Lawyer Gary Newmark testified in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town on Monday that alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack had in the past instructed him to represent self-confessed hitman “Mr A” and other alleged Terrible West Siders gang members, as well as Modack’s alleged enforcer Jacques Cronje.

Mr A, whose identity Judge Robert Henney ruled cannot be disclosed, was the State’s first witness in the trial of those charged with the murders of the Anti-Gang Unit’s Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear, Nicolaas Heerschap and tow truck driver Richard Joseph, and the attempted murder of the attorney William Booth.

Mr A is serving 25 years for the murder of Heerschap following his plea and sentencing agreement in April 2022. He was the State’s first witness on 18 March. He testified that:

• He killed Heerschap (74) in Melkbosstrand in July 2019 after Modack ordered a hit on Hawks Warrant Officer Nico Heerschap. In a case of mistaken identity, Nico’s father, Nicolaas, was murdered instead. (On 24 April, Nico Heerschap testified that he was investigating a R50-million vehicle and property asset finance corruption case involving Modack at the time his father was murdered.)
• After the murder, Modack thanked him for a job well done.
• Modack was behind the attempted murder of Booth.
• He killed Joseph, also on Modack’s instruction.
• In September 2019 he fired a gun near security company boss and alleged underworld figure Andre Naude to scare him.
• He was arrested on 19 August 2019 for the illegal possession of a firearm and kept in the holding cells at the Woodstock Police Station. Three days later he was taken to the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court, where he was due to appear on a charge of illegally possessing a firearm. However, he was released before being charged.
• Outside the court, Newmark, the lawyer who informed him of his release, called Modack’s associate Ziyaad Poole. Newmark handed the phone to Mr A and Poole told him the “grootbaas” had secured his freedom.

124 charges

The State was trying to establish that Modack participated in gang-related activities and Newmark said he was summoned to testify in the current trial, which was “not at my free will”.

He testified that Modack had also instructed him to represent Fagmeed Kelly, Mario Petersen and Riyaat Gesant, all alleged Terrible West Siders gang members, in other matters.

Kelly, Petersen, Gesant and Cronje are co-accused along with Modack and 1o others. They collectively face 124 charges, including murder, attempted murder, corruption, gangsterism, extortion, the illegal interception of communications, money laundering and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

The other accused are Zain Kilian, Ziyaad Poole, Moegamat Brown, Petrus Visser, Janick Adonis, Amaal Jantjies, former Anti-Gang Unit sergeant Ashley Tabisher, Yaseen Modack, Mogamat Mukudam and Ricardo Morgan.

Modack and Kilian are the main accused in the murder of Kinnear on 18 September 2020 in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town, and the attempted murder of Booth on 9 April 2020.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Modack and co-accused plead not guilty to a murder in big Kinnear case amid tight high court security

State prosecutor Blaine Lazarus questioned Newmark about Mr A’s testimony.

Newmark testified that he had represented Mr A in two matters. One was an attempted murder in October 2019 in which Mr A attempted to flee from police officers, fired shots at them, and was shot in the leg by them.

The second incident involved Mr A and another person shooting a person in the head in Salt River. The individual survived the attack.

“After each appearance of Mr A, I called Modack and provided feedback. I explained why the case of Mr A was not enrolled. I follow Modack’s instructions to represent Mr A and others.

“I went on record for Brown on December 23, 2019, in the Salt River case, which lasted two years in the Cape Town Regional Court. Modack paid me electronically and in cash for these cases,” he told the court.

“After the release of Mr A, Modack told me I’m going to be his next Pete Mihalik.”

Mihalik represented Modack in extortion matters and was shot dead on 30 October 2018 while dropping off his daughter at a school in Green Point. His son was wounded, but survived, while his daughter escaped unscathed.

A statement submitted by the prosecution showed that payments totalling R35,000 were made from Modack’s Empire Investment Cars company account to Newmark.

This account was also discussed during Modack’s unsuccessful bail application in the Blue Downs Regional Court.

According to an affidavit by Hawks Captain Edward du Plessis, one of the investigators on a national task team investigating the murder of Kinnear,  he discovered 39 suspicious transactions in the account totalling R1.2-million.

Advocate Bash Sibda, Modack’s legal representative, told Newmark during cross-examination that Modack denied giving Newmark instructions.

The trial continues. DM

Share

Swazi Secrets

This story is based on a cache of leaked documents from the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit (EFIU)

On a balmy evening in June 2015, four men with deep Swazi connections were preparing to take on the night in Malaysia’s capital city, Kuala Lumpur. 

It had been a year since Sibusisiwe Mngomezulu was posted at the Eswatini High Commission in Kuala Lumpur as a counsellor and, as evidenced by the picture of the group posted by his friend Musa Sibandze, he was taking a break from his diplomatic duties. 

The blurry photo shows the men in clumsy poses behind a kitchen island covered by an assortment of half-empty liquor bottles and mixers. (Photo: Facebook)

Sitting on a bar stool in a blue V-neck T-shirt is Bongani Mahlalela, the chief financial officer (CFO) of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC). 

The man leaning on the island pointing at the camera next to him is Mngomezulu, Eswatini’s current ambassador to Belgium and a brother-in-law to King Mswati III.

He was previously the head of finance, strategy and business development for the ANC’s investment arm, Chancellor House Holdings.

On the outer corner is the youngest in this group, Craig Coglin who, according to LinkedIn, was the group strategy director for the Coglin Media House.

And behind all three, with his left hand in the air, is Sibandze.

“We [sic] about to go out,” reads Sibandze’s Facebook caption. “Clear the way we’re coming through.”

‘Coming through’

While Sibandze played no role in the events described here, his three companions would get involved in more than a wild night out.

In the following years, they would seemingly facilitate a dizzying set of transactions that would channel millions to accounts belonging to popular Eswatini Archbishop Bheki Lukhele and his All Nations Christian Church in Zion.

These suspicious money flows eventually attracted the attention of the Eswatini Financial Intelligence Unit (EFIU), which suspected money laundering and the possible theft of money from the ANC.

The EFIU is an independent statutory body responsible for collecting and providing financial intelligence “that safeguards the local and international financial system”.

AmaBhungane gained access to the leaked documents via Swazi Secrets, a cross-border investigations project in partnership with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. 

It is the largest leak of its kind from a financial intelligence unit in an African country and consists of bank records, internal communications and several confidential transactions and investigative reports by financial and regulatory institutions in Eswatini and beyond.

From 2015 onward, more than R200-million would flow from South Africa to Eswatini and into the bank accounts of Archbishop Lukhele and the All Nations church – much of it seemingly with the involvement of Mahlalela, Mngomezulu and Coglin. 

The ANC connection

By 2018, the banks and the EFIU started to monitor Lukhele closely.

A 2019 suspicious transaction report (STR) submitted to the EFIU by First National Bank (FNB) appears to be the first time that regulators were able to detect that some of the money that was deposited into Lukhele and the church’s accounts came from the ANC’s election fund account. 

FNB in Eswatini suspected that Lukhele was possibly an “accomplice in siphoning of ANC funds”. His partners in the alleged scheme were, according to the STR, supposedly the party’s CFO Mahlalela and former Chancellor House executive, Ambassador Mngomezulu. 

A few days later, the EFIU shared this information with its counterpart in South Africa, the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and later initiated a cross-border investigation into the South African individuals and entities involved. 

Leaked EFIU documents show that over the years, Lukhele mainly received money from South African companies FNB believed to be “fronts” or “shells”– companies we will return to later.

In 2017 the archbishop personally received R40-million from the accounts of four such companies that had “no other significant activity in the companies’ accounts besides receiving funds… and transferring them to the client within a short succession of receipt,” FNB reported.

More importantly, some of these payments shooting in and out of the four suspected fronts were referenced “Bongani Mahlalela” and others “ANC”.

Then, in 2018, things changed.

Now, money flowed into Lukhele’s church’s account, primarily from an account belonging to the king’s brother-in-law and former Chancellor House executive Mngomezulu. 

Taking one step back, FNB was able to trace some of the deposits into Mngomezulu’s account as flowing from, among others, the ANC Election Fund account. 

The payments the governing party was making to Mngomezulu were, however, seemingly disguised.

