Weekly Wrap 22 May: Madlanga, NSFAS, Joburg Crisis, NHI, Ramaphosa Phala Phala, Boreholes, SANRAL

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:05]Hi there folks. I'm Wayne Duvenage and this is Outer's weekly rap for the 22nd of May now uh 2026. And this is as you know where we take a hard-hitting look at key developments in the space of public accountability, governance and corruption in South Africa. But I want to take a moment to acknowledge the growing engagement on this channel and and we really do appreciate the support and the views and the robust discussion happening in the comments section every week. But South Africans are frustrated of that. We no doubt we're concerned and we're just looking for answers and and that conversation matters. But what we want to be clear about is that while out is an organization that fights for better South Africa for all its citizens, for all South Africans. And so we when we do this and when we engage in these platforms and channels, we do not support racism. We do not support racial hostility and comments that seek to divide people along racial and ethnic lines.

[00:01:13]some of the commentary we've seen lately just doesn't align with the values that we stand for as an organization. And so, you know, it's important that we do recognize people are welcome to disagree and healthy debate is important, but we need to keep the discussion constructive and respectful and focused on what matters when it comes to accountability and governance and solutions in this country. South Africa's problems are serious enough without us turning on each other, please. So we just want to reiterate that you know our rich cultural diversity in South Africa is a unique success of ours.

[00:01:52]Research shows that we are more united as a people and as a nation than our politicians and others would like us to believe. So let's cherish that. And on another note is not anti-government.

[00:02:06]We are anti- bad government. We are anti-corruption.

[00:02:11]We are anti- government that doesn't take the abuse of power seriously and service delivery to the extent that it should in this country. That's our question. We're not anti-government. We are for good government, good governance. So, let's jump into this week's uh developments which uh will cover quite a lot of things. There's a lot to talk about this week. could start off with obviously uh uh the pertinent stuff unfolding at the Madlanga Commission. Uh a big uh uh issue this week is the uh Joeberg uh uh mayor's state of the city address. Um and then there's some other very important uh matters that have come out this week which we think you need to know about.

[00:02:53]So let's get into it and kick off as we always do with the pertinent stuff coming out of of the Madlaga Commission.

[00:03:01]uh was relatively quiet this week on the back of Brown Makutz's arrest where he was supposed to be giving testimony a lot of the time this week. Now, I don't know if you know, we'll obviously give some background again to Brown Makotzi.

[00:03:15]He he's a central figure in the allegations of corruption and political interference and organized criminal influence within parts of the the criminal justice system. And he was arrested uh at the end of last week, Friday the 15th of May. But this specific arrest is not related to stuff coming out of the Madlanga Commission. I mean there there are links to some extent but but um it was because the police alleged that he fabricated an assassination attempt on his life in Forsler in in November last year. I don't know if you remember that story.

[00:03:49]Uh the police are saying this is a clear case of defeating the ends of justice.

[00:03:53]And in addition, they claim that ballistic evidence presented in court links the firearms used in that incident to previous violent crimes, including a 2021 robbery and an attempted hijacking case in Rudaport.

[00:04:10]Oh, the mind boggles. This is the stuff that crime buster movies are made of.

[00:04:16]But we must remind you that also Makozi has emerged as one of the most politically sensitive witnesses at the Madlanga Commission. He describes himself as just merely a politically connected intermediary and an informal SAPs intelligence source, but he has repeatedly been linked to allegations involving police interference, tender manipulation, access to confidential information, and a lot of other things.

[00:04:43]uh largely linked to his close relationships uh with business people and business people's dealings with politicians and police officials and organized crime figures like Fousimuzi Kat Matlala. So he's a very very uh important character and individual in this whole debacle and unfolding at Madlanga commission. But his arrest was also significant because it raises deeper questions about how politically connected intermediaries uh are able to gain influence with policing and procurement systems while simultaneously uh positioning themselves as informants and just fixers and uh or just victims of crimes that they were not really supposed to be involved in.

[00:05:27]But in another uh uh related development, Vousimuzi Kat Matlala uh this week asked for leniency in exchange for tender information. Now I mean if you don't know Vuzy Muzi Kat Matlala is also a controversial businessman also allegedly linked as as an organized crime figure whose name continuously appears and is mentioned in the proceedings at the Madlanga Commission.

