EFF leader Julius Malema has emerged as one of the stronger contenders on the election campaign trail, cutting a figure more considered and less fury-filled than in previous campaigns.

His lavishly funded campaign also means the party runs the town’s best poster and outdoor advertising game. EFF posters and massive billboards outstrip the ANC by an order of magnitude. But it is the change in Malema that is most apparent.

“We are going to kiss a lot of frogs along the way [to attain a strategic objective]. We are patient,” he said, adding: “The ANC is not a small organisation. You have to eat it bit by bit.”

South Africa’s most extensive pre-election poll, for the defunct Change Starts Now movement, showed that he is liked and feared in almost equal measure. The EFF’s support has plateaued because South Africans are middle-of-the-road voters, sensible even, and they have never turned to the extreme right or left in any significant electoral trend line.

The latest Ipsos poll released at the end of April suggests that the EFF will get 11.5% of the national vote, down significantly from previous surveys. The MK party appears to be taking a chunk of both EFF and ANC support.

Daily Maverick has found that Malema has toned down his violent rhetoric to present a more considered and often humorous picture on the campaign trail. We report here on two recent EFF events.

Wits School of Governance

At the Wits School of Governance in April, in a conversation with Professor Adebayo Olukoshi, Malema revealed that he thinks the EFF’s natural coalition partner is the ANC. Dressed in a tailored black shirt, he had traded in the EFF red T-shirt to cut a more statesman-like figure.

He had also stopped shooting from the hip and used an iPad to consider answers to questions and direct his discussion.

The ambitious politician clearly wants to be the president of South Africa, and an ideal result for him after the 29 May elections would be for the EFF to emerge second.

“When you run, you always want to be number one or you want to be number two,” he said. “You can’t be number three.”

With neither option looking likely, what could happen instead is that the ANC and EFF will form a coalition government in Gauteng if the governing party loses its provincial majority. The two parties have already partnered to run two metro governments.

In Johannesburg, the placeholder mayor, Al Jama-ah councillor Kabelo Gwamanda, is a compromise between the two parties. In Ekurhuleni, the EFF has been given the most powerful portfolios in return for agreeing that an ANC mayor should lead the industrial heartland city.

“The ANC are unreliable partners,” said Malema, though he added that Gauteng would “inevitably” be led by a coalition. “When the ANC loses, it loses forever, like it did in the Western Cape and Joburg.”

EFF leader Julius Malema and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi at a community meeting on 28 April 2024 in Daveyton, South Africa. (Photo: OJ Koloti / Gallo Images)

From Gauteng, a national coalition with the ANC is a possible next step for Malema if Deputy President Paul Mashatile succeeds President Cyril Ramaphosa. Malema and Mashatile are part of a band of political brothers who are still close. This group also includes ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, who is a good friend of the EFF leader, though they may spar publicly.

Even if the business community and markets are spooked by an ANC-EFF coalition, its potential is clearly front and centre in Malema’s strategy to get to the Union Buildings. Part of the ANC supports a coalition with the EFF. At the same time, Ramaphosa’s supporters in the ANC believe that such a coalition will cause an existential crisis for the culture of the old liberation movement.

But the ANC and EFF campaigns in Gauteng are intersecting and, for six months, the governing party in the province has refused to break a coalition with the Red Berets, defying the resolutions of its National Executive Committee.

“Even if I were sports minister [in a coalition Cabinet], I would be like the president. The ANC will lean to the left if we are the official opposition. Ourselves and the ANC must get 50% of the vote [for a shift to the left],” said Malema, explaining his coalition strategy.

Malema said the ANC is now a rural party dependent on super-majority wins in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Free State to get more than 50% nationally. If it doesn’t, Malema has lined up to form a coalition.

Pundits say the ANC’s most likely national coalition now is one with small parties with which it has relationships and has entered into municipal coalitions, including Patricia de Lille’s Good, the African Independent Congress of Johannesburg Speaker Margaret Arnolds, Al Jama-ah, and perhaps the IFP.

Another natural ANC ally, the IFP, is in a coalition arrangement with the DA, ActionSA and nine other parties in the Multi-Party Charter (MPC) Coalition. This week, News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson floated the idea of IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa as a presidential candidate if the MPC gets enough votes.

But if the ANC gets only the 40.2% – or thereabouts – predicted by Ipsos’ latest poll, it could force a more straightforward coalition with the bigger EFF.

What was clear from the Wits conversation is that Malema wants to be head of state and, at 43 years old, he has the time to make that a medium-term goal.

“We are going to kiss a lot of frogs along the way [to attain a strategic objective]. We are patient,” he said, adding: “The ANC is not a small organisation. You have to eat it bit by bit.”

Julius Malema at a Freedom Day rally held on 27 April in Alexandra, Johannesburg. (Photo: Luba Lesolle / Gallo Images)

Malema did not highlight the most radical policy planks of the party’s manifesto, such as the nationalisation of mines, banks, the rest of the financial sector and the South African Reserve Bank. Instead, he focused on the insourcing of government security guards and on changes to the intergovernmental distribution of power as priorities.

“[You need] a supermetro called Gauteng. Local government receives the smallest chunk of budgets. If you were to give Panyaza [Lesufi, the Gauteng premier], with the energy he has, implementation power, [that would change things].”

Premiers have limited ceremonial and patronage power in the present system, even if provinces get the most significant chunk of the budget. Most of this spending goes to schools and hospitals in a ring-fenced budget. The National Development Plan also proposed a reconfiguration of powers to change how services are delivered by considering the reduction of provinces.

Another area the EFF leader focused on was changes to the minimum wage. The EFF manifesto proposes increasing the minimum wage to R6,000 a month with further increases in specific sectors. (The current minimum is about R4,500 a month for general workers.)

