The Sunday Show - Neil de Beer: SA is run by an “illegitimate government without a quorum”

In his latest hard-hitting Sunday Show with BizNews, Neil De Beer, the President of the United Independent Movement (UIM) , slams the way the African Congress (ANC) is operating without a national mandate in the Government of National Unity (GNU). “This government doesn't have a quorum. There's not a singular party in this country that received the right to establish itself on a 50 plus one quorum. So in my opinion, they are not a legitimate government,” he says. De Beer also lambasts the other parties in the GNU for their lack of effectiveness. “It’s just a fact that the DA (Democratic Alliance) and the Freedom Front and the rest of the people in the GNU are not keeping them (the ANC) and him (the President) accountable and therefore we as the citizens are sitting in a canoe going up the stream and hearing the thunder of the water.” With a second group of Afrikaner “refugees” arriving in America, De Beer expressed outrage at President Cyril Ramaphosa's defense of the Kill the Boer song and says the matter should be pursued all the way to the International Criminal Court of Justice. (ICJ) As for the President doubling down on BEE policies, De Beer describes the stark contrast between Black Economic Empowerment and Afrikaner empowerment that built economically solid companies that bolstered the economy of this country to turn it into an economic giant. He also has harsh words for Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe as tensions are rising over proposed amendments to SA’s mining legislation. Furthermore, he expresses grave concern over the registration move of an apparently fundamentalist political party, the Islamic State of Africa..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview .Chris Steyn (00:02.186)Welcome to the Sunday Show on the first Sunday of winter and welcome to Neil De Beer, the President of the United Independent Movement and BizNews favourite. Morning Neil.Neil De Beer (00:20.162)Yeah, good morning to all our favourite Sunday show listeners. Looked like a little battle scar today, but you know, this is the chemo. This is what chemo does. So my apology. I look like I've been in a scrum or siz, but I'm here. We are fighting and battling on. And what a day, you know. Sad week. Of course, if I may start, would like to recognise the passing of the well-known Darren Scott, who himself has been fighting cancer for such a long time. You know, Darren, I grew up with Darren's voice on the radio and RIP to him. And then obviously, Chris, a very, very sad moment hearing of a very close friend of ours, the passing of the late General Andre Lincoln, that was very close to me, a lot of history with me, and I'd like to send my condolences…Chris Steyn (01:29.42)From us too Neil, to you, your brother-in-arms. I know it's been a hard week for you. Let us go to President Cyril Ramaphosa's defense of the Kill the Boer song.Neil De Beer (01:58.188)Yeah, Chris, let’s take a couple of steps back on this matter. You know, Chris, I spoke on a TV show, which I won't pronounce here today. It's not been revealed yet, the time and the date. And I want to start off by this, let’s call him an individual, let's call him a person, a well-known person in the public, to the notoriety of an author, who in an interview when I was sitting there blatantly told me that Cyril Ramaphosa is not at all corrupt. Now, Chris, you could hit me with a starling feather off my chair when this person said it in such a factual manner in this interview that I actually nearly believed him. And that made me think that I needed to understand that there are, if one person thinks that that is so, that there should be many. And I wanted to start off by then looking at this and going, Chris, although he has never been appeared, he's never been charged or he's never been put in front of a court of law on the basis of corruption like Jacob Zuma is, and I want to go back, that there's something that I don't think we as the public remember. And if we don't, here it is on the Sunday Show: In 2009, Jacob Zuma…Neil De Beer (03:50.124)…had to watch his financial advisor, Mr. Shabir Shaik, be sentenced to 15 years by at that stage, I remember Judge Hilary Squires, for a fraudulent and corrupt action from Shabir Shaik. But what was incredible, Chris, and this is where my argument started, people forgot that in the pronouncement…it's in her judgment. I went to read it again last night. In her judgment, Judge Hillary Squires says undoubtedly in her judgment, not her opinion, her judgment, that Jacob Zuma had a corrupt relationship with Shabir Shaik. It is a judgment.So now we move on and ask ourselves, Cyril Ramaphosa was his Vice President. Cyril Ramaphosa was the Deputy President of this country under that period following that Jacob Zuma then became the president no matter whatever he went through. And the question, Chris, was for my side, did he know? Well, in his own admission, Cyril Ramaphosa says at the Zondo Commission that he will agree that the ANC is accused Number One. Chris of what? Accused Number One of