Hi there. 🙋🏽♀️
Mzansi started off the week being very demure and mindful, celebrating our new Miss South Africa and the achievements of Team South Africa at the Olympics. But things have suddenly and dramatically changed: Joburg is currently without a mayor, and Julius Malema’s righthand man has shockingly left the EFF for the MK Party. In other news, Elon Musk and Donald Trump held a lacklustre Twitter interview, the labour court wants you to go on leave, and we keep it cute by speaking to someone who missed out on a Taylor Swift concert but ended up getting something even better: Fan solidarity.
So, let’s dive into your weekly update of empowering and easy-to-understand news, brought to you by Verashni Pillay and the explain.co.za team. 😄
Format:
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▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ 1. OUR TAKE: Can the end of loadshedding really be in sight?
Have you noticed the suspicious amount of electricity we have had lately? It’s been 139 days and counting of no loadshedding (though some areas may experience “load reduction” from time to time). Now it’s been revealed that Eskom produced more electricity than necessary to meet demand for the whole of July, according to a report in the Sunday Times. This is something that has not happened since 2018.
How did they do it? Eskom’s plan to improve the performance of existing power stations and the increase in renewable energy sources has helped to improve electricity supply. It’s not just a once-off, either; this dramatic increase in production is sustainable, according to electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who delivered the good news to parliament last week. The worst of loadshedding may finally be behind us.
As Eskom’s plants improve in performance, less money is spent running the diesel-guzzling open-cycle gas turbines. The utility may have spent up to R1 billion per month on diesel for the past five years. At the same time, more plants can be taken offline in a planned manner for servicing, which in turn improves performance.
This shouldn’t be a reason for complacency, however. Loadshedding happened in the first place because Eskom did not properly plan to meet the demands of a growing economy and population. There are mooted plans for new nuclear power stations, and the transmission grid will also need to be expanded in order to allow the private sector to plug in renewable energy sources into the grid.
But for now, we can breathe a huge sigh of relief. The dog days of Stage 4 and Stage 6 may (hopefully!) be consigned to history forever.
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ 2. BIG STORY: Shivambu dumps the EFF for MK
In a shocking turn of events for the EFF, Floyd Shivambu, who was the deputy president, resigned and announced that he was joining the MK Party, founded by Jacob Zuma.
If you’ve been following party politics in South Africa for the past 15 years, you’ll know how staggering this is. Zuma, back when he was ANC president, was the reason Malema and Shivambu were tossed out of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). Zuma himself has now been thrown out of the ANC after very openly forming his own party, which ran in the recent national elections and basically destroyed the ANC’s majority.
Shivambu has been EFF leader Julius Malema’s righthand man since the ANCYL days. The party saw a shock drop in support to 9.52% in this year’s election. The MK party singlehandedly changed the political landscape with 14.58% of the votes, pushing the ANC below its majority for the first time and effectively stealing the EFF’s position on radical and populist politics.
The EFF has long been plagued with a lack of internal democracy, with Malema an authoritarian figure. Over 200 EFF public representatives were ousted last year for failing to pay to bus in supporters to the party’s birthday rally. Allegations of corruption have dogged Malema and Shivambu too, such as the VBS banking scandal, which they both allegedly benefitted from, according to the former bank chairman turned state witness.
What does this mean for SA? While the EFF and MK are equally troubling to our democracy in terms of their anti-constitutionalism and corruption-plagued leaders, they actually differ ideologically: MK leans more towards a ruralitarian, traditional chauvinism while EFF positions itself as more Marxist. If EFF declines and MK grows at its expense, it will give Zuma’s party even more power, a troubling outcome.
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ BRIEFS
3. Three times the Olympics made us giggle
The Paris 2024 Olympics may be over, but the viral moments it produced live in our heads rent-free.
From bizarre dances, an ageing rapper on a mission and a hero’s welcome for Team South Africa, let’s take a look at some of the funniest, cutest and most head-scratching moments from Paris 2024.
🔹 You won’t break her soul
Breakdancing debuted at the Olympics this year, and it got off to a rather interesting start. The world watched in awe (and cringe) as Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn, or “Raygun,” took to the stage with moves that were… special. She could be seen doing what we could only describe as squirming, a kangaroo hop of some kind and a dance where she was on the floor, touching her toes. She didn’t get any points.