The EFF’s plans for power are to show through demonstrating how it can lead. Malema believes, and the EFF manifesto lists, what it says is evidence of how it can be a good government. But its efforts in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni are chaotic at best.

“The EFF will demonstrate in practical terms how it governs,” he said.

Supporters of the EFF attend a Workers’ Day community meeting in Hammanskraal, Pretoria, on 1 May. (Photo: Alet Pretorius / Reuters)

Meeting with the Khutsong and Merafong communities

In May, Malema was in Westonaria, Carletonville, in the gold mining towns of Khutsong and Merafong. A 3,000-strong crowd waited patiently for hours for the “commander-in-chief” or “Juju”, as the MCs called him.

When he arrived in his convoy, he was wearing a black shirt and a red beret. Local leaders put a red campaign bib over his shirt. It advertised the policy planks of the party’s manifesto in bullet points: “expropriation of land without compensation”; “nationalisation”; “building state and government capacity”; “free education, healthcare, housing and sanitation”; and “massive development of the African economy”.

On the stage, Malema is a natural. He spoke without notes or the iPad for about an hour, his voice a little hoarse from a long and busy campaign trail. Because people can’t eat nationalisation and probably don’t care too much about prescribed assets, the applause went to more bread-and-butter promises and local issues.

Khutsong is beset by sinkholes and it is the biggest issue for the residents, who suffer from the ground collapsing under their roads and on their properties. To loud cheers, Malema spoke about these holes, which the Gauteng government has promised to fix, but has yet to do so. He cloaked all his points in the promise of a return to dignity.

“Gauteng is what it is because of this place,” he said, referring to the area being one of the country’s gold belts. “The gold is in London, and Carletonville is nothing. They took your minerals that would have given you a better life.”

The riff against the mines was also popular with the crowd.

Malema promised a “worker in each and every house”, like Mmusi Maimane of Build One South Africa does. The promise to do away with the basic state-sponsored RDP houses and to replace them with three-bedroom houses with a dining room and an indoor toilet got wild applause, displaying the human desire for a nice home.

“When your friends call you, you must [be able] to give them directions to your house [with pride],” Malema said. Amid the loud cheering, a man shouted: “Dankie, Juju. Dankie, Papa.”

What Malema has in spades is the common touch and knowledge of touchpoints that trouble the average black South African: work, dignity at work, a system that often feels like it is structured against you by favouring the connected, and the desire to be connected to the land through owning a piece of it.

One of his stories that clearly touches many is when he speaks about the practice of burying the umbilical cord to symbolise a human being’s connection to the land where they are born.

“This land belongs to me. Once I get the land, I will build myself a beautiful house on this land,” he said in Carletonville, telling people how they should think about ownership.

“Once you are the owner, you will be able to say [to people who don’t speak to you nicely]: ‘Repeat that thing again; I didn’t hear you properly.’ That’s what landlessness does – it takes away your dignity,” he said, neatly twinning land with dignity, one of the constitutional cornerstones.

Who’s funding the EFF campaign?

Unlike most other parties, the EFF does not submit its funders lists to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), as it must under the requirements of the Political Parties Funding Act. The IEC can force it to do so, but has never done so.

What’s clear is that the party has money. Its rally to start the campaign, during which Malema was lifted by a scissor lift à la a Beyoncé concert, was all extravaganza and glitz that cost a fortune.

The party’s posters are among the best examples and are plastered everywhere. Its mobile vans for rallies are state-of-the-art, with sound systems and a stage that can turn a piece of veld into a mega event, as was apparent in Carletonville.

Asked by Olukoshi who was funding the campaign, Malema said Standard Bank had advanced it a loan against the funds the party would get from the fiscus. In addition, 1,100 party members who earn a government salary are giving a percentage as tithes. It also received R37-million from the IEC, which disperses political funds to represented parties.

Malema said the EFF had applied for a R100-million loan from the bank, which had approved R60-million.

“We said, sharp, bring it.”

The loan is commercial, with Standard Bank getting paid by debit order as soon as the IEC funds land. Malema said it was used to pay service providers for the launch rally. “We are in talks with the bank again,” he added.

Malema lives like the president he wants to be in a lifestyle entirely out of kilter with his MP salary. He bats away any questions about his proximity to and close friendship with cigarette boss Adriano Mazzotti, who is widely believed to sponsor the five-star lifestyle he and Malema share like brothers.

Read more in Daily Maverick: VBS chickens come home to roost: Pink-faced Floyd and not-so-Grand Azania couldn’t pay back the money to SARS

He also bats away any questions about how Venda-based VBS Mutual Bank was a cash cow for his lifestyle until it was reported by Daily Maverick. Malema again denied any impropriety by any EFF member in relation to the VBS scandal, but the evidence is all there to read in the collected VBS works by Daily Maverick investigative journalist Pauli van Wyk. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Documents confiscated from Ralph Stanfield’s jail cell form part of a growing set of legal matters against him. 

Details about the documents emerged in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday, 10 May 2024. A handwriting expert is set to analyse the paperwork to confirm details of the contents of  the documents. 

Read more in Daily Maverick : ‘The Firm’ grip of the 28s – from Colin Stanfield to fresh suspicions shaping SA’s drug scene

Stanfield, his wife Nicole Johnson, and three other accused — Denver Booysen, Johannes Abrahams and Jose Brandt, also known as Makop — appeared together in the dock on Friday. They face charges relating to vehicle theft, and in Stanfield’s case, of attempted murder.

