DA calls for strict accountability control at Prasa following Shosholoza Meyl suspension  

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to ensure rigorous accountability processes at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) following the strict intervention by the Rail Safety Regulator (RSR) ordering Prasa-operated Shosholoza Meyl to stop operating with immediate effect.

This decision comes after a fatal crash on 12 February in which one man was killed and several injured when a Shosholoza Meyl train collided with a goods train in Roodepoort. The train which operated under manual authorization was travelling at 60km/h at the time of impact, thereby irresponsibly exceeding the compulsory 30km/h speed restriction on a line that is operated manually. 

Prasa continues to demonstrate a total disregard for rail safety in its operations. Had the entity performed its duties diligently – the Shosholoza Meyl collision could have been avoided.

It now appears that Prasa does not have the ability to manage and control risk directives which have been issued upon safety inspections by RSR. The Regulator now seems to be the one having to manage safety controls at Prasa, instead of being responsible to assess risks and protect lives.

It is no surprise that Prasa is failing to deliver in its most basic duties. The entity has been hamstrung by the years of looting, mismanagement, and instability brought on by the appointment of numerous Ministers of Transport, who, in turn, appointed a multitude of inept boards and executives. Current Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, has all but bailed out of a personally established War Room which hardly lasted half a year, fired the last board and opted for the highly controversial appointment of an administrator to oversee the mess that is Prasa.

During this period from January 2018 until recently, RSR-issued directives increased from 35 356 to over 150 000 per month. A clear indication that none of the plans, turnaround strategies, and interventions bared any fruit to make rail services safer for our commuters and passengers.

Safe rail services are an essential component of a reliable public transport system and are vital to the running of the economy – unfortunately, as things stand, government is a long way away from achieving proper rail safety standards.

Mo Shaik resigns citing DA pressure

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes reports indicating that former Head of Intelligence, Mo Shaik, has resigned as a Special Advisor to Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation (DHSWS).

Shaik’s resignation is a direct result of DA pressure, following our revelation that Shaik had been appointed by Minister Sisulu, despite not having qualifications relating to his role as a special advisor on water services.

The DA claims Shaik’s decision to resign as a victory for all South Africans. There is no place for ANC cadres and their politically-connected consultancies being employed in government departments, already buckling under the weight of corruption and maladministration.

We now await Menzi Simelane’s resignation as Sisulu’s second Special Advisor, and will continue to interrogate all appointments and consultancy awards made by the Ministry.

Mantashe’s ‘new generation entity’ is just more madness

At his post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) press briefing today, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, doubled down on his left-field idea of a new electricity generation entity “outside of Eskom”.

Minister Mantashe first proposed this madcap idea at the Mining Indaba a few weeks ago. Today, he stated that “[the new power generation entity] is a reality, and we will make it happen.”

It is noteworthy that Mantashe is the only person who is suggesting such lunacy. He did not mention it during the SONA debates, nor did President Cyril Ramaphosa. There is no mention of it in the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Annual Performance Plan, nor has it been discussed in any other forum to date.

It therefore appears that the Minister is floating a trial balloon to centralize this new entity (and indeed all electricity production) under his control.

Energy experts agree that any new generation capacity must (at least in the short to medium term) come from the private sector. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has proposed a private members bill to facilitate this – the Independent Electricity Management Operator Bill. This Bill is currently before the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy, and would open up South Africa’s electricity supply sector and make it more competitive. It would allow Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to compete on an equal footing with Eskom.

But the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has already indicated their lack of support for this initiative, although their objections, thus far, are spurious and ill-informed.

A new generation entity is nothing more than a blatant power play by Minister Mantashe. Eskom is already more than R450 billion in debt, and spiraling closer to death every day that passes. South Africa cannot afford more government mismanagement, corruption and incompetence in the electricity sector. We must oppose this madness at every turn.

Onteiening sonder vergoeding: Suid-Afrikaners benodig beleidsekerheid

Die volgende toespraak sal vandag tydens die debat oor die Staatsrede in die Parlement gelewer word en is onder embargo tot ná die lewering van die toespraak vanaand.

Speaker, die President het tydens sy staatsrede aangedui dat sy toespraak binne die raamwerk van inklusiewe ekonomiese groei geskryf is.

