MINISTER in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has put to rest fears that car manufacturing company VW is leaving Mzansi because of load shedding.
Ntshavheni was briefing the media on post-cabinet meeting on Thursday, 30 November.
“As government, we have acknowledged that load shedding is impacting on manufacturing sector. There was no specific briefing on VW leaving South Africa and minister of trade, industry and competition engages very strongly with automobile sector,” she said.
She pointed out that the government has recently announced the approval of a policy on electric vehicles.
Ntshavheni said the proposal is the incentive schemes not only keep the current automobile investors but also expand into new factories for the electric vehicle.
If VW were to leave, 3 500 jobs could be lost.
On dealing with gender-based violence, she said the cabinet reaffirmed the need to prioritise the implementation of the national strategic plan for dealing with the second pandemic of GBV and femicide.
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“Government will continue with consultations with various sectors to mobilise a whole of society approach to dealing with gender-based violence including localising the national strategic plan using the district development model approach for implementation at a ward level,” she said.
She claimed she didn't know that Hamas was in Mzansi and that they were a terrorist group.
“I don't recall the UN classification of Hamas as terrorists, and we are not checking the presence of individuals in the country. So, I can't say there is Hamas or no Hamas. We don’t have that type of evidence,” said Ntshavheni.
On the comments of former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng about the CR17 bank statements, she said they were unfortunate.
In a lecture on Wednesday, 29 November, Mogoeng said the bank statements sealed by the courts, which saw Cyril Ramaphosa become president of the ANC, should be opened to the public.
He wrote a minority judgment on the matter while the head of the Constitutional Court.
“It's unfortunate that he wants to rule from the grave and express a view from the grave,” she said.
Ntshavheni said that in the case of the rand-dollar currency exchange rate collusion, the cabinet urges responded banks currently facing prosecution in Mzansi courts to cooperate with local authorities as they did with foreign governments.