The matter is part of a growing set of legal matters in which Stanfield’s name has cropped up. His brother Kyle was arrested towards the end of last month for defeating the ends of justice.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Nearly R5-million cash, luxury watches seized as 28s gang boss accused Ralph Stanfield’s brother arrested 

About a week ago, Johnson’s mother Barbara was also among three suspects detained. The three appeared in a Bellville court with Kyle, and the case against them was postponed to July.

Jail cell raid

In the Cape Town court on Friday, it emerged that Stanfield is facing more criminal accusations and charges.

State prosecutor Advocate Frank van Heerden told Magistrate Alida Theart that a count of defeating the ends of justice would be added to the charges against Stanfield. Van Heerden explained that a raid was conducted in the cell Stanfield was being detained in, and documents were found and seized. 

The state “handed documents to a writing analyst and by the beginning of June we’ll be getting feedback on what the document contains”. Van Heerden added that on 22 April a warrant was issued to search a house.

In the garage of the premises, officers found a “person with a letter”.

Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson seen at the Cape Town Regional Court on 16 September 2023 in Cape Town. (Photo: Gallo Images/Die Burger/Jaco Marais)

Letter and ‘deleted video footage’

Van Heerden told the court Stanfield wrote the letter. He read part of it to the court, saying it asked “if the video footage was deleted”. 

It previously emerged in court that Stanfield may face charges in connection with a house break-in.

Read more in Daily Maverick: 28s gang boss accused Ralph Stanfield’s legal woes escalate — court hears about another charge

During Friday’s brief proceedings, Van Heerden told the court that the complaint in the house break-in matter “left the country without informing the investigating officer; however, he’ll be back on 17 May”. 

Van Heerden was optimistic that an outstanding statement would be obtained when the complainant returns.

Moving forward

During proceedings, Stanfield appeared agitated as he consulted his lawyer Ross McKernan, and his advocate Frans Mashele as his advisory counsel.

Van Heerden asked for the case to be postponed to 27 June 2024 for further investigation. 

McKernan, however, pointed out that there was previously an agreement that a prior postponement was the final one. He said: “We’re in the reception court and we want this case transferred to the trial court.” 

McKernan wanted an idea as to where the case was headed. Theart granted the state’s requested postponement date.

Gun licence case

Johnson and Stanfield have been behind bars (despite attempts to be released on bail) since they were arrested from their home in the upmarket suburb of Constantia in September last year.

They are also accused in another case.

It links to 2014, when they were arrested in connection with allegations that officers at the South African Police Service’s Central Firearm Registry had created fraudulent firearm licences for them and others.

Among those charged in the case were three (now former) police members — Priscilla Mangyani, Billy April and Mary Cartwright. DM

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Giovanni Mazzone, my father, was the pioneer of pizza in South Africa. He introduced the first wood-burning oven and was a legend of pizza. In 2022, I won the global pizza challenge to celebrate him. 

There are some important tips you need to know when making pizza dough:

• The dough must never be overhandled.
• Using a roller pushes all the air out.
• Stretch by hand, always.
• And give it the time to rise.
• And one more thing: always be happy when making bread or pizza. The dough absorbs the energy of the maker.

The cucina povera, or poor people’s food, is absolutely in vogue in Italy, and around the world at the moment. Even Michelin-starred chefs have seized upon these centuries-old traditional foods served on the tables of the common people in rural Italy and turned them into fashionable food served in restaurants. 

These dishes are not only delicious and wholesome but often very cheap to make. Perfect for contemporary South Africa.

This dough recipe also works very well for a light Italian peasant bread.

Forti’s pizza dough recipe (80% hydration) for 4 

4 cups “00” flour

3 cups lukewarm water

1 Tbsp fine salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 sachet Anchor instant yeast

Method

Combine the yeast into one of the cups of lukewarm water and mix well.

Place the flour in your home mixer bowl and, using the dough hook, add the water cup by cup, slowly, starting with the yeast-dissolved cup.

Add the oil and the salt. Slowly increase the speed as the dough becomes elastic. Stop mixing after 10 minutes or so when the dough separates from the side of the steel bowl.

Wet your hands and place the ball of dough in a large mixing bowl dusted with flour. Cover with a damp cloth and leave at room temperature until doubled in size.

Divide the dough into fist-sized balls and roll under your palms. Leave on a flour-dusted surface to rise again for 20 minutes. DM

Fortunato Mazzone is the boss at the Forti Group of restaurants.

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The Constitutional Court has dismissed an urgent bid by small parties to contest the 29 May polls, after they failed to comply with the provisions of section 27 of the Electoral Act regarding the submission of candidate lists before the required deadline.

On Friday, the Constitutional Court dismissed applications by the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats (AASD) and corruption-accused former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule’s African Congress for Transformation (ACT) for leave to appeal an Electoral Court judgment of 15 April. The Electoral Court had found they failed to comply with the election timetable by not meeting the deadline for the submission of their full candidate lists.

The Constitutional Court also dismissed an application by the newly formed Labour Party for direct access.

This means the Labour Party and the AASD are excluded from contesting the elections. However, while ACT was unable to upload all its candidates for the National Assembly, it — and its leader — it will still be appearing on the ballot,  but the Party will only be able to contest in the regions where it managed to submit its candidate lists by the deadline.

The court said it would provide reasons for the orders “in due course”.

The cases brought by the Labour Party, aligned to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the AASD and ACT were heard in tandem before the apex court on Wednesday.

The three political parties sought the court’s urgent intervention, claiming that technical malfunctions in the IEC online registration system barred them from registering on time, rendering them ineligible to contest the May 29 polls.

The IEC had opposed all three applications.

