Several senior Eastern Cape ANC MPLs will not return to the legislature after being left off the party’s provincial candidate list for the 2024 general election. The IEC released the final candidate lists for parliament and the nine provincial legislatures on Wednesday. Seasoned politicians who did not make the cut include former health MEC Sindiswa Gomba, standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) provincial chair Mxolisi Dimaza, transport portfolio committee chair Xolani Malamlela and .
The ANC's step aside-rule has come under scrutiny again this week after the party's provincial leadership suspended a Buffalo City Metro councillor for domestic violence and ordered him to step aside, despite the victim withdrawing her case against him.
A new year column has the unstated responsibility to strike a note of optimism and renewal. It is a tradition, like a pagan ritual, observing the sacred pause between one year and the next, and making an offering of resolution. Despite all that seems squashing and mind-boggling, there is still some measure of personal freedom to be better and do better as a citizen of the ‘rainbow nation’. It is more challenging this year than previous ones to strike that note. A new year is a time for new beginnings, but those beginnings look dicey.
I cannot help feeling a small surge of gratitude every time a human rights issue breaks the surface, including the spotlight on the environmental crisis engulfing our country as the recent floods and other inclement weather events rip lives apart once more.