what? And for the President to sit and say that I hereby acknowledge that the ANC, the party I am the President of, is accused Number One…Neil De Beer (05:45.63)…of looting and of corruption. Then the person that is at the helm, the person that is steering such organisation, must take the knee and take the fall…So I wanted to be very clear that no matter what it seems to be, the prognosis, the fight, the evidence that is put in front of Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa,Neil De Beer (06:13.612)…that he's going to either avoid it, steer away from it, or dodge the bullet. And they are going to protect him at all costs, where they are not protecting Jacob Zuma and still going for him, which is the right thing. Now come to this thing called Kill the Farmer, Kill the Boer, where he says to Donald Trump unequivocally in that circus show of the Oval Office…Neil De Beer (06:40.844)…that he is going to say to him that he does not agree with this, his party does not affiliate to this, and that he is absolutely against it. That's what he says. He even goes as far as having the people like John Steenuisen and the, I don't know, bullet dodging Teflon Mr. Johan Rupert who sleeps with open doors in South Africa support them by saying but that's a small party; they are the bad ones. Now, Chris, he comes back to this country and he has to do something and what does he do? Nothing. He still does nothing. He still doesn't do at least a public outcry every single time Julius who now on purpose every week it seems he's singing that song to irritate us. And what does Cyril say? It is constitutional. It went to court. It was found not to be hate speech. Now, Chris, there we are with this man who sits and speaks one thing to the Oval Office and one thing to the public of South Africa. And this should not be allowed. This should not be a Donald Trump awakening. This should be a South African shame. And we should not stop by continuing to ensure that the people know that this song, although sung as a Struggle song, has got absolutely implications in today's life. And I expect more from the president. If I was Kallie Kriel, if I was the people, I would say, okay, fine, it's now going to the Constitutional Court. Then we should get a couple of people together and go to the International Criminal Court of Justice and go put down our case just like this government did it against Israel and I would take it that far to do that because at the end of the day I was part of that Struggle. We sang a lot of songs but even I today would absolutely be ashamed if I had to sing it in modern day because I understand the ramification.Chris Steyn (09:07.01)Meanwhile, he is also doubling down on BEE. Maybe we should contrast Black Economic Empowerment and Afrikaner empowerment. He seems to think the two are analogous.Neil De Beer (09:28.418)Yeah, he starts his discussion about BEE and the protection of these laws, which I emphatically am against, because it didn't work. And he starts a talk last week in Parliament by saying, you know, ladies and gentlemen, Honourable Members, it baffles my mind. Well, you know, Chri, a lot baffles my mind…There's not much that doesn't baffle his mind. He says what baffles his mind is that it is seemingly okay that this country wants to see non-white people as labourers, as people pushing wheelbarrows, as people that are blue collar workers. Says he who is a billionaire. And Chris, I looked at this man and I went, is this it?This is the defense of a critical labour law, which is as, can I call it, anti-business, anti-economic growth, as what you can get. I'll tell you, Chris, what baffles my mind is that when he refers to the period in Apartheid which I and you lived through, which we very much know, and in a big way we turned on it because it was humanitarianly not right. But Chris, I will remind you that in the Apartheid era when the white companies built Sanlam, Volkskas, Sambou, Old Mutual, et cetera, that they built it over a period of 50 years and they actually built it to be striving economically solid companies and actually companies that...and bolstered the economy of this country to an economic giant which South Africa was. And now Chris, you've got this president who gets up, who was sent from politics to make money and I'll get to that little piece. And they say that we should give the black opportunity as well. You've had 30 years. But not only in 30 years did we not build new Sanlams and new Old Mutuals. No.Neil De Beer (11:52.898)We've destroyed them. We've destroyed the basic SOE component of this country, whom, by the way, we're equaling the private enterprise.Neil De Beer (12:05.57)So I'm baffled in my brain as a person who can at least admit that a couple of companies, some of them successful and some of them failed, that I understand what is income and expenditure, what it takes to run a company. But in this country, in the past 30 years with BEE, triple BEEE, and now a hundred billion fund over 30 years, what do we have to show for it, Chris? Well, a collapsed economy, a more than 40% unemployment rate, a law that is trying to actually create more