For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines: ANC, ActionSA meet to discuss Budget, insist no GNU talks took place; AfriForum wants police to prioritise farm attacks, calls for Hawks task team; And, former President Kabila says he will return to Congo

ANC, ActionSA meet to discuss Budget, insist no GNU talks took place

A meeting between the African National Congress and ActionSA today did not include discussions about a reconstituted Government of National Unity.

This was the statement coming out of both parties amid tensions within the GNU, following the passing of the Budget in March.

The GNU has been rocked by threats of reconstitution, with the ANC, Democratic Alliance and other parties at loggerheads over the proposed value-added tax increase proposed in the Budget increase.

Rumours of ActionSA joining the GNU were dismissed by ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba yesterday when he affirmed that his party would not give any consideration to the proposal of reconstituting the GNU to include ActionSA until the issues of the VAT increase and income tax bracket creep had been resolved.

Today’s meeting between the ANC and ActionSA sought to address the Budget impasse, with both parties agreeing on the need for alternatives to the proposed VAT increase.

The ANC’s negotiating team, headed by party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, met with ActionSA’s team, headed by Mashaba, and described the discussions as “frank and cordial”.

AfriForum wants police to prioritise farm attacks, calls for Hawks task team

Lobby group AfriForum has made an urgent submission to the National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola to classify farm attacks as a national priority crime.

The submission was made in terms of Section 17(d) of the South African Police Services Act.

In a letter send to Masemola, AfriForum chief spokesperson for community safety Jacques Broodryk maintained that the factual realities of farm attacks necessitate the “seriousness and urgency of prioritisation” and called for the involved of the specialised investigative skills of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation, the Hawks.

Broodryk argued that farm attacks, owing to the organised nature and national impact of these crimes, required specialised skills, coordination, dedicated investigative capacity and police resources.

He said the impact of farm attacks on the stability of the country and the public’s confidence in the government’s ability to protect human life and property is presented as further justification for AfriForum’s application for the urgent prioritisation of farm attacks.

As part of the argument for prioritising farm attacks, AfriForum recommended the establishment of a dedicated Hawks task team to facilitate the development of a strategy for rural crime as well as farm-related crime.

And, former President Kabila says he will return to Congo

Former Congolese president Joseph Kabila will return to the central African nation to help find a solution to the crisis in the war-ravaged east, where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have seized swathes of territory.

The M23 rebels' lightning offensive since January in Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich east has killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands more from their homes, while stoking fears of a wider regional conflict.

Congolese government and M23 sources told Reuters this week that peace talks between Congo and Rwanda planned for April 9 in Doha were delayed, with no new date scheduled for them to take place. Rwanda denies backing the rebels.

Kabila, who was in office from 2001 to 2019 and left the country in 2023, said he have resolved to return home without delay to contribute to the search for a solution.

His return would be contentious in Congo.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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