Listen here.Election year 2026 is turning deadly and dirty. In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, political commentator Solly Moeng slams the Speaker of Parliament for not opposing President Cyril Ramaphosa's urgent bid to stave off his impeachment inquiry. “I for one should not be surprised if the Speaker would have been called into some meeting somewhere with the political party leadership that deployed her…to say: listen, this is the way we want this thing to go.” He also laments the spate of political killings that has seen an African National Congress (ANC) councillor and two aspirant councillors, one from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and one from BOSA gunned down in one night. “... there are of course people who also see these as opportunities for a job to climb up and to access the feeding through as it were. Either way it's a very risky position because sometimes people are even killed by their own comrades, their own people from the same political party, wanting to occupy the position.” Lastly, Moeng reveals why he left ActionSA despite being brought back to South Africa by its leader Herman Mashaba after he had been forced out of the country by the ANC..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 every morning on 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..Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.11)Election year 2026. It is turning deadly and dirty. Let us hear from political commentator Solly Moeng. Welcome, Solly.Chris Steyn (00:15.788)Three politicians killed in one evening, an African National Congress councillor and two aspirant councillors, one from the Democratic Alliance and one from BOSA.Solly Moeng (00:38.153)It justifies the continued existence of this Political Killings Task Force because clearly these have not stopped. And each time we start heading towards elections, it's almost it's a whole combination of of people fighting for positions, but also we're hearing in the Western Cape it could have been some kind of extortion thing that happened with this lady…who had been you know threatened to deliver money to some people for protection and yeah we don't know if this is why she was killedChris Steyn (01:10.39)She was an anti-crime activist as well.Solly Moeng (01:14.013)Yeah, Dunoon is not an easy place to be. I mean you have to be super courageous to be playing the role that she did in a place like that. And it's very unfortunate. I don't know what else would be required for people like that because somebody else is going to come out, they're going they're going to find themselves in pretty much the same situation. They do need protection. It's not a safe area at all. But those people have to be represented. They have got to have a voice in our politics.Chris Steyn (01:41.142)You know, being a counsellor is such a sought after position in a township where it makes such a huge difference to a person and his family.Solly Moeng (01:48.935)Yeah, of course. Look, there are different kinds of councillors, right? There are people who really want to make a difference, who see the need to get into the system and instead of continuously peeing from outside the tent inside the political tent to go in there and make the difference. But there are of course people who also see these as opportunities for a job to climb up and to access the feeding through as it were. Either way it's a very risky position because sometimes people are even killed by their own comrades, their own people from the same political party wanting to occupy the position. So it's a very risky place to be.Chris Steyn (02:28.151)From the deadly to the dirty, the Parliament Speaker is under fire for not opposing President Cyril Ramaphoa’ss urgent bid to stave off his impeachment inquiry.Solly Moeng (02:41.522)Yeah, look Chris, what's happening with that process is it exposes again the stress in which our democratic institutions find themselves. The Speaker, her office occupies an important position which must be independent of political instructions. But she can't because she's a deployee of a political party. I have worked inside a political party. People working in those positions are deployed by political parties. They're not there by themselves. And I for one should not be surprised if the Speaker would have been called into some meeting somewhere with the political party leadership that deployed her - because she's not there on her own - to say listen, this is the way we want this thing to go. It would not be surprising, but then it would become her responsibility to say, wait a minute, on this particular point, I put the Constitution, the people, the country ahead of party. And a lot of times they struggle to do that.Chris Steyn (03:42.155)Hm. Because she is now giving the impression that she is protective towards the President.Solly Moeng (03:50.193)Okay. I would expect her to be protective towards the president. It's in a very cynical way of course, but for the reasons the president is her political boss. The ANC is her political boss…and everybody who sits at the top of the ANC, the other people who said, Look, we are going to send you, we're deploying you, you are a messenger in that position. So suddenly she has to act. She can't be seen from their perspective like this to be acting against their wishes. But then she's in a very difficult position where she also occupies a very important position of State. The Constitutional Court has announced itself on this topic. The Constitutional court has made it clear that the Parliament of which she is the Speaker has to go ahead with this impeachment, which it has, the committee