Hierdie woorde het Suid-Afrikaners hoop gegee. Hoop dat beleidsekerheid gegee gaan word. Hoop dat vrese besweer gaan word, dat die versekering en versterking van almal se grondwetlike regte op ʼn inklusiewe manier aangespreek gaan word. Dat almal aan die einde van die rede ʼn gevoel gaan hê dat ons op koers is.

Helaas, het die hoop beskaam. Daar is met ʼn paar sinne ʼn streep deur die een fundamentele grondwetlike reg van elke burger van hierdie land getrek. Die reg om eiendom te besit soos verskans in art 25 van die Grondwet is in groter onsekerheid gedompel.

Ons het al by herhaling in hierdie Huis gewys op die onherstelbare skade wat ʼn gepeuter aan art 25 tot gevolg kan hê. Dit val gewoon op dowe ore.

Speaker, die president het die land verseker dat onteiening sonder vergoeding op so ʼn manier gedoen sal word dat dit nie die ekonomie en voedselsekuriteit in gedrang sal bring nie.

Wat is egter die werklikheid?

Sedert die begin van hierdie proses het sake en verbruikersvertroue tot ʼn rekord laagtepunt verswak.  Die aantal landbougrond-transaksies het regoor die land afgeneem. Private vastebeleggings toon geen vordering nie en onlangs is die Landbank deur Moody’s tot rommelstatus afgegradeer. En hulle motivering daarvoor is die onsekerheid wat onteiening sonder vergoeding tot gevolg sal hê.

Speaker, wat word van verbande wat op eiendom geregistreer is en sonder vergoeding onteien word? Soos dit blyk uit kommentaar vanuit die banksektor, gaan die persoon wat die verband uitgeneem het steeds daarvoor verantwoordelik wees. Met ander woorde die staat kan jou eiendom onteien en jy moet nog steeds betaal.

Dit impak hiervan, nie net op die individu nie, maar die finansiële sektor is geweldig. Daar is tans R1.6 triljoen se verbande op residensiële, kommersiële en landbou-eiendom deur banke toegestaan. Die Landbank kan R53 miljard verloor.

Dit kan die banksektor ʼn fatale knou toedien.

Daar kan nie van ekonomiese groei sprake wees as daar nie beleidsekerheid is nie. Die President en die ANC regering se bontpratery en Orwelliaanse dubbelpraat oor wat die wysiging moet wees, bied nie beleidsekerheid nie.

Die aanvanklike motivering vir die wysiging van art 25 was om dit wat implisiet is, eksplisiet te maak. Dit is ʼn vals argument. Die Grondwet is voldoende eksplisiet oor spesifiek grondhervorming en restitusie. ʼn Standpunt wat ook deur die Hoëvlak Paneel gehuldig is. Maar, bygessê, dit is ʼn verslag wat volledig deur die Ad Hoc komitee geïgnoreer word. Wat nodig is, is ʼn toetssaak wat vir ons regsekerheid sal gee en nie ʼn wysiging van die Grondwet nie.

Ons het nou die 18de Grondwetlike Wysigingswetsontwerp. Hiervolgens, word voorsiening gemaak vir nil R vergoeding en dat wetgewing gebruik sal word om die omstandighede te bepaal vir wanneer daar onteiening sonder enige vergoeding is. Dit op sigself is uiters problematies, aangesien grond nie slegs landbou grond is nie maar enige grond insluit sowel as enige verbeterings wat daarop aangebring is. Verder word die goedkeuringsdrempel verlaag na ʼn gewone meerdheid in die Parlement.

Maar, nog meer problematies is die aankondiging, gemaak deur die president self, na afloop van die ANC NUK lekgotla. Die regerende party ondersteun ʼn wysiging wat die besluit oor die quantum van vergoeding in die hande van die uitvoerende gesag sal toelaat, met ander woorde, dat  die minister en dat die howe se rol verminder word. Die argument wat aangevoer word is dat die howe die proses vertraag. Derhalwe moet een van die mees fundamentele grondwetlike menseregte in die hande van ʼn minister gelaat word. As ʼn persoon nie gelukkig is nie kan hy of sy eers na afloop van die proses die howe nader om hersiening. Hersiening van die administratiewe proses, of hersiening van die substantiewe skending van ʼn grondwetlike reg? Ons weet nie en mnr die President, u sê nie.

