, to stop the draining of billions in fraudulent salary payments

• A marked reduction in the additions to the budget baseline which earlier versions of the Budget proposed, meaning R40 billion has been saved

The DA also notes and welcomes that more realistic economic growth forecasts have been used to model revenue in this version of the Budget.

Following this speech by the Minister, the DA will engage in the Parliamentary process to ensure that the Reports and Bills which emerge for voting drive growth and jobs in the economy, and continue to cut the waste in government spending.

ANC STATEMENT TABLED BUDGET 2025 @@KASIBC_NEWS

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 ‘stable’ to ‘positive’, signalling international confidence in South Africa’s financial stability and debt-servicing capability. This upgrade reflects the country’s commitment to fiscal prudence, macroeconomic stability, and the pursuit of a growth-focused agenda. It reinforces investor confidence and affirms that South Africa is on a positive economic trajectory. A key measure in the Budget is the inflationary adjustment of the fuel levy, which is expected to boost revenue and help enhance fiscal space. Government proposes an inflationary increase in the general fuel levy for petrol and diesel to R4.01c/l and R3.85c/l, respectively, effective from 4 June 2025. 

While this adjustment is welcome for its revenue benefits, government must also find robust and sustainable ways of reducing the overall cost of fuel without compromising the current fuel taxes that contribute significantly to the fiscus and the national infrastructure program. Balancing affordability for consumers with fiscal stability remains a critical challenge.

Additionally, we welcome the expanding of zero-rated VAT goods, which will shield vulnerable households from the high cost of living. The allocation of 61 cents of every rand spent towards social spending is also a welcome development, reflecting a firm commitment to equity and social protection. 

The Budget prioritises areas that are aligned with our national development objectives, including education, health, infrastructure, housing, early childhood development, public transport, social wage, and arts and culture. 

These investments underscore the Budget's developmental and transformative nature, aimed at improving the quality of life for all South Africans. 

The following are the key highlights of the budget: 

SANRAL has been allocated R93.1 billion. This will be used to build new roads, maintain existing ones as part of the road infrastructure development and quality roads; 

R156.3 billion allocated for water infrastructure. This will improve the existing infrastructure and build new dams and water treatment plants; 

The allocation to PRASA will increase the capacity of the entity threefold. A 5% increase for civil servants is a positive development. 

The civil service should be commensurate with the quality of services and the service provided to society. Basic services have been allocated R1 trillion. This quantum underscores the importance of provision of basic services and our investment in people. 

The ANC will ensure quality provision of services. An Investment of R1.4 billion for the local government elections. This reaffirms the resilience of our democracy, regular elections, the will of the people and the importance of local government in the delivery of services; 

There is an increase in social grants allocation to protect the poor from the economic hardships; it is for this reason that the ANC regards the budget as pro-poor. This is an expansionary budget designed to address the pressing challenges of the state and to provide service to the people whilst transforming an economy which grows at 1.4% in 2025. 

Importantly, the Budget is designed to ensure the quality of spending, not just quantity. To this end, expenditure reviews must be institutionalised to redirect resources to critical need areas and assess the effectiveness and impact of spending against national priorities. This is essential in achieving meaningful developmental outcomes and ensuring that public funds deliver maximum value. To strengthen revenue generation, the capacitation and modernisation of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) is a strategic and welcome development. 

Enhanced capacity at SARS will significantly improve tax collection and revenue mobilisation. While these efforts are critical, we must acknowledge the continued concern over the country's rising debt levels. Economic growth remains sluggish in comparison to the rate at which debt is increasing, placing further pressure on debt-to-GDP ratios. Debt service costs are escalating, and urgent focus must be placed on reducing these costs and improving the efficiency of public expenditure. 

The 2025 Budget is a people’s budget—a budget for inclusive growth, job creation, and investor confidence. It is pro-poor and infrastructure-focused, aimed at cushioning the vulnerable through social protection and expanded access to zero-rated basic goods. 