[00:05:56]So, so here he is. He is seeking leniency from the authorities in exchange for good information. Wow.

[00:06:03]Imagine the the authorities want that information. And remember, he's linked to this uh almost 230 million rand SAPs um tender investigation to which there has also been the recent arrest of several senior SAPs officials as well as the national commissioner Fi Masamola.

[00:06:24]So, let's remember too that Madla is currently in custody in connection with the attempted murder case relating to the shooting of an influential taxi boss known as Joe Cibanyani or Ferrari as his nickname is. This happened in 2022.

[00:06:44]uh and it's an alleged uh that that there was this power struggle and there has been these power struggles and we see them uh reported on very often across the country between organized crime networks where taxi uh um bosses are linked to uh uh corruption and crime that takes place uh so often and and and invariably also linked to to to assassinations. Um it is quite frankly an underworld of of of of proportions that uh really should we should not be reading about in this country. Kat Metl is also accused of extortion and drug trafficking and hijackings and contract killings and his close relationships with politicians and police officials and business figures does no favors to those individuals and that's what's coming out and that's why these arrests are happening. So I guess you know when you are so deeply implicated in a number of serious criminal transgressions the only option now for him is to seek some leniency uh by cooperating with uh with the uh police with the prosecutors and providing some very very valuable insider information.

[00:07:58]And this is the stuff that we in civil society love to hear. again uh you know this is this is this is what happens when thieves turn on each other. uh really really good top-grade documentary and movie making material unfolding here but to another chapter and and and and again now this is also linked to Joe Ferrari Siboni's u um saga and that is uh unfolding this week uh raised questions about inefficiencies and possible corruption links to a prosecutor who failed to arrive in court to provide uh input uh in the case against CBA Um, let's turn to more issues relating to cases that are involving Joe Sibani.

[00:08:46]And this time it also includes his two co-acused accompllices uh Vimi Masella and Filimon Caesar. Now they were all in court this week and their case was struck off the role after state prosecutor and Taba failed to appear in the Quaantine magistrate's court during the bail proceedings. What happened here was that the magistrate found in Taba in contempt of court and issued a warrant for his arrest. But later reports have come out that the prosecutor failed to attend the court proceedings because of his of fears for his life and death threats that he's been receiving. This is serious stuff and we cannot have prosecutors not arriving in court because of those types of threats and they are real threats. So we'll have to see what unfolds. The NPA we are told is looking into this matter and these claims and obviously going to take the necessary corrective action. Uh but yeah, I mean the the the plot just thickens when you hear about all the interlinking individuals and people that are involved and coming out of Midlunga Commission and arrests that are linked but maybe not even linked to to the stuff that's coming out there. It really is just a minefield of of information.

[00:10:00]But it shows the extent to which uh corruption and interference and and uh crime syndicates have permeated government are really wreaking havoc in this country and taking g you know giving rise to a lot of strain on the criminal justice system.

[00:10:18]Um just to just to delve a little bit deeper into this matter though uh you know his arrest by the special task force that is of Sibanyani and his accompllices was related to uh uh their involvement in extortion. Uh they are allegedly responsible for extorting 2 million rand in protection fees from a mining magnate and mining businessman.

[00:10:40]Um, and they allegedly threatened to shut down his operations unless uh uh he paid them this protection money. And when he just couldn't keep on paying because they just kept extorting and storing, uh, this matter um was one that this businessman just had to go to the police eventually and report it. And and that's given the rise to to to their arrest as well. And and this case um that is unfolding in the Quaka court.

