SA Politics Thread Part 11: The GNU Normal

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F*cking hell. Just listened to Leon Schreiber talk in Parli about all the work Home Affairs has been doing this year. Really fantastic stuff. The mind boggles thinking about what this country could be like if the DA governed outright. Say what you will about politicking, but the DA does deliver.
 
Though I never rated him highly in politics, his betrayal of Zuma saved SA.

Must have been some bad thing they fed him.
You supported and voted for Zuma as president and leader of the Great Libation Movement for 8 years. So you're saying that Mabuza saved us from you, the real villain?
 
F*cking hell. Just listened to Leon Schreiber talk in Parli about all the work Home Affairs has been doing this year. Really fantastic stuff. The mind boggles thinking about what this country could be like if the DA governed outright. Say what you will about politicking, but the DA does deliver.
But it would actually be better if the DA left the GNU because the ANC deserves a big FU remember.
 
You supported and voted for Zuma as president and leader of the Great Libation Movement for 8 years. So you're saying that Mabuza saved us from you, the real villain?
What are you saying now Inertia? Who is feeding you all this information?
 
But it would actually be better if the DA left the GNU because the ANC deserves a big FU remember.
Yeah it's a rock and a hard place kind of scenario. GNU shenanigans notwithstanding, DA ministers are getting things done.
 

  • National Treasury rejected Julius Malema’s bill to nationalise the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) in a public hearing on the matter on Wednesday.
  • Treasury’s Chris Axelson cited expropriation concerns and risks to investment confidence in South Africa.
  • The bill, tabled in 2018, implies that SARB shares could be expropriated without compensation.
  • For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.

EFF leader Julius Malema’s South African Reserve Bank Amendment Bill, tabled in 2018, is making slow progress towards the National Assembly, which will make the final call on whether to nationalise the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

The bill seeks to make the state the sole shareholder and transfer the power to appoint directors of the board from the shareholders to the Minister of Finance. It would also empower the minister to appoint auditors for SARB.

The bill does not have a clause for compensation for the more than 800 shareholders in the bank, stating that the financial implications for the state under the bill are “none”.

Despite delays and lapsing twice before, the bill was revived for parliamentary discussions in 2024.


Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana himself has rejected the bill, saying that government has “no intention” to nationalise the Reserve Bank.

READ | Reserve Bank’s nationalisation not on the cards as Godongwana warns of large fiscal cost
At a public hearing on Wednesday, Treasury’s head of tax and financial policy, Chris Axelson, rejected the bill, citing Treasury’s concerns over SARB shareholder expropriation and public perception.

According to Axelson, the bill takes a position where “one day the shareholders have shares, and the next day the state owns the shares”.

“There’s no mechanism for compensation, there’s no mediation, there’s no agreement on expropriation of those shares.”


Axelson told members of the Standing Committee on Finance that government should not take the risk of negative perceptions, which would have a real impact on investments and the currency, and, in turn, “hurt the man on the street”.

After adopting a resolution at a 2017 conference that supports the nationalisation of the SARB, the ANC has since changed its tune. On Wednesday, the party’s Seaparo Sekoati said the bill won’t bring any change. “What material effect or change will this be able to bring about? Except that it must be in public ownership? It does not necessarily answer many ... questions.”

As the bill makes no provision for shareholder compensation, it implies the expropriation of SARB’s over 2 million shares without compensation.

READ | Parliament to revive Malema’s bill on nationalising the Reserve Bank
The EFF’s Sinawo Thambo defended the bill and challenged the notion of SARB’s independence, saying that the government’s rejection of the bill implied a “lack of confidence in themselves” and that they would rather “have South Africa run like a private corporation.”

According to Thambo, the idea of institutions like National Treasury and the SARB being independent in their roles of fiscal and monetary policy should be addressed politically.

“It is part and parcel of a lot of fear-mongering that stifles economic development in this country,” he said.

“The question we must begin to ask [...] is, they must be independent from whom? And for what purpose?”

Cosatu also supported of the bill, citing the SARB as an “unjustifiable anomaly” according to international norms.

Regarding this we know where people stand. DA, VF+ against. MK and EFF pro.

So it all falls to the ANC...
 
Yippie - R252-million profit in 2022/23

But eish - after so much bailout
Is that 252m profit claim backed by audited Financials though cos I seem to remember much fanfare about the claim at the time but no Financials to actually confirm it.
 
Is that 252m profit claim backed by audited Financials though cos I seem to remember much fanfare about the claim at the time but no Financials to actually confirm it.
I don't understand financials but bailout of 38.1 billion and profit of 252 million. What is it that they use bailout for anyways? To improve infrastructure and/or to get rid of debt* ?

They should talk when profits are in billions, not paltry millions.

*Apart from stuffing some of that money in couch I mean.
 
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