The budget strikes a careful balance between supporting economic growth and exercising fiscal discipline. It prioritises strategic investment in infrastructure and public services while narrowing the budget deficit from 5% of GDP in 2024/25 to 3.5% by 2027/28. 

This Budget reflects the ANC's unwavering commitment to improving the material conditions of the poor and working class. It allocates: R1.5 trillion to Learning and Culture over the medium term to strengthen basic education, sustain early childhood development, support NSFAS and strengthen the higher education sector. R845 billion to Health, including R20.8 billion in additional funding to employ doctors and nurses, improve hospital services and support the rollout of the National Health Insurance. 

R1 trillion to Social Development, which includes the increase in social grants and the extension of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant until March 2026. These investments are not statistics—they are lifelines. They ensure that learners remain in classrooms, children have access to ECD, families can access quality healthcare, and the unemployed are not left to suffer in silence. 

The social wage remains a vital anchor of the ANC’s developmental state and will be strengthened through targeted and expanded support to those who need it most. This fiscal strategy will set South Africa on course to stabilise its debt trajectory next year, through improved primary surpluses and reduced debt-service costs. 

Despite limited resources, the budget maintains a strong commitment to the social contract and the principles of equity, development, and sustainability. Through this Budget, South Africa remains firmly on the path of economic transformation and growth. This is a developmental, transformative peoples’ budget. 

EFF Statement on the Third Tabling of the 2025 Budget @@KASIBC_NEWS

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. 

Not a single alternative revenue generation mechanism proposed by any political party is present in this third budget, proving once again that the VAT increases were scrapped solely due to the court intervention which was initiated by the EFF. 

The VAT increases have simply been substituted with austerity. We note the deliberate silencing of public discourse around this budget, with mainstream media choosing to focus obsessively on political coalitions and cabinet appointments, while ignoring one of the most consequential events in South Africa’s governance calendar. 

This is not accidental — it forms part of a broader campaign to depoliticise the budget and shield the National Treasury from democratic scrutiny and public accountability. For the first time in our democratic history, a national budget was tabled in the absence of both the President and the Deputy President from the National Assembly — an indication of how disconnected the Executive has become from the economic realities facing the poor and working class. 

This is now the third attempt to table a credible 2025 Budget. The first attempt, on 19 February, collapsed due to the Minister’s ill-advised proposal to raise VAT by two percentage points. The second attempt, on 12 March, retained a smaller but still regressive 0.5% VAT hike. 

This latest version scraps the VAT increase but replaces it with a deeper crisis: massive expenditure cuts. Instead of revising the budget to expand state capacity and fight unemployment, the Minister has simply slashed spending, pretending this is a solution. What is now tabled is not only weaker than the previous budgets — it is a declaration of surrender by the National Treasury. It demonstrates complete incompetence and an ideological commitment to failed neoliberal austerity, despite the claim by the Minister of Finance and the former liberation movement that this is not an austerity budget. 

The EFF rejects outright the reductions in government expenditure that accompany this revised budget. Between the March version and today, over R28 billion has been cut from non-interest spending, including significant reductions in education, health, social development, and the criminal justice system. These cuts are not marginal — they confirm a deliberate weakening of the state’s ability to deliver basic services at a time when unemployment, poverty, and the collapse of public infrastructure are at their worst in democratic history. Reductions in frontline sectors such as basic education, healthcare, and public safety expose the government’s growing detachment from the lived reality of the majority and its refusal to invest in people over spreadsheets. 

Unemployment, using the expanded definition, now exceeds 42%, and more than 12 million people are jobless. The country has lost over 9,000 public sector doctors due to budget constraints. Clinics are without nurses, schools are unable to fill teacher posts, and defence capability has collapsed, with no effort to redirect funds saved from the DRC withdrawal to rebuild it. 

This budget will not absorb a single unemployed doctor into the healthcare system. It will not build the frontline capacity the state so desperately needs. 

