ISRAEL’S UNPROVOKED STRIKE ON IRAN AND IRAN’S RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENCE @KASIBC_NEWS

ISRAEL’S UNPROVOKED STRIKE ON IRAN AND IRAN’S RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENCE @KASIBC_NEWS

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) condemns the violent, provocative, and imperialist airstrike launched by the Apartheid State of Israel on the Sovereign Territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

This reckless assault has resulted in the deaths of civilians, military officials, and scientists, and marks yet another attempt by Israel to ignite full-scale war in the Middle East, with the full backing of its genocidal allies, the United States, Britain, and several other European States. 

The EFF reaffirms Iran’s legitimate and inalienable right to defend itself. No sovereign nation can be expected to sit in silence while its people are murdered and its security infrastructure destroyed. We further affirm Iran’s right to develop its own nuclear deterrent capacity, free from the coercion and double standards of the United States and Israel. 

While the United States have distanced themselves from this attack we cannot overlook their funding of weapons to Israel and their use of Israel as a proxy to maintain imperialism through instability in the Middle East. 

These nations arrogantly believe that nuclear power should remain their exclusive preserve to wage war, colonise, and commit genocide without fear of retaliation. This attack forms part of a long history of criminal aggression. Iran has shown remarkable restraint in the face of repeated provocations and unlawful assassinations by the United States and Israel. 

From the cold-blooded drone murder of General Qassem Soleimani in 2020, the killings of top Nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh also in 2020, Colonel Sayad Khoyadee in 2022; while in 2024 Israel killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, among many others. Iran has absorbed blow after blow, even while the world looked away. And in this latest strike Israel has once again murdered General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s top military commander and head of the country’s armed forces, and his deputy commander Gholamali Rashid. 

Now Israel, the clear aggressor, seeks to provoke a wider conflict under the false pretext of “self-defence,” claiming existential threat from Iran’s nuclear programme while it possesses a covert and unregulated arsenal of nuclear weapons. This is the height of hypocrisy. 

The truth is that Israel, emboldened by the United States does not fear Iranian weapons, it fears a Middle East that can no longer be bullied, occupied, or bombed with impunity. 

The EFF reiterates our call for the total isolation of the apartheid state of Israel. Israel has already been found culpable of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, and its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stands accused of orchestrating a genocide in Gaza. 

His latest crime against Iran is a continuation of this pattern, which is a desperate attempt to distract the world from the ongoing extermination of Palestinians, the destruction of Gaza, and Israel’s broader settler-colonial ambitions. 

The EFF will always stand with the oppressed against the oppressor, with the colonised against the coloniser, and with the people of the world who demand justice, not imperial control. 

We therefore encourage Iran to take any action that is necessary for them to defend their sovereignty, whatever form it takes.  

ANC RESPONDS TO AFRIFORUM CHARGES GBV-F @KASIBC_NEWS

ANC RESPONDS TO AFRIFORUM CHARGES GBV-F @KASIBC_NEWS 

The African National Congress (ANC) has noted the reported laying of charges led by AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit targeting ANC Secretary-General, Cde Fikile Mbalula. This follows public remarks made in condemnation of the rape of a seven-year-old girl at Bergview College in Matatiele. 

The ANC reaffirms its unwavering position on the crisis of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBV-F), which President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as the second pandemic devastating our society. The violation of a child is not only an act of brutality, it is a reflection of systemic failure. 

It demands outrage and urgent action. Our comments were made in that spirit to express the ANC’s collective response to this atrocity, to rally society behind justice for the survivor, and to call for institutional accountability. 

Following the public apology by the Minister of Police regarding the misidentification of an individual, the ANC responded with a formal statement acknowledging the correction and reiterating our support for the survivor and her family. This is the conduct of a movement committed to truth, accountability, and justice. AfriForum’s decision to pursue this matter is disingenuous, ideologically driven, and flawed. 

It reflects a tendency to deflect attention from the pain of victims and the responsibility we all share in building a society free of fear and violence. 

We will not apologise for speaking out in defence of the voiceless. We call on all progressive forces, including our Alliance partners, the ANC Women’s League, youth formations, religious and community organisations, to reject any effort to criminalise outrage and moral clarity in the face of GBV-F. To be silent, to be overly cautious, to apologise for speaking out, is to betray the pain of the survivor and the broader struggle against patriarchal violence. 

The ANC remains guided by the principle that justice for victims must always take precedence over the reputational sensitivities of institutions. We have full confidence in the institutions responsible for crime prevention and justice. We will not be deterred from standing up for those who cannot stand for themselves. 