corruption and looting through its own system, SOEs that are bankrupt, the Post Office demanding another 400 million just to survive and send what bloody letters to whom, and Chris, he turns around and says, it baffles his mind. Well, Mr. Ramaphosa, really baffles my mind is that you are still in Presidency. And we hope to God that very soon you are gone and we get someone at least that understands that the matters that baffle our mind is the looting, the theft, the corruption and the reverse of our economy.Chris Steyn (13:21.136)Talking about the economy, Neil, it looks like the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has given investors the middle finger.Neil De Beer (13:37.77)Chris, another baffling of my mind. I mean there you get a person like Gwede Mantashe who currently is the Chairperson of this ANC and who by the way Chris, yesterday went into a community and was thrown out by this community on a video circulating and told to leave because of his arrogance and the refusal to speak and answer questions of the same community that voted for him. And the best is there's Gwede, who you can't understand on a normal day, saying that if they don't invite him for a formal meeting, he won't speak to the people. But I love the way that this one man was saying, you've come here with government cars, you've come here with government money, and you don't want to talk to us, so you must leave. Now this man that's got a larger girth than a Boeing 747 Airbus now comes and sits there as the Minister of Mining, who, my opinion, doesn't know the difference between quartz and Hertz and a diamond and glass, stands and now he's going to proudly bring out a new interaction of mining capability and a bill who we now hear, Chris, is not going to open our economy into investment of mining, but it's also going to go the baffling of brain of our honourable president to make it even more difficult to get partnerships, invest into mining, which by the way, Chris has always been one of our bastions of economic society. And you can only imagine how the world is going to look at one of the countries that has the most unbelievable access to minerals, now being locked out by bringing in more stricter investment laws. Of course, we should be rolling out red carpets, not red tape. And I fear again, a failure is coming because of the incompetency of the people that we've got running our ministries.Chris Steyn (16:04.962)Now, meanwhile, erstwhile opposition, the Democratic Alliance, is pursuing one court case after another, Neil.Neil De Beer (16:14.422)Yeah, Chris, we might as well not have a Parliament. We might as well not have a matter where we've got an opposition, because let you and I agree for the English word, umpteenth time, that there is a total broken arrow in the matter of keeping the ANC into check. Now, let's discuss that. We have spoken about the fact that the African National Congress, and now I'm going to use a couple of words. The ANC is a governmental institution that is at this current moment operating without a national mandate.Neil De Beer (17:05.299)In any meeting that I have had the privilege and you've had been the presence of being the chair or being present, we always asked for a quorum.Neil De Beer (17:20.962)When you go to a meeting, you cannot have a meeting that is officially constituted if you don't have something called a quorum. A quorum, just to rely on our own verbage, is that the quorum substitutes a specific amount of people that make up the majority of that meeting and once they are present, you are correct and that means the meeting can go on. Normally, Chris, it's 50 plus one. That is the normal meeting quorum standard.This government doesn't have a quorum. There's not a singular party in this country that received the right to establish itself on a 50 plus one quorum. So we have a current government that had to add outside entities to reach a quorum to govern. So in my opinion, they are not a legitimate government because not one party could make a 50 plus one, but because the law says if they go and hunker and get a couple of other mates, then they can make the pudding. But when you do so, Chris, then we were told that the GNU has a absolute methodology. It even has, according to Helen, this mechanism if they fall out and if they need to go into this room. And she by herself admission said a couple of weeks ago, it doesn't work because the ANC is in Cuckoo Lala Land. The ANC has gone and sat under a tree in Durban and inhaled that poison. They are absolutely still thinking they are the boss. Now, the way that the GNU configures itself, Chris, Neil De Beer (19:32.894)…is not to lambaste the ANC of 40%, not to take them on, not to challenge them in their mechanisms. It is dead because it survives currently, because it's in Cabinet together. And now the way that the DA, Chris, the DA is trying to remain one foot in opposition and one foot in governance, is it's decided to go to court.Can you imagine a country that has to ask on its policies, its laws, its future governance to a court of law every single time? So shut parliament, Let's shut it. Let's appoint a couple of people that represent provinces. And then we have court case after court case to establish which way we are going. Neil De Beer (20:38.252)That surely that cannot be in Cyril's word. That boggles my mind. So Chris, we are now in court to understand what is the effect of the taking land without compensation. Then we're going to go to court to contest the BEE matter. We are going to go to court for NHI. We are going to go to court for gun laws. We're going to go to court for security. Go to court, go to court, go to court for gun laws. We're to go to court for security. Go to court. Go to court. Go to court. Why did we have an election?Neil De Beer (21:08.642)Then Chris, why did we have an election?