Chris Steyn (00:01.112)

There's no rest for political commentators in this country. And Solly Moeng is certainly no exception because I harass him on a weekly basis. Welcome, Solly.

Solly Moeng (00:12.517)

Thank you, Chris, and South Africans again trying to make sense of it all. It doesn't rain, it keeps raining, it doesn't stop raining in South Africa.

Chris Steyn (00:21.846)

I know that you are riveted to the hearings at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry. What has stood out for you in recent days?

Solly Moeng (00:30.641)

Sibanyoni was something else. This man, I mean, it's very clear that he's very feared and he's used to being very feared. And he was trying to play that game that we came into that into those hearings with the attitude that he is Sibanyoni. And I'm really happy that Madlanga basically put him back to where he belongs.

I'm disappointed that Ramaphosa, when that video of him was shown with Mantashe and this man, as president and commander in chief of our joint armed forces, he didn't stand down and say, dude, you can't, that's wrong. And if you do that, you're going to be arrested. I think Ramaphosa forgets that he is president of the Republic of South Africa. He's done from the beginning, from the time he said, I'd rather be seen as a weak president than to be to see my party collapse or separate.

So back to Madlanga, I think that this man and hopefully all the others who've managed to get sickened too to be sure to never make their appearance, get to understand that there are consequences to everything they've been doing.

Chris Steyn (01:38.082)

I know you've been hoping that Commander in Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Mr. Julius Malema would be called, but in the meantime, he has been granted leave to appeal his conviction and sentence for a firearms discharge crime.

Solly Moeng (01:53.33)

This legal process in South Africa, he has the funds to pay legal fees to get to ways to use the process. And that's what it is.

But I've also seen that he has to apologise. He has had to apologize finally in the last minute, five years later, to the judge that he had insulted during a JSC hearing. I think that it took five, 10 seconds to make that apology at the last minute.

There are consequences for the things that they do. Also the government, sort of parliament, must make a clear decision on what happens to MPs who get convicted of crimes, even while they sit waiting for trial. We cannot have lawbreakers or suspected lawbreakers being or acting as lawmakers and even appointing judges for this Republic.

Chris Steyn (02:50.103)

Solly, suspended Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya, General, is back in court today to try and get bail. Did you follow the proceedings during his previous bail hearing?

Solly Moeng (03:03.257)

It's terrible. It's terrible.

He dares to call that whatever happened to him between him and the other one the 18-year-old was consensual. I mean this guy is 59-years-old. He takes these children to the place, to a sex den because that's what is, striptease.

I don't have sympathy for him. I really do not have sympathy for him. Especially when all of this thing comes up at a time when there's so much wrong that is being done to women. It cannot be forgiven.

Yeah, there's going to be consequences for him. There's going to be consequences for any other man who does this, what this man does. It cannot be right.

Chris Steyn (05:53.165)

Meanwhile, disgraced MP Fadiel Adams hasn't run out of steam. He's now gone to the High Court to try and challenge the decision to withdraw charges against National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola.

Solly Moeng (05:57.369)

No.

Solly Moeng (06:06.084)

Yeah, look, we have elections coming up. I think politicians have to try and stand for something. But at the same time, I think that if there's a case to be answered, it must be…

Masemola was accused of PFMA-related charges. Okay, he could have stopped corruption at the time he didn't do it. R50 million were paid to the criminal network, to the Matlala criminal network. This man had an opportunity to stop it. So I think it makes sense that the NPA gets him to come and account for that. If he has deliberately stopped or held back from stopping corruption from happening, I think there's got to be consequences for that.

Fadiel Adams, of course, we know he's out on bail with his own stuff. Okay, I don't know if he's suspended as MP.

If we're going to look for angels in this stuff, we're not going to find angels. It's the list of the devils, it's where do we choose, what is the thing to focus on, the least worst thing to focus on.

But I do think that if Masemola’s case is not properly heard in court, it cannot be right. I think the NPA has to think about it because then it's going to leave this plight, this dark cloud over his head. We know that we really want to move on as a country… there's got to be somebody in there who really tried, who's a good person, but we cannot say because it's Fadiell Adams who's asking the questions, they should be ignored, they should be tested.

Of course, is it lying on the administration of justice…

Solly Moeng (07:46.157)

…which really concerns citizens being able to question a government decision.

But this is the court thing to judge on, to prosecute or not to prosecute. It's going to be interesting to see whether or not he has to rely, is going to succeed on the basis of the appeal to the constitution or to this particular administrative justice clause, which is going to be interesting to see. But they cannot just throw it out. I don't see them just throwing it out. The NPA is going to be pushed back to do the right thing.