The ANC reaffirms its support for our Secretary-General, Cde Fikile Mbalula, who carried the voice of millions when he said, “Enough is Enough.” We urge all to act with vigilance against those who exploit the justice system for ideological ends and threatening prosecution against those who defend what is right. 

PROGRESS TOWARDS FATF GREYLISTING REMOVAL

PROGRESS TOWARDS FATF GREYLISTING REMOVAL @KASIBC_NEWS 

PROGRESS TOWARDS FATF GREYLISTING REMOVAL 

The African National Congress (ANC) welcomes the significant progress made by the South African government in addressing the 22 action items identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) since South Africa was greylisted in 2023. This development follows the FATF’s positive report confirming that South Africa has substantially completed its action plan and now qualifies for an on-site assessment. 

This assessment will verify the implementation of reforms in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), and assess the country’s sustained political commitment to financial system integrity and transparency. 

This is a major milestone for South Africa, both domestically and internationally. It strengthens the credibility of our financial system and contributes to the global and national fight against illicit financial flows, terrorism financing, and the legacy of state capture. 

The ANC commends the sterling work and collaborative effort of the National Treasury, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), the South African Police Service (SAPS), and the State Security Agency (SSA) in realising this achievement. 

This progress not only enhances investor confidence but also affirms South Africa’s role as a serious and responsible global actor in combatting financial crimes and upholding democratic governance. As the ANC, we reaffirm our commitment to building a capable, ethical, and developmental state. 

We will continue to support government efforts to fully comply with global standards, ensuring that the country is permanently removed from the greylist and that our financial systems are protected from abuse. 

This is a victory for good governance, institutional renewal, and the people of South Africa. 

THE TRAGIC DEATH OF TETELO SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATOR @KASIBC_NEWS

THE TRAGIC DEATH OF TETELO SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATOR @KASIBC_NEWS 

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane is deeply saddened to have learned about the tragic death of a 34-year-old male educator from Tetelo Secondary School in Soweto, who was unfortunately found dead on Monday, 9 June 2025. According to reports, the educator had allegedly requested an e-hailing service on Wednesday, 4 June 2025, and subsequently went missing. It is alleged that his family was informed of his death on Monday, 9 June 2025.  

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding this incident.  Our Psycho-Social Support Unit has been dispatched to the school to provide necessary counselling to learners and educators following this traumatic loss. The deceased educator taught English and isiZulu to Grade 11 and Grade 12 learners at Tetelo Secondary School. 

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) mourns the loss of not only an educator, but a beacon of hope that was meant to empower young minds in the heart of Soweto, inspiring them to succeed beyond their capabilities. “As the Department, we are deeply saddened by the tragedy that has struck the school community of Tetelo Secondary. Educators are the architects of our children’s futures, and to have lost such an invaluable educator is a loss that ultimately alters the trajectory of our children’s futures. 

We extend our most sincerest condolences to his family, as well as the learners and fellow staff members. We share in your pain and your plea for those responsible for this senseless crime to be apprehended speedily,” said MEC Chiloane.  

THE REPATRIATION OF AFRICAN ANCESTORS' SACRED HUMAN REMAINS FROM EURO-WESTERN COUNTRIES @KASIBC_NEWS

THE REPATRIATION OF AFRICAN ANCESTORS' SACRED HUMAN REMAINS FROM EURO-WESTERN COUNTRIES @KASIBC_NEWS

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the recent call by Minister Gayton McKenzie and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) for public assistance in identifying the remains of South Africans who died in exile during the anti-apartheid struggle. These include liberation fighters, cultural icons, visual artists and indigenous peoples whose mortal remains lie in unmarked graves on foreign soil, despite their contributions to the freedom we all enjoy today. 

While the EFF fully supports the repatriation of our heroes and heroines for dignified reburial on home soil, we are deeply concerned by what appears to be performative posturing by the Minister. The issue of ancestral repatriation is not symbolic it is a matter of national identity, redress, and historical justice. 

On 24 November 2024, the EFF formally submitted to the Minister detailed information on the grave site of William "Bloke" Modisane, a towering literary figure of the Drum era who passed away on 1 March 1986 in Dortmund, Germany. 

We requested a clear plan and timeline for his repatriation. To date eight (8) months later his remains have not been returned. In the same month, we alerted the Minister to the historical theft of five (5) full human skeletons from graves in Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape (EC), which were taken to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) around 1910 and later shipped to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. under the racist "skull-for-a-skull" exchange program between the two museums. 

