Revolution Chapter Four

 

(Iage: tEVE)

Chapter 4 – The First Council Meeting

The first full meeting of the Council for National Renewal convened at the Union Buildings on 18 September 2026, eleven days after the coup. The atmosphere was both solemn and invigorating. For the first time in decades, South Africa’s central chambers were filled not with political loyalists but with scholars, professionals, and civic leaders drawn from every province and community. The media were not permitted to attend, yet detailed minutes were later published to mark the session’s historical importance.

The agenda was formidable: the rationalisation of government, emergency law enforcement, and the immediate restoration of administrative efficiency.

Dr. Harvey Jacobs opened the proceedings with characteristic restraint. He reminded the Council that they had acted not as usurpers but as custodians of a failing state, and that legitimacy could be earned only through service, not declarations. “If we repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said, “then we will have proved our critics right—that South Africans can overthrow tyranny only to rebuild it in a different shape.”

Dissolution of the Cabinet

The first resolution passed without opposition. The bloated 75-member cabinet, a relic of years of patronage politics, was formally dissolved and replaced by a streamlined team of 30 ministers overseeing newly merged departments. Each ministry was to be headed by a subject-matter expert rather than a party functionary.

Jacobs described the old system as “a monument to political corruption,” explaining that cabinet expansion had long been used to reward loyalty, silence dissent, and maintain internal control within the ruling party. By multiplying ministries, the ANC had created sinecures—positions that drained the public purse while paralysing decision-making. The Council’s new configuration, by contrast, aimed for efficiency and clear accountability.

For continuity, departmental directors and senior civil servants were temporarily retained, though political appointees would face review. The Public Service Commission was empowered to audit all senior posts and identify incompetence or nepotism.

Law and Order

The second resolution, designated Priority One, concerned the restoration of public security. With crime spiralling and faith in policing almost destroyed, the Council resolved to rebuild the justice system from the top down.

Sakena Moloketsi—a legal scholar and former public advocate, admired nationwide for her integrity—was appointed Minister of Justice and Police. Her brief was sweeping: to unify the criminal justice institutions under a single operational command, to purge the police and prosecution services of corrupt officers, and to restore swift, impartial justice.

Under Moloketsi’s leadership, the Council declared that the right of appeal in criminal cases would be temporarily suspended, a drastic but necessary measure. Appeals, she argued, had become a “shield for the wealthy and the corrupt,” enabling endless delays and manipulation. Instead, cases would be handled by special fast-track courts with oversight from panels of senior jurists.

Combating Infrastructure Theft

Another resolution targeted what was euphemistically called infrastructure vandalism—the systematic theft of copper cables, railway lines, and power components. The Council redefined such crimes as economic sabotage carrying severe penalties.

The scrap-metal industry was placed under emergency regulation; dealing in copper was temporarily outlawed. As Moloketsi explained: “There is no incentive to steal what cannot be sold.” Enforcement teams combining police, military engineers, and private-security personnel began nationwide raids on illegal scrapyards and transport hubs within weeks.

The Campaign Against Organised Crime

The Council also approved Operation Phoenix, a coordinated effort to neutralise the violent gangs that dominated the Cape Flats and other urban townships. Under strict oversight, the SANDF and police conducted systematic house-to-house searches to confiscate illegal firearms and narcotics. The approach—firm but lawful—was accompanied by amnesty provisions for those who voluntarily surrendered weapons.

Parallel initiatives targeted extortion syndicates, construction-site mafias, and the so-called “water gangs” that had hijacked municipal supplies. The objective was simple: to restore the state’s monopoly on force, without descending into repression.

Social Measures

While security occupied immediate attention, the Council recognised the need to offer tangible relief to the impoverished population. To stabilise communities and buy time for structural reform, the Council authorised the introduction of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) of R1 500 per month for all adults, effective from January 2027.

Jacobs described the measure as “a bridge between despair and dignity.” It would not solve unemployment, but it would prevent starvation while new economic engines were built. The grant would be financed through redirected subsidies, debt monetisation (to be debated later), and the recovery of stolen state assets.

Governance Reform

Before adjournment, the Council reaffirmed that the old system of patronage governance would be dismantled gradually but decisively. Municipalities, long the epicentres of corruption, were placed under temporary provincial administration. Procurement rules were simplified; digital transparency portals were introduced to track every government contract in real time.

The session concluded with Jacobs’s closing remarks, now immortalised in the archives:

“We have taken power not because we sought it, but because power was abandoned by those entrusted with it. Our first duty is not to rule, but to repair.”

The meeting ended with a sense of grim optimism. Outside the Union Buildings, the gardens were quiet, guarded by soldiers whose discipline contrasted sharply with the chaos of previous years. The capital felt newly alert, as if a great machine long frozen in decay had begun, at last, to move again.

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