Chris Steyn (08:20.138)

On top of that, South Africa's relations with the US have taken another nosedive or two. Solly.

Solly Moeng (08:26.99)

Yeah, I think South Africans need to stop being too emotional about this thing. First of all, I'm wondering, is it the Mbeki Foundation? Is it AfriForum or Solidarity Movement? Is it DIRCO that runs South Africa’s relations with America and other parts of the world?

I don't think there's anything wrong with any civilian group saying this is what we want. I don't think so. But I also think that we in South Africa must deal with our own stuff. Otherwise our own stuff that we could be dealing with in South Africa is going to be abused by outsiders who want to create chaos in South Africa.

Okay, and I'm very clear about this. I think we should look at what AfriForum or Solidarity is asking for. In my view, it's not unreasonable.

We have to talk about the farm murders. I have seen videos of terrible elderly people being killed on farms, like here, horribly killed. We cannot not talk about that stuff. It's happening. But of course, the women are also being killed. The children are dying. Also, South Africans have to hide in their own homes away from crime. So we cannot just say genocide, white genocide. It is wrong and it's taking away the focus that should be placed on crime that is really happening.

And I think that we should have a conversation about Sunset Clauses. I mean children who are not black who are being excluded on the basis of their colour , it cannot be right we cannot do this big thing into perpetuity on the basis of your colour: you're not black enough, you're not black enough and then you have Zimbabweans coming in or Nigerians coming in here to benefit from from the same law that's this absolute nonsense.

We should listen to these guys. They are fellow South Africans. They love South Africa. We are diverse as a country. We want to agree on some things and differ on some things. But we cannot have a situation where the problems that we could be discussing and solving at home get abused by a foreign power to impose ways of enacting laws or not…

Solly Moeng (10:31.798)

…in South Africa.

So it's important that South Africa clearly and the government and all those people who support the ANC and they should stop being emotional about this. Donald Trump is Donald Trump and not just to South Africa but to my county, to the EU, to everybody out there. And he might be weakened in the coming elections, right? He might be weakened and he might have other things to worry about. Maybe we should just sit it out. You know, it's very likely that the next administration might not take the same attitude towards South Africa.

But those people that were calling for Bozell to be kicked out of South Africa are being childish. No, let's not kick him out. This man is the representative of Donald Trump in South Africa. He's going to do what Donald Trump does or would like him to do. He's not going to sit here and just enjoy driving down the Garden Route and enjoying the wine, enjoying the beauty of this amazing country of ours. He's going to do what his president expects him to do.

We mustn't be emotional about that. But we must also not allow ourselves to be. And I said before, we must not be allowed into this false sense of patriotism that says America is wrong, therefore we are right, not to want to discuss certain things. I think we must ensure that Afrikaners, Coloured people, Indian people, black people, everybody who is South African, who is legally here, feels that they have a place for themselves under the South African system.

Okay, so it's important that we don't fall into, we can't talk about that. There should be no such thing as young white children looking for opportunities outside of South Africa because they are being told, you're not black, therefore you cannot qualify for this and that. That thing has to stop at some point.

Chris Steyn (12:19.266)

Lastly, Solly, your rant of the week.

Solly Moeng (12:24.152)

You know, know Chris... I hear people in the taxi industry, a lot of times when something comes out that are accidents, we talk about the way taxi drivers go on or behave on the road, somebody in the name of the taxi industry will come and say, not all of them are like that, it's just a few.

I think we have to talk about the taxi industry. have to talk about it, especially given what's coming out of the Madlanga Commission. We have to get to a point where these people understand no matter how their mood of transport is important, no matter how important it is for South Africans, they are also subject to the law that governs all of us South Africans.

And I think where there are consequences, and I hope that Ramaphosa will stand up and say to people like Sibanyoni and others…all these guys who are hiding, who are watching these things, they have to show an example. Even if there are instances where people in politics own shares in taxis or own taxis. Therefore they protect them.

These things have to be brought into the light. We need to get to a point in South Africa where the laws apply to everybody. When you say equality before the law, it means equality before the law. Otherwise, if we fail, like Ramaphosa failed to speak out in front of this man, these men and women, if they are women, I haven't said women, we'll continue believing that they can do whatever they want and nothing and nobody can touch them. It has to stop.

Chris Steyn (13:57.711)

Indeed. Thank you. was political commentator, Solly Moeng, back on BizNews with me, Chris Steyn. Thank you, Solly.

Solly Moeng (14:05.617)

Thank you.

Solly Moeng: "It's the list of the devils"