Suid-Afrka se Grondwet is onomwonde ten gunste van die beskerming van eiedomsregte. Vergoeding moet billik en regverdig wees. En sodanige beslissing moet aan die hand van verskeie faktore wat in art 25 aangedui word, gedoen word. Dit is egter nie ʼn geslote lys nie en vereis ʼn delikate balanseringtoertjie waarin verskeie belange teen mekaar geweeg en gemeet moet word.

Dit is en was nog altyd die DA se standpunt dat die howe die enigste geskikte forum is om kompeterende belange op te weeg en in die lig van elke geval se unieke omstandighede ʼn beslissing te maak oor wat billike en regverdige vergoeding is.

Die besluit van die President en die ANC dat die howe se rol as finale arbiter verminder word deur dit te beperk tot hersiening, verwyder die beskerming teen misbruik wat die Grondwet aan alle Suid-Afrikaners bied. Die rol van die howe word dus vervang met die arbitrêre diskresie van politici en die burokrasie.

Dit word nou duidelike dat wat die regerende party nou wil doen is om die Grondwet te verander sodat die Onteieningswetsontwerp die grondwetlike toets kan deurstaan. Mnr die President, as een van die opstellers van die Grondwet, was dit seer sekerlik nie die bedoeling nie. Die Grondwet is die uiteindelike beskermingsmeganisme teen die staat se vergrype.

Hierdie voorgestelde wysiging is ʼn aanval op die oppergesag van die reg soos voorsien in Art 1 van Hoofstuk 1 van die Grondwet, waarin die grondbeginsels van Grondwet vervat word.

Speaker, indien die rol van die howe soos gestipuleer in die Grondwet verminder word, het ons nie meer te doen met ʼn wysiging van die Grondwet wat ʼn 2/3 meerderheid vereis nie, maar goedkeuring van 75% van die Nasionale Vergadering. Dit is hoe gevaarlik die ANC se posisie is. Dit gaan teen die grein van die Grondwet. Dit stel Suid-Afrika oop vir gruwelike magsmisbruik.

Uiteindelik is dit niks meer as die regering se poging om sy eie mislukking met grondhervorming toe te smeer nie.

Suid-Afrikaners verdien beter as dit.

Mnr die President, u kon hoop gee, u kon beleidsekerheid gee. Maar u het verkies om dit nie te doen nie. Inteendeel, ons het verwag dat u u sterk sal uitspreek teen enige vorm van grondgrype soos wat die EFF in die Vrystaat dreig om te doen.

Die DA sal daarenteen voortgaan om behoorlike, billike, en effektiewe grondhervorming te bevorder wat werklike ekonomiese groei en voedselsekerheid sal verseker.

Ons sal geen steen onaangeroer raak om die eindomsreg van elke Suid-Afrikaner te beskerm en te verdedig nie.

SAA clearly not under the control of Business Rescue Practitioners

Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana, the SAA Business Rescue Practitioners, appeared before Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (SCOPA) today and failed to utter one word except who they were and did not answer a single question posed by members of the committee.

Instead Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, shielded Matuson and Dongwana from answering vital questions.

Questions the business rescue practitioners should have answered include:

  • Details as to how they came to the conclusion that SAA was rescuable;
  • The speed with which the R5.5 billion bailouts since they were appointed had been burnt; and
  • When the R3.5 billion bailout from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) would be used up.

A clear indication that Matuson and Dongwana are not in control was the way that the members of their “team” made every effort to keep Matuson away from committee members and the media – to the point that a member of the business rescue “team” physically yanked Matuson away from a conversation that he was having with Ghaleb Cachalia MP, a journalist and me.

SAA is bankrupt and by the early weeks of March 2020 will have burnt, as stated by Minister Gordhan, the full R3.5 billion taxpayer bailout from the DBSA, on top of the R2 billion bailouts from banks. This in short space of only three months.

Minister Gordhan confirmed that there would be allocations in the budget next week by Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, to SAA in order to meet the repayment requirements of the R5.5 billion bailouts as well as further direct taxpayer bailouts just to keep SAA flying.