The EFF maintains that the National Treasury’s downward revision of economic growth from 1.8% in February to 1.4% today is an open admission of its own forecasting failure. Yet, even this lower projection is still overly optimistic. The same conditions — collapsing municipalities, weak global demand, high real interest rates, geopolitics and trade wars between China and the USA, new trade tariffs, and the withdrawal of AGOA — were already present in February and March. It is not new data that has changed; it is public pressure that has forced Treasury to acknowledge reality. 

The EFF has consistently warned that National Treasury’s growth estimates are detached from both empirical evidence and common sense. Today, even Treasury’s own “downside scenario” projects 1% growth, thereby vindicating our argument that South Africa is in a deep stagnation crisis and National Treasury is in denial. 

Once again, the Minister has refused to adjust personal income tax brackets in line with inflation. This silent form of taxation forces workers who receive modest inflationrelated increases into higher tax brackets. It is nothing less than a tax increase on the working class, imposed without a word. 

The EFF proposed a 4.5% adjustment to personal income tax brackets, not as a tax cut, but as a protection against bracket creep. 

National Treasury’s refusal to implement this is part of a broader strategy to make workers pay for its economic mismanagement. We reject the National Treasury’s attempt to deceive the public by announcing a R4 billion increase in funding to SARS over the medium term. But this figure is meaningless if it is not front-loaded. SARS needs the R4 billion in the current financial year — not over three years. We know from SARS’s own pilot project that an immediate R2 billion investment can yield R25–50 billion annually, and R4 billion would unlock even more revenue. 

While the EFF maintains that we will not tax our way out of the current economic crisis, the lack of urgency demonstrates that National Treasury is not serious about addressing the R800 billion tax gap. 

On 19 May 2025, the EFF led thousands to the National Treasury and handed over a memorandum demanding a complete transformation of fiscal policy. Those demands were not just ignored — they were spat on. Not a single proposal in our People’s Budget was taken seriously, including our call for a wealth tax, a land tax, a once-off apartheid tax, and an aggressive fiscal stimulus. 

We call on the Standing Committee on Finance and the Appropriations Committee to use their full legislative powers to propose amendments, increase frontline spending, and reject this technocratic betrayal of the people. 

If Parliament does not act decisively, it risks becoming complicit in the destruction of state capacity and the perpetuation of stagnant economic growth, unemployment, and poverty. 

ANC STATEMENT ON THE TABLING OF THE REVISED 2025 BUDGET @KASIBC_NEWS

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 milestone across the ideological divide. The interests of the country came first, transcending narrow political interests, grandstanding and cheap politicking.  

The developmental nature of this budget should prioritise the workers, the poor and the working class. It should cushion the vulnerable sectors of society from the economic hardships, the unaffordable high cost of living, invest in people, pursue a developmental macroeconomic framework and put South Africa to work through our jobs plan, improve education, skills and ensure health care for all.  

To achieve these, the budget spending should prioritise the following areas: 

● Learning and culture; early childhood development 

● Health  ● Housing ● Public Transport 

● Infrastructure ● Debt service ● SARS 

Buoyed by the recent S&P credit rating, South Africa is on a positive recovery and growth path, that is economically and politically stable. This boosts investor confidence and growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  Investment in the South African Revenue Services (SARS) will stabilise the fiscus, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of SARS for sustainable revenue collection. 

The ANC advocates for alternative revenue streams to supplement existing revenue streams, but most importantly to safeguard the poor from economic hardships and o narrow the budget deficit and to give effect to the priorities outlined by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) The budget should prioritise food security, including VAT exemption on essential items. This exemption should be expanded on basic necessities. 

Investing in healthcare and strengthening health services is a catalyst towards universal access to health, inclusivity and equality through the National Health Insurance Act (NHI) and infrastructure as a job creation and economic development are key drivers. Education and early childhood development are a priority for accessible quality education to open the doors of learning, as we endeavour to invest in the future of our children. 