[00:11:08]Now to a story that could possibly see charges laid against former road accident fund CEO Collins Leo and several board members. And this comes uh after findings by the special investigations unit into governance failures and procurement irregularities and alleged financial misconduct at this embattled road accident fund state entity. What's important here is that the SIU's investigations reportedly uncovered uh evidence of of irregular contracts and questionable expenditure and possible violations of the Public Finance Management Act during Leo's tender or tenure. Um and the the matter now has been referred to the NPA and other law enforcement agencies for potential crime prosecutions and further actions. This is good. This is so long overdue. I think Litzu was just left in the RA for far too long and so many problems have unfolded during his tenure. And amongst some of those um um matters uh is the uh decision related to procurement irregularities. But one of them that's attracted our attention is a 79 million rand five-year property lease scandal with Moana Properties. Now, Moana Properties is a an entity that has come up in our investigations in other government uh uh premises leases, and so we're watching this with uh with interest. But there's a host of uh dubious legal service uh arrangements uh or service provider arrangements that Litzalla entered into and other operational contracts that just bypassed proper governance processes. So many many will know if you've been following the story on the RAF the road accident fund is that it has been years of of controversy under under Leo's leadership. We for one certainly can't wait for accountability to flow against those implicated in the destruction and the decay of this very very important state entity.

[00:13:12]Now to another story. Uh, and this one involves the King Gambling Board where this week we learned that its CEO Karab Bomble was dismissed following findings of gross misconduct linked to governance and procurement irregularities uh, inside the provincial gambling regulator. We also know that the gambling board's CFO Oscar Maripani also appears to be fingered in a report and has been suspended. Um and and this suspension pertains to to other irregularities and related irregularities. So yeah, I mean this is just it's another layer of government.

[00:13:50]This is in the provincial space now. And uh what we know is that Belle's dismissal uh follows internal disciplinary process after these allegations emerged around these governance failures and this alleged abuse of authority. But what you need to know is that the Ken Gambling Board plays a significant regulatory role in overseeing gambling licenses and betting operations and compliance within you know South Africa's largest gambling market. And simply put um gambling regulations sit at the intersection of public revenue. Uh it sits in the at the intersection of licensing power and politically connected business interests. So it's against this backdrop where when you get weak governance and compromised oversight inside a gambling authority, it gives rise to opportunities for corruption, for preferential treatment and manipulation of these licensing processes. So the questions we're actually asking are is this a good news story? You know, finally we are starting to see some accountability and action taken uh against people in positions of power and oversight where the authority has been abused or is this a case of dismissal being one that has political uh tones and undertones to it where the where the decision is possibly induced because of her conduct or decisions that aren't necessarily in favor of people or certain people or networks that are connected to top positions of power.

[00:15:26]Those are the questions that often arise when people are suspended. Uh and we got to look deeper. Society needs to look deeper and people need to under understand what is the background to this? What was the conduct? Why was she appointed in the first place? Has she been doing good work in this area or is this just another politically motivated sidelining of somebody who just wasn't carrying out the favors that should have been carried out? We see a lot of that in government. We see a lot of that in government appointments and dismissals.

[00:15:57]Let's see what unfolds in that story over time. Let's move now to a story that just never ceases to end. It's seemingly ongoing for years now, and that is the ongoing saga and the challenges uh uh coming out of the National Student Finance Aid Scheme known as NESF or NSFAS. Um and it also relates to By Manamela the Minister of High Education's decisions uh recently undertaken in that regard. Now last week we saw uh Buddhy Manamela and a lastm minute cancellation of a scheduled appearance before parliament um and this has heightened the tensions around the growing governance crisis at NSF. You see, the parliamentary oversight committee meeting was expected to focus on mounting concerns around Manamela's decision to disband the board. He recently disbanded and he placed the ENT entity under administration. This is the second time it's gone under administration in two years. More worryingly worryingly though to us is is is the fact that the minister appointed Mr. Sangani Matibullah as the new NSF administrator. Now get this. Mataba was a high ranking executive at SARS from 2014 to 2017 under Tom Moyani. You remember Tom Moyani? Yeah. One of the Zuma acolytes that just created chaos in SARS. Um and and uh Matibullah was was he exited SARS amidst a significant amount of governance controversies. He was heavily criticized by the Nent Commission. They found that he had failed in his core governance duties at SARS uh where he was appointed in 2012 by Mayani. Um so what happened was Matibullah was suspended uh by SARS officials in July 2017 and he was about to undergo disciplinary inquiry when he was allowed to exit through a separation agreement the following month. This enabled him to escape the outcome of an inquiry into his conduct. So that on its own doesn't make him guilty but it raises a lot of questions around his appointment now at NSF. If a nugent inquiry raised serious concerns around governance issues why I ask you why and I ask Mr. Mamela, why are you approving such appointments when there's so much going wrong in this domain? There is such instability at NSF. There's such instability at high education across the board and in the seaters uh and we go and make these types of appointments.