“The references in Mr Mngomezulu’s account were all found in the ANC account and were made to appear like they are going to different companies like XGM Trading and Projects,” the report noted. 

More on XGM later.

Other payments into Mngomezulu’s account (and paid forward to Lukhele’s eSwatini church) came mostly from the same “fronts” that had previously paid Archbishop Lukhele directly.

During 2018 Mngomezulu transferred a total of about R37.8-million to Lukhele’s All Nations church using the reference “Church Building”. He made these transfers shortly after receiving incoming payments (from the ANC among other entities).

Overall, Mngomezulu, the brother of one of King Mswati’s wives (Sibonelo, known as Queen LaMbikiza), was the single most significant conduit of funds channelled to Eswatini.

“These transactions gave rise to the suspicion of money laundering where possibly the church’s account was being used as a front,” the bank said in its internal report.  

Money laundering is a process of disguising illegally obtained money through a series of intricate financial or commercial transactions to make the money look legitimate. The use of layered transactions, spread out between different entities, individuals and jurisdictions makes it difficult for law enforcement officials to track and clamp down on money laundering activities.  

A powerful priest

News reports show that Lukhele and his All Nations church were quickly gaining prominence in the kingdom. A 2019 article published by Swaziland News described Lukhele as “powerful and highly influential”.

Responding to questions at the time about his source of income, Lukhele claimed that he had built multiple churches in South Africa, “especially Cape Town”. Over and above that, the man of the cloth told the Swaziland News reporter that he was a shareholder and owned “flats in South Africa and Eswatini that are rented even by white people”.

In August of that year, Lukhele would become the new owner of the kingdom’s Mbabane Swallows football team, making him responsible for running and financially supporting the team at a time when most public gatherings and events were paused due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

The team’s leaked bank statements, seen by amaBhungane, reveal that Mbabane Swallows was cash-flush while other teams reportedly struggled to pay their players.

Confronted with all the information above, in April 2020 the EFIU submitted its findings to Eswatini’s anti-corruption investigative agency, saying it was possible that Mngomezulu used his account to “facilitate illegal transactions” to Lukhele. 

“The way in which the reported account disposed of the funds so soon after receipt appeared unusual and suspicious,” the EFIU reported. 

“The transactional behaviour was not in line with the subject’s profile and further it was noted that no living expenses were made on the account.”

The Eswatini authorities have neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of the leaked material but have criticised journalists for making use of “stolen” data.

The ANC money man

Mahlalela, the ANC’s long-serving CFO, is the other prominent individual linked to the network around the archbishop and Mngomezulu. 

AmaBhungane isolated under R12-million in transfers made directly to Lukhele and carrying the references “Bongani Mahlalela”, “B Mahlalela” and “Mahlalela”, between 2015 and 2021. 

An analysis of Mahlalela and Mngomezulu’s social media footprints revealed that not only were they very close friends, but Mahlalela was also linked, as described below, to several directors of the suspected front companies that ultimately channelled funds to Lukhele.

It’s not clear how the two men, or indeed the ANC, are linked to Lukhele; however, his profile as a businessman and religious leader of a growing church exempt from general taxes in Eswatini would in theory make him an attractive laundering partner – if that’s what these payments were.

Lukhele did not respond to detailed questions sent by amaBhungane.

Nor did Mngomezulu nor Mahlalela respond to questions sent by amaBhungane, including those related to FNB’s findings that some of the money channelled to Eswatini came directly from an ANC account.

Responding to similar questions, the ANC told amaBhungane that it was not aware of any investigations carried out by the financial intelligence agencies in South Africa or Eswatini, but indicated it was taking the matter seriously. 

“The ANC will be getting to the bottom of this issue and will without any hesitation take appropriate action should any incidences of wrongdoing be established. To this end, the ANC will undertake a thorough investigation to establish the veracity of the claims,” said the party in an emailed statement.

The ANC in 2015: a party in trouble

Mahlalela and Mngomezulu were sending money to Lukhele as early as 2015, according to references in the archbishop’s personal account contained in the leaks. 

In 2015, South Africa and the ANC faced a political and financial crisis that called into question whether former president Jacob Zuma, who had been re-elected a year earlier, would complete his second term in office. 

Public anger was mounting against the ANC, which continued to protect Zuma despite the Public Protector’s findings that millions in taxpayer’s money were used for non-security upgrades to his private estate in Nkandla.

The ANC’s reputation was also withering under allegations that Zuma abused his office to dish out patronage to the Gupta family, who were seen as the main beneficiaries of State Capture.

In 2015 Zuma abruptly fired finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, replacing him with the unknown Desmond Van Rooyen, which saw billions of rands wiped off the stock market.

Just four days later Zuma backtracked, replacing Van Rooyen with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.

The following week thousands of citizens took to the streets in protests demanding that the president step down.

Meanwhile, in the same year, Mngomezulu, Mahlalela and the constellation of “front” companies allegedly linked to them managed to channel R5-million to Lukhele through a steady stream of deposits, bank records show.

Whether they were taking personal advantage of the ANC’s turmoil or working on behalf of the party is not clear – and the silence of nearly all the characters involved doesn’t help – but the leaks and other documents obtained by amaBhungane suggest it is unlikely there is an innocent explanation.

Municipal elections, 2016

One of the companies identified by the EFIU as involved in the channelling of funds to Lukhele and his church is Umncele Clearing Agencies. 

The leaks show that Lukhele and his All Nations church received R9.1-million in direct or indirect deposits from Umncele.

However, the bank account number the EFIU attributed to Umncele has, in South Africa, cropped up in an entirely different context that ties it to the ANC’s CFO, Mahlalela.

By 2016, the ANC’s finances were, like its reputation, showing signs of trouble according to court documents filed in a matter between the liquidators of Gupta-linked company Regiments Capital and a lawyer appointed by the party to pay creditors.

In the court records (unrelated to the Swazi Secrets leaks) Durban attorney Naheem Raheman tried to set aside a subpoena to explain his role in distributing a questionable R50-million donation to the ANC in 2016. 

In his application, Raheman stated that in 2016 the ANC had appointed him to negotiate and settle outstanding payments to creditors that were threatening legal action against the ANC for services provided for the 2016 municipal elections.  

Raheman’s documents included a letter from ANC CFO Mahalela appointing Raheman as a payment agent for the party and a list of service providers owed monies by the party. 

Among the service providers to be paid was a company ostensibly called Ibiza Couriers, which was purportedly owed R200,000 for “courier services” provided to the ANC during its local government election campaign. 

The bank account number given for Ibiza Couriers is, however, the same as the account number of Umncele Clearing Agencies, the alleged front implicated in channelling funds to the Eswatini archbishop and his church. 

A 2018 report by the EFIU to the Swazi revenue authority raising concerns about suspected tax evasion shows that the EFIU linked the same account number to payments that Lukhele had received from Umncele under another reference, “IBZ Fuel”. 

While neither Ibiza Couriers nor IBZ is a registered company, Umncele is, and the director of the company at the time, Zwile Manzini, is the same contact person that Mahlalela provided to Raheman on the schedule of the ANC’s municipal election creditors. 

In other words, it appears that the ANC CFO was directing at least one payment to be made to Umncele, making it possible that there were others.

Payments from Umncele to the church referenced “IBZ Fuel” and “Ibzcs Fuel” happened between 2015 and 2018, the year Manzini resigned as a registered director of Umncele.

Apart from the limited intelligence report compiled by South Africa’s FIC, the EFIU did not obtain the bank records belonging to suspected South African front companies and could not ultimately determine where the money they channelled to Lukhele came from.

In the case of Umncele, amaBhungane’s investigation shows the company was positioned as a service provider to the ANC, though it’s not clear how much Umncele/Ibiza received from the ANC. 

Manzini did not respond to written questions, but in a brief phone interview in February, amaBhungane asked him to explain why Umncele’s account was flagged in a suspected money laundering scheme involving prominent individuals in South Africa and Eswatini. 

In response, Manzini said he was “not in a good position to answer that” because, when the payments were made, he was working in a partnership “with someone that has passed on and that person shifted quite a lot of money around”. 