These remains, stolen for pseudo scientific race research practice sought to undermine black people’s human dignity, have yet to be returned. Furthermore, the DSAC is called upon to work closely with the National Prosecution Authority Missing in Action Task Team to bring closure to the fallen heroes of the Wankie/Spolilo Campaign in Zimbabwe. 

The families have not been visited nor closure brought to them. There was never compensation to the families of those gallant fighters to date nor a symbolic return from the battlefield of their spirits. Additionally, the family of Comrade Modikwa Frans Ratsoma (MK Phooka) and many others who fought alongside the ZIPRA/MK Luthuli detachment in the 1968 battles are awaiting with eager for information on the spot where their bones are buried in shallow graves made by the white Rhodesian security forces. 

The continued inaction and tangible outcomes on all these matters and others similar to them reflects a failure of leadership and seriousness. We call on the Minister to treat the repatriation of ancestral remains as a matter of urgency, not ceremony. 

We further urge all museums in South Africa that still house human remains of African ancestors, whether collected ethically or unethically, to return these remains to their rightful communities and families. It is deeply disturbing that institutions such as Iziko Museums of South Africa one of the oldest museums in the country continue to hold 1,266 human remains in their collection. Of these, 225 are ancestral remains that were unethically collected from across South Africa (particularly the Northern Cape), as well as Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Australia for pseudo race scientific purposes. 

 The continued possession of these sacred remains of African people is a stark reminder of the colonial violations that dehumanised indigenous African peoples, and it demands urgent redress. This constitutes a crime against humanity, and institutions such as this along with others who engaged in similar nefarious practices must be held accountable for the historical and ongoing violations they have committed against African people. 

Colonial institutions must no longer serve as custodians of our ancestors, treating their remains as objects of scientific curiosity. It is unacceptable that colonial institutions, such as museums, continue to imprison the mortal remains of our ancestors treated as ‘specimens’ under discredited pseudo-scientific race theories that sought to depict African people as subhuman and justify colonial brutality. 

We must reject, unequivocally, the indignity of our ancestors being reduced to ‘objects’ of scientific curiosity, denied the humanity and reverence they deserve. True freedom and justice remain incomplete while African ancestral remains languish in display cases and storage vaults of museums, ‘scientific’ institutions and universities, both in this country and abroad. We say: never again shall our dignity be compromised by institutions that once legitimised the violence and dehumanisation of our people. 

The era of storing African ancestor’s sacred human remains in glass cabinets must end, now and museums must be decolonised, by hook or by crook. True freedom and dignity cannot exist while the remains of our forebears languish in museological prisons born of discredited race science. 

Repatriation is not a symbolic act it is a necessary restoration of humanity, dignity, and sovereignty. 

The EFF demands immediate and measurable action from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Our ancestors must come home.  

MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE TSHWANE SPEAKER MNCEDI NDZWANANA @KASIBC_NEWS

MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE TSHWANE SPEAKER MNCEDI NDZWANANA @KASIBC_NEWS 

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Tshwane has resolved that it will bring a Motion of No Confidence (MoNC) against Speaker of Council Cllr Mncedi Ndzwanana, during the Council Meeting of 26 June 2025.

Since 2023, Tshwane’s Council Chamber, which is meant to serve as a beacon of democracy, has been subjected to the tyranny of a Speaker of Council, who runs it like a dictator, who views Councillors as his subjects.

He makes his rulings based on emotion, and neither logic nor the rules of Council. Due to this attitude, Councillors cannot participate in meetings as equal peers.

His discriminatory behaviour has reached a point where parties outside of the governing coalition do not have a fair say or hearing for that matter, in Council meetings. The speaker has developed a disposition to dismiss all propositions of the DA Caucus, as legally and rationally sound as they may be, these include:

Points of order;

Requests for deliberation on reports and amendments to reports;

Recommendations; and

Motions brought before Council especially when they do not favour his coalition partners.

At the Council meeting of 29 May 2025, the DA Caucus expressed its dissent with a report tabled to the Council on the establishment of the Economic Growth Advisory Committee, to which it argued, was replicating the work of many other committees already in existence. 

We requested for a vote on the report, in terms of Section 39 of the Rules and Orders By-Laws (2012). The Speaker denied the DA Caucus the opportunity to exercise its right to vote. Endorsing this report was not only unethical, but an additional cost burden for the city.