[00:18:40]And adding fuel to the fire is this alleged secretive meeting that the minister held with selected NSF board members. These are the outgoing board members that were recently disbanded uh when he put NSF uh into administration.

[00:18:55]I mean this is just simply wrong. It's outside of the formally constituted board processes. Uh and here we have a situation where board members were instructed not to bring their cell phones into the meeting most likely so that he could prevent any recordings taken thereof. But this is highly irregular. Now the department um uh you know needs to uh be grilled on this matter. Uh they need to find out exactly what's going on and and what we are hearing is that Matabula who is the newly appointed administrator is also being accused of miscommunicating and blocking the ability for some of these uh disbanded board members from attending Parliament's inquiry into the debacle that's unfolding here.

[00:19:39]So it makes sense that MPs and opposition parties get angry and and and react the way they do when a meeting is suddenly cancelled and they accuse the Minister Manamela and his department of avoiding accountability and rightly so, especially at a critical moment in this institution's developments. We believe that the Parliamentary Committee on High Education has rescheduled this meeting.

[00:20:04]This is good. It's going to happen next week and they have instructed the minister now and his cohorts to attend.

[00:20:10]They need to be there and we're going to have to see what transpires because this is a story that we have been following closely for a long time and will continue to follow and expose the rampant maladministration and corruption that has been taking place and still unfolding uh across a number of institutions within high education. Now to another serious issue pertaining to a court decision this week that has put a spanner in the works of government's national health insurance scheme abbreviated as everybody may have heard in the past NHI the NHI scheme but before I do go into this story can I ask that you just take a minute to click uh the like button and subscribe tabs in the links below and share this podcast if you like it with others that you believe will enjoy uh the the the content that comes out of these discussions uh and the drive that we have around uh active citizenry and the important insights that pertain to accountability and the quest uh in our search to halt the incessant abuse of power that happens in South Africa and in the public sector specifically. So this week we heard of a judgment by the Khen High Court that key provisions in the National Health Act were deemed as unconstitutional and this rules that uh certain aspects of the NHI legislation have are unlawful and they give unlawful uh centralized power to the office of the health minister. uh so this is a good development and the ruling specifically targets the provisions that that gives the health minister in this case Dr. Aron Mozeli extensive authority over certification and control of health establishments without sufficient provisional oversight and constitutional safeguards. And more worryingly is that despite this judgment, government has insisted that the ruling will not derail its broader NHI agenda and says that it intends to appeal this decision and it will continue to implement its plans.

[00:22:18]Now there's no disputing the fact that we need to address the dismal access to health by millions of South Africans across the country. But what really gets our goat is this irrational and arrogant and misinformed attitude by government and and in particular to Minister Mozi when it comes to this NHI crisis.

[00:22:39]The judgment is is also important because it reinforces growing legal constitutional concerns around this concentration of healthcare decision-making powers under the proposed NHI framework. And critics have repeatedly warned that while South Africa urgently needs universal health care reform, the current NHI model risks creating an over centralized financially unstandable system that is vulnerable to corruption, procurement, abuse, and state capture. And you know, we've seen this movie in the past. We've seen it play out so many times. Be it ETLs, be it the state of disaster on electricity, be it R2 or new nuclear energy plant decisions and so many other times where government has this attitude that if it simply forces new legislation down the throat of society, everything else will just fall into place and everything's going to work. You know, legislation doesn't make administration any better if it is unenforcable, if it's impractical, if it's too costly, if it is administratively burdensome, and it just doesn't work. And the sad thing is that no matter how much research and opinions uh and and input given by society and and and research houses and organizations that do a lot of good work in this space in many sectors across the country, no matter how much good work they do, government just simply forges ahead. It ignores this input and then they get angry and miffed with society and and business when when they are taken to court and they lose these court cases. You know, civil society and business doesn't have the desire to just go to court willy-nilly.

[00:24:29]The court is the last resort of civil society when it comes to challenging government's gross maladministration quite frankly and their inability to introduce systems that make sense and are in the best interest of society. So please Mr. Milei, wind your neck in.

