Governance & Politics - 15 April 2024

15 Apr 2024

GOVERNANCE & POLITICS

• US senators drop SA Agoa review plans for a legislative requirement that South Africa’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity trade preference programme should immediately be reviewed. Congressional sources cautioned that South Africa remained a concern to many senators because of its positions on foreign policy issues like Russia’s war against Ukraine and Israel’s war against Hamas. However, it was unnecessary to single out South Africa as the Bill already allows for out-of-cycle reviews of any eligible country. (Source)

• The Social Research Foundation (SRF) polled 1 835 registered voters in April and found that support for the ANC had plummeted to 37%. The decline in ANC support appears to have benefitted the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), which has shown growth that could possibly make it the third-largest party in the country. MKP was polling at 13%, ahead of the EFF, which showed only slight growth to 11%. The EFF garnered 10.8% of the vote in the 2019 general elections. The DA polled at 25%, which would mean a 5% increase from its result in 2019, where the party got 20.7% of the vote. The data from the SRF April poll appears consistent with one released by the Brenthurst Foundation in March that tracked the ANC’s support at 38% and polled the MKP at 13%, eclipsing the EFF. The SRF poll pinned the IFPs support at 5%, and the Freedom Front Plus, ACDP and ActionSA all at 2%. The poll has a margin of error of 2.2% and is modelled around a 66% voter turnout rate. (Source)

• Jacob Zuma eligible for parliament. The Electoral Court has set aside the decision by the Electoral Commission of SA to bar Jacob Zuma from running for parliament. This paves the way for the former president to contest a seat in the National Assembly in the upcoming elections. The order, handed down on Tuesday, came after the IEC endorsed objections to Zuma’s candidacy, citing his criminal record stemming from a 15-month jail term handed down by the Constitutional Court in 2021 for failure to comply with its order to appear before state capture hearings into high-level corruption during his presidency. (Source)

• New work visa regulations reworked. Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is to withdraw the new work visa regulations he gazetted on 28 March, saying he was “ill advised” to gazette them the day before the 29 March deadline for public comments on the draft version. This comes after a meeting at the National Economic Development and Labour Council last week which raised questions about the process and demanded that the regulations be withdrawn. (Source)

• The DA has won its court case against the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to have more voting stations for citizens living abroad. The party went to the Electoral Court in February to request the inclusion of all embassies, high commissions and consulate as voting stations for the May 29 elections. SA citizens living in Perth, Australia, requested the opening of the honorary consulate as a voting station. However, the high commission in Canberra said the Perth consulate could not be used for voting as it was not headed by “transferred staff from SA”. (Source)

• Water loss in cities getting worse. Almost a decade after the government declared a nationwide “war on leaks” campaign, the volume of water loss is getting worse. Nearly half the country’s purified water supply is now lost to leaks, theft, or non-payment. The latest benchmarking report on water losses in eight of the country’s big cities suggests that Durban is the worst, where more than 58% of tap water supply is lost. Johannesburg loses 48.2%, followed by Gqeberha (48%), Bloemfontein (46.4%), East London (37.7%), Pretoria (32.6%), Ekurhuleni (30.9%) and Cape Town (29.4%). At a national level, the government’s most recent water balance sheet puts non-revenue water losses at 47.4%, with pipe leaks calculated at 40.8%. (Source)