Governance & Politics - 26 February 2024

26 Feb 2024

GOVERNANCE & POLITICS

• ANC election manifesto. President said his party will concentrate on six important issues, including job creation, investing in people, defending democracy and advancing freedom,  promising to create 2.5-million jobs in the next five years, turn the R350 social relief of distress grant into a basic income grant and amend the law to introduce “prescribed assets”, which would see asset managers compelled to invest a certain portion of funds in developmental projects. Ramaphosa committed the ANC to advancing industrialisation as a driver of economic transformation, protecting existing strategic industries such as steel and advancing the industries of the future, including increasing investment in a large-scale social and economic infrastructure plan. He said the ANC would continue to pursue the realisation of universal, quality, basic services and the provision of a social wage through education, housing, transport, water, sanitation, electricity, health care and communications. (Source)

• Budget 2024. Government to tap SA’s contingency reserves over the medium-term (three-year budget cycle) to the turn of R150 billion, and R100 billion to support the Sarb. No increases of income tax, Vat or fuel or Road Accident Fund levies (no increase in levies will result in tax relief of around R4 billion). No inflation adjustments to the personal income tax tables and medical tax credits. You will only pay income tax if you earn more than R95 750 a year (those 65 years old). Government proposes tax increases totalling R15 billion in 2024/25 to alleviate immediate fiscal pressures. SA will implement a global minimum corporate tax, with multinational corporations subject to an effective tax rate of at least 15%, regardless of where its profits are located. Since taxes were increased above inflation in most cases. Producers of electric vehicles in the country will be able to claim 150% of qualifying investment spending as an incentive to aid the transition to new energy vehicles. 

• Elections 2024. SA has set May 29 as the date for national and provincial elections, kicking off an official timeline for the electoral process as SA celebrates 30 years of democracy while facing multiple socioeconomic challenges. In announcing the election date, the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who will be vying for a second term in what is slated to be the toughest electoral test yet for the ANC, encouraged all eligible voters “to fully participate in the vote”. (Source)

• Judges impeached. The National Assembly on Wednesday voted to impeach Western Cape judge president John Hlophe from the bench, marking the first time in South Africa’s history that a sitting judge has been removed from office. The vote, with 305 votes in favour and 27 against, came hours after the Western Cape High Court dismissed Hlophe’s bid to delay the vote. The House also resolved by 296 votes to 1 to impeach retired Gauteng High Court Judge Nkola Motata for gross misconduct in connection with a 2007 drunk driving incident that led to a racist outburst. Their impeachments result in the loss of the salaries for life paid to judges. (Source)

• Gauteng e-tolls to be scrapped. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has set 31 March this year as the deadline for the final scrapping of the e-tolls. Speaking during his State of the Province Address, he said discussions had been held with the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Transport, and they agreed that by 31 March this year, the formal process to switch off and delink e-tolls will begin. The electronic tolling system went live on some of the province's freeways in 2013 to fund a highway upgrade programme. (Source)

• Cadre deployment records. The ANC has handed over its cadre deployment records to the DA after a three-year legal battle to avoid disclosing internal party records detailing how it appoints loyalists to public sector posts. The DA has made the dossier of 1 344 pages public, and by far the biggest revelation to emerge from them was that the cadre deployment committee deliberates on appointments to supposedly independent Chapter Nine institutions, to ambassadorial posts, and to the judiciary. The fact that the committee discusses its preferred judge candidates flatly contradicted what Ramaphosa told the Zondo Commission. (Source)