Furthermore, at the Council meeting of 24 April 2025, the Speaker denied the DA the opportunity to debate motions brought before Council, even with it having fulfilled all the requirements as per the Rules and Orders By-Laws of Council. Subsequent to that, in the very same Council meeting, the Speaker acceded to having ruled incorrectly with regards to the debating of the motions. He is both indecisive and impulsive.

The Speaker has been at the helm of a new administration that brought oversight to a complete halt towards the end of 2024. For a period of almost four (4) months, committee meetings of Council failed to take place, either being postponed or cancelled. It was only after the DA’s public outcry in this regard, that some sort of stability prevailed and committee meetings were resuscitated in February 2025.

How are democratically elected public representatives expected to represent their constituencies, when their voices are being stifled? This is not symbolic of representative democracy; it is tantamount to censorship. We will remove the Speaker, and restore democracy to Tshwane’s Council chamber.

Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Nasiphi Moya on Menopause @KASIBC_NEWS

Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Nasiphi Moya on Menopause @KASIBC_NEWS 

The ANC Women’s League is appalled by the statement made by the ANC Youth League in Greater Tshwane Region, and strongly condemns the impertinent and imprudent “invocation of menopause as a metaphor for political atavism and reactionary regression by the ANC Youth League”. Such language is not only scientifically and socially flawed but also deeply disrespectful to the lived experiences of women, particularly within our movement, which champions equality, dignity and progressive discourse. Chapter two (2) of the South African Constitution guarantees the right to human dignity and the extent to which the right is protected is limitless, and the ANCWL subscribes to the principles of non-sexism and opposed to all forms of discrimination and chauvinism. 

Irrespective of our anger and dissatisfaction on various issues we differ upon, it is impolite to vulgarise the reproductive cycle of women. Menopause is a natural biological transition, representing wisdom, experience, and strength - qualities that should be celebrated, not disparaged. To use it as a means of demeaning an individual, borders on the lines of ill-discipline and disrespect for our elders and women in general. It also undermines the struggle for gender equity and reinforces harmful stereotypes that have no place in a progressive and democratic society. 

This type of behaviour wreaks of patriarchal behaviour, that’s borne out of a demonic patriarchal system that has a negative impact on the well-being of our women. Many women sacrificed everything to break the chains of patriarchy, and if it can't be corrected today, all those efforts will be undermined and reduced to derogatory and misogyny. 

Whilst we appreciate the withdrawal of the ANCYL paragraph five (5) as stated in their selective apology, we are concerned about the uncouth language used in the statement. We frown on the behaviour and the obscene literature which stands against our upbringing and the moral fibre of our movement and society. 

The ANC Youth League has a revolutionary duty to define their own path, in an endeavour to equip young people with the necessary expertise in a rapidly changing economic landscape, however the ANCWL encourages civility and demeanour in addressing these pertinent matters. 

We cannot therefore condone the use of crude words to describe the Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Nasiphi Moya and Cde Morakane Mosupye, especially when we celebrate a month where young people of yesteryear played a significant role in shaping a new political trajectory through the 1976 June uprising.  

We are equally bewildered with the statement issued by the Young Women’s Desk (YWD) in Tshwane which further exacerbated the unrefined pronouncement on the dignity of Cde Morakane Mosupye, and we want to categorically state that none of our structures has commissioned such discourse. 

The ANCWL unreservedly extend our heartfelt apologies to Cde Morakane Mosupye on the assertions made by the YWD from Tshwane, which approximate to malicious intent to harm her personal integrity. The Young Women’s Desk continues to be a “desk” of the ANC Women’s League and its purpose of existence remains that of amplifying the voice of young people in pursuit of the struggle for the total emancipation of women from an inherently patriarchal society. 

Therefore, the indecorum which departs from the adopted organisational principles and culture of the ANC Women’s League is tantamount to unethical and immoral conduct which detracts from the character, values and integrity of our movement. In consequence of the deviation from the good character that defines our movement, the ANC Women’s League has directed the Young Women’s Desk in Tshwane to withdraw its statement, and issue a public apology. We further encourage these young people to seek counsel to confront future political discourse. 

The ANC Women’s League remains committed to the battle of ideas which upholds the values of inclusivity, respect, and meaningful engagement in pursuit of the democratic ideals we stand for and advancing gender equality. We will continue to speak out against any form of sexist and/or disrespectful language that undermines the dignity of women. 

We urge the Youth League to apologize without reservations for their comments and to demonstrate greater sensitivity in future communications. In the seventieth (70) year of the Freedom Charter let us draw inspiration from the 1955 generation of volunteers who devoted their lives in pursuance of social justice, equality and human rights for all.