The case had the potential to affect the 29 May election date if the Constitutional Court agreed with the parties that the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) election timetable was unfair and set it aside.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Unregistered parties lobby for SA poll postponement as ConCourt hit with several urgent applications

The political parties had first approached the IEC with a request to extend the 8 March deadline for them to file their lists of candidates. After the commission refused the extension of the deadline in the election timetable, the parties approached the Electoral Court to review this decision.

On 15 April, the Electoral Court dismissed the parties’ applications, concluding that the commission’s insistence on compliance with the deadlines in the election timetable was not unlawful. It found there was enough evidence to show that the commission’s online registration system did not falter on 8 March.

Read more in Daily Maverick: No Aces to play — Magashule’s party among five to lose critical candidate lists court bid

Magashule’s ACT and AASD applied to the Constitutional Court to appeal the Electoral Court’s decision of 15 April, with ACT asking the court to order the re-opening of the IEC’s online registration system to allow it to submit its full list of candidates.

Ace Magashule at the unveiling of his political party African Congress for Transformation in Soweto. 30 August 2023. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

While ACT was unable to upload all its candidates for the National Assembly, it will still be appearing on the ballot. However, it will not be on the ballot in all provinces.

The Labour Party did not appeal but applied to the Constitutional Court for direct access. The party wanted the court to declare its exclusion from the elections on the grounds that it failed to meet the deadline to be inconsistent with the Constitution and unlawful. It also sought a consequent postponement of the polls.

The IEC had argued that the court should refuse the Labour Party direct access and should dismiss the AASD and ACT’s applications for leave to appeal “because there are no prospects for success and it is not in the interests of justice”.

It said it was not the first time that the commission’s online candidate nomination system (OCNS) had been used, as it was first used in the 2019 general elections and again in the 2021 local government elections.

The IEC said postponing the elections would cost the commission an estimated R500,000.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections 2024 – All your questions answered

In a statement following the ConCourt’s order, Labour Party secretariat Krister Janse van Rensburg said the party was “baffled by this judgment.”

“For the apex court of this country to disregard our application which was supported by 19 other political parties, is almost unbelievable,” he said.

Janse van Rensburg said the party would await detailed reasons for the judgment before commenting further on the matter.

pic.twitter.com/ttK4MpI65V

— Labour Party of South Africa (@LabourPartyZA) May 10, 2024

Advocate Chris Loxton, representing the party, had argued that the “fatal flaw” of the IEC’s argument that the online system worked well for other parties, was that 35% of parties were unable to upload their information by the 8 March deadline.

“35% is not a small minority, and 65% is not a vast majority,” said Loxton, arguing that this showed the system didn’t function as it was supposed to.

However, the judges questioned this argument, with Justice Steven Majiedt saying that the figure of 35% needed to be interrogated because, according to the IEC, these parties may have registered but never attempted to upload information, or they may have left everything to the last minute.

The IEC had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. DM

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Corruption Watch, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and Council for Advance of the South African Constitution have supported the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) assertion that the Constitution disqualifies former President Jacob Zuma from being elected to the National Assembly. 

The three parties joined the case, brought to the Constitutional Court by the IEC, as Amicus Curiae  (friends of the court) to advance additional arguments. 

The IEC brought the case before the Concourt on appeal from the Electoral Court. The main case relates to whether Zuma is eligible to appear as a National Assembly candidate for the MK party after the IEC initially ruled that he was barred from doing so due to a 15-month conviction for contempt of court. 

Section 47 of the Constitution dictates that a person who is convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12-month imprisonment without an option of a fine is not eligible to be a member of the National Assembly. 

It adds that “no one may be regarded as having been sentenced until an appeal against the conviction or sentence has been determined, or until the time for an appeal has expired. A disqualification under this paragraph ends five years after the sentence has been completed.”

The electoral court found that, although Zuma had been sentenced for more than a year, the proviso about being able to appeal his sentence placed his sentence outside the realm of disqualification. 

Earlier in the day, the court dismissed a counter-application by Zuma, calling for the recusal of six of the court’s judges. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: Concourt dismisses Zuma bid to have judges who convicted him removed from IEC case

Representing Corruption Watch, advocate Max du Plessis SC, said the Constitution deliberately disqualified “serious offenders” from joining the National Assembly and the electoral court’s interpretation of the section subverted this intention.  

“This court explained that the denial of the right of appeal to Mr Zuma was permitted by the Constitution. It empowers this court to entertain matters by way of direct access. It’s the Constitution itself that saw fit to take away the right of appeal. Where direct access is warranted in these types of cases, said the court, the right of appeal simply does not arise,” he said. 

He said Zuma’s interpretation of section 47 of the Constitution was incorrect. 

“A person sentenced by this court for a very serious crime who poses a grave risk to the Constitution would remain eligible to contest elections, but a person that is sentenced by a lower court for a far less serious crime would be disqualified.”

Former president Jacob Zuma waves at a rally during the ANC and MK party court case about the MK party trademark heard at Durban High Court on 27 March, 2024, in Durban. (Photo: Gallo Images/Darren Stewart)

‘Absurdity’ if Zuma allowed to stand — Du Plessis

Du Plessis said if Zuma was allowed to stand for a National Assembly position, it would create “an absurdity”. 

“A unique benefit would be gifted to persons who denigrate this court and whose exceptional conduct demanded this court’s exceptional response. Yet they are somehow, exceptionally immunised from being disqualified for holding office. We say that leads to an absurdity that is also a perversity. It runs the risk of the perversion of the Constitution as demonstrated by the facts of this case. It would perversely mean that this court’s orders for contempt are rendered an empty lightning bolt,” he said. 