[00:24:46]Stop getting angry with civil society and and and business when they try and show you and tell you slow down, get this right, do it properly, and together we can deal with the health crisis in this country. But if you want to just forge ahead and not take this input into account, well, you're going to get taken on. You're going to get taken to court and you're going to fail more likely than not if you don't change your attitude.

[00:25:14]So the broader institutional question now is whether government is willing to reform its current health care governance structures meaningfully before trying to uh you know implement the centralized and greater control and power that rests in the hands of one individual over the country's most financially and socially critical sectors health. This debacle is far from over and the sooner that Mutili ex, you know, just extracts his head out of the sand and conducts meaningful engagements with his critics on this plan, the sooner we may start finding a solution to this decade old saga. It is really sad.

[00:25:59]Now to another story that got a lot of people contacting out. It's one that emanated from Minister of Transport Barbara Cesy's uh uh recent um budget vote in parliament uh and and and it indicated therein that Sanrol is considering uh the introduction of more tolls to cover the the cost of road financing. Now when you hear Sanrol and tolls in the same sentence, people immediately read this as oh ETLS is becoming a new reality for South Africa.

[00:26:29]But that's not the case. The short answer is that will not happen. ETLs uh will never be able to be implemented in this country. And I'll tell you why.

[00:26:40]And sadly because it works in other countries. Uh that technology works and it's a good one. But in this country, a drive now and pay later scheme is dead and buried and will ever forever be the case because uh the technology and the processes that are required to make these systems work just do not exist in this country. You need to have a a a a number of systems that are integrated with efficiencies and when it comes down to enforcement, they need to be very very clear and accurate. And that's not the case, especially for complex systems of this nature. And sadly so because because we really should be able to introduce efficiencies in systems of this nature when it comes to road financing. But what we don't need is schemes that are hatched uh with other agendas at play, corrupt agendas uh and and you know excessive financing schemes because what we see so often in government is they're able to build these empires that make a lot of money and then they find creative ways to spend it. So what Minister Cesy was actually alluding to is that uh uh the introduction of normal conventional boom down toll plazes is what they're talking about and that is not a drive now pay later scheme. That is 100% collection at the point of intersection because the booms don't lift unless you pay. And we are aware of these toll plazas around the country. They've been here for many years long before ETLs uh tried to be forced down our throats. Um and uh you you must know and imagine that you cannot put an urban a boom down toll plaza uh situation in in urban roads.

[00:28:22]They just create far too much congestion especially at peak travel times. Uh so it's not going to feature in our urban roads. So what we're talking about is that um is that uh we are dealing with trying to or governments trying to deal with getting more money and putting more conventional tolls on a number of the routes uh that it has inherited especially from provinces who've been unable to maintain many of the roads that they've been given just due I think to waste corruption and ineptitude. So as a consequence what's happened is Sanrol has inherited a lot of these roads. has almost doubled their their doubled their uh number of kilometers that they've had to look after uh uh since since its inception uh three decades ago. And this means that it needs more money to manage its bigger portfolio. And some of these funds uh government is indicating is going to have to come from new toll plaza erection of new toll plazas on some of these provincial roads. Now on the face of it probably makes sense. Um but what doesn't make sense is when there's a lack of transparency pertaining to these tolling mechanisms and more so and we've been raising this in the past and I'll tell you why we're going to raise it again is that when you have toll concessions and contracts that Samuel has entered into and there's a lack of transparency there well then we have some serious problems and this is something that has been fighting in court for several years now just to get information that rightfully is should be available to you and in the public. It involves us asking Sanrol to give us uh the numbers of the revenue collected at all the toll plazas around the country since inception. Why is that important?

[00:30:07]Well, when you've got a concession, we need to know how much money they're making. Concessions operate not uh as secret entities or secret public private partnerships. And we got nothing wrong with public private partnerships and concessions. It's when there's a lack of transparency around the money that they make. Get this. Since those concessions, which are now nearing three decades old, the three concessions are N3TC, track, and BUA.

[00:30:36]three decades ago. I can tell you that so much, you know, so much uh uh um stuff and and and transport moved on rail in those early days when those concessions were issued and that has moved to road as a result of the collapse of uh transnet and and and our rail infrastructure across the country.