These moves have, unsurprisingly, been pilloried on social media.
Gunn is a university lecturer and researcher in the “politics of breakdancing”. She is unfazed by the backlash, saying in an interview with ESPN she knew she was outmatched. “I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best: Their power moves.” Raygun said that instead, all of her moves are “original,”. “Creativity is really important to me. I go out there, and I show my artistry. Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Congrats, we guess, to Raygun for her confidence, although we’re unsure whether we can call what you did breakdancing. 👀
In a display of actual skill, Japanese B-girl Ami Yuasa won gold, topping all three rounds in a gold medal battle against Nicka (Dominika Banevic) from Lithuania.
🔹 Uncle Snoop’s adventures
The Paris 2024 Olympics had its share of unexpected celebrity appearances, but no one brought more energy than Snoop Dogg (or is it Lion?). The rapper, nay, Olympic hype-man, was seen everywhere, from lighting it up with an Olympic Torch (which oddly resembled one of his favourite things, a blunt 🌿), judo mats and even at gymnastics stands. But his most iconic moment came when he rocked full equestrian gear to cheer on the U.S. dressage team. Picture this: Snoop, decked out like a pro horse rider, chilling with his bestie Martha Stewart as they watched horses prance around Versailles. We’re not sure what’s more impressive—his commitment to the outfit or the fact that he made dressage look cool.
But he didn’t stop there. He also participated in a promotional judo event where he was awarded an honorary black belt and even got a swimming lesson from Michael Phelps! As he put it, he’s just a “big kid in the crowd,” but let’s be real— Uncle Snoop stole the show, one viral moment at a time.
🔹 The Boys (and Girls) are back!
Meanwhile, most of Team South Africa arrived back in the country on Tuesday to a hero’s welcome at the Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. Team SA won six medals this time around: one gold, three silver, and two bronze—three more than the previous games. We’re obviously big fans of our most decorated Olympian, swimmer Tatjana Smith, but it’s Team SA’s silver medal winning Kid Flash, 100-metre sprinter Bayanda Walaza, who tickled us with his comments.
Walaza, who replaced an injured Benjamin Richardson in the 4×100 metres relay, was maybe vibing as much as Snoop before being unexpectedly called up. “At first, I thought I wasn’t going to run because of being the youngest – there were stronger guys. So, for me, it felt like a vacation I needed to enjoy. When I realised I was in the team, I was shocked, but I realised it was also time to switch on because I was eating ice cream every day there,” said the 18-year-old. 😂 On Thursday morning, Walaza received a hero’s welcome at Curro Hazeldean in Pretoria, where he is a matriculant. We can’t imagine how much homework is waiting for our youngest champ!
4. A new Joburg mayor won’t mean much. New elections will.
Kabelo Gwamanda finally resigned as mayor of the City of Johannesburg on Tuesday, with the ANC’s Dada Morero – Finance MMC and mayor for 25 days in 2022 – lining up to take over again.
Al Jama-ah’s Gwamanda took office in May last year, making him the eighth mayor in two years. His party holds three seats in the municipal council, and his appointment was more about keeping the DA out of the hung metro while the ANC held backroom power.
Gwamanda’s tenure has been fraught with corruption allegations, service delivery issues, and a contentious R200 electricity surcharge. Pressure mounted for his departure, and the ANC turned its back on what was effectively their puppet mayor.
But a simple change from puppet to puppet master is unlikely to alleviate the city’s multiple crises. As Wayne Duvenage, CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, said in an interview yesterday, “We don’t see any joy coming out of Dada Morero’s appointment.”
Duvenage rightly noted the dire state of affairs at finance in the city under Morero’s helm, mentioning the controversial R2.5bn loan he saddled the city with instead of addressing existing wastage.
It’s sadly in keeping with the attitude of ANC leaders in Gauteng generally, and Joburg in particular, where the ANC’s fall from power has been fastest and most pronounced. While the ANC at the national level has opted to work with the DA and other parties and try to clean up its act, the ANC in the province and city of gold tends to read from a different script. Think of it as provincial state capture, which dates back to the days of the Alex Mafia: a coterie of leaders like former Gauteng Premier Paul Mashatile and other leaders in the province who have long been dogged by allegations of corruption – like the missing R1.3bn for the Alexandra Renewal Project.
