DA welcomes RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo's placement on special leave

The placement of Road Accident Fund CEO Collins Letsoalo on precautionary leave is a long-overdue but necessary step to ensure that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) can conduct its preliminary investigation without interference or influence, the DA said on Wednesday.
The transport department said the decision was in the interest of good governance and a precautionary step to facilitate ongoing investigative processes.
'It does not imply any prejudgment or adverse finding against the CEO.'
The DA said Letsoalo's temporary removal from office must facilitate full transparency and accountability, particularly in light of serious allegations concerning the RAF's governance failures, financial mismanagement and possible misconduct.
Briefing the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) last month, the SIU said it had experienced a lack of co-operation from the RAF in its investigation into the affairs of the entity.
'There were instances where the SIU had to resort to opening a criminal case against a RAF executive for failure to adhere to a lawful subpoena issued by the SIU in terms of the SIU Act,' SIU head Any Mothibi said last month.
The DA said the ministry of transport's support for the decision to place Letsoalo on leave must be followed by full co-operation with Scopa and law enforcement agencies.
'The precautionary suspension of the CEO is just the beginning. The DA will not rest until justice and good governance are restored at the RAF.'
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Environment minister reflects on his – and the GNU's – first year in office

Minister Dion George. (Photo: Environmentza/X) When George, who was sworn into office on 3 July under the coalition President Cyril Ramaphosa put together after his ANC lost its outright parliament majority — said serving in this government 'has required all of us to work collaboratively – sometimes across vastly different perspectives — toward a common goal: delivering real outcomes for the people of South Africa'. In a media briefing to assess how his department has fared over the past year, George said the GNU has created a situation where departments are increasingly working across silos, 'where ideas are strengthened through debate and collective intelligence', and where the urgency of service delivery is matched by a 'shared will to get things done'. This week analysts George said his department had approached its work 'with a recognition that our environmental mandate is not separate from the economic one, or the social one. They are deeply interconnected.' Protecting natural resources, wildlife Among George's 'big six' priority areas is protecting natural resources and wildlife. Here, he cited his department's significant achievement regarding the protection of the critically endangered 'After learning about the sharp population declines and the human impacts causing them, I called for open, lawyer-free discussions that brought together conservation organisations like BirdLife South Africa and Sanccob [Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds, industry leaders in the fishing sector and our departmental experts,' he said. This collaborative approach led to a court-ordered agreement to implement island closures around key breeding colonies. 'We amended the small pelagic fishery permit conditions to enforce these closures, ensuring sustainable fishing near vital penguin habitats,' he said. These changes were implemented almost immediately. His department is also tackling the harm caused by bunkering in Algoa Bay, near St Croix Island, once home to the largest African penguin colony in the world. Ship-to-ship refuelling has caused oil spills and underwater noise pollution. After a A coordinated approach has led to prosecutions and a continued decline in rhino poaching incidents, with George noting his department's attention is also turning to species such as 'The lives of these animals are not commodities. They are a vital part of our ecological and cultural identity,' he said. George said his department's efforts were showing that jobs can be created, new industries stimulated and growth unlocked, 'while caring for the planet'. He noted that in the fourth quarter of last year, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors recorded a 'remarkable' 17.2% growth, contributing two-thirds of the total GDP growth for that quarter. In the first quarter of this year, these sectors grew by 15.8%. 'These are not just numbers,' he said. 'They reflect thousands of jobs and livelihoods sustained. We increased the number of fish species available to The department's harbour revitalisation programme has created more than 2 300 work opportunities while through expanded support for sustainable aquaculture, 'we're seeing green technology spark new enterprises along our coasts'. George said the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal and Mthatha in the Eastern Cape are only the latest signs that the time for talk regarding climate change is over. This is why the department finalised the The department secured George said these were not blanket waivers. 'Each exemption comes with firm conditions, including health interventions for affected communities, real-time emissions monitoring, and a firm commitment to transition to cleaner energy sources. We are holding polluters accountable.' The department is working with the presidency and the department of mineral resources and energy to develop a competitive power market, 'bringing independent power producers into the fold. The goal is clear: to deliver both energy security and environmental sustainability.' South Africa has contributed to international environmental governance, and continues to lead. George said it played a major role in negotiating the At the last climate summit in Baku, South Africa 'brokered a deal that balanced the need for ambitious climate action with the reality of our economic conditions', he said, adding that this agreement unlocked green investment for local projects that will support South Africa's just energy transition. 'And in our G20 Presidency year, we are hosting major environment and climate sustainability meetings, positioning South Africa as a leader on the African continent and beyond. 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Since his appointment, George has finalised 162 environmental appeals, '106 of them since our 100-day feedback session', which is a 'testament to our commitment to fairness, transparency and turnaround times'. Although the department is operating in a constrained fiscal environment, it has launched a departmental spending review and implemented firm cost-containment measures. 'But, more importantly, we have begun thinking creatively about revenue generation,' he said. 'Each branch of our department is tasked with identifying savings and new funding streams.' This includes sourcing international donor support for enforcement and anti-poaching, innovative financing mechanisms for green projects and working with the treasury on sustainable budget models. The minister said the South African Forestry Company or Safcol, SANParks and the South African Weather Service are receiving strategic attention to address governance weaknesses and boost their effectiveness. 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Mail & Guardian