[00:30:56]And so what's happened is that the revenues have shot through the roof. On top of that, there's they've been receiving every year the CPI increases.

[00:31:04]So what we need to see is well how much money is going there? Yes, they're entitled to make profits, reasonable profits, but if they're not, if they're excessive, then we have a problem with that. And you know what happens when we ask these questions of information which should be available to us and we get push back and we get uh this gross lack of transparency and have to go to court to get information. You must know those are red flags. As we've always said that, you know, transparency is the enemy of corruption and gross enrichment schemes. Why do you think they don't want us to know this information? Just go figure. We're not going to drop this.

[00:31:44]We're going to keep fighting for this information. So, now moving to the big story this week, especially for those who live in Johannesburg, was that of Joeberg City Mayor Dada Morera's state of the city address on Wednesday. I I just don't know how to describe this other than, you know, I thought if I closed my eyes and was listening to somebody speaking in an Australian accent, he might have been the mayor of Sydney or Brisbane, just describing how wellrun the city is. I mean, this mayor of ours is nothing short of delusional when he makes references to Joberg as a performing city built on a solid foundation. and and and then we hear these, you know, re regurgitated utterances of of of this worldclass African city slogan. It's just it's diabolical. I mean, I don't know his I don't know how much he pays his speech writers. Um because you know when you tell your speech writers to write a speech that makes him and the city look good when in actual fact it's far from that. Uh it just sets him up for failure. It sets him up to sound like a buffoon really. It's it's quite and I'm going to give you some some examples of this in his speech. uh you know in the in in in his case the state of the city speech was nothing short of an attack on the intelligence of the residents and business owners in South Africa. Um the his speech writers were were clearly tasked to find statistics that show how uh where Joberg outperforms the city of Cape Town for instance and and uh and in so doing he's just really has displayed his complete ignorance for what he was actually trying to say. Ju take a listen to his claim that Joberg remains the primary health care of choice. Just listen to what he said in his speech here.

[00:33:42]>> Trust the health care services in Johannesburg.

[00:33:49]Our scientific answer is yes.

[00:33:53]Once again, once again, statistics South Africa tells us that more people are in private medical aid schemes in Cape Town than in Johannesburg.

[00:34:16]These results are most common in the city of Tuani at 29.6% and Cape Town at 27.5% and whereas in Johannesburg is 18.6%.

[00:34:38]This demonstrate that majority of our residents have not checked out of our public health care system.

[00:34:48]Therefore, our clinics are properly ran.

[00:34:55]Jobeck remains the primary health care of choice.

[00:35:01]This is a signal that indeed our foundation is solid.

[00:35:07]>> So what he's implying is that because there are more people as a percentage of the population living in Cape Town that are on medical aid schemes, this is 27.5% according to stats SA compared to only 18.6% of people living in Johannesburg being on medical aid schemes. He suggests that this is evidence that more people living in Joberg prefer to check into government health care facilities in Johannesburg as opposed to private healthcare facilities. In other words, he says Joberg remains this primary healthcare of choice and that's a signal that uh they have this foundation which is solid and that people love what's going on in Johannesburg. I mean seriously Mr. Morero, even by kindergarten standards, this is a pathetic deduction. And let me also remind you, Mr. Morera, that even if by some remote chance that this was the case, which it isn't, the health care system that you're referring to is one that's provided for and budgeted by the province of Khen, not by the city that you oversee. So you really do make a fool of yourself and you really try uh to you know think that we are fools when you speak like this. You see the lived reality in this city is it is one that is in serious financial debt to the extent that it has never been in the past. The city's potholes and road surfacing program is the worst that it's ever been. Just ask your residents and motorists for the facts, not what your script writers and speech writers are trying to suck out of a system which feeds you and everybody false information. Just look at the road markings and lines that have disappeared and faded. And this is cheap stuff, quick stuff that you can fix. and it create the danger on our roads when you don't do road markings properly and have these massive potholes and traffic lights that don't work and these excessive outages which are just playing havoc and wreaking havoc with our productivity in this city and you try and compare the state of Joeberg to Cape Town, this is like trying to compare a broken fy car to a luxury sedan. I mean it's just crazy what you're trying to do. Joberg's average collection rate is not above 90% as you make it out to be.