Manzini would not give us the name of his “partner” but claimed the individual brought in “a lot of projects” for them to work on and was responsible for moving “most” of the money.

Other ‘fronts’

Another company making payments to Lukhele was 2nd Thought Communications, a closed corporation with Craig Coglin as one of its two members. 

To rewind, it was Craig (who also goes by the name Sandton Coglin) who was part of the 2015 boys’ night out in Kuala Lumpur with Mahlalela and Mngomezulu. 

AmaBhungane was able to independently obtain 2nd Thought’s bank statements in court documents filed by FNB in South Africa after Craig Coglin failed to service a R660,000 credit facility extended to the company.

These statements show that the company was seemingly paid for services provided to the ANC during the relevant period based on deposit references that explicitly refer to the party.

For instance, the company was paid R100,000 in May 2018 for a “Winnie Mandela Event” about a month after the death and memorial of the struggle stalwart.

In March 2017, a R39,900 payment was received, referenced “ANC”.

And 2nd Thought statements show that the company transferred at least R25-million to Archbishop Lukhele and his church from the beginning of the account’s transaction history in 2016 through to 2019 when Coglin dumped the business account and its outstanding debt. 

Of the receipts funding these payments, R16.4-million was from an account referenced “Registered Trustees Of The Afr,” which could refer to an ANC account.

The activity in 2nd Thought’s bank statements seemingly confirmed Eswatini authorities’ suspicions that the companies making deposits to Lukhele operated as front or shelf companies, with very few transactions apart from receiving and sending money to Eswatini in quick succession. 

While most payments made by 2nd Thought went directly to Lukhele or his church, some went via Mngomezulu, suggesting his and Coglin’s relationship extended beyond partying together. This pattern was seen across the rest of the “shelf” or “front” company network analysed by the EFIU and FIC. 

A look at all the bank statements available from 2nd Thought, Mngomezulu and accounts controlled by Lukhele suggests that the total flow of funds attributed to 2nd Thought via this chain was over R30.9-million.

Front number three – an unwitting accomplice?

And then there is a third suspected front: Fillis Holdings. 

In Eswatini, Lukhele received R13.2-million attributed to this company, but its sole director, Sheldon Fillis, points the finger back to Coglin.

Although Fillis admitted to opening Fillis Holdings’ bank account, he claims he was not behind the payments made through it. He claims he was approached by Coglin with “a business opportunity” to get into events management and planning.

Fillis said he had no reason to doubt Coglin because he had previously seen him work on events and supply goods such as bottled water to conferences. Fillis mentioned that Coglin had also “printed flyers or posters” for the ANC. 

“That is what I know because that is what I saw,” said Fillis.   

Coglin managed his company’s account, he alleges, and would later introduce him to the ANC’s Mahlalela.  The agreement was that Fillis would get 10% of the company’s turnover, which Fillis says “never happened”.

“He would always tell me he needs to pay suppliers.”

Now, Fillis says, he has been embroiled in an ongoing dispute with the taxman after he was hit with a huge unpaid tax bill that “Craig and Bongo” promised to help him with but didn’t.

“Bongo” is Bongani Mahlalela’s nickname.

“To a certain extent, it makes me feel stupid and mad at myself because of the relationship I had with Craig. He is a very close friend of mine; I genuinely looked up to the guy and I trusted him.”

Fillis, like Umncele’s Manzini, said he was “not in a position” to answer amaBhungane’s detailed questions.  Instead, he directed us to Coglin and Mahlalela as the right people to speak to. 

Coglin, for his part, did not respond to amaBhungane’s questions.

And yet more fronts

Synquest Trading, whose sole director is one Ivor Coglin, was seemingly behind at least R7.2-million transferred to Eswatini. In Lukhele’s accounts, these payments were expressly referred to as “Synquest” or a variation on this.

But the largest payments from Synquest to Lukhele and All Nations were instead disguised under the reference “Mounting Material,” under which R18-million in deposits were made.

Leaked suspicious transaction logs in the Swazi Secrets trove submitted to the EFIU, which record foreign transactions coming in and out of Eswatini through the financial system, appear to confirm that transactions referenced “Mounting Material” came from Synquest’s account. 

In total, an estimated total of R26-million attributed to Synquest was transferred to Lukhele.

It is understood that Ivor and Craig Coglin are related; online searches show that both men work for Coglin Media House based in Eswatini.

Questions sent to Ivor via Craig also went unanswered.

Kgatong Investments, a sole proprietorship company owned by Claude Tobias, was referenced in deposits of just over R11-million made to accounts controlled by Lukhele.

Tobias’ Facebook profile (below) is revealing. His social media activity shows that he is also close to Craig Coglin and the ANC’s CFO Mahlalela and is an enthusiastic ANC supporter.

He did not respond to questions.

Sundowners with the bosses Claude Le Coq Tobias. (Photo: Screengrab from Facebook)

(Photo: Screengrab from Facebook)

(Photo: Screengrab from Facebook)

(Photo: Screengrab from Facebook)

A company we briefly encountered earlier, called XGM Trading and Projects, transferred an estimated R34.5-million to accounts in Eswatini between 2016 and 2021.

As we saw, FNB’s internal investigation found that some ANC election fund payments to Mngomezulu were referenced in ANC accounts as payments to XGM.

Mngomezulu’s employment history in online credit records shows that in addition to Chancellor House Holdings, in 2022 he declared “XGM Consulting” as one of his employers.

In a preliminary phone interview with amaBhungane in February 2024, XGM’s sole director Mduduzi Shongwe admitted to making the deposits from his accounts to recipients in Eswatini.

Shongwe told amaBhungane that the company provided communications and marketing services and that all the payments made by XGM were “above board”, being either to pay service providers or to give money to friends.

“One service provider would say, pay me through the teller or another would ask to be paid through the company and so on,” said Shongwe.

After undertaking to meet amaBhungane for an in-person interview, Shongwe started ignoring our communication.

Written questions sent to his numbers were also ignored. 

The Moerane flows 

There are signs that other prominent ANC members may have been aware of the money-moving network and possibly tapped into it.

Between 2018 and 2019, around R27-million in transactions marked “Moerane”, “AT Net”, “Leferane” or “Figlen” moved to Lukhele via Mngomezulu or 2nd Thought Communications.

The references on their own don’t tell us much; however, a closer look at company records reveals that they appear to refer to companies in which the late ANC Johannesburg Region Treasurer Mpho Moerane and his wife Fikile held or hold directorships.

Fikile Moerane is the director of Figlen Consulting and was the director of AT Net until 2021.

Following her husband’s passing in May 2022, she was appointed director of Leferane Trading. 

These payments did not always end up in Eswatini.

For instance, in late August 2019, Mngomezulu’s statements show that he received R300,000 referenced “AT NET” and R320,000 from “Figlen” on separate days. 

Mngomezulu paid out the money using the reference “Mahlalela”, and we understand that this money did not flow through to the archbishop or the church’s accounts because there were no corresponding credits on the days the deposits were made. 

The accounts of 2nd Thought also received money with references referring to the Moeranes’ companies, albeit to a much lesser extent. 

Again, the distribution of the deposits did not neatly mirror the pattern we have observed in the other suspected fronts. 

In October 2018, after receiving R200,000 from “AT Net”, Coglin withdrew the same amount of cash via a teller at Featherbrook Village in Roodepoort.

Responding through her lawyers, Moerane’s wife, Fikile, restricted her responses to questions related to Figlen despite being the director of AT Net at the time the money flows happened.

“Based on the information at our client’s disposal and strictly limited to Figlen, our client has no record of any payments made with such references as contained in your letter,” her lawyers said.

Her lawyers added: “We are instructed to reiterate that our client does not know Messrs Mngomezulu and Lukhele. Accordingly, our client does not have any knowledge of any funds that allegedly flowed to Mr Lukhele. Our client further denies having benefited (directly or indirectly) from payments allegedly made to Mr Lukhele.”

The question of who exactly benefited from this scheme, and whether Archbishop Lukhele was a pawn or the beneficial owner of money that was channelled to him gets murky when one looks at how Lukhele used the money once it was in his accounts. 

We will deal with this in Part Two. DM

Editorial support:

Lionel Faull, editorial coach, amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. Troye Lund, managing partner: editorial, IJ Hub.