So sadly, we don’t have much hope for Joburg with this latest turn through the mayoral revolving door. Our bet for real change is on the next local elections in 2026.
5. The Elon and Trump interview nothing but ego strokes
There’s never a dull day in politics. Well, that’s unless you count Elon Musk’s disastrous two-hour X (formerly Twitter) Spaces interview on Monday night with Republican presidential candidate and convict Donald Trump.
In a highly-anticipated event (by right-wing Twitter trolls), Musk hosted Trump on a two-hour livestream on X. The interview was plagued by technical issues from the start, with the platform briefly crashing due to what Musk described as a “massive” denial of service or DDoS attack. 🤭
Of course, this isn’t the first time Spaces has experienced political glitches. Remember last May, when a live conversation between Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, where DeSantis announced his presidential bid, crashed due to over 500,000 people tuning in?
This isn’t surprising. Since taking over in October 2022, Musk has laid off around 75% of X’s workforce, including engineers.
Once the stream was stable(ish), Trump and Musk discussed various topics, including the upcoming 2024 presidential election, space and AI.
Trump, as usual, reiterated his false belief that the Democrats stole the 2020 election and claimed that his base is stronger than ever.
Musk attempted to steer the conversation toward more futuristic topics but was frequently pulled back by Trump’s obsessive focus on the elections and how he’s being attacked.
One of the more dramatic moments came when Trump discussed why the assassination attempt against him happened: His stance on immigration. This claim raised eyebrows, given the lack of public information on the incident.
The interview ended with more technical difficulties, while critics pointed to its lack of substance and the spread of misinformation. Supporters praised the two for their candidness and willingness to engage with each other on such a public platform.
Ultimately, it was just two hotheads with access to microphones and platforms. But unlike others, Trump has loads of equally hotheaded fans, as evinced by their attack on the US Capitol Building after he last lost an election. And that’s worrying.
6. Mia le Roux is the first deaf Miss SA. Here’s why that matters.
South Africa, we have a new queen! Mia le Roux was crowned Miss SA on Saturday night at the Sun Bet Arena in Pretoria. She’s making history as the first-ever hard-of-hearing Miss SA in the pageant’s history.
Le Roux was born in Sasolburg, Free State, and raised in Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape. She is a marketing manager, model, and part-time B Com Marketing student. Shortly after birth, she was diagnosed with profound hearing loss and had a cochlear implant to aid her hearing. She credits her community with giving her “the gift of hearing,” inspiring her desire to positively impact others and break barriers.
In her acceptance speech, Le Roux said: “It took two years of speech therapy and continued repetition of words before I looked up to the sky one day and said my first four words: ‘Kyk daar, wit wolke—look there, white clouds,’” she said.
Nompumelelo Maduna and Onalenna Constantin are her first and second princesses, respectively. Le Roux’s crowning comes after weeks of intense and unfair debate around the pageant’s inclusion of Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina, who is South African but of Nigerian and Mozambican descent. She withdrew from the contest following an investigation into her citizenship by Home Affairs, which revealed that Adetshina’s mother might have committed identity theft.
Adetshina congratulated Le Roux on Instagram, saying she “represented us all. Making the excluded feel included”. What a gracious and hopeful note to end on.
Le Roux’s win also comes at a time when South Africa is making strides in including the hearing impaired. In July 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the South African Sign Language Bill, officially making sign language Mzansi’s twelfth official language.
She will represent South Africa at the Miss Universe 2024 pageant, which will be held in Mexico City, Mexico, on 16 November 2024. It is widely believed that this will be the first time a deaf contestant competes in the glamorous event. Our money’s on Mia!
7. My Vote Counts Returns to Court: A Battle for Transparency in Political Funding
Should you be able to give a political party as much money as you please without the rest of us knowing about that? Is that healthy for democracy? That is the crux of the latest round of court cases this week between My Vote Counts, a civil society organisation, and the government over the Electoral Matters Amendment Act. The act was signed into law earlier in 2024, just in time for the national elections, but was challenged by the NGO in court.
The case hinges on the amendment’s impact on the Political Party Funding Act (PPFA). Before the amendment, the PPFA set clear limits on donations to political parties: an annual cap of R15 million per donor and a requirement to disclose any contributions exceeding R100,000.