2 hours ago

• Mail & Guardian

Israeli impunity: SA leads global fight for justice

Israel's impunity in its actions against people in Gaza and other Occupied Territories, its neighbours and now Iran is an attack on international law. Being South African can be depressing sometimes. The tremendous highs of our world-beating rugby and cricket teams show what we can do. But our economy doesn't grow, mass unemployment continues, our cities decline and we continue to live in constant fear of crime. The lack of political will to take on and solve even our most basic problems is depressing. But, on the global stage, our government has emerged as the most principled international actor in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Now that Israel has extended its rampage into Iran, international law is under sustained assault from Israel and its backers in the West and their local proxies here at home. The urgency of the crisis generated by Israel's impunity is rapidly escalating. As Zane Dangor, the courageous and deeply principled director general of the department of international relations and cooperation, recently observed, Israel's attack on Iran 'places the world in grave peril'. South Africa's decision to file a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in December 2023 marked a bold and brave assertion of international law by a Global South country, rooted in South Africa's own history of apartheid and its constitutional commitment to human rights. The court later found that South Africa had presented a plausible case and ordered Israel to take immediate measures to prevent acts of genocide, placing legal and moral pressure on Tel Aviv and its allies. South Africa's approach to the court resulted in intense pressure from the United States and the strident and often hysterical pro-Western lobby at home, a lobby that has frequently floated conspiracy theories for which it can provide no evidence. For this lobby, Israel is an outpost of the (white) West and is therefore entitled to engage in the mass murder of civilians deemed to be part of the barbarous (and not white) hordes outside the West. Principled critics of Israel and the wider West have repeatedly been slandered as antisemites or dupes of Russia or China. South Africa's approach to the International Court of Justice was said to have been made as a result of a bribe paid to the ANC by Iran. No evidence has ever been produced to support this wild allegation. But while the pro-West lobby at home damages the integrity of our public sphere and has seriously damaged the credibility of parts of our media, the real threat to South Africa came from the US. BizNews is irritating but the US government has real power to damage our country and its people. This is one reason why the formation of The Hague Group on 31 January 2025 was such an important breakthrough. It brought together nine states from the Global South — Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa — with the aim of implementing binding legal and diplomatic measures to hold Israel accountable for its persistent violations of international law. It was a significant step forward in the defence of international law and it meant that South Africa was no longer isolated on the world stage. Now, in a pivotal development, this coalition will convene an Emergency Ministerial Conference in Bogotá, Colombia and 15 and 16 July 2025, at the ministry of foreign affairs. The meeting will be co-hosted by South Africa and the progressive government of Colombia, led by Gustavo Petro. A particularly significant development is that a large number of foreign ministers and senior officials will attend from far beyond the founding members of the Hague Group. Governments from across Asia, Africa and Latin America have confirmed their