Data support:

Miguel Fiandor, Jelena Cosic, Karrie Kehoe, Denise Ajiri, and Delphine Reuter, data team, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Adam Oxford, data journalist, trainer and strategy consultant, OpenUp data journalism programme supported by Africa Data Hub.

Main Illustration:

Sindiso Nyoni, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Multimedia: 

Aragorn Eloff, digital coordinator, amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism. Tsholanang Rapoo, digital officer, amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Share

How has Eskom drastically managed to reduce the intensity of power cuts from Stage 2 and 3 in March 2024 to keeping lights on throughout April?

The state-owned entity has touted improvements in its fleet of ageing power stations spurred by the Energy Action Plan and the generation recovery plan as reasons why the lights are on. But renewables and a decline in demand seemed to have contributed to 33 consecutive days without power cuts.

This comes amid claims from opposition parties and sceptics that the streak of no load shedding is an election strategy by the ruling ANC. 

On Monday, 29 April, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the Presidency rejected “the claims that recent improvements in the energy supply are a ploy related to the upcoming elections”.

Eskom’s top brass proffered the power utility’s winter outlook in a media briefing on Friday. The presentation by new Eskom group CEO Dan Marokane and the company’s head of generation, Bheki Nxumalo, appeared to show the power utility has made significant progress in the past year. 

“We recognise that what really transpired here is a culmination of interventions started a year ago… It is important that we build on it,” said Marokane.

On the face of it, this winter looks like it could be brighter than the winter of 2023.

Eskom anticipates limiting load shedding to Stage 2, with unplanned outages expected to range from 14,000MW to 15,500MW. If this scenario happens, the power utility expects South Africa will experience, at most, about 50 days without power between now and 31 August.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Eskom forecasts ‘light’ load shedding in winter after 30-day break from rolling blackouts

Last winter, South Africans were in the dark for 153 days between 1 April and 31 August, experiencing Stage 3, 4 and 6 rotational power cuts.

Energy availability factor

While Eskom has recorded improvements in unplanned breakdowns, its energy availability factor (EAF) falls short of the target set in its recovery plan. 

EAF measures the average percentage of electricity that power stations have available to dispatch energy at any one time. A high EAF indicates that Eskom’s power stations are being maintained and are operating well.

Eskom board chairperson Mteto Nyati – a former MTN South Africa and Altron CEO who was appointed chair after Mpho Makwana’s resignation in October 2023 – said the power utility had a target of 65% EAF that was set by the board for end-March 2024, which it failed to meet.

“We did not meet that. We’re currently sitting with an EAF of 61%, which is slightly less than what we had targeted,” he said.

However, contrary to his statements, publicly available Eskom data indicates the monthly EAF has not yet reached 60% but stands at 58.3% for April.

Nyati said Eskom aims to improve the EAF to 70% in March 2025.

Breakdowns

“Between April 2023 and March this year, the reliability of our power plants has improved and this is as we continue with the execution of the generation recovery plan… We saw a year-on-year improvement of 9% in unplanned losses and a 19% decline in unit trips – the latter is very important because it deals with the reliability of the fleet,” said Marokane.

This March, Eskom experienced slightly fewer unplanned losses than in March 2023 (31.8% in March 2024 compared with 34.5% in March 2023). This is the same trend when one compares unplanned losses in April 2024 (29.8%) with April 2023 when breakdowns were at 34.7%.

This past week the percentage of unplanned losses dropped to 28.6% from 33.2% at the beginning of March. Let’s not forget that the cooler weather traditionally bodes well for Eskom’s fleet of power stations, as Daily Maverick’s Ray Mahlaka reported. But overall, unplanned breakdowns are lower in March and April 2024 compared with the same period last year.

“I do think it is a notable and commendable achievement by Eskom that unplanned breakdowns are stable this year at levels that are consistently lower than those of last year, and that the energy availability factor has steadied, and not reduced further along the same downward trend as for the last five years and more,” energy analyst Chris Yelland wrote on X. 

Herewith latest Eskom EAF, PCLF and UCLF data to week 16, 2024: pic.twitter.com/0CCfrLo2y0

— Chris Yelland (@chrisyelland) April 27, 2024

Dwindling demand

While Marokane said the improvement in generation performance contributed to the reduction in load shedding, he acknowledged that “demand is also declining slightly”.

Data published by Eskom shows a decline in weekly peak demand for Eskom grid power this year, compared with last year. 

A continued decline in demand for Eskom grid power is the reason behind the streak of no load shedding, Yelland penned in a recent op-ed. 

Yelland says this is because of, among other things, South Africa’s weak economy and the resulting generally flat overall demand for power, the increasing cost of Eskom power, load shedding, and the move to alternative energy sources by Eskom customers.

The power of renewables

Also helping to improve the electricity situation is the contribution of solar power. Eskom system operator Isabel Fick said private solar photovoltaic (PV) was making “a huge contribution” to Eskom’s electricity generation profile.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Renewable energy projects may keep the lights on longer in 2024 — we hope

Fick said there were around 11,870MW of installed renewable contributions in the country. Of that, an estimated 2,800MW of PV solar is connected directly to the Eskom grid, with another 5,440MW of “behind-the-meter” PV solar, which Fick says “would refer to rooftop PV, as well as small plants that are not connected to the Eskom system.”

Fick said that while solar power was the biggest part of private generation, it could contribute only between 9am and 3pm, leaving Eskom to pick up in the morning and evening peak demand hours. 

“It means that this contribution is not available for peak periods,” said Fick. 

If Eskom faces higher electricity demand, mostly during the evening peaks, it burns diesel to run its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs). The contribution of solar power has meant that Eskom can replenish its emergency reserves, like the OCGTs and pumped storage dams during the day, for use during peak periods.

“The usage of the OCGTs is now limited to the peak periods because we have these contributions during the daytime,” she said.

Fick said that when the country experienced inclement weather, Eskom was forced to lean more heavily on its emergency reserves.

Diesel consumption 

Marokane said the reduction in load shedding was not because the power utility was burning more diesel to run its OCGTs. Rather, compared with April 2023, Eskom had spent 50% less on diesel in April 2024.

In a recent parliamentary reply, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan revealed that Eskom spent R23.4-billion on diesel in the 2023/24 financial year. 

The DA had said the burning of diesel had “remained elevated” since 31 March 2024, “creating an illusion of improved electricity supply.” 

However, the power utility’s diesel spend actually decreased between March and April 2024.

From 1 to 22 April 2024, while load shedding was suspended, Eskom spent R1.4-billion on diesel to run its OGCTs, compared with R3.1-billion in April 2023. 

The OCGTs generated 198 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy between 1 and 28 April 2024, compared with 470GWh generated in April last year.

However, Eskom spent R3.3-billion on diesel in March 2024, which had 26 days of load shedding. This is R1.2-billion more than it spent on diesel in March 2023, which had 30 days of load shedding. DM

Share

On the day South Africans woke up to the news that New York’s top appeals court had overturned that state’s conviction of Harvey Weinstein, perhaps the world’s most notorious living sex offender, I also happened to watch The Sin Drinkers, the latest play by Cape Town playwright and director Louis Viljoen.

I’m not sure if I was ready to deal with both on the same day.

I left the Baxter Theatre centre feeling slightly overwhelmed by the play’s numerous reminders of the sheer awfulness of it all, by the way it often feels as though we’re going backwards (a point, incidentally, that was made by the three dissenting judges in the Weinstein appeal).

I couldn’t help but think that it’s time to convince Viljoen to return to lighter, more comedic fare once he starts working on his next play.

I don’t mind all the swearing, the dark ideas and sense of menace and dread. I kind of like the ugly characters who speak so abrasively and yet use such magnificent vocabulary and self-assuredly clever turns of phrase. I’m all for theatre with a sharp edge, and I love the brutal force of Viljoen’s frequently violent language, his ability to turn poetry into weapons that leave a sting.

And, of course, I have great respect for Viljoen’s interest in exploring the absolute worst in humankind.