has been established. But she's suddenly struggling to decide which way she belongs. Maybe she must resign. But in the end, it's a good thing that the Parliamentary Committee can still go ahead with the work that it must. She's just being exposed. She must make up her mind. Is it South Africa first or is it your political party first? It's a problem that will not go away anytime soon while the electoral system remains as it is.Chris Steyn (05:04.609)Which Phala Phala secrets that have been kept up to now do you think are in danger of being exposed if this inquiry goes ahead?Solly Moeng (05:13.362)Well, I heard somebody saying, Where is the sofa? We want to see the sofa. It's part of the evidence that must sit in front of us, right?It's still very unclear as to how those funds got into the country. It's hard for me to imagine that somebody flew into South Africa with suitcases filled with hot American dollars of that amount and managed to go through customs. It doesn't make sense to me. And it is also going to expose the Public Protector, SARS who decided and the Reserve Bank who decided to look the other way.We know that if it were you and me in that position, they would have pounced on us big time. I teach at the EU Business School which is based in Europe but they pay small amounts from time to time. I have to complete forms for small amounts. So Ramaphosa has not told us everything that we need to know. And he's like that. Ramaphosa was deputy to Zuma during the very, very toxic years of State Capture, that other State Capture. And he came out saying, I don't know. I didn't see anything. He hasn't seen anything. He was deputy for God's sake. I mean, you can't tell me that this man was asked to recuse himself from meetings between Zuma and the Guptas and whoever else was involved with Zuma during that period. He still hasn't told us anything. So right now he's pretending that no it's not such a big thing. It is a big deal. He is the President of the country. He is found to have been keeping that money and…it could have been a lot more than we know. And the case was…the robbery happened in 2020. He didn't say… he remained too still. There was an attempt at private investigation of it with the details of which have been exposed. I think there's a lot more going on there. The reasons why the money was…was it his money? that there's a lot of speculation now. Was it to fund his political party? Was it to fund his own political, you know, staying in power because we know that this party operates in an era where…Solly Moeng (07:18.46)…brown envelopes to individuals to keep them on the right side of the political faction. So we don't know. I mean, all of this and a lot more is speculation because this man has not come out to say this is what happened. You know, the rule number one of reputation management, Chris, is to come out and say, This is the truth. No matter how bitter the truth is, let's deal with it. But if you leave too much room for speculation as Ramaphosa has, we shouldn't be surprised then that people are putting this story in all directions.But somewhere out there is the truth and that truth has not been told to South Africa by Ramaphosa. But it's going to have to find its way out because you know there's something that happens with light. You can't keep it in the shadow, in the crevices for too long; one day it's going to start coming out.Chris Steyn (08:06.313)Hm. Solly, with the Local Government Elections looming in November there is so much at stake for all the political parties, but what should residents in our long suffering big metros be most concerned about?Solly Moeng (08:20.958)You know, Chris, I often wonder, do we at what point should voters take responsibility for the actions of the people to vote for? Especially if they keep voting for those people over and over again. It's one thing that if you vote for a party, an individual, they go in there and they go rogue. Then you hopefully vote them out the next time. But if you keep voting them in over and over again, then it means that you haven't learned any lesson.I think this is where the people of Johannesburg, well, maybe I should give them some credit because the ANC has dropped over the years, both at national level and local level. I think it needs to drop more, but they should not give any, it's not just about the ANC…we need to ensure that nobody ever gets so much power that they can take people for granted. The people of Johannesburg need to leave…Struggle credentials behind. They need to focus on what needs to be done. They need to look at the candidates who are standing up to lead the country they must not not just look at the fancy friendly smiley individuals but that are being put in front of them; they must look at the political machineries because we're not voting for individuals the same way that people say yeah you must vote for Ramaphosa, you know he's the last hope for South Afrrica, but he came from a political party which still has some really really bad people in its leadership.So the same thing is happening at local level … all over. We must look at who is sending this person to be a candidate. And what are the chances of this person changing the culture of that political animal? You know, if they were to be voted in what the chances are that they won't. They're just, you know, they're just deployees. So what do you want to see happen? Johannesburg is broken. Hillbrow is broken. Soweto is broken. Yeoville is broken. Braamfontein is broken….Those townships in the eastern part of Johannesburg are broken.Solly Moeng (10:26.788)You can't keep doing things the same way over and over again and expect