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Dear Reader,

In our main story this week, we reveal that President Cyril Ramaphosa is considering a list of four white Afrikaners in his search for SA’s new ambassador to the United States. This is following a souring of relations between Pretoria and Washington, which saw the expulsion from the US of former ambassador Ebrahim Rasool. Those under consideration for the role are:

• Roelf Meyer, Ramaphosa’s National Party counterpart at the Codesa negotiations in the early 1990s;
• Marthinus van Schalkwyk, who succeeded FW de Klerk as the final leader of the National Party, and who later joined the ANC and served as SA ambassador to Australia;
• Andries Nel, longtime ANC member and former deputy justice minister; and
• Gerhardus Koornhof, Ramaphosa’s parliamentary counsellor, who is the late National Party minister Piet Koornhof’s son.

At the same time, Ramaphosa is said to be set on retaining MTN chair and former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas as his US envoy, despite the controversy about negative comments he made about President Donald Trump a few years ago.

Our second front-page story tells how a connected cadre was promoted to the position of deputy director-general in the department of military veterans, despite a damning report about her competency and her wasteful expenditure of departmental resources running into millions. Nontobeko Mafu was married to the late former Eastern Cape MK commander Dumisani Mafu, a key player in the ANC who was granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for several fatal attacks.

Following our report last week that Collins Letsoalo, the Road Accident Fund CEO, was implicated by the Special Investigating Unit in possible wrongdoing in a R79m property lease deal, we reveal that he may have misled the National Treasury and the fund’s board about the transaction. RAF documents we’ve seen suggest that Letsoalo and his team may have withheld crucial information to the Treasury in order to obtain a deviation from set procurement procedures.

In Business Times we report on Transnet’s possible strike due to an intensifying wage dispute between the parastatal and its biggest union. We also bring you the latest in the long-running dispute between trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau and bidders over his refusal to consent to a proposed draft court order to speed up the awarding of the fourth national lottery licence. All indications are that a massive legal showdown between Tau and one of the bidders is in the offing early next month.

Happy reading!