[00:37:35]You may hit that in one month because of bad collections in the previous month or during the Easter period, but the reality is the average is well below where it should be or well below where it was 10 years ago. You're not collecting the money properly because your systems are failing you because your people, your leadership and your management is failing you. And you know when Dorera says that the city has an 86% resolution rate of service delivery matters that are escalated to the city and this is done within a six-w week period. What is what does he mean by that? I mean in is it in a specific six week period uh to which he is referring to the so-called 724 service delivery cases that were processed.

[00:38:22]Uh and and and is he saying that the service or the city has only received 724 service delivery complaints in the past year that that that were resolved 86% of them? What are we what is he actually saying here? Because what we can tell you, Mr. Mayor, is that the the the information that you're extracting from your your your infrastructure resolution and your service delivery resol is false. It's false information. We speak to residents and I've personally experienced it where you where you report a street light out and the next day you get a message back, a little SMS saying, "Thank you for reporting this. The the matter has been resolved and it hasn't." And then you report it again, you get the same message 24 hours later. So this is your people inside the system playing with the system just clicking away and saying, "Yep, it's fixed. It's fixed.

[00:39:15]It's fixed." But it's not fixed. nothing is actually being done or very little is being done.

[00:39:22]So I would hazard a guess that credible research will show you that people disagree with you emphatically when you talk about service delivery being above par or at acceptable levels. You really are misleading the country when you give a state of the city address in the manner that you did on Wednesday. and you really did skate around the real elephant in the room which is this rising debt to Eskim. uh you know you have been placed on terms and you've broken those agreements and those terms and then you just play this down as yeah but we're in a bit of financial difficulty and and then when asked the question well do you think that Eskim will shut the power down as they are threatening to do so your glib response is they won't do that they're not going to do that you're quick to tell us that they will never do that well I guess you might be correct there because you know from a political stance point of It would be suicide for the ANC if they did. So when push comes to shove, I think I think Morera knows that Eskim's political masters will not allow them to switch off the electricity. This is just not going to be good for votes in six months time at their local elections.

[00:40:39]So the problem is that Dorera and his administrators will switch off your electricity if you don't pay very quickly. But they don't believe they have to pay their bills. They don't believe that they have to uh honor their agreements that they've entered into their electricity supplies. And this is the this is the fork tongue and double standards that Morera and so many politicians speak of and and and and continue to to shed this information, this absolute tr society. And we are and we supposed to just suck it up and believe it really.

[00:41:18]I guess though what is going to happen and is happening is that the bonuses and the increases that these city administrators and managers are going to pay themselves is definitely going to happen because on the back of these so-called great outcomes of service delivery they are exceeding or meeting their performance targets.

[00:41:42]H you know I don't know the mind boggles but but you know Morera's speech on the state of the city was just nothing more than a fast and quite frankly the sooner that Morera exits the corridors of power in the city of Johannesburg the better.

[00:41:57]In fact, in fact, I think some would say, and I probably even agree, that the previous mayor they chose for the city of Joberg, Cabela Guamanda, remember him from Aljamar, he was probably a better mayor than Morera. And he too was a disaster.

[00:42:14]But anyway, I just get frustrated and cross and angry when I hear the name Morera and speak about it. So, let's just put that aside. Let's see how he manages this 5.2 two billion rand debt with Eskim and how these threats to cut the lights are going to be played out because this is serious stuff and it matters a lot to the people of of South Africa and uh particularly in in in in Keng and in Johannesburg the city collects money from its residents and the city doesn't pay it over to Eskim.

[00:42:46]That's wrong. That's just simply wrong and that's the sign of failing leadership, failing management. So over to um more challenges that are coming our way is the speculation that we're probably going to get an interest rate hike of 25 basis points. This is going to push the rate repo rate up to 7% and it is a matter that's really out of uh our hands. I think the Reserve Bank is acting responsibly when our inflation rate uh starts pushing above the uh 3% target that they've uh that they've set uh for the country. it's now uh edging closer to and going to probably go over 4% and this is largely driven by the higher fuel prices and energy costs as a result also largely to the geopolitical wars in the Middle East. Um this is our reality but it makes life tougher for everybody in the country which is why government needs to focus more and more on how can we reduce cost to society and taxes and they simply don't seem to have that mindset.