The ANC putting the vanity SAA project into business rescue was clearly a move to keep creditors and liquidation risks at bay and was never intended as a true handover of authority to Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana.

The SAA Business Rescue Practitioners have a responsibility to follow the law and to ensure that the political agendas that motivate the ANC to keep the bankrupt and taxpayer bailout dependent SAA in business have no part to play in their decisions about the survival or liquidation of SAA. Their reputation depends on it.

DA welcomes calls for Minister Mboweni to account to Parliament for years of StasSA negligence

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the resolution of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration’s call today that the Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, appear before Parliament to account for the growing lack of funding at Statistics SA. 

 

In today’s portfolio committee meeting, the entity once again revealed that budgetary constraints are increasingly hampering its ability to fulfill its obligations optimally.

 

The revelations in Parliament also supports reports today that Stats SA is indeed knee-deep in a debilitating funding crisis.

 

Stats SA is a crucial entity tasked with providing periodic accurate statistics to inform the public, government and private sector of key developments in the economy and society. 

 

Given the important work that Stats SA does, it raises serious questions about the motives behind the ANC government’s persistent failure to allocate the funds it needs to do its work.

 

The ANC cares more about pumping public funds into dead SOEs for looting, instead of supporting entities that actually work. 

 

Nothing illustrates the dire disturbing at Stats SA than the fact that since October 2016, the entity has neither hired new staff nor promoted any existing ones. It is, therefore, no surprise that the Statistics Council has threatened to resign if government does not immediately increase funding for Stats SA. 

 

The DA has for years called for increased funding for Stats SA to allow it to function optimally and we will continue to do so in the future. Stats SA is too crucial to fail.

Employment equity amendments a recipe for economic disaster

Note to Editors: Please find an attached soundbite by Michael Cardo, DA Shadow Minister for Employment and Labour.

The Employment Equity (EE) Amendment Bill, which Cabinet has now been sent to Parliament for processing, is another attempt by the ANC to strangle the life out of South Africa’s barely breathing economy in the name of “demographic representivity”. The Democratic Alliance (DA) will oppose it tooth and nail.

The draft bill serves to codify racial bean-counting. If enacted, the amendments will hamper economic growth and destroy jobs.

The proposed changes introduce harsher punitive measures for legislative non-compliance. They empower the Minister of Employment and Labour to set sector-specific EE targets, conferring on him a degree of coercive racial control that is completely incompatible with the principles of a market-based economy.

Already, the Department of Employment and Labour has tied itself up in knots because of its maniacal obsession with race.

After visiting a Kempton Park-based chocolate manufacturer, DA Leader John Steenhuisen revealed that the company, Beyers Chocolates, was being hounded by the Department for employing “too many” black women. The Department has insisted that the company should reduce its number of black female employees so as to reflect the provincial demographics of Gauteng, where 36.2% of residents are black women. Should the company fail to comply, the Department has threatened to take it to the Labour Court.

This is the logical conclusion of the ANC’s insane obsession with demographic representivity, whereby every population group must be represented in the workforce in exact accordance with their overall demographic representation.

The ANC would happily cause black women to lose their jobs in some warped pursuit of ideological purity.  The EE Amendment Bill just takes this madness a few steps further.

Instead of focusing on racial bean-counting, the government should worry more about growing the pool of skilled black professionals and developing a pipeline of promotion in the workplace. Where the DA governs, we aim to create a solid skills pipeline, focusing on job-creating economic growth and supporting previously disadvantaged South Africans to participate in the economy.

The Employment Equity Amendment Bill is a pernicious piece of social engineering that the DA will oppose root and branch.

DA angered by Parliament’s claim that no one will be arrested for state capture

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply angered and dismayed by Parliament’s announcement that no one will be prosecuted for state capture until at least the end of the year.

A document sent by Parliament’s research unit to the portfolio committee on public service and administration on Monday, casually stated that “It would not be prudent to act on information and evidence now until the Commission makes a determination on the matter because it would be sub judice and therefore litigious against the State and prosecuting authorities to act on it.”

Given that the Zondo Commission into State Capture has already applied for an extension until the end of the year, this is an indication that there may be no plans to carry out any arrests until at least the end of the year.