In the labour market, the ANC is committed to ensuring diversity and equity, securing decent living wages that are aligned with inflation. Currently, South Africans face economic hardship due to a pay regime that is not aligned with the rising cost of living. 

This must change. This is the transformation that the ANC advocates for. We remain steadfast and unwavering in our support for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which affirms that “All shall share in the country’s wealth.” Transformation is essential and non-negotiable. As the frontline of service delivery, local government’s close proximity to communities makes it essential for improving quality of life. 

Investment in local government will enhance basic services, upgrade roads and water infrastructure and strengthen the capacity of local authorities to effectively fulfill their service delivery mandates. It is through organizational development and a review of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government are crucial steps toward achieving improved basic services. As the Minister tables this budget, there is a need for comprehensive reviews to assess the quality and impact of our spending. 

The government cannot continue to invest without regard to efficiency when the country’s needs are urgent and critical. Based on our engagements, consultations and vision for our country, the budget must reflect the aspirations of the people, improve their quality of life and promote development for a better future for all. 

We trust that Parliament will come together and act in the best interests of the people, rather than engaging in political grandstanding, populism, misinformation or petty point-scoring that undermine development and transformation. 

The ANC remains committed to working tirelessly to mobilize society and all social partners to ensure the successful passing of this budget. 

SIU ( SPECIAL INVESTIGATING UNIT ) CORRUPTION NLC ( NATIONAL LOTTERIES COMMISSION ) @KASIBC_NEWS

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 whose leadership corruption flourished and who personally benefited from misappropriated funds and Advocate William Huma, a former Board Member, who is alleged to have used his legal expertise to enable and shield corrupt activities from scrutiny. 

These individuals, masquerading as leaders, orchestrated a criminal enterprise using front companies, fake non-profits, and family-linked entities to siphon billions from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund money that was meant to uplift the poor and fund community development. The EFF is not surprised by these revelations. 

We have consistently warned the country about the ANC’s systematic project to hollow out public institutions for selfenrichment. 

The corruption at the NLC is not an isolated incident but part of a broader state capture project spearheaded by ANC cadres who view public funds as personal bank accounts. 

According to the SIU, the value of corrupt contracts under investigation totals a staggering R2 billion. Luxury properties, international travel, and lavish lifestyles were funded with money meant for orphanages, community sports facilities, and arts projects. This is a moral and criminal betrayal of the most vulnerable in our society. Even more concerning is the enabling role played by so-called professional service providers, accounting firms, auditors, and lawyers who submitted fraudulent documentation and rubber-stamped theft under the cover of legal and financial legitimacy. 

These firms, many of which continue to operate in other spheres of government through outsourced mandates, must be blacklisted and criminally prosecuted. We note with interest the move by SCOPA to request further investigation into the political links between NLC board members and ANC politicians. 

The EFF demands that the SIU follow the money trail without fear or favour, and that any evidence pointing to political beneficiaries whether sitting ministers, ANC deployees, or their families be made public and handed to the National Prosecuting Authority. 

The EFF will not rest until: 

a) Every implicated official, board member, and enabler is arrested, charged, and imprisoned. 

b) All properties and assets bought with stolen lottery funds are seized and returned to the state. 

c) Audit and legal firms found to have colluded in this scheme are deregistered and permanently banned from public contracts. 

d) Political actors involved in the capture of the NLC are named and shamed and held accountable. 

We further warn the ANC against any attempt to re-capture or interfere with the future restructuring of the NLC. This comes as there are mounting reports that Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau is set to award the operating license for the National Lottery to Gold Rush Consortium, a company with ties to the ANC through owners Sandile Zungu and Moses Tembe. 

The awarding of this contract worth R180 billion to ANC-benefactors would be unlawful according to the National Lotteries Act and would amount to a further use of the National Lottery to benefit the lifestyles of ANC politicians. 