However, I would very much like to roar with laughter again, the way he compelled me to laugh with his earlier works, like Champs. Even his political drama, The Kingmakers, was blisteringly funny.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘The Grass Widow’ offers a transgressive take on psychological trauma – and the ensuing acts of revenge

But the heaviness of The Sin Drinkers consumes the comedy, drowns most of the pitch-black humour with the sheer weight of the subject matter. The way alcohol is meant to drown sorrows.

And that’s the point, really.

Emma Kotze in ‘The Sin Drinkers’. Image: Barbara Loots

This play has at its core a host of ugly sins and omissions. They linger just below the surface and the treatment used to get at them is both candid and sobering.

The question is not whether or not Viljoen’s writing manages to entertain, nor which emotional buttons he presses, not even the extent to which his words might trigger us. Rather, it’s if his play, a portrait of human awfulness and self-loathing, can help us to process the effluvium of the real world. And, if so, to what extent?

In other words, does it provide an opportunity for our collective catharsis — or is it mere self-indulgence?

Demanding dialogue

The play itself is beguilingly simple. A woman (Emma Kotze) and an older man (John Maytham), strangers who are nevertheless bound by their mutual relationship to a third character who is no longer alive, meet in the woman’s apartment and begin to drink.

Both have a serious knack for boozing, in fact.

When you watch alcohol being consumed on stage, you invariably wait for signs of mounting ineptitude and drunkenness to set it. The shakes, the outbursts, the stumbling, the radical changes in personality that hard liquor causes.

But when the drinkers are practised drunks, something else happens.

These two, it turns out, drink to reach a baseline, simply to meet one another on equal terms. Viljoen’s concept here appears to be to have the characters sink into a kind of altered state where they’re at liberty to reveal their darkest secrets. They don’t so much drink their sins away as use the grog to flush the festering truths from the depths of their pitiful souls.

The play’s structure is to first use words as a kind of verbal tennis match, cleverly crafted snatches of dialogue bounced back and forth with a deliberate, metronomic rhythm.

It almost hypnotises you, and I had to concentrate quite hard to tune in to the meaning underneath the cadences of their banter. It’s like listening to music so satisfyingly smooth you don’t quite bother to listen to the lyrics.

Emma Kotze and John Maytham in ‘The Sin Drinkers’. Image: Claude Barnardo

Emma Kotze and John Maytham in ‘The Sin Drinkers’. Image: Claude Barnardo

Later, though, once the alcohol has relaxed their tongues, this playful warm-up gives way to juicy speeches, including a couple of very long, very heavy monologues during which disturbing truths are revealed. Here’s where the material becomes borderline indulgent, as though we’re perhaps being strung along for a wild ride through a landscape of taboo and tragedy and of memories with a transgressive sexual bent.

This is where it gets tricky, too, where these characters’ moral bankruptcy bubbles to the surface. But it’s also where there’s a sense of their world being elevated above the mundane, the stage transformed into some sort of sacred — or profane — space.

Viljoen’s heightened language and the charged atmosphere it creates alter what we’re observing into a form of ritual. It’s akin to a Catholic confessional — a place where what’s being said serves a purpose greater than the mere sharing of information.

Kind of like a courtroom, albeit one in which the guilty feel compelled to tell the truth, no matter how dark. And it’s within this hallowed context that we hear about terrible and disturbing events that have played their part in the demise of the third character whose tragic death hangs like a dark cloud above the stage.

These confessions, shameful stains on human consciousness, are hard to listen to. And their impact on us in the audience is unavoidable. One cannot hear these things without feeling their burden.

Emma Kotze and John Maytham in ‘The Sin Drinkers’. Image: Barbara Loots

Grim crescendo 

My only real gripe, perhaps, with this short, sharp, harrowing, and very intense play is the tidiness of it all.

These characters, both of them truly messed up and quite broken inside, never quite muster the impulse to erupt into rage or real physical violence. They seem to almost revel in their awfulness, and yet at no point is the booze bottle smashed, the table overturned, not even a cheek slapped. The play’s gambit is to have these two unlikeable characters dance around one another, engaging in a psychological war of words that never quite reaches a tipping point; it’s as if there’s just not enough drama to cause their internalised anguish to burst over into action. Even if that’s what it all feels as if it’s leading up to.

Then again, this sustained control, the characters’ reining in of their worst animal compulsions, may in fact be the play’s true source of menace. Frankly, it’s rather spooky observing just how calmly these characters listen to the awful sins that are confessed. Perhaps it’s their silent consent — their tacit culpability — that’s most unsettling of all.

It’s why, presumably, I walked out feeling slightly shattered, helpless, uneasy, and quite overwhelmed by this sense that terrible things happen in the world and there’s such a glut of resigned acceptance.

We hear the stories, we read about them and see them splashed across our news feeds and social media — confessions and horrible descriptions everywhere — and yet so little, too little, gets done.

That unease I felt is precisely why we need theatre to kick us in the gut once in a while, and hopefully make us uncomfortable enough to be angered into action. 

Because, even though it is a work of fiction, this play refers back to a world in which Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers get to gloat while scores of women whose lives have been destroyed must continue to live in darkness.

And this reality is no laughing matter. DM

‘The Sin Drinkers’. Image: Supplied

The Sin Drinkers, which is charged with sexual, violent and profane language and therefore not for children or sensitive viewers, is showing at the Baxter’s Masambe theatre in Cape Town until 11 May. Tickets from Webtickets

Share

Here’s a recipe I concocted this morning (it being Friday when I am writing this) in a bid to make a breakfast a little different from the norm. There’s no bacon in it, but there could be. There’s no sausage in it but there could be. The extras are open to your preferences and your imagination.

I chose to serve the polenta with a fried egg (yes, of course you can have two) and a ladle of a tomato and onion relish. I finished it off with chopped garlic chives, salt and black pepper. But you could easily grate some Parmesan over if you like.

The heart of the dish, though, is that cheesy polenta. I stirred two cups of grated Langbaken Stout Willis into polenta made with 2 cups of heated milk and ½ a cup of polenta grains. This cheese melts quickly and easily, but there’s no reason why regular old mature Cheddar can’t be used instead. As long as it is a good melting cheese, choose your favourite.

I made a quick relish of fried sliced onions simmered with Italian passata (strained tomatoes) for some pure tomato flavour on the side. The passata is barely cooked at all, just heated through with the cooked onion. The whole point of passata is its fresh zing of tomato flavour.

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

½ cup polenta

2 cups milk

3 Tbsp butter

2 eggs

Butter for frying the eggs

2 cups grated Langbaken Stout Williston cheese

1 small onion

½ cup tomato passata

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp chopped garlic chives

Salt

Black pepper

Garlic chive flowers

Method

Grate the cheese and have it to hand. Chop the chives.

Cook the onion first. Using 1 small or ½ a larger onion, slice it thinly and sauté in a little olive oil until lightly browned. Season with salt and black pepper. Add the passata and heat through just before serving.

Heat the milk, with a little salt, in a heavy pot until just before boiling point. Turn the heat down low, and pour in the polenta slowly while whisking continuously. Continue to whisk until the mixture (which will be very liquid to start with) slowly starts to thicken. Once it is thick but still able to be stirred (so, don’t cook it so thick that it becomes claggy), add a generous nob or two of butter and stir in.

Stir in the cheese until it is well incorporated.

Fry the eggs in butter, sunny side up.

Reheat the polenta and divide between two breakfast bowls. Add an egg on top or alongside. Spoon the tomato relish on or alongside. Scatter chopped garlic chives over. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed in a breakfast bowl by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.

Share

By Wednesday, 1 May, Starlink customers will be left with an inoperative 50cm x 30cm antenna, that could probably be repurposed as an expensive — though compact — coffee table, after they are frozen out of the service. 

Available globally, including in many of our neighbouring countries, Starlink will no longer be providing South African residents access to its high-speed broadband internet service, because Elon Musk’s company refused to comply with the country’s BEE requirements to gift 30% ownership to local historically disadvantaged people. 

Then there’s the small matter of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and the Minister of Communications failing to issue new communications licences in about 13 years.

Earlier this month, Starlink told customers that it will be terminating internet access in unauthorised countries, starting on 30 April.

In Africa, Starlink’s internet service is live in Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia and Benin. Namibia and Lesotho expect service this year, but it is still prohibited in Botswana and South Africa, although Starlink has been working across most of the region thanks to its roaming features. 