This is nothing more than an effort to protect the ANC’s state capture criminals, who virtually looted our country into bankruptcy, from accountability. There is simply no legal reason why state capture criminals cannot be arrested during the term of the Zondo Commission.

In today’s portfolio committee on public service and administration, I will raise this matter as a point of urgency, as the looters and thieves simply cannot get away with what they have done.

This statement from Parliament likely helps explain why not a single ANC criminal is wearing an orange overall for state capture, with many of them instead still sitting members of the same Parliament that issued this announcement.

It may also reveal the existence of a deliberate strategy by the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa to deceive the people of this country by repeatedly promising arrests while knowing full well that there will be no action taken against state capturers.

The DA will not rest until we have uncovered the full truth of the ANC’s plan to shield state capturers from accountability. In addition to demanding answers in today’s committee meeting, we will also submit a series of parliamentary questions to relevant ministers for more information on this scheme.

We will not rest until there is justice for the people of South Africa, including the 30.4 million people who have been locked into desperate poverty by the ANC’s state capture project.

The DA is the best alternative for the ANC in government

In every State of the Nation Address by President Ramaphosa, we are serenaded with remixes of classics hits: from Thuma Mina to Khauzela and just last week to a verse by Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Beneath all those sonic seductions, are the echoes of unfulfilled promises.

Mr. President, while you artfully plead for more time from all of us to fix what’s broken in the country, the reality is that many South Africans have no more time left to wait.

The people of Mzilela Village who have never had access to clean drinkable water since 1994 are tired of waiting.

The young graduates who have never had a job since their graduation are tired of waiting.

Victims of rape are tired of waiting for rape kits at police stations every time they report their cases.

All of them want a government that understands the urgency of their plight.

Their patience has been tested over and over again. All they need is more delivery, less promises.

All these claims about being serious about fighting corruption will only be credible
when corrupt politicians start going to jail.

Until then, such calls will remain the repetitive hollow sounds of broken records.

Mr. President, you spent a great deal of time in your speech sharing the extent of multiple consultations, summits, forums, councils and all other glorified WhatsApp groups overelaborating on the simplicity of our problems.

Truth be told, it shouldn’t take such endless consultations to fix what’s broken in our country because the solutions are so obvious for all of us to see.

All it takes is the courage to confront the left-wing ideologues and dump their dogmatic obsessions.

Reaffirm the independence of the South African Reserve Bank. Stop the nationalization of medical health care. Stop the expropriation of land without compensation. Privatize failing state-owned enterprises. Fire all corrupt politicians in government.

If you do this, you will restore the investor confidence that will help create the jobs that so many South Africans desperately needs.

But we all know that all of these are impossible because of the deep ideological differences between the factions you are trying so hard to appease.

Mr. President, now more than ever is the time for policy uniformity in government and not the expedient policy double-speak that currently prevails in your government.

What the country needs is the repetitive singular chorus of policy certainty from your administration not another remix of a classic song as a rallying call.

Fellow South Africans, perhaps now is the time to recognize that the ANC has simply ran out of the best ideas for our country to prosper.

The standard ANC response to every major debate about the future of our country is nationalization!

Nationalise the Reserve Bank! Nationalize health care! Nationalize banks!

Now is the time for a government that protects individual property rights rather than trample on them.

Now is the time for a government that embraces citizens’ right to choose the medical help they prefer rather than take away their rights.

Now is the time for a government has can deliver quality primary education that empowers our children to be amongst the leading nations in reading and writing with meaning and maths literacy.

Now is the time for a government that can devolve powers to provinces to establish provincial police services rather than fight provinces that are trying to fight crime.

As imperfect as we have often been on government, the DA in government in the best possible alternative to the ANC in government.

We have the most consistent record for spending taxpayers’ money wisely.

Where we govern outright – every credible research shows that – the quality of life is better.

Communities are much safer.

Public infrastructure is in a better condition due to regular maintenance.

Poor residents have access to a broad basket of subsidized free basic services than anywhere else in the country.

It is easier to start and run businesses because we have eliminated the red tape that frustrates entrepreneurs.

And yes, we could do better.

And we will.

I thank you.