EDITOR’S LETTER | No repeat of July riots, vows government

Dear Reader,

As we reach the end of the first half of the year, our country is on tenterhooks — not because our national team Bafana Bafana is about to enter previously uncharted territory when they take on Canada in the knockout stages of the Fifa World Cup — but because of the unilaterally-imposed deadline for undocumented immigrants to leave our shores. Authorities are leaving nothing to chance, recruiting thousands of volunteers in various hotspots with the goal of preventing the June 30 protests from escalating into the kind of violent riots the country experienced in July 2021. We report on these plans as well as President Cyril Ramaphosa reaching out to Zulu monarch King Misuzulu for assistance in calming the tensions. But the president’s approach has not been without controversy, with sections of the royal house and the KwaZulu-Natal government unhappy that the Union Buildings was making the anti-immigration protests seem like a provincial problem. But the government assures citizens that all is under control and that the security plan it has come up with, which involves the private sector and civil society, will mean that there is no repeat of 2021.

Ramaphosa ‘ordered ANC court climbdown’

In this edition, our reporters also explain why Luthuli House made a U-turn on its initial decision to enter the fray in the president’s legal battle to halt the parliamentary impeachment committee’s proceedings pending the court case in which he is challenging former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo’s panel report on Phala Phala. We report on how the president personally ordered the party to withdraw its challenge, arguing that it was a wrong legal strategy. Before the president’s call, cracks had started emerging within the ANC’s national working committee with some of his former loyalists opposing secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s push for the ANC to join the legal action.

Two SA online retailers pull baby car seats from their sites

Also in this week’s edition, we report on e-commerce platforms Takealot and Bob Shop which this week removed four brands of baby car seats from their websites after questions by the Sunday Times about their safety compliance. The enquiries followed concerns by Wheel Well, an NGO for infant and toddler road safety, that the items had been illegally imported and were in violation of South Africa’s safety regulations. Wheel Well’s Peggie Mars said complaints about the specific seats date back at least two years, when she first reported the products to the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS).

In the BUSINESS TIMES

African Bank to buy more time for acting CEO to steady troubled ship

African Bank is reviewing its retirement age to pave the way for a prolonged stay by veteran banker Zweli Manyathi as he leads a painful turnaround that might involve a consolidation of branches and a loss of jobs. Manyathi has been African Bank’s interim CEO since March, when Kennedy Bungane was ousted after he fell out of favour with the board over the bank’s performance and regulatory filing missteps. Manyathi turns 65 in July, the official retirement age for executives at the bank. He told Business Times that plans were afoot to keep him at the helm of the loss-making lender for “much longer” than July.

We hope you enjoy the edition as we all await tonight’s game where our boys are sure to, once again, make us proud.

Mike Siluma