participation. This signals that the coalition in support of Palestine and international law is growing, not only in moral stature, but in geopolitical weight. The meeting is becoming a focal point for a much wider movement of Global South states, along with some others, ready to act against impunity and in defence of international law. The Bogotá meeting is not just symbolic — it has a detailed and operational agenda. As stated in the joint announcement, the Emergency Ministerial Conference will 'centre the legal obligations of states, as determined by the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (July 2024), to stop all actions that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory' and to support full Palestinian self-determination. Attendees will also work towards the announcement of further 'concrete actions to enforce international law through coordinated state action — to end the genocide and ensure justice and accountability'. The Bogotá meeting will be a significant turning point in international diplomacy. It will assemble ministers and high-level delegations from across Latin America, Africa and Asia to forge a united front. Central to the agenda is enforcing rulings from the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court — notably the former's July 2024 advisory opinion finding Israel's occupation illegal and the latter's November 2024 arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials on war crimes charges. For the first time in the post-Cold War era, Global South governments are organising not only around development or trade, but around justice and accountability at a global scale. This isn't solely about Palestine; it's about defending the idea that human lives everywhere have equal worth and that all states are answerable under law. This is a direct challenge to the idea that Israel and the US should continue to be granted impunity for their illegal actions. To sustain the momentum, the Hague Group is building political infrastructure — rotating co-chairs, permanent liaisons and a follow-up secretariat. This will not be a one-off summit; it's the beginning of a durable movement for justice enforcement. We must not be naive, though. There will be backlash. At home, Tony Leon will write a sneering opinion piece. BizNews will circulate more conspiracy theories. Frans Cronje will issue dark warnings of the economic costs of thinking for ourselves. Peter Fabricius will write a story about some senator in the US threatening to isolate us economically. William Gumede will say that we need to 'reset' relations with Israel. There will be another Western funded pseudo-academic study claiming that South Africans are critical of the West as a result of Russian and Chinese disinformation. But all this noise is not the real issue. The real issue is that building principled solidarity among countries in the Global South is a direct threat to the impunity of Israel and it will be met with a vicious backlash carried out via the media and various international institutions. We cannot back down in the face of the genocide and ongoing warmongering by Israel, backed by the US, Germany, the United Kingdom and other Western countries. We need to build solidarity across the Global South and with countries in the West willing to take principled positions against genocide and warmongering and for peace, justice and international law. South Africa is taking the lead on this and, working with the progressive government in Colombia, is making a major intervention in international relations. Here, our government is doing the right thing — and we should say so clearly, while not letting up on our criticism of its broader failures. Dr Imraan Buccus is senior research associate at ASRI and research fellow at the University of the Free State.