Advocate Nick Ferriera, representing Casac and the Kathrada Foundation, tackled the question of the effect of the remission of Zuma’s sentence, which was also considered by the Electoral Court. In August 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa reduced the sentences of more than 9,000 prisoners and Zuma benefited by having his time in jail reduced. 

Ferriera argued that the law does not treat remission and pardons in the same way. 

“In law, the effect of President Ramaphosa’s remission of former president Zuma’s sentence was merely to constitute an effective reduction of the time that had to be served.

“It is helpfully contrasted with the legal consequence of a pardon, which does something different. A pardon reaches back in time and changes the legal consequence of that conviction and sentence, and effectively expunges it. Once there is a pardon, it is as if there never was any sentence or conviction. 

‘Remission not a pardon’ — Ferreira

“We submit that a remission of a sentence is quite different. It does not have the effect of expunging the legal consequences of the conviction and sentence.” 

Ferriera added that the “ineligibility to stand for election to the National Assembly is a very serious ineligibility”.

“It is something that should not be imposed lightly. It is something that the drafters of the Constitution decided should be imposed in proportion to the criminal office. They decided that those who have been convicted and sentenced to a period of more than one year, that is where that calibration — the link between the gravity of the crime and the ineligibility — comes in,” he said. 

The IEC’s Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC took a similar view that the Constitution’s drafters wanted to deliberately exclude people who had committed certain serious crimes from entering the National Assembly. 

“The exclusions of pardons and remissions from section 47(1) e is not an accident of history but it was a careful policy choice made during the drafting of the Constitution.”

He referred to reports on the drafting process from 1995, saying they showed the rationale of the drafters. 

“They found that a pardon expunges the crime and the sentence, and therefore it was not necessary to include it. But pertinently and more importantly for our case, the drafters also applied their mind to the relationship between the disqualification and remission of sentences.

They specifically referred to remissions of sentences, which they said could occur where a person’s 20-year sentence has been reduced to a 10-year sentence. And they squarely, they answered the question which is before the court today, they said in a remission the judiciary-imposed sentence is not reduced, merely the length of the execution,” he said. 

Judge Leona Theron debated the IEC’s interpretation at length, asking whether Zuma’s right to appeal was not protected as a fundamental right.

“My concern is that we must apply the law equally and the same in every matter. All principles, principles of interpretation as well should be the same,” she said. 

Ngcukaitobi argued that some rights are deliberately limited by the Constitution. 

“The text (of the Constitution) says sentence, it does not say sentence served. Whatever the president does about the remission, he can never sentence,” he said.

Advocate Dali Mpofu. (Photo: Leila Dougan)

‘Not an ordinary conviction’ — Mpofu 

Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing Zuma, raised several points of argument, including that the contempt of court conviction was not an ordinary conviction. He explained that because the contempt ruling originated in civil proceedings as opposed to criminal proceedings, it did not count as a conviction. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: Expulsions from MK party point to deep instability and mistrust

“This is not even a conviction, it is a committal order. Unsuspended committal order for contempt for legal categorisation… Which drafters would have contemplated that one day, there will be a criminal conviction, which is a result of urgent proceedings in motion court, by direct access, denying all the 15 rights listed in section 35 (3) (of the Constitution)? Not only were those rights denied, they were used as punishment,” he said. He explained that because the contempt ruling originated in civil proceedings as opposed to criminal proceedings, it did not count as a conviction. 

Justice Nonkosi Tshiqi questioned this line of argument, asking how Zuma was sent to jail without a conviction. 

“It just bothers me that if we know that a person was convicted and sentenced and actually did serve a period of imprisonment, we actually turn around and say this person has no record of previous conviction. It doesn’t sit well with me. It looks artificial, it sounds artificial. Because then was he sentenced or not? Did he serve time in prison?” she asked. 

Mpofu said there was a need to distinguish between civil contempt and criminal conduct. 

Justice Steven Majiedt questioned Mpofu’s assertion that Zuma’s eligibility to stand in the National Assembly could be determined by Parliament during the first sitting.

“This will be our seventh national election. In the past six elections, do you know of any instance where the National Assembly determined eligibility after the elections?” Majiedt asked. 

“That’s the job of the National Assembly. If you do something there and they want to kick you out even just for the day, they will kick you out for the day. But if they want to kick you out for life, because you fall under 47(1) e, they’ll kick you out for life,” Mpofu said.

Theron was also concerned about this line of argument from Mpofu, and questioned whether someone who was ineligible to stand for office could be allowed to be on a party list. 

“If a candidate is not allowed to hold public office, they are also not allowed to stand for office?” 

Mpofu doubled down, saying it was possible to be ineligible to stand for office at the time of election and then become eligible at a later stage.

‘We don’t interpret legislation’ — Theron

Theron followed up: “Mr Mpofu, we don’t interpret legislation having regard to particular people’s situations. We look at the legislation and we see what it means.”

She was also concerned with Mpofu’s interpretation of the conviction.

“In terms of our law, there is no distinction. Once the conviction takes place, there is no distinction after that. Before that, in the proceedings, the proceedings are different. But civil contempt is recognised in our law as an offence. And once a person has been found guilty of civil contempt, that is a conviction,” she said. Mpofu disagreed, saying the law does make a distinction between civil contempt and a criminal offence. 

Mpofu also argued that the Zuma matter was unique and the drafters of the Constitution would never have imagined a scenario like this, in which the Concourt made an unprecedented ruling of contempt.

“It has never happened and it is unlikely to ever happen again. So it was a particular situation influenced by the fact that Mr Zuma was a Head of State,” he said. 

Mpofu also argued that the right to stand for office, and the right to be eligible for the National Assembly, are two separate rights.  