… Yes. And that is what I am looking back and going. We cannot run the future of this country on a draconian party that was rejected by the populace, still demanding to make the rules and the laws and tell the rest of them, toe the line or leave. And Chris, this the repetitivenessNeil De Beer (21:38.806)….you and I are having and I'm putting it out there. We are not being repetitive because we have nothing else to talk about. This is serious. This is gobsmacking. And I'm sitting back and I'm going.The Head of the Hawks is retiring. He is leaving his office. Soon, Ms. Batohi will also be leaving the NPA. State institutions that were there to bring justice and, Chris, not to just justice of criminals, but justice to the people who are supposed to lay down the law and protect us as citizens are walking free. And that's why when someone said to me, but is Cyril guilty of corruption, Neil, I said, is he? I can't make that statement, but what I can tell you is if there's a traffic cop, Chris, that takes money from a person, then the traffic cop and the person paying the bribe, are both guilty. And here's the worst. What if the Traffic Chief knows that that traffic cop takes money? Is he part of the corruptive system or is he not? And that was my question when this man blatantly said that Cyril is not corrupt. I said, sir, I cannot tell you if he is or not, but I'll tell you one thing now, as the Senior Chief Executive of this country, the President is de facto the head of government and therefore responsible and accountable for everything.It's just the fact that the DA and the Freedom Front and the rest of the people in the GNU are not keeping them and him accountable and therefore we as the citizens are sitting in a canoe going up the stream and hearing the thunder of the water.Chris Steyn (23:39.668)And the second group of Afrikaners has arrived in America.Neil De Beer (23:45.026)Yeah, without fanfare, without pictures, without suitcases. And that boggled my mind because we hear that word a lot, is that at the end of the day, the people are going to leave if they want to leave and the people are going to stay who want to stay. Why was there no fanfare about the second and now I the third group is approved? It's because mission was accomplished day one. I think there was a little bit of naughtiness from the American government that leaked it so that they could get the first group under Donald's invitation on camera. That now happened and they went with massive fanfare, had each one of them now nitpicked that this guy wasn't a farmer, he was a mechanic and this kind of thing. And now one by one, Chris, the people that are not feeling that they are safe, that they don't have a future are now going without fanfare. And that is still, in my humble opinion, the saddest migration that this country has seen in such a long time. Because I will put all of that at the door of the African National Congress's way of treating their own citizens and, Chris, not just white, not just black-coloured or Indian, but generally South Africans in this country.Chris Steyn (25:09.01)Over to a new political party, the Islamic State of Africa, applying for registration, apparently to many objections, Neil.Neil De Beer (25:20.492)…I mean, you let the door in, the…people come in and you know what they say about tequila, it never comes in one. You know, it's like, how do we get to a point in this country where, and this is apparently, Chris, and I'm to dig for it, where we get fundamentalists in this country because they declare themselves as fundamentalists…have the right to come in. And I'm going to be very clear here. There is a Muslim party in this country called Al Jama-ah There’s a Christian party in this country called the ACDP. So we're not talking about the people that say that a religious conclave has the right to actually enter politics. We say we've had that for years, but this one, Chris, seems to be a little bit different. It seems to be based on the basis of fundamentalism. In other words, fanatic. And in our country's democracy and in our dispensation, it seems they're going to get it. And if we allow...in my opinion, the continuation of fundamental groups that are either far right or far left, that don't now come in on a political or racial ticket, but a religious one. Chris, we better put a spotlight on that, and we better be very, very careful that we don't become a house within another part