Starlink delivers high-speed, low-latency internet to users all over the world through low-Earth orbit satellites, which support streaming, online gaming, video calls and more.

Where Starlink does not have approval to operate, customers have purchased satellite internet terminals through third-party suppliers and worked around the service restrictions through a roaming loophole. 

CNN has reported that Ukrainian frontline troops are experiencing connection problems with Starlink’s internet service, which is being used to run their attack drones, while Russian use of the devices has ramped up — despite being prohibited by US sanctions.

Russian crowdfunders claim to have successfully bypassed sanctions on the use of Starlink, which they buy in third countries.

Starlink, SpaceX and Musk have declined to comment on the report, although he has denied that any terminals have been sold to Russia. 

Daily Maverick’s attempts to contact the company were also unsuccessful, despite trying via social media. Starlink’s website does not offer a contact facility.

In the US, House Democrats have demanded answers from SpaceX about the claims that its technology is being used by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Cut off

Earlier this month, Starlink told customers that it will be terminating internet access in unauthorised countries, starting on 30 April. In an email, it said: “The goal of Starlink is to provide reliable high-speed, low-latency internet to people all around the world, especially for those in rural and remote areas where internet connectivity has not been available, unreliable or too expensive. To do so, we’re working as quickly as possible to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals from local governments globally to be allowed to offer Starlink services in as many places as possible.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Starlink will soon be available in all southern African countries – except South Africa

Citing its terms of service, Starlink said the availability of its mobile service plans is contingent upon various factors, including regulatory approvals. 

“If you are operating your Starlink Kit in an area other than areas designated as ‘Available’ on the Starlink Availability Map, we would like to remind you that this is in violation of the Starlink Terms, and starting April 30th, 2024, you will be unable to connect to the internet except to access your Starlink account where you can make updates to your account.”

“Mobile – Regional” plans are intended for temporary travel and transit, not for permanent use in a location, so the company warned that those who have been using this plan for more than two months outside of the country in which they ordered Starlink, should either change their account country or return to the country in which the service was ordered, as “Otherwise, your service will be restricted”.

Deadlock

This week, Starlink finally applied for a licence to provide internet services in Zimbabwe. But in South Africa, the company is unlikely to do so because it would be incompatible with the Electronic Communications Act. 

In response to a parliamentary question from the DA about whether the government would consider exempting the equity requirement in the public interest, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Mondli Gungubele said that the requirement is derived from section 9(2)(b) of the Act, which would have to be amended.

“Any interested party, including Starlink, can engage the regulator to seek advice on operations in South Africa.

“As a department, we welcome partners and investors to develop and invest in the sector and economy; and appeal that they comply with regulations for the sector.”

‘No dealings’ 

The government says it has had no dealings with the internet provider. Icasa has not received any application for a licence from Starlink, nor has the company approached the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies (DCDT), the department told Daily Maverick. 

All licence applications must go through Icasa, which, while supposedly “independent”, was spoken for by the department, explaining: “Icasa confirms that to date, it has not received an application for any type of licence/certificate from Starlink or any satellite operators providing internet broadband services. Furthermore, Starlink has not approached the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies. It is of utmost importance to note that all licence applications have to go through Icasa and not DCDT.

“The authority (Icasa) encourages innovative technologies and acknowledges Starlink’s endeavours to provide broadband services. Nevertheless, any interested operator, including Starlink, willing to provide telecommunications services at a national scope is required to adhere to the applicable legislative and regulatory licensing prescript, requiring (compliance with the ECA, a licence and a technical approval certificate).” 

The department said while the authority welcomes new applications for the provision of broadband satellite services, it notes that there are already a number of players in the market and encourages Starlink or any other similar service providers to operate within the borders of South Africa, provided that such entities have satisfied the applicable requirements prescribed in the ECA. 

Service providers haven’t given up hope

Meanwhile, News24 has reported that some service providers haven’t given up hope that there might be workarounds to continue operating in South Africa, with Icasa se Push saying it has identified strategies that might keep users connected, despite the legal issues, although it can only test its “solutions” after 30 April to see if they would work. 

Another unnamed company told News24 that they had reached out to Starlink for clarity. “We have been in contact with Starlink themselves and a few options are going around,” they said, adding that their goal was to ensure that their customers remained online. “At this stage, the first of next month will be make or break. That’s when we will see if the solutions work.”

Alan Bush from Icasa se Push, which operates from Mozambique through “Sparkling” (Starlink) resellers across Africa, told Daily Maverick that they had contacted Starlink to inform the company that it has all the regulatory licensing and compliance measures in place for them to operate in South Africa. “To date, we have yet to receive a response from Starlink. We actively explore all possible avenues to facilitate their launch in South Africa and welcome a conversation with them. Our team is determined to leave no stone unturned in our efforts, although we hope it won’t come to an impasse.”

When asked about the recourse available to customers — a Starlink system costs around R17,000 — Bush said since direct purchases from Starlink are not possible in South Africa, the company’s 30-day money-back guarantee does not apply here. “We have established our (own) refund policy, which you can review at icasapush/returns.”

Bush stressed that the hardware remained legal in South Africa, although the service was not. “We do not foresee any issues with the South African government or Starlink regarding the legality of the hardware in South Africa. We have taken extensive measures to ensure our operations align with all local laws and Starlink’s regulations.” DM

Share

Lack of money to buy meals and pay rent is affecting the performance of students and threatening stability on campus, according to information shared by vice-chancellors with Universities South Africa (USAf). 

USAf represents the 26 university vice-chancellors in South Africa.

USAf CEO and spokesperson Dr Phethiwe Matutu said some of these challenges include concerns that hungry students cannot engage effectively with their study material.

This has serious implications for the students’ retention and the institutions’ throughput.

“This also poses a major instability risk to universities, as students begin to consider protesting about the problem,” Matutu said.

Non-payment of full accommodation costs, she said, also plunges students into debt with dire implications for universities.

“Some institutions have had to step in by providing meals to students affected by non-payment of allowances, with obvious financial implications on their budgets. So, this is a major concern to vice-chancellors,” she said.

Matutu was responding to Daily Maverick after a decision was taken by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande on 11 April to dissolve the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and place it under administration at a time when many beneficiaries face non-payment issues.

NSFAS board chairperson Ernest Khosa resigned before Nzimande announced the decision.

Khosa was allegedly linked to irregular tenders that were awarded by NSFAS to four fintech service providers – eZaga Holdings, Coinvest Africa, Tenet Technologies and Norraco Corporation – that were appointed to facilitate the direct payment of allowances to students.

Nzimande appointed Freeman Nomvalo as the administrator of NSFAS.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Minister Blade Nzimande dissolves NSFAS board while non-payment troubles still plague students

Another concern raised by vice-chancellors regarding non-payment of allowances, Matutu said, relates to NSFAS not paying landlords of students from those universities that are part of the NSFAS accommodation accreditation pilot, and that “they are beginning to get agitated and threatening to evict students from their residences”.

The NSFAS accommodation accreditation pilot project was launched this year. Under the project, NSFAS handles accreditation for student accommodation to ensure students have adequate housing, but it has already faced considerable criticism. 

Finding solutions

Matutu said USAf does engage with Nzimande’s department and NSFAS from time to time on all NSFAS-related issues including the non-payment of student allowances.

The last discussion, involving NSFAS acting CEO Masile Ramorwesi and another senior official, took place at the USAf board meeting on 19 March.

The USAf board also met with Nomvalo on 16 April to brief him on NSFAS-related issues on USAf’s agenda, including the payment of allowances.

Matutu said a meeting is planned in May between USAf, the department and NSFAS.

She said the department, “via USAf, has also been monitoring the payment of allowances since the universities have been asked to pay allowances from April to July”.

On USAf platforms, she said vice-chancellors talk in general terms about students affected negatively by the non-payment of allowances.

“We do believe that discussions taking place within institutions, especially within the Registrars’ and Chief Financial Officers’ offices, do concern themselves with the numbers. We have not surveyed/collated numbers of unpaid students in the system, so we cannot provide the statistics.”

Interventions

Matutu said NSFAS issued a communiqué on 12 April requesting universities to take over payment of allowances from the fintech companies from April to July.