“You might be ineligible at the time of the submission of the list, and then become eligible. But vice versa also holds. You might be eligible at the time of the list but something happens in the two or three months which makes you ineligible. To conflate those two things is just legal sabotage,” he said. 

The court heard arguments until after 8pm on Friday. It has reserved judgment. DM

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The death toll in the collapse of a five-storey building in George increased to 12 on Friday 10 May, as search and rescue entered the fourth day. On Friday morning, three deceased people were retrieved from the rubble, announced Anton Bredell, MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, during a press briefing in the afternoon. 

“There are 41 unaccounted for, 40 people have been rescued and unfortunately, 12 are deceased,” he said. 

The briefing was also joined by Premier Alan Winde, the Disaster Management teams and Western Cape Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile. 

Winde said, “This is an incredibly complex and delicate operation. Despite this, our highly experienced emergency and disaster management crews have been working flat-out to find the workers who are still trapped. If need be, we will further intensify our efforts.”

Kassie Karstens, hospital general manager at Mediclinic George Hospital on 10 May 2024. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)

Nearly 700 assisting on site

Since the incident, nearly 700 emergency and disaster management officials and volunteers have been working tirelessly on the site. 

Winde praised them and called them true heroes. “We are immensely grateful for all you are doing in this very difficult time,” reiterated the premier. “That is what I admire the most about our Western Cape residents — when incidents of this nature occur, everyone comes together and steps up. You are all extraordinary.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: George residents champion the ‘superdogs’ searching for survivors of building collapse

Authorities did not want to reveal more information about the various investigations as they were all in the initial stages. 

Daily Maverick reported on Thursday that consulting engineer Athol Mitchell, who signed off on the plans for the ill-fated 75 Victoria project in George, had been found after initially being reported missing.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Consulting engineer who signed off plans for collapsed George building reported missing — later found

Identifying victims

Day four of the rescue response saw the teams using demolition equipment to lift the concrete slabs obstructing access to the lower floors of the building site. 

“The decision to switch to using heavy-duty demolition equipment is not taken lightly. The demolition company has created a safe path to drive on over the site, filling in voids that have been thoroughly checked for any entrapped victims. Rescue techniques continue to be applied meticulously and sensitively at each phase,” stated the Garden Route District Joint Operational Centre.

As more bodies are expected to be retrieved in the coming days, Patekile said their forensic teams are prepared for any eventualities. 

“Regarding the DNA and forensic lab, we do not have any challenges anymore,” he said. “The challenges that were there, we sorted them long ago. As you might recall, the Western Cape forensic lab was also supporting the Eastern Cape one; subsequent to that, the SAPS Eastern Cape lab was opened.” 

He said the only challenge that would cause delays would be to collect DNA samples from relatives if deceased victims cannot be identified by simply viewing them. 

Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla outside Mediclinic George Hospital on 10 May 2024. (Photo: Tamsin Metelerkamp)

Health Minister visits survivors

Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla and Western Cape MEC for Health Dr Nomafrench Mbombo visited survivors of the George building collapse in local hospitals on Friday. Speaking outside Mediclinic George Hospital, Phaahla described the tragedy as a “national calamity”.

“We are here because of the fact that what has happened here in George… we regard as a national disaster,” said Phaahla, adding that he was grateful that local private hospital Mediclinic George Hospital had been so quick to assist the state’s George Hospital when it reached out for assistance in handling the incident.

“It’s quite heartwarming to know that even private doctors… that were already busy with their operations, or just about to start, agreed to postpone those operations and all assembled to look after the emergencies that very first day,” he said.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘Hope is fading’ — families of workers missing after George building collapse voice their fears

Phaahla said that most of the injuries among those recovering at the hospitals were traumatic injuries related to rubble and concrete that had fallen on them. 

“Largely, it’s broken bones, including spinal injuries… They’ve indicated that some of the patients had internal organ [injuries], like the liver damaged, broken ribs… One of the patients had severe facial injuries. So, it’s those kinds of multiple fractures and organ injuries,” he said.

Mediclinic George Hospital received 18 patients from the disaster site, three of whom are deceased. On Friday afternoon, ten individuals were still at the hospital, with four in the intensive care unit, while five had been discharged.

The hospital’s general manager Kassie Karstens said that one of the patients was going to be transported to Groote Schuur Hospital for specialist care.

“We’re very privileged… to be involved in this. It’s a tragedy in town — we feel for the victims and their families,” said Karstens.

“The moment we got the call… we just jumped in. We said: Send whoever you need to, we’ll look after them. We communicated with the George Hospital, we worked so nicely with them. It was so encouraging to see the private and the public sector work together like this.” DM

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Zuma had argued that six judges of the Constitutional Court should recuse themselves from hearing, saying they can’t act as both players and referees. This argument was submitted by Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing Zuma and the MK Party, of which Zuma is a senior member. But after a short deliberation, the court ruled that the six judges should sit in the case. The court has not provided detailed reasons at this stage.

The IEC brought the case before the ConCourt on appeal from the Electoral Court. The main case relates to whether Zuma is eligible to appear as a National Assembly candidate for the party after the IEC initially ruled that he was barred from doing so due to a 15-month conviction for contempt of court.

Section 47 of the Constitution dictates that a person who is convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without an option of a fine is not eligible to be a member of the National Assembly.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Zuma’s eligibility for SA’s 2024 election — a tangled web of legal and ethical dilemmas

It adds that “no one may be regarded as having been sentenced until an appeal against the conviction or sentence has been determined, or until the time for an appeal has expired. A disqualification under this paragraph ends five years after the sentence has been completed”.