different outcomes. You need to say it. It doesn't matter whether the mayor is white or Indian or gay, lesbian, Muslim, Christian, as long as you want to respect that they are there for all of the people of Johannesburg and act for the people of Johannesburg. Water crisis in Johannesburg. I still hear people say we haven't had water for two weeks or electricity…the potholes…the buildings that have been taken over; buildings that have squatter camps built inside of them. I mean, I've never seen anything like that. So you need somebody to go in there and be very clear about what needs to be done. And they mustn't go there, you know, you know, looking for favours. They mustn't go there because…they must be clear that they have nothing to lose but to serve this country because this country needs to be served. The people of Johannesburg and other metros need to be served. All of them across the board. Race baiting: there must be no room for it. This it's not about race. It's about what needs to be done to make this country, these cities great again. Because it can be if you get the right people into those positions.Chris Steyn (11:37.85)Solly, you are not a member of a political party at the moment, I know, but I have not asked you this question: why did you leave ActionSA?Solly Moeng (11:48.294)You know, Chris, in any relationship from time to time you get to a point where you know it is not corresponding to your needs and it goes both ways and you decide, you know, before we start banging doors and hating each other, let's just amicably separate. And this is what happened with me with with Action SA.You know, I've been a political commentator…advocacy for the right thing for many many years, long before I joined ActionSA. And then I had an opportunity before elections. I decided you know what, I've been pissing inside the political tent from outside for too long. Let me just go in because what's there…Solly Moeng (12:35.408)Okay. But but the truth is I'm not able to use my voice in a political party the way I'm able to use with you now because then you have to be mindful of the sensitivities and if a political party says or does things that you don't agree with fundamentally you have to keep quiet because you know you're part of the collectives. I think maybe look, in the end, ActionSA, especially having Herman Mashaba brought me back to South Africa. And for me that's important. And that's a statement that we issued in October last year when we separated. You know, this man believed in me. He believed that what the ANC had done to me to get me kicked out of the country. I wasn't kicked out, I basically…conditions were created for me to leave. He said I'm gonna bring you back home and he did. So I respect him for that, but it doesn't mean that I have to stay and walk a political journey no matter what, you know. I thought, you know, this country still needs these voices that will speak truth to power irrespective of who is standing in front of South Africa. South Africa comes first to me. No political party, no political leader will ever stand between me and South Africa, that's for sure. I understand people who keep thinking that I'm settled with the political party because they haven't seen the statement. We are in an area where when you say something you cannot assume that everybody has heard you. So I think we have to keep repeating messages, but I'm not with the political party. I mean it's a long answer I know, but I'm not with the political party. I have huge respect for, especially the people, individuals inside ActionSA which I joined, people who were not politicians before, you know, and like in RiseMzansi and in BOSA, in all these small parties, there are people who were not politicians who were were leading their lives and suddenly they said look we can't keep standing on the sidelines when South Africa is burning. Let's do something. So there are many people who went into the political space ahead of them especially ahead of the 2024 elections because they felt South Africa needed to be saved again from the ANC this time. Before it was saved from Apartheid. This time it needed to be saved from the ANC. So they've gone into BOSA, into Rize Mzansi, into ActionSA, good people with good credentials.Solly Moeng (14:54.128)But once you operate from a political party space in some way you can't be exactly the same person again, you know. So I have huge respect. I really do have huge respect for people who were independent before and who decided to go into a political party and stay there because I don't know I am capable of doing that because when I say if I'm not happy with something, especially if I don't think it's good for salvaging, for diversity, for who we are as a people, the potential that we have, I will not, I will struggle to keep quiet. You know what I'm saying? But I will vote for somebody when the elections come. Of course I will always vote. I haven't decided who I'm going to vote for, but I do vote and I do call on others to go to vote for what is good for their country, for South Africa, for the metro, their township, the municipality in which they live. Do not look at skin colour.. look at whether those people have what it takes to make the difference that needs to be done.Chris Steyn (16:01.781)Mm, I agree with you, Solly. I've never been a member of a political party. And should a party come along that rules for the people, I shall join it. But thus far, that has not happened. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining me again, Solly Moeng, political commentator on BizNews, with me, Chris Steyn.Solly Moeng (16:22.975)Thank you, Chris. It's a pleasure.