The Commission must be rebuilt under strict parliamentary oversight, with no room for ANC-linked looters or their proxies. 

The people of South Africa deserve leaders who serve, not steal. 

CONSTRUCTION R82 ( OLD VEREENIGING ROAD @KASIBC_NEWS

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 intersections to improve safety, traffic signalling to facilitate mobility as well as cycleways and sidewalks. 

MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela has issued a stern warning to service providers, that the department will no longer tolerate any form of abuse and will go to great lengths to defend, recover, and protect public resources. “In the past two years, the Department has placed focus on strengthening its built environment and project management capabilities thereby turning a tide against poor performance. 

It is further working to fast-track and complete all delayed road and transport infrastructure projects,” the MEC explained. 

The R82 is a strategic route connecting Johannesburg to the industrial hubs of Meyerton, Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark in the Sedibeng District Municipality. It also a major arterial route critical for the economic well-being and growth of the region. 

Through several engagements, the contractor was introduced to the local and business community to provide details on this project continuation as well as the K164 project. 

These also served to communicate project readiness with designs concluded and reviewed by the Department’s Design Review Committee. Engagement sessions were held with local communities, particularly those from affected wards - 5, 8, and 1 at the De Deur Primary School in Midvaal. “This ensures Department’s projects include community development programmes and initiatives to support skills transfer and economic benefit to small and emerging contractors,” said the MEC. 

Road infrastructure projects support the Department’s strategic objectives of contributing to the Province’s Growing Gauteng Together (GGT2030) through Smart Mobility. 

MISSING PRISONERS AT POLLSMOOR PRISON @KASIBC_NEWS

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 triggered immediate concern within the Department and prompted a review of the whereabouts of all three individuals.

The fact that this was ignored and not brought to the attention of the Minister points to a serious breakdown in communication between Correctional Services senior management and the Ministry. It is deeply concerning that the Department has failed to acknowledge or act upon such a critical lapse in inmate tracking and compliance with court orders.

If Timmie and Mentoor have indeed been released, Minister Groenewald should have confirmed this by now and explained what steps are being taken to ensure the safety of victims and the South African public.

The DA will continue to push for full transparency and accountability. A correctional system that cannot reliably confirm the presence or absence of sentenced prisoners is a system in crisis.

ARBITRARY CANCELLATION OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE MEETING @KASIBC_NEWS

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 overlap. 

The EFF rejects the Chairperson’s invocation of Rule 158(2)(b) of the National Assembly Rules to justify this decision. While the rule permits rescheduling, it does not grant carte blanche to undermine the Committee’s critical oversight role. This action is clearly not in the interest of the Committee’s functioning and appears designed to obstruct accountability. 

Equally concerning is the persistent absence of Minister Motshekga from oversight meetings, including the deferred Joint Standing Committee on Defence meeting on 16 May 2025 and the now-cancelled Portfolio Committee meeting. Her reported international travel during this period suggests a deliberate pattern of evading accountability for the ongoing dysfunction within the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the Department of Defence (DOD). 

The Chairperson’s actions, as a member of the African National Congress (ANC), further fuel suspicions of an orchestrated effort to protect a senior ANC member from scrutiny. 

The EFF demands immediate clarity on the following: 

1. The true reasons behind the arbitrary cancellation of the Portfolio Committee meeting. 

2. The Minister’s repeated failure to attend Portfolio Committee and Joint Standing Committee meetings. 

3. The lack of accountability for the Chairperson’s unilateral decisions and the Minister’s conduct. 

We further call on the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chair of Chairs to investigate these irregularities, including the arbitrary changes to the Committee’s programme and the Minister’s apparent avoidance of oversight processes. 

These actions erode public confidence in the Department of Defence and undermine the constitutional mandate of parliamentary oversight. 

The EFF will not stand idly by while the SANDF and DOD deteriorate under ineffective leadership and evasive governance. 

We demand transparency, accountability, and urgent action to address the crisis within our defence forces.