[00:43:48]We also learned this week that Sil Raapor's legal team is pressing ahead uh with plans to challenge the parliament's section 89 independent report uh or the independent panel report um wherein it was suggested that there was enough evidence to begin an impeachment process against him and and and if the if SAP is is to be able to start challenging that report uh a long time has passed since he was allowed to do So um this is administrative law and so he has to now request permission from chief justice Maya as well as karting judge president Audrey Lewaba to serve legal papers on the two former judges Sandille in Corbo and Tokosile Masipa and they were the ones who co-authored the um the section 89 pala pala impeachment panel report so we believe that justice Maya has uh has granted wanted consent um and approval from Keng's judge Lewaba is is still still coming we believe so it's over to the court process we believe he is going to uh more most likely also consent to that and then uh we'll be following obviously so we'll uh everybody quite frankly his critics is and adversaries and his followers are going to follow Ramapor's case with uh interest and we'll keep you posted on that as and when it gets doing. In closing, a new development uh relating to citizens self-sufficiently is looming when it comes to water issues now. And this one pertains to uh government that is uh and this is the department of water and sanitation is now seeking to crack down on households and businesses who tap into uh groundwater supplies through the use of bore holes. This is obviously going to attract a lot of controversy and push back and it's also going to attract some support from some quarters because there's been a rapid rise of the number of bore holes being sunk in towns and cities across the country and it has largely gone unchecked. Uh but it's a it's a situation that has arisen out of municipal failure to provide reliable water supply and water quality to residents. So the department of water and sanitation has now published draft regulations and they want to monitor and regulate bore hole drilling uh for groundwater extraction. They have warned that the country does face serious risks if our water uh underground water resources are not properly managed and and in this regard I think their concerns of merit. Um and the proposed rules require that all existing bhole owners are going going to have to register whether they're domestic or business users. Um and already you know the laws are quite strict when it comes to commercial users of underground water. Uh and and and households have been exempt largely from this. Well that's going to change now. So under these draft regulations um there's a lot of data and information that you have to uh provide uh in the registration process but also if you're drilling a new ball hole and you have to get permission you have to provide a lot of information like how much water uh is your pump going to be extracting and and and data that that really does pertain to the entire process is going to have to be provided uh before you can start.

[00:47:15]So yeah, this is um this is something that uh households are going to push back on I imagine. Uh but there's some there's some as I said there's some merit but there's also some concerns around it especially when it becomes quite ownorous especially when there's additional costs involved and this is where government needs to be really mindful of the public engagement. So the the the uh uh the the actor is going to be put out for comment or or the bill and there's going to have to be a lot of uh understanding of what's going on here and uh and input that that society must give and then we'll be watching this space. But there's a lot of similarities between this and the whole solar issue where again government drops the ball on high electricity prices then you know inconsistent supply of electricity.

[00:48:06]Society finds a solution and then society is the problem. Uh and government makes it difficult for society to just get on with their lives of not having to rely so much on government's failures. Yeah.

[00:48:21]continuously loading citizens with higher levies, rates, taxes to cover their revenue shortfalls while extracting more money and not looking at where they can address their bloated structures and inefficiencies and wasteful expenditure and corruption. And so it's it just really gets frustrating when citizens find ways to circumvent government's failures and become self-sufficient. they invent new mechanisms and schemes to offset and start penalizing those who who introduce these initiatives as if they're the problem. You know, government needs to get out of this continuous extractive mindset and start looking inwardly become introspective to find ways to improve efficiencies to stop the waste before they sabotage their own revenue streams and effectiveness and they make this country ungovernable. They put they just widen this deficit. this trust deficit between the public and government and that's not good for any country. We need to find ways for government to work smarter and engage and and work with civil society as opposed to against it which is what's coming across in some of these legislations.

[00:49:34]But folks, that's it. Let's uh just keep working harder together to get corruption out of here. And to our supporters, just want to thank you immensely for your continued support without which we would not be able to do our work at ATA. Have a great weekend.

[00:49:48]Cheers until next time.