The electoral court found that, although Zuma had been sentenced for more than a year, the proviso about being able to appeal his sentence placed his sentence outside the realm of disqualification.

Zuma brought a counter-application, which is being heard before the main application, in which he calls for six of the Concourt judges to recuse themselves from the case. Zuma says that Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, along with Justices Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Steven Majiedt, Leona Theron, Nonkosi Mhlantla and Zukisa Tshiqi adjudicated in the case that sent him to prison in the first place and should therefore not be involved in the current matter.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Zuma MK party representation critical for votes but push for ConCourt judges’ recusal a dead end

MK party supporters outside Johannesburg High Court. 9 April 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)

‘Unconscious bias’

“If your country is playing against another country. You are not allowed to be a referee. You might be the best referee in the world, but it is a question of conscience,” Mpofu told the court.

He added that the judges who were involved in sentencing Zuma could have an “unconscious bias”.

“The human inclination to want to defend the decision that you took previously. It is a human thing. And the fear is borne exactly of that fact. That the same court, the same individuals who meted out this conviction and sentence are going to be called upon (to decide on this case). How can a litigant be happy about that?”

Mpofu added that Zuma had a reasonable apprehension of bias because he has questioned the basis of his contempt judgment and believes the affected judges will want to defend their decision.

“It is not a secret that he finds that judgment questionable. He will never accept that until his last day. He had to accept because we had to explain how the laws of the country work. It is not to say the judgment was wrong, it is to say the judgment was unacceptable in his view,” said Mpofu.

In response to questions from the court, Mpofu said Zuma was happy to have the case determined by this court but “not by yourselves”. His proposition creates a problem for the court however, as the recusal of six judges would mean it does not have the required quorum to hear the case.

Advocate TJ Magano, representing the Black Lawyers Association who have entered the case as amicus curiae (friends of the court) argued that the court should find a way to hear the case even if six judges are recused. He argued that acting judges could be appointed for the case, however Justice Nonkosi Mhlantla challenged this view by saying the Concourt had previously ruled that a recusal does not court as an absence, and therefore an acting judge could not be appointed for the case.

“One need not confine oneself to language…The constitution is a means to dispensing justice,” he said.

The IEC has opposed Zuma’s recusal application. Advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitobi argued that the judges of the Concourt “have a duty to sit in every case that is before you”.

“When you sit, we presume that you are impartial because you approach your job with intellectual forensic ability,” he said.

Ngcukaitobi added that in Zuma’s court papers, he concedes that the decision to sentence him was “legally competent” even though he questioned the decision.

“The correct position here is that that is your job. You have to sometimes find people guilty of contempt and then sometimes impose a punitive sentence. That is what this court is expected to do. And it cannot be a basis for recusal, even if the litigant who is on the receiving end believes that it is unjust. The mere fact that they believe it is unjust does not mean the decision is unjust in the eyes of the law. It is a subjective assessment,” he said.

The court will hear the main application in the case this afternoon. DM

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This is a real treat for a weeknight family meal. It presses a lot of happy buttons: it starts with butternut, it’s mildly curried, it’s an all-in-one meal, and who doesn’t love tuna-mayo? It even has a cheesy topping. Out of the air fryer, onto the plate. Done.

Or should that be “out of the air fryers”…?

This is one of those “what if” recipes I enjoy having fun with once in a while. What if I mixed canned tuna meat with fried onions and mayonnaise, lightly curried it, used it as a stuffing for butternut, and then… well, why stop there when we’ve got this far? Let’s top it with cheese.

But first: I’m loving my air fryers. Yes, …ers. There was the original that I bought, a Kenwood twin drawer. Endlessly useful, you can set each drawer at different temperatures and to cook for different lengths of time. And you can synchronise them so that they both finish at the same time, with one kicking in first but both ending together. (Think of a MasterChef Australia challenge where some of the contestants sit out for 30 minutes while others get started.)

Then came an Instant Vortex Plus 5.7 litre, the one I use most often. And the other day, my sister bought me a 3.5 litre Salton digital air fryer for my birthday. Knowing that I need to cook air fryer recipes so often, she thought a bit more diversity would be useful. She’s right. One of these days I’ll set myself a challenge to use them all at once for various elements of one meal. We’ll get to that.

For this AirFryday supper, I used the Instant Vortex, because its drawer fits two large butternut halves comfortably with plenty of space for air to move around them and get the job done efficiently. But I was cooking for two; if you’re cooking for four, and you have two air fryers, you can cook them all at the same time. Otherwise, you’ll have to do them in batches. So you may be starting to think: is one air fryer enough?

Butternut takes a while to become tender, so you cannot just slice them in half, scoop out the pips, stuff them and put them straight into the machine to cook. The butternut needs to go in without any filling, until they are close to tender. This is because the filling will already be cooked when you stuff them, top them with cheese and put them in the air fryer again to finish.

So there are three stages:

• First wrap the two halves in foil and air fry them for about 25 minutes, but check along the way, as it may need less or more time depending on the weight and density of your butternut.
• While they are cooking, fry off your onions and garlic, add the tuna meat, give it a nice masala tang, run mayonnaise through it and have it ready to go. Grate your cheese too.
• Finally, remove the butternut halves, scoop the stuffing in (piled as high as you can), pile grated cheese on top and cook them, uncovered, until the cheese has melted and turned golden on top.

I thought at the outset that this recipe would need a generous amount of tuna, and the result proved me right.

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

To pre-cook the butternut:

1 butternut, halved

Cooking oil

Salt and pepper to taste

For the filling:

2 Tbsp ghee

1 onion, chopped finely

2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

2 Tbsp tomato paste

3 x 170 g cans of light meat shredded tuna in water, drained

2 tsp decent quality curry powder/ masala

2 heaped Tbsp mayonnaise

Salt and black pepper to taste

To complete:

1 cup of Cheddar cheese, grated

Coriander leaves, chopped, to finish

Method

Slice the butternut in two lengthwise and scoop out the innards.

