Paul Hoffman The ANC, still the largest party in Parliament but no longer in the majority, has stated publicly that it needs to renew, or it will perish. It has learnt well from its predecessor in government, the National Party, which adopted a similar slogan...

Under the Constitution SA has a single national prosecuting authority (NPA) led by a National Director appointed by the president, with Directors of Public Prosecutions for all provinces and, at the bottom of the organisation, legions of prosecutors. According to...

By Paul Hoffman  The collective responsibility and accountability of the multi-party Cabinet of the GNU does not derive from the ANC’s notion of democratic centralism. It derives from the Constitution, our supreme law. There seems to be a good prospect of the fracas...

Civil society will litigate to invalidate any change that violates the founding document The talk of a “reset” for the 10-party coalition that has governed in SA since the election in May 2024 has to be seen within the context of the constitution, which prescribes...

By Paul Hoffman The ANC’s desire for hegemony and the corrupt ways of many in its leadership have left the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in tatters, especially after it was gutted during the heyday of the State Capture period. Under the Constitution, South...

07 April 2025 - 17:29 In all the wholly unnecessary fuss around the spat over a 0.5 percentage point hike in VAT, politicians have lost sight of the constitutional responsibilities of the cabinet. All in cabinet are “accountable collectively and individually to...

Paul Hoffman | 03 April 2025 Paul Hoffman says if compulsory mediation is legislated in SA, parliament must insist all mediators be qualified independent professionals Farriers are the folk who shoe horses. The demand for their services dwindled sharply when the...

By Paul Hoffman There is currently some R89bn swilling around in the financial services sector that is unclaimed. It emerged during the interview that there is currently a pool, or more accurately pools, aggregating some R89-billion swilling around in the financial...

Many South Africans appear not to be too careful about their money. According to media reports sourced from Erica Liebenberg of Just Money, there is a pool of R89bn swilling around in the financial services sector that is unclaimed by those who are entitled to claim...

Former SA ambassador was bound to be expelled after badmouthing the US When the new SA was born some three decades ago “we the people” declared our intent to “build a united and democratic SA able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of...

Federation deputy president says changing NHI legislation would be unconstitutional You reported a grievous misapprehension by union federation Cosatu as to the meaning and import of the concept “unconstitutionality” (“Cosatu urges Ramaphosa not to negotiate sections...

The president does not get to choose whether to follow the rule of law, he takes an oath to do so In an otherwise insightful piece, Jonny Steinberg poses the wrong question when he asks, “Does he [President Cyril Ramaphosa] really want an efficient justice system if...

In the carefully chosen words of the Constitutional Court, “(t)here can be no gainsaying that corruption threatens to fell at the knees virtually everything we hold dear and precious in our hard-won constitutional order”. These words are in paragraph 166 of the joint...

By Paul Hoffman  The part that Paul Mashatile played in the appointment of John Lamola as the new SAA CEO is a direct conflict between the interests of the ANC in cadre deployment and his overall official duties as deputy president. The canary in the coal mine for...

Paul Hoffman 27 February 2025 Paul Hoffman notes that in 2004 ConCourt stripped whites of their protection against racial discrimination The fluidity in politics worldwide seems to be stimulating push-back in SA against the 140 odd race based laws introduced since...

By Paul Hoffman About R60-billion a year would have come in from the additional VAT in the aborted proposal to raise it by 2%. The loot of State Capture is estimated in trillions. There has been a wide range of different reactions to the postponement of the Budget...

March version of budget should address absence of new investment Your columnist Peter Bruce is spot on when he points out that the proposed hiking of VAT “as the only answer to a 20-year-old funding problem is intellectually lazy, politically disconnected and morally...

ANC continues destructive national democratic revolution opposed by GNU partners 17 February 2025 - 20:58 After it was able to muster only about 40% of the votes cast in the May 2024 general election the ANC was obliged to invite other parties represented in...

Bringing the crooked to book requires a single agency outside executive control David Lewis is on a dangerous, unconstitutional, and ill-informed trajectory when it comes to formulating the long-overdue reform of the anti-corruption capacity of the criminal justice...

By Paul Hoffman  While secure peace, sustainable progress and shared prosperity remain the goals of good governance everywhere, it is undeniable that these desirable qualities do not flourish in any society in which endemic grand corruption has taken root and goes...

Conceding that a constitutional amendment is required to achieve a political aim and then to pass ordinary legislation to achieve that aim is legally questionable Back in 2014-2019, when the ANC and EFF between them had more than two-thirds of the seats in SA’s...

Peter Bruce refers in passing to the “elasticity of the red lines” which, if crossed, would signal the possible demise of the 10 party coalition that governs SA (“Chilling warning from the CEO of Toyota”, January 30). According to the much-maligned “statement of...

By Paul Hoffman If more politicians took their oaths of office more seriously, the freedom obtained in the Struggle would not be nearly as incomplete as it manifestly is in 2025. Too few politicians appreciate that they are constrained by the Constitution. Thirty...

By Paul Hoffman There are presumably more law-abiding citizens in the ANC than corrupt or soft-on-corruption individuals. The silent majority will have to assert itself if the ANC is to renew. The alternative is to perish. Those with long memories will recall then...

14 January 2025 - 16:18 The many words and pious promises in the ANC annual January 8 statement, delivered by its leader on Saturday, boil down to the terse take-home message that if the ANC is to avoid perishing at the polls it needs to take action to renew itself...

By Paul Hoffman In the old South Africa, there were masses of passive subjects and few active citizens. The new South Africa is posited on the assumption that constitutional democracy requires engaged citizens who are prepared and able to participate actively in the...

This complaint invokes the functions of the Public Protector under section 182 of the Constitution. The complaint is against the National Prosecuting Authority for suspected improper conduct of the NPA which is prejudicial to the public interest. That interest is in...

The absence of effective and efficient anti-corruption machinery of state during the two Zuma presidencies allowed State Capture to happen. The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption is neither effective nor efficient. Let us not forget the “must haves” when...

It has been five years since Advocate Shamila Batohi was appointed National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP). South Africans want to see the masterminds of state capture in orange overalls and the NDPP is central to achieving this, but Batohi is running out of...