The NdB Sunday Show - Jacques Taljaard: Neil’s successor speaks on Mthethwa, McKenzie, Malema…

In this edition of the NdB Sunday Show, Chris Steyn speaks to Jacques Taljaard, the newly elected President of the United Independent Movement (UIM), the party founded by the iconic late Neil De Beer. He shares his opinion on the latest developments that Neil would have had a field day commenting on: the mysterious death of former Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa in Paris days after being fingered for the “worst” political interference; Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie forcing the hand of the African National Congress (ANC) by threatening to leave the Government of National Unity (GNU); and the defiance of Economic Freedom Fighters CIC Julius Malema following his criminal conviction on firearms offences. Taljaard also describes the three-fold surge in support experienced by the UIM in recent weeks from people wanting to honour Neil’s legacy. And he shares a previously unseen video of Neil that is guaranteed to make viewers laugh out loud..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..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:03.646)Welcome to another NDdB Sunday Show with me, Chris Steyn and Jacques Taljaard, the newly elected president of the United Independent Movement, the party founded by the late Neil De Beer. Welcome, Jacques.Jacques (00:19.202)Thanks Chris, thanks for having me, appreciate it.Chris Steyn (00:23.199)Before I talk to you about the future of the party and how you intend to take Neil's legacy forward, I'd love to ask you some questions I would have asked Neil today if that is okay with you.Jacques (00:35.767)No problem. Go ahead.Chris Steyn (00:38.933)Well, X is ablaze with conspiracy theories following the mysterious death in Paris of a former Minister of Police mere days after he was named at the MaDlanga Commission for the worst political interference. What are your thoughts?Jacques (00:58.126)Yeah, conspiracy theories are doing their rounds. Obviously, so let me just adjust my camera here. Conspiracy theories obviously are doing their rounds now. We know that he was mentioned recently by Lieutenant General Mkhwanazi as he was obviously linking him with corruption and political interference in SAPS and then mysteriously a few days later he falls out of the 22nd story of a building in Paris.So it's, I don't want to speculate, I don't like speculation. I'm not a conspiracy theorist myself, but it's very strange, because strange circumstances and conditions. The timing of it is odd. I know that we have dispatched a SAPS Special Investigative Unit to Paris to go and work with the French authorities to uncover the mystery. So we are all anxiously sitting and waiting to see what, you know to hear what they say because it's normal to try and connect dots. There's a lot of names that have popped up in this commission, this inquiry so far. I see the most recent one that popped up was that of former Minister Bheki Cele. No surprises there, was an old fan favorite of Neil’s. I'm just saying this tongue-in-cheek of course. And then obviously he's being accused of creating an environment under which all this corruption and political interference flourished, know, during his tenure as minister. So I know that the Commission, the inquiry has been put on hold because of illnesses and such, but we are waiting, you know, we are waiting and we are anxiously waiting to see what comes out of this inquiry. Like Zondo, it's exposing rot. Unlike Zondo, we are hoping that...this will lead to convictions or charges and convictions because Zondo just cost this country a bunch of money, nothing else. I mean, you know, Neil always used to say, and this was his biggest criticism of the TRC back in the day, was that we always got to the truth. We got to the truth, but we never reconciled. So it's pointless to just expose rot and not do anything about it. You know, it's like going to the doctor because you're sick….Jacques (03:20.136)…and identifying the illness and then doing nothing about it. What's the point? So we are really hoping that after all of this has been exposed that action is taken.Chris Steyn (03:32.331)How do you rate the quality of the evidence laid thus far at the Mudlonga Commission?Jacques (03:38.54)It's difficult to say just because this is an inquiry, it's not a court case. I think if these were judicial proceedings like in a court, it would have been different. I think what happened in Zondo has injured our confidence or broke our trust in this process somewhat, if I can be honest with you. There's a lot of he said, she said.There's a lot of witnesses that still have to come forward and get interviewed. So I don't know, Chris. It's like I said, time will tell.Yeah, and I mean it doesn't help that people are, you know, people die under weird circumstances or conditions as their names get brought up. So we are all sitting and waiting anxiously, anxiously waiting to see what happens, but it's difficult to rate the evidence because I mean, like I said, this is not a court case. If it had been a court case, it would have been easier to pass judgment, I would say.Chris Steyn (04:41.483)Now another favourite of Neil de Beers was Gayton McKenzie, the leader of the Patriotic Alliance. What did you make of how he threatened the Government of National Unity into getting his own way?Jacques (04:57.42)Let's be honest Chris, we all knew he wasn't going anywhere. We all knew he wasn't going anywhere, just like with the DA back in 20, well, I think it was this year and the year before. They also threatened the exact same thing. When they felt like the ANC was treating them like stepchildren, they also threatened to resign their positions and leave the GNU and it didn't happen. And we knew it wasn't going to happen. No appointed minister in this country is going to...leave their positions voluntarily. It's not going to happen. The funny thing though is, the interesting thing is the way that the ANC dealt with both parties or both entities. So obviously with the DA, they gave the DA the finger. And with Gayton McKenzie, I read this morning in the Sunday newspaper that the President himself, Cyril Ramphosa gave instructions to his structures in Johannesburg to comply with Gayton’s demands. That is a very interesting relationship Chris. Very interesting partnership, relationship, friendship, whatever you want to call it. We've always known that there was a relationship. I mean, you know what, we remember what happened in 2023 when the Patriotic Alliance played a very pivotal role in wrestling power away from the DA in Joburg municipality.But now, they're not the only party that seems to have power-sharing agreements or coalition agreements or partnerships or whatever you want to call it with the ANC. We know what happened in Tshwane. The role that Action SA played there as well. So, it's alarming to us to know that there are parties out there that are still willing to form partnerships and such with the ANC. I mean, there was something, I don't know if people...probably forgot about this, but there was something called the Multi-Party Charter or the Moonshot Pact in 2023. Well, we all know now that it unfortunately turned out to be a big disappointment and it wasn't worth the paper it was written on because those commitments and those pledges that were made quickly went away after the elections, unfortunately.Jacques (07:21.566)But partnering with the ANC, Chris, and work, I won't say working with the ANC because you find yourself in positions sometimes we have to work with them, especially in local government and in government but partnering with them or helping them retain or gain power should be an absolute no-go in South Africa. This is something that should be absolutely non-negotiable.And I know there's been stories and rumours and you know we've heard via the grapevine that it's difficult to work with the DA because of their apparent reluctance to share power. But hell, working or partnering with the ANC should be completely off the cards. Completely. So I don't know if this says something about the DA or those parties that are opting to rather work with the ANC than the DA. But I would like to just, there's two quotes that I wrote down that I want to read to you in light of this specific topic, Chris. And the one is a, it’s an old Spanish proverb that says, tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are. That's the one. And then the other one, Chris, says, do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character. And that is actually a quote from the Bible. Yeah, it's, I would like to know, it would have been interesting to know the extent of these power sharing agreements that exist between these parties and the ANC and what those terms and conditions are, but I guess we'll never know. But I think one thing that we should definitely agree with, is that we should all be working against that instinct, trying to get them out, not helping them retaining power, throwing them lifelines when the opportunities present themselves.Chris Steyn (09:09.931)Well, let's go to another favourite of the late Neil De Beer, Commander-in-Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema; his defiant reaction in the past week to his criminal conviction for firearm offenses.Jacques (09:28.135)Chris, you know, when Neil was still alive and well, and before he got sick, he used to do a Facebook Live on our social, or yeah, he used to do a Live every week on our social media platforms here at the UIM. And he used to hand out weekly awards. One of those awards was the Hand on the Heart Award, and another award was called the Ice Cream Award. Now, Julius has the distinction of being the recipient of the most Ice Cream awards ever in our party's existence. I think Neil would have had a field day this last week with Julius. We saw him get convicted of idiotic acts, idiotic criminal acts. We saw him walk out of that court and the moment a microphone gets stuck in his face, he starts spewing his poison, pulls out his all-time favourite race card as always, as predicted, and he starts singing his kak song, Pardon My Swahili. That's Julius. Because what is this guy? Name one contribution that this guy has made to South Africa or the people of South Africa? He's irrelevant, he's predictable. I think his time is running out, it hasn't run out already. People are leaving his party in droves. He has now been convicted of crimes, acts which he calls revolutionary acts. Yeah, no, those were not revolutionary acts, Chris. Those were moronic acts, idiotic acts. So, and he says it's a badge of honour. If he has to go to prison, it will be a badge of honor. I don't think Julius has spent a day in prison in his life. And I definitely think Julius is definitely