Rub oil on all of the fleshy parts, including the edges. Season with salt and black pepper.

Wrap the two halves in foil.

Preheat the air fryer to 200℃, put the butternut halves in, and cook at that temperature for about 25 minutes, or until the flesh is fairly tender. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer through the thickest part.

Remove the foil and let them cool a bit so that you can handle them.

Meanwhile, sauté the onion and garlic in melted ghee (or cooking oil) until softened and the onion is taking on some colour.

Drain the cans of tuna and add all the meat.

Add 2 Tbsp of tomato purée, 2 teaspoons of masala/curry powder (note: teaspoons, not table…), 2 heaped Tbsp of mayonnaise and salt to taste and stir well to combine. Stir in HALF of the grated cheese. It will be like a thick paste with a lovely medium-brown hue.

Spoon it into the cavities of the butternut halves, pushing it down so that the filling is densely packed inside, Continue piling on top, but keep the filling away from the edges of the butternut.

Using your fingers, place clumps of the remaining grated cheese along the centre (as if it were a spine), again keeping it away from the edges. If there’s not enough cheese for the job, grate a little more.

Grill in the air fryer for about 5 minutes at 200℃ or until the cheese has melted and turned golden. 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 on an oblong plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.

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Long-standing Proteas women coach Hilton Moreeng will voluntarily depart his role after an 11-year tenure — with his contract renewed last season coming to an end — Cricket South Africa announced on Friday.

Moreeng has walked a long road with the side, having seen the team develop from amateur to professional during that time.

The man from the Free State oversaw 279 matches in charge of the national women’s team since taking the role in December 2012.

Under his guidance, the Proteas Women achieved significant success, the best of that being leading the side to a T20 World Cup final in front of a packed Newlands Stadium last year — the first time a senior national side has reached the final of a tournament.

Despite the success of that tournament, management and players allegedly had a falling out — with Moreeng’s contract supposed to end at the completion of the tournament. But the historic showing saw his contract extended by CSA.

Read more in Daily Maverick: The moment is now for the Proteas Women to achieve World Cup glory

CSA Director of Cricket Enoch Nkwe confirmed that Moreeng chose to step aside and not renew his contract, after it had expired at the end of the season.

“The timing of it is not great but we understand and respect his position,” Nkwe told the media on Friday.

The side also reached the semifinal stage of the T20 World Cup in 2014 and 2020 under his tutelage.

The 46-year-old led the T20 Internationals (T20Is) overall, the team secured 60 victories out of 127.

In 149 One-Day International (ODI) matches as head coach, the side won 84 with a win ratio of 56%, with one draw and two losses in Test cricket.

In 50-over World Cups, Moreeng’s charges featured in two semifinal matches at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017 and 2022, losing out to England on both occasions.

Dillon du Preez during the Momentum Proteas training session at Groenkloof Oval in May 2022 in Pretoria. (Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images)

Temporary coach

Assistant coach Dillon du Preez, who has been in his role for the last four years, will take over the reins in the interim, before a new head coach is appointed. 

Du Preez’s interim role is until after the tour of India. The Proteas take on India in a multi-series tour, which consists of three ODIs, three T20Is and a Test match.

The T20 World Cup then kicks off in Bangladesh in October.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Proteas women skipper Laura Wolvaardt a superior generational talent with records to boast

“I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to CSA and management for entrusting me with the incredible opportunity to coach the Proteas Women national team,” Moreeng said in a CSA statement.

“It has been an honour and a privilege to lead such a talented group of athletes over the years.

“Coaching at the international level has been an extraordinary journey filled with countless memorable moments and achievements. 

“These experiences will forever hold a special place in my heart.

“I want to express my sincere appreciation to all the players and team management who have been instrumental in this journey. 

“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside each of you. I would also like to thank the South African fans and the media for their unwavering support throughout this journey. Your encouragement has been a constant source of motivation. 

Moreeng added: “As I step away from this role, I want to wish the team and everyone involved the very best of luck in the future. 

“I have no doubt that the future holds great success and prosperity for all.”

Nkwe said he had “the honour of expressing CSA’s gratitude to Hilton for his exceptional contributions to women’s cricket in South Africa over the last decade, with his tenure marked by numerous historic moments”.

“We convey our profound appreciation for his unwavering dedication and exemplary leadership, acknowledging his instrumental role in shaping the professionalisation of women’s cricket in the country.”

Hilton Moreeng during the 1st Women’s ODI match between South Africa and Bangladesh at Buffalo Park on 16 December 2023 in East London. (Photo: Richard Huggard/Gallo Images)

Change in set-up

In other changes to the Proteas Women coaching set-up, physiotherapist Molebatsi Theletsane will depart from his position, with Neline Hoffman Kellerman joining the squad. 

Additionally, Warriors assistant coach Baakier Abrahams has been officially appointed as batting coach, while Lions’ Bongani Ndaba assumes the role of fielding coach. Both Abrahams and Ndaba had a brief stint consulting with the team during the recent Sri Lanka tour.

Backing Du Preez

“As Dillon du Preez steps in as interim coach, we offer him, the management and the team our full support as they head into their next international assignments,” said Nkwe.

“We have full confidence in Dillon’s abilities to continue the momentum and uphold the standards set for the side. 

“The process of recruiting for a new coach is already underway. Our intention is to find the best candidate followed by a smooth transition to take the Proteas Women to greater heights.” DM

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