of the world that will create a problem for ourselves. Again,Neil De Beer (27:05.868)…nothing to do with the faith, nothing to do with the religion, absolutely to do with the fundamentalist thinking of what they want to achieve and that is going to be unacceptable. So we'll give a feedback on that and watch it in a very big tone. And Chris, when you look at all of this conspiring, it shows you what a big year 2026 is going to bring and the continual strife: the continual problems that MK face with his leadership. I now notice, Chris, that they have a new Chief Whip. They have let gone the other one and Ms. Makhubele, who was the Speaker of the Joburg City Council, is now the new Chief Whip of the MK Party in Parliament and that should bring a new shift because I know her, and she's not a person that is known to keep her mouth shut for anything radical at the end of the day. So lot of shifting within the political realm and an update, Chris, on our DA progress, rumour, segment of chiming of the bells within the passages. We are getting a bit of a heat up going. We are getting a little bit of discussion on the elections next year, the possible conference that they would need to go through on leadership. And Chris, apparently a couple of hands being put up already, some of them known, some of them not known. So maybe next Sunday, Chris, let's have a little bit of a walkie walk. Remember Barbara Hood outside, never forget walkies. Let's have a bit of a walkies next Sunday onto the possibilities of who will lead the DA to the future.Chris Steyn (29:03.778)Lastly, Neil, justice being such an elusive concept in South Africa these days, the trio involved in little Josh Linn's disappearance got life sentences. Wasn't that?Neil De Beer (29:24.406)Yeah, Chris Justice, a bitter pill served. I think the frustrating thing here, because I watched this weekly. May I, compliment an amazing judge, a person that, Judge Natjam, I've made it my solemn mission in life to meet him, even if it's just to take his hand because he is the epitome of what I would like to see as a judge. A human, a person with humanity, dignity. He had absolutely decorum. He was calm. He steered that very difficult case as such a professional. He is an accolade to us. I hope one day a Judge President will come from him. The worst thing is we don't know, we don't know where she is. I'm talking about Joshlin. We don't know if she's alive or if she is dead. The hunt for Joshlin, as I now understand, will continue. But those three people, the conceptualsation of evil. A mother selling a child without care, without conscience, at times laughing with her two co-accused. So the life sentence for what they call human trafficking was given to all three and an extra 10 years loaded on top of life for kidnapping which is of no concern because life is life. And Chris, I really hope in this matter, life is life. It won't bring Joshlin back, but what it will do is I think this time, the prosecuting authority did well, the outcome was given, and I think justice served.Chris Steyn (31:46.442)Indeed, I mean it was good to see. Sorry, Neil.Neil De Beer (31:46.7)Chris, as I said before, yeah, yeah, it was a good outcome. No, it was a good outcome. And what we also see, Chris, is the continual, and I don't know if you've noticed, spike in police deaths. What I'm talking about is in the past week again in Gauteng and KZN, police getting into gunfights and more than eight or nine assailants dying under gunfire. I think again, our favourite Police Commissioner has made it clear that he will not allow the breaking of the law and people taking the law into their own hands by firing at the police. It's the same kind of analogy, the stiff sentence of these people that are at the helm of the destruction of a beautiful little child and the people in this country that think they can just do what they want. So the law, I hope, will increase its perpetuality of being just and being right for us as citizens.Chris Steyn (32:58.978)Thank you. That was Neil De Beer, the President of the United Independent Movement on his Sunday Show with BizNews and me, Chris Steyn. Thank you, Neil.Neil De Beer (33:12.76)Thanks, Chris, and hopefully next week I'll have a bit of make-up and I would look a little bit better, going in for the operation tomorrow to put in the port for the chemo and then Friday chemo again. But I am, I want to say something, Chris, if I may: The amount of people that carry you, the amount of people that every week send you messages of just saying, nothing about the show, just about your life. I want to say it is because of you. I say it a lot, but I mean it that I can get up and fight this fight because, Chris, it's not my fight. It's not your fight. It is a just fight to bring truth and the real truth to the public every Sunday. And what a privilege it is. So thank you very much and Godspeed and again to Andre and his family, and to all of those, may God rest and bring peace over yourself. Thanks guys.

The Sunday Show - Neil de Beer: SA is run by an “illegitimate government without a quorum”

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