going to change his mind within the first week, if he does go to prison. Obviously now we are all waiting in anticipation to see what the sentence is going to be in January because...Jacques (11:34.212)…that will determine whether or not he's going to lose his position as a Member of Parliament. But, but we are hoping that in the interim he gets dismissed as a member of the Judicial Service Commission. For those people out there who don't know what the Judicial Service Commission is, it's a constituted body that plays a very important role in the appointment of judicial officers and judges in South Africa and obviously they also handle queries and complaints against judges. Julius is serving on this commission. Julius has got no respect for the law. Julius called the Magistrate in East London a racist because she found him guilty.This is a guy that doesn't respect the judiciary, he doesn't respect its judicial officers, yet he serves on the Judicial Service Commission. So we are hoping that he gets dismissed or that he gets suspended or fired because he's the last person on earth that should be serving on that commission. So I'm just hoping there will come a time when we don't have to speak about this guy anymore. That's my wish and I think that was always Neil's wish as well.Chris Steyn (12:56.973)Now, Jacques, congratulations on your election as President of the United Independent Movement. How do you intend to take the party forward in the absence of Neil?Jacques (13:08.714)Chris, losing Neil was a big blow to us. When we spoke there at his, when we saw you there at his memorial service and we spoke about him and we said that, you know, I can't remember, I can't think of any other political figure that has ever been as loved as Neil…maybe besides President Nelson Mandela. He was a huge character in South African politics. He was more than just a political leader to many of us. He was our friend, he was our brother. We miss him terribly and I'm not going to lie to you; we were anxious. We were worried that with his passing people were going to say, well that's it, the UIM is finished. Without Neil, there's no UIM and the exact opposite happened. The public's response has been absolutely amazing. We have literally received thousands of messages from people that have asked us to please carry on with Neil's legacy. Please don't stop fighting. Please keep on growing. A lot of people have joined up as members. A lot of our members that were part of our structures in 2021 and 22 that left for personal and other reasons came back, have applied to come back, have contacted us and says, listen, we want to give this another go. We want another bite at the cherry. So the support from the public is amazing.With my appointment as well, I've only received well wishes and blessings from the public and from members of the party. I would like to also thank them personally on this platform and say thank you very, very much. I really appreciate it. It's not something I ever signed up for. In my mind, the picture that I had in my mind was always Neil going to parliament in 2029 and taking a couple of us with him. But unfortunately, things didn't turn out that way.We are going to go from strength to strength. Chris, the people, you know, my colleagues, the people that I work with are passionate people…this is one thing about the UIM and I have to say this. This is a party that has a lot of heart and soul. It's got a lot of heart and soul. I wish I could do a reality series on the UIM and what goes on in the UIM and the people that are involved with this party. Jacques (15:34.971)We are people that truly care about this country and its people…you know, none of us are professional politicians or... This is not what we do. We are doctors and lawyers and mechanics and farmers and normal business people. So, we are truly doing this because we want to see change in South Africa. I mean, none of us are going to leave this country. We're not going to leave our families and friends behind.Jacques (16:05.199)We have all made pledges to stay in South Africa, doesn't matter what happens. And while we are here, we're going to fight and try and make it as good a place as possible to live in. And we're not going to stop fighting because, like I said, I think Neil's passing, it's done something. I don't know. We would have obviously preferred to have him here, but something has happened. Something has happened.I don't know if it's divine intervention or not, or if it's divine, but something special has happened and our support has increased threefold in the last three weeks. And people have really rallied behind us and said, listen, we cannot, we can't allow this party to go down and we have to make sure that the UIM succeeds and that we make Neil proud and that we make the people of South Africa proud. So yes, we are carrying on better than ever and we're going to go far and we are pledging our loyalty and support to the people of South Africa. We ware servants of the people and that's about as much as I can say about that.Chris Steyn (00:01.368)Thank you. That was Jacques Taljaatd, the newly elected President of the United Independent Movement founded by the iconic late Neil de Beer. Now please stay with me and watch this video of Neil.

The NdB Sunday Show - Jacques Taljaard: Neil’s successor speaks on Mthethwa, McKenzie, Malema…

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