“While this is what universities had always wanted to do (and they did it successfully at the beginning of the year with February and March allowances), vice-chancellors were duly concerned about the April payments.”

At the time of handing over to universities, Matutu said some students had already received their allowances from the direct payment service providers and others had not.

“Some had received inadequate amounts. Reconciling the data to differentiate those already paid from the rest, and to feed that data to universities in time, was going to be tricky for NSFAS.”

She said universities could foresee some students being double paid for April.

“Regarding May onwards, there is no major issue – except that universities wish to continue paying the allowances for a minimum of the next six months, ideally for the rest of the year, for continuing stability of the sector,” she said.

Asked which universities were currently affected, Matutu said all universities have large numbers of NSFAS-funded students, so the problem cuts across the sector.

Students’ position

Although he could not confirm the number of affected students, South African Union of Students (Saus) president Yandisa Ndzoyiya said a large number of students suffered after the fintech partners were appointed to make direct payments to students and the subsequent decision that was taken by NSFAS to terminate them. 

Saus represents student representative councils (SRCs) in the higher education sector including technical vocational education and training colleges (TVETs).

NSFAS announced in October 2023 that contracts with four fintech service providers would be terminated.

This followed an investigation conducted by Werksman Attorneys and Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC in August 2023 that found a conflict of interest involving former CEO Andile Nongogo.

In part, Nongogo was found to have actively participated in the presentation to the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) of proposals by service providers and appointed a technical adviser to assist the BEC.

Read more in Daily Maverick: NSFAS CEO Andile Nongogo faces axe after ‘conflict of interest’ in appointment of payment providers

On almost all campuses, Ndzoyiya said students have expressed their dissatisfaction with the process. He said they were worried about the outstanding transfers because there were students who wrote their first-semester tests without food.

“Some students have been evicted by landlords and some suffer based on transport. But we are hopeful that things will change since the minister gave back the process to universities until July,” Ndzoyiya said.

As Saus, he said they have engaged with Nzimande.

“It was our idea to take the process back to universities,” he said.

He added: “We have further engaged with the former board chair [Ernest Khosa] to fast-track the termination of the fintech contracts. We also met with the administrator to stress the importance of the termination,” he said.

NSFAS and the department, he said, had agreed on the process. He said students’ allowances have not been paid in almost all areas.

“Landlords have not been paid and students have not received allowances – both study material and living allowances.”

Daily Maverick approached universities last week to get an idea of the impact of non-payment and the number of students affected. However, few universities responded to questions.

Vaal University of Technology

Vaal University of Technology financial aid manager Busi Radebe said they paid 1,706 food allowances and 235 book allowances for outstanding April allowances that were unpaid by the fintech company appointed by NSFAS.

“The institution will also disburse student allowances from May to July 2024 as requested by NSFAS,” Radebe said.

She said financially deserving students are deprived of full funding support on time and this impacts negatively on their academic performance.

“They attend classes with empty stomachs and without prescribed books,” she said.

The university, Radebe said, has been in numerous engagements with NSFAS in an attempt to resolve the students’ impasse. 

“The institution initiated the food parcel drive jointly with its partners to provide food parcels to some needy students, whilst engaging NSFAS to fast-track resolving funding decisions of the affected students.” 

She said numerous meetings were held with NSFAS, the fintech company disbursing to VUT students and the SRC in an attempt to resolve the challenges. 

“VUT provided office space for the fintech company to resolve challenges of students in accessing their funds.”

Radebe said NSFAS indicated that there are legal proceedings underway with the four fintech companies. In the meantime, she said universities are requested to disburse students’ allowances until July 2024. 

“VUT requested a remittances and exceptions report from NSFAS to ensure outstanding allowances are disbursed correctly and to eliminate overpayment of student allowances.”

Radebe added: “Dissolving [the] NSFAS board, as the strategic committee, has [a] serious impact on the operations of the university, and it threatens the stability of the institutions. This decision will delay payments to institutions and students.”

She said VUT tuition and residences are partially paid to date and this impacts the university operations and cash flow.

“Again, VUT is one of the pilot institutions for student accommodation. Private property owners are not paid rental fees for three months and they are struggling to provide the required services to students.”

Sedibeng Municipality, she said, switched off electricity for some property owners due to non-payment of services.

Radebe said the university had to intervene and ask the municipality not to cut the power because this would have a detrimental effect on teaching and learning. 

“The university took the initiative to issue letters to property owners’ service providers advising them that NSFAS is in the process of effecting payment to the property owners. Therefore, they must not terminate their service.”

The letters were for wi-fi, banks and student transport providers contracted with property owners.

She said the institution also held numerous meetings with the property owners, SRC and NSFAS officials on the challenges to ensure the smooth running of the institution.  

North-West University

North-West University (NWU) spokesperson Louis Jacobs said they paid allowances on 18 April to 6,619 students who had not received their April allowances from the service provider.

“Currently there are still 549 students who have not received allowances. They are mainly students who were recently approved by NSFAS and students who have not yet made an option regarding private accommodation or travelling allowances,” Jacobs said.

He said NSFAS made an upfront payment on 12 April to the NWU to allow the payments to be made.

“NSFAS has instructed institutions to process catch-up payments for April’s allowances and has requested them to continue disbursing allowances until July 2024. Additionally, NSFAS has provided an upfront payment to NWU to cover these expenses,” he said.

He said monthly living and travel allowances are crucial for students.

Sol Plaatje University

Sol Plaatje University spokesperson Kashini Maistry said they were still reconciling the information received from Coinvest to identify unpaid students.

“Currently the academic programme is continuing uninterrupted. Allowances for February and March were paid by the university,” Maistry said.

She said April allowances were paid in part by the NSFAS service provider and that the completeness of this payment is currently being verified. 

Maistry said NSFAS has now requested that universities continue paying student allowances until July and advised that payments were made to institutions in this regard. This is currently being verified by the department. 

She said they have several food security and social relief programmes in place to assist struggling students.

Communication between NSFAS, the university and other relevant stakeholders is ongoing.

“Students who encounter problems are assisted through various university initiatives and programmes,” she said.

Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch University (SU) said in a statement that there were currently about 5,000 registered NSFAS-funded students, although this number is subject to change as NSFAS makes funding decisions.

Most of these students, SU said, have received their allowances.

“Those who have not have either not accepted the funding, or have not yet confirmed their living arrangements which will determine the type of allowance they will receive. The university has processed allowances as requested by NSFAS,” SU stated.

Wits, UWS and UJ

University of Witwatersrand spokesperson Buhle Zuma said the majority of Wits students are receiving their stipend directly from NSFAS.

“The university, at the request of NSFAS, has agreed to pay the affected students their allowances until July 2024. Other NSFAS payments to the university are up-to-date,” Zuma said.

University of the Western Cape spokesperson Gasant Abarder said all qualifying students received their allowances.

“There is no current impact as we received funding and transferred the funding to the qualifying students,” Abarder said.

University of Johannesburg spokesperson Herman Esterhuizen said all their 2024 NSFAS-funded students have received their allowance up to April 2024.

NSFAS responds

Without responding to specific questions sent on 22 April, NSFAS said in a statement on Friday 26 April that it was mindful of challenges experienced by university students.

NSFAS said it will pay TVET students directly from May.

“University students will continue to receive their allowance through their institutions until the end of July 2024,” NSFAS wrote.

Students who were paid on the direct payment platform by the fintech companies until April, NSFAS said, should continue to use those funds.

“The new arrangement is only from May onwards; more communication will be sent on the off-boarding process,” the statement reads.

NSFAS said Nomvalo convened an urgent meeting with the leadership of the South African TVET Student Association on 23 April, which dealt with students’ increased unhappiness with the delays in the payment or non-payment of allowances, and the disappearance of allowances in students’ accounts.

In the meeting, NSFAS said students expressed serious concerns about the efficacy of the current mode of disbursing allowances.

“NSFAS has devised a payment mechanism to address these ongoing challenges with the assistance of its banker, which will be implemented for the payments that are due at the end of May 2024.”

In terms of the mechanism, NSFAS will distribute allowances directly to students’ bank accounts.