Daily Maverick

3 hours ago

• Daily Maverick

US joining war on Iran creates major political headache for SA

With the world on tenterhooks following the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, South African politicians have been notably cautious in articulating their initial positions. By sunset on Sunday, 22 June, as news of the extraordinary US bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities at Israel's behest continued to ricochet globally, barely a single South African politician seemed willing to come out publicly with a position on the matter. Fikile Mbalula. Gayton McKenzie. Herman Mashaba. These are hardly shrinking violets when it comes to making their views known on forums like X — yet on the matter of the Iranian bombing, at the time of writing, there was a deafening silence from them. Neither was there yet an official statement available from either the DA or the ANC, suggesting that SA's two biggest political parties were to some degree agonising over what, exactly, to say. From Parliament's committee on international relations: niks. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) was mute on Sunday too, and a Daily Maverick query to its spokesperson, Clayson Monyela, went unanswered. Ramaphosa issues mild reprimand of US By mid-afternoon, President Cyril Ramaphosa had grasped the nettle — kind of — and released a statement that said relatively little. 'President Cyril Ramaphosa and the South African government have noted with a great deal of anxiety the entry by the United States of America into the Israel-Iran war,' it read, followed by a weak rebuke of the Trump administration. 'It was South Africa's sincerest hope that President Donald Trump would use his influence and that of the US government to prevail on the parties to pursue a dialogue path in resolving their issues of dispute.' The statement concluded, as is on brand for Ramaphosa, with a call for 'peaceful resolution'. Despite the fact that Tehran and Pretoria enjoy warm diplomatic relations, Ramaphosa's statement revealed the diplomatic egg dance that the situation presents to the South African government. South Africa cannot risk alienating the Trump administration further, with the relationship still on life support from the buildup to the Trump-Ramaphosa Oval Office showdown in late May. The Israel factor is a significant complication The difficulty for Pretoria is that the Iranian strike was overtly carried out at the behest of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump's brief televised announcement, confirming that US fighter jets had targeted multiple nuclear research sites in Iran, ended not only with 'God bless the Middle East' and 'God bless America' but also, specifically, 'God bless Israel' — a closing flourish that left little doubt about whose interests were being prioritised. South Africa has positioned itself internationally as one of the staunchest critics of Israel's conduct, culminating in its landmark International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Pretoria has also publicly cut diplomatic ties with Israel, formally downgrading the embassy. In the face of this new regional escalation, it must now consider how to balance that principled commitment with its allegiance to Iran, a fellow BRICS member — while simultaneously avoiding direct confrontation with a still-dominant United States. With that in mind, the silence of the political class on Sunday was, frankly, understandable. BRICS buddies band together? South Africa and Iran have shared membership of BRICS since an invitation was issued to the latter at the 2023 Johannesburg summit. Other BRICS states were less hesitant in responding to the bombing. The Chinese foreign ministry issued an unambiguous condemnation: 'China strongly condemns the U.S. attacks on Iran and bombing of nuclear facilities under the safeguards of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]. The actions of the U.S. seriously violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, and have exacerbated tensions in the Middle East. China calls on the parties to the conflict, Israel in particular, to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible, ensure the safety of civilians, and start dialogue and negotiation.' Saudi Arabia, whose new BRICS membership sits awkwardly with its often-fraught relationship with Iran, struck a more guarded tone. Its official English-language X account posted: 'The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is following with great concern the developments in the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran, represented by the targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States of America.' The United States, meanwhile, was vocally backed by a handful of close allies. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer offered a firm endorsement of the bombing, posting on X: 'Iran's nuclear programme is a grave threat to international security. Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat.' But from other corners of the West, the reaction was unease rather than celebration. Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, called the bombing a 'clear-cut violation of international law'. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was 'gravely alarmed' by the use of force by the US. A massively unpopular war Complicating the picture for South Africa is the fact that this conflict is likely to be widely unpopular across the globe — including among Western populations. Comparisons are already being drawn with the disastrous US invasion of Iraq in 2003, and social media suggests a growing generational divide in how such conflicts are understood as the post-World War 2 political consensus crumbles. Young people in particular are questioning why Israel, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and possesses undeclared nuclear weapons, is held to a radically different standard than Iran, which remains under international inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is also a moment when support for Israel is at an all-time low. Tens of thousands of protesters flooded European capitals over the weekend, voicing opposition to the ongoing bombardment of Gaza. In June, a YouGov poll showed support for Israel in Western Europe had sunk to its lowest levels ever recorded. In Germany, France and the UK, only between 13% and 21% of respondents now hold favourable views of Israel, compared to 63% to 70% expressing negative sentiments. As South Africa mulls its response, the stakes are particularly high. The government has sought to portray itself as a champion of the Global South, a defender of international law, and a broker of multipolar diplomacy. The entrance of the United States into open hostilities against Iran, with Israel applauding from the wings, tests every aspect of that narrative. DM