While the law did need to be updated, a loophole was snuck in at the same time, allowing political parties to receive undisclosed donations. Naughty! This undermines the democratic process, as it opens the door for wealthy individuals or entities to exert undue influence on political decisions without public scrutiny. And as we saw with the state capture investigations, it matters a lot who pays our politicians and how.
In May 2024, the court acknowledged the merit of My Vote Counts’ concerns, noting that “secrecy enables corruption,” but held off on a final ruling.
So now we wait as the judges deliberate. If the court rules in favour of My Vote Counts, it could lead to a reinstatement of the previous donation limits and transparency requirements, reinforcing the public’s right to know who funds their leaders.
But keep an eye on this one. It really matters. The principles of openness, accountability, and democracy are on trial alongside the legal arguments.
8. “Beautiful and Cathartic”: Swifties in Vienna sing and celebrate amid terror threat
Can the universe give Taylor Swift a break? Last week, three of her concerts due to be held in Vienna were cancelled by the Austrian authorities due to a potential terrorist attack.
The US warned Austria of a plot by Islamic State sympathisers to “kill a large number of people”, leading to the concert cancellations and the arrest of three men. The trio were allegedly planning a suicide attack that would have potentially killed hundreds.
The cancellation follows the horrendous stabbing to death of three little girls while attending a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop in the UK late last month. Their killing has sparked off racist, Islamophobic riots in several UK cities. 😔
We spoke to Bianca Capazorio, who travelled from South Africa with three friends to attend the concert. They were dining in the European city when they received news of the cancellation, she told /explain/. “Initially, we thought it was fake news. It was only after we saw it on Taylor Nation (Swift’s official fan club) that we knew it was true.”
Although disappointed, hundreds of Swifties, as her fans are known, decided to shake it off and took to the streets of Vienna on Thursday. Capazorio and her friends headed to Stephansplatz, and at precisely 6 PM, which is when the concert would’ve started, the crowd, dressed up in their concert outfits, began to sing and exchange friendship bracelets. “People were singing and crying. It was beautiful and cathartic,” says Capazorio.
Swift wrote in 2019 that one of her biggest fears was a terrorist attack at one of her concerts. The singer is known for hardly ever cancelling a concert, even in adverse weather conditions. She hasn’t commented on the cancellation but has surprised fans in Austria with a free TV premiere of her tour movie. We’re so glad all the Swifties worldwide were safe and still got to experience the tour, albeit on a smaller scale.
9. Annual leave – take it within 6 months or risk losing it, court says
You know that one colleague who never takes annual leave and lets it accumulate so they can take out a giant payout when they resign? Well, the labour court has just popped that balloon.
In June, it ruled against a car salesman in Durban looking for an R800,000 payout based on his annual leave accrual after another company bought out the company he worked for. In the rather messy labour-related dispute that followed – which included the salesman finding out his salary had unilaterally been slashed by 67% – he tried to argue that his enormous annual leave accrual needed to be paid out to him in full. While the court found that his salary cut amounted to a breach of contract, he was less successful on the leave front.
The court’s decision reinforced the principle that annual leave must be taken within a specified period, as outlined in South Africa’s Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA). According to the ruling, employees who fail to take their annual leave within six months after the end of the leave cycle risk losing their entitlement to that leave. This decision underscores the principle that annual leave is intended for rest and recuperation rather than being treated as a financial commodity that can be indefinitely banked and later cashed out.
South African labour regulations, particularly those in the BCEA, stipulate that employees are entitled to at least 15 working days of paid annual leave during each leave cycle. Importantly, this leave must be taken within six months following the conclusion of the leave cycle. The law explicitly prohibits employers from compensating employees with pay instead of granting annual leave, except when the employment relationship is terminated.
Think about it. While you may imagine that never taking leave is “banking” some cash away, you’re giving away your labour rights. And that is just not kosher.
So take your leave, people! It’s your right, and honestly, you will have earned it.
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That’s it from us at The Wrap, an award-winning product of explain.co.za – simple news summaries for busy people. 💁🏾♀
The Wrap is sponsored by explain’s agency division. We specialise in content marketing for purpose-driven organisations, often with a pan-African reach. Mail info@explain.co.za for a quote.
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