“All TVET students who do not have bank accounts are encouraged to open accounts with banks of their choice,” NSFAS wrote. DM

Share

As the elections draw nearer, incidents of misinformation, disinformation and fake news multiply, as bad actors seek to confuse people about how the voting process works.

A message containing misinformation has been circulating on WhatsApp, mistakenly encouraging voters older than 60 to apply for a special vote to cast their ballots early.

The message claimed that the Electoral Commission of South Africa had given registered voters aged 60 and older leeway to vote before voting day on 29 May.

The misleading message read: “Important for everyone over 60. Voting day is 29 May. If you want to avoid long queues and parking problems: The IEC has given permission for everyone over 60 to vote on the 27 and 28 at the polling station where you are registered. Just text (SMS) your ID no to 32249.”

But the message is categorically untrue, and was not disseminated by the commission, the IEC confirmed on Monday. 

“The Electoral Commission re-emphasises the general principle of election administration that voters must vote where they are registered. However, in the event a voter intends to be in a different voting district on voting day, such a voter must notify the Commission of their intended absence from their voting district and must identify the voting station where they wish to cast the vote,” the IEC said.

Read more in Daily Maverick: A complete guide to voting in the 2024 South African general elections

Who qualifies for a special vote?

According to the IEC’s criteria, only people who cannot travel to voting stations due to being physically infirm, disabled, or pregnant, and those who cannot vote at their voting station on election day, qualify for a special vote.

The application appears to work on an honour system that allows voters to cast their ballots two days before election day on 27 and 28 May.

Remember that the deadline for applying for special votes closes this week, on Friday, 3 May. You can apply for a special vote on the IEC’s website, or by SMSing your identity number to 32249 for voting station visits only.

You can also visit your local IEC office and submit an Appendix 1B form for a voting station special vote. 

Home visits

For home visits for those unable to travel to voting stations due to illness or disability, an Appendix 1A form can be submitted to your local IEC office. Someone else can hand-deliver the forms on your behalf.

Read More in Daily Maverick: SA’s 2024 elections must be strongly prepared for flurry of online influence and disinformation

How to protect against disinformation and misinformation

In July 2023, the IEC announced that it was working with social media giants such as Google, Meta and TikTok, in addition to Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), to fight disinformation in an effort to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process. The partnership aims to facilitate actions such as removing content, issuing advisory warnings and delisting offenders.

Daily Maverick journalists also attended a fact-checking exercise where Africa Check’s head of education and training Carina van Wyk, offered advice on how voters can protect themselves from falling prey to dis- and misinformation. It involves asking several questions when consuming information on social media and online.

Van Wyk’s elections misinformation tips:

• If it sounds too good, shocking or unlikely to be true, question it, pause and make sure you verify the information before you share it;
• If it triggers your emotions, if it makes you angry, or scared, or if it gives you hope, then pause, reflect and verify before you share it;
• If information is shared and looks like it’s going viral, look at credible news sources to verify the information;
• Ask yourself: who is the source of the information?
• With AI-generated images, look at the details such as fingers, ears, backgrounds and patterns, because artificial intelligence often doesn’t get all the details right.

You can also go the extra mile by verifying information on reputable sites, such as the IEC website or fact-checking website. The IEC and MMA also developed the Real411 platform where incidents of fake news, disinformation and misinformation can be reported. Another online tool, snopes.com can also be used to verify articles.

Always remember to check the text for grammatical and spelling errors, as these are often dead giveaways that the information you are consuming is not factual. DM

For information about voting and elections, see the IEC website.

Share

It appears that an ANC decision to retain or remove President Cyril Ramaphosa after next month’s general election cannot be made without the party first deciding who to form a coalition with, should its share of the national vote fall below 50%.  

In 2019, the ANC said publicly that one of the reasons it had been able to keep so many voters after the State Capture era was that Ramaphosa was its leader.

For the first time since the end of the Mandela era, the leader of the ANC was more popular than the party.

Much has changed since then. As life has got harder for almost everyone in South Africa, and because of the Phala Phala scandal, Ramaphosa can no longer make such a claim.

Crucially, one of the reasons for this is that he has failed to carry out the reforms he promised. Despite saying repeatedly he would ensure accountability for what happened during State Capture, people implicated by the Zondo Commission are still in his government, appointed by him.

The ANC’s current situation and the speculation that it could fall to as low as 40% (unlikely as this may be in reality) has led to observers pondering whether a poor result for the ANC would see Ramaphosa’s removal. 

Of course, it is not entirely clear what the definition of a “poor result” is. For Ramaphosa’s supporters, it could well be anything below 40%, while for his opponents it could be anything below 50%.

It has long been clear to everyone, inside and outside the ANC, that the party was bound to lose significant support. And if it is true that the ANC conducts its own polling, then those in the top leadership will have a clearer idea of the probable election trends several days before voting.

Any debate about “who is to blame” for a bad result could easily turn into a circular firing squad. Ramaphosa has been recorded telling a National Executive Committee meeting that other ANC leaders are not doing enough to help the party win the election.

Any meeting seeking to blame him could well find its way into the public domain again.

The big question

There are other key questions around this issue, the major one being: Who would take over — would it automatically be Deputy President Paul Mashatile? 

The closest precedent for this is the events of 2008 when Kgalema Motlanthe, who was then deputy president of the ANC, replaced Thabo Mbeki as SA President. That was with the express permission, and possibly at the express request, of the then ANC leader, Jacob Zuma, and it was publicly agreed that Motlanthe’s presidency would be temporary.

This situation would be very different this time, as there would be no explicit understanding that whoever takes over from Ramaphosa would be there only temporarily. And so any negotiations about removing Ramaphosa risk becoming a major fight for power among different groups.

Should such a situation occur, and considering the divisions in the ANC, it could lead to chaos.

There is another problem for anyone wanting to use a poor election result against Ramaphosa: there may simply not be enough time for anyone to mount a challenge. 

This is because if the ANC falls below 50% and needs a large coalition partner, the question of electing the President will be intertwined with the question of finding that partner. 

It is highly unlikely that Ramaphosa would lead a Cabinet including EFF leaders in senior positions, just as it is impossible to imagine the DA in a coalition with Mashatile as President.

Any possible coalition partner would want to know who the President would be.  

In terms of the Constitution, the National Assembly must meet “not more than 14 days after the election result has been declared [and] at its first sitting after its election, and whenever necessary to fill a vacancy, the National Assembly must elect a woman or a man from among its members to be the President”.

This means there would be only two weeks to form a coalition, or at least an informal working relationship, or to make the decision to form a minority administration.

This is only the start of what has to happen in those two weeks.

The ANC will also have to make decisions about who to elect as premiers in the provinces it wins, and which parties to work with in provinces it does not win outright (traditionally, the ANC does not announce premier candidates for provinces before elections; the NEC decides that after the election, partially to ensure there are female premiers too).

Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections 2024

A contentious meeting

Other important posts need to be filled: the new Speaker and Deputy Speaker in the National Assembly, and the chair of the National Council of Provinces.

This would be before what could be a very contentious NEC meeting that provides input into the new Cabinet.

The political activity around the leadership of the ANC in the two weeks after previous elections has been incredibly intense. This year, the coalition challenge will dial it up a notch.

To add some kind of leadership challenge or change on top of this may be impossible with the tight deadlines.

However, it would be foolish to completely rule out change to the upper echelon of the ANC.

First, with strong political backing, presidents can be deposed. Just as Zuma had the support to remove Mbeki in 2008, and Ramaphosa had the political backing to remove Zuma in 2018, someone with the proper backing could remove Ramaphosa — and quickly.

Second, Ramaphosa himself might feel duty-bound to resign because he had led the ANC to a poor result, or if there was an indication he would come under pressure from inside the ANC.

He reportedly came close to stepping down just before the 2022 ANC conference over the Phala Phala scandal, which suggests he is not wedded to the presidency. 

But if he does not want to resign, that decision in itself could set this hypothetical process back for many months, and necessitate a special ANC electoral conference. As holding even a “normal” conference takes an extraordinary effort, it is possible the party would struggle to survive this process.

While the next few weeks will see much political activity ahead of voting day on 29 May, the election results could set the stage for the real political action of 2024. DM

Share