DA requests President Ramaphosa to include all Covid-19 contracts in Gauteng to SIU investigation

Please find attached a soundbite by Siviwe Gwarube MP, DA Shadow Minister of Health.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be writing to President Cyril Ramaphosa to make the case that all Covid-19 service contracts that were awarded by the Gauteng Department of Health be included in the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) proclamation he announced last week.

Over and above the controversial R124 million personal protective equipment (PPE) tender that was awarded to Royal Bhaca Projects – a company with deep connections within the ANC – there are many other companies and organizations which have inappropriately and illegally gained millions from this crisis which must be investigated. This is why all contracts awarded by the Gauteng Department of Health must be reviewed as a matter of urgency. Only the President can direct the SIU on key areas of focus for their investigation. Considering his commitment to combating corruption associated with this pandemic, he should not hesitate to place all these contracts under the spotlight.

It is important to note that the presidential proclamation is yet to be made public following the president’s announcement. I will be urging the President in the correspondence to him today to ensure that this brief to the SIU is as comprehensive as possible. There are many companies with no track record in supplying medical supplies; which were established weeks before being awarded multi-million contracts; with direct ties with political office bearers which must be investigated. The ramp looting of state resources cannot be a something that is retrospectively investigated. Those who steal public money or inappropriately obtain government contracts must be stopped in their tracks.

The issue of Gauteng contracts goes far beyond what has been reported. There are plenty of other companies with similar ties to politicians which must be investigated. It is clear that despite the fact that legislation is unambiguous about members of the executive being involved in the procurement processes of their departments, there are companies connected to them and their family members being awarded contracts under the veil of secrecy.

It is unconscionable that there are vultures who are standing by and looting public coffers while there are patients in parts of this country who are fighting each other for oxygen tanks and healthcare workers who are without PPE. This disgusting trend in our country can only be stopped when law enforcement agencies are empowered to act without fear or favour and prosecute the politically connected elite. The DA will not rest until we expose those who continue to pillage public money.

Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court

DA Federal Council adopts proposal for virtual Congress

The Democratic Alliance’s Federal Council today resolved to hold a virtual Federal Congress over two days, on 31 October and 1 November 2020.

The vote in favour of holding a virtual Congress was supported by an overwhelming majority following a lengthy discussion on a range of aspects, including technical issues impacting on-line voting.

In preparation for the Congress, the Party’s professional staff will undertake an audit of the personal circumstances of every delegate, to make certain that each one is able to maximally participate in terms of the regulations covering the “risk adjusted strategy” that may then be in force.

NYDA Board interviews: DA to oppose turning entity into graduation school for ANCYL members

Tomorrow, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities will start the process of interviewing candidates for the Board of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).

The interview process will be critical in installing an independent, competent and qualified Board at the Agency which has historically been nothing more than a graduation school for members of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).

When looking at the NYDA you see exactly why an ANC government can never empower our young people. It is a bloated bureaucracy run by ANCYL cadres; installed as the arbiters of patronage; and abused by those in power to maintain their luxury lifestyles. Not so long ago, the DA raised the fact that the board chairperson and CEO had personal drivers to chauffeur them around at the taxpayer’s expense.

And whilst the NYDA has gone some way in cleaning up its act, the Agency continues to leave youth behind. This is why it is critical for the new NYDA board to be free of political influence and patronage. The Agency can no longer only exist for the benefit of ANC card carriers and those who are closely linked to the political elite, all young South Africans should benefit from the funding and programmes offered by the NYDA.

The International Labour Organisation indicated that even before the Covid-19 pandemic, young people were already three times more likely to be unemployed.

The NYDA’s focus should therefore be on the funding of entrepreneurs; job creation and business development support; providing bursaries; skills training; and job preparedness. It cannot be that there is less for our youth whilst more is consumed by the entity itself.

As the NYDA board interviews loom the DA calls on all members of the Committee to put the interests of young, unemployed South Africans first, and not their political interests.

The DA oppose any further attempts at politicising the NYDA – we did so during the shortlisting process, and we will do so again during the interviews. The NYDA cannot afford to be graduation school for the ANCYL, South African Students Congress, and Young Communist League cadres.

‘Brazenly incompetent’ Home Affairs ordered to stop denying South Africans born abroad citizenship

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the ruling of the Constitutional Court that confirms citizenship of persons born outside South Africa where one of the parents is a South African citizen.

Previously Home Affairs had chosen to interpret section 2(1)(b) of the amended Citizenship Act to deny citizenship to persons born outside of South Africa before 1 January 2013 where one of the parents is a South African citizen.

In its judgment the Court slammed the “brazenly incompetent” conduct of Home Affairs whereby applicants “have been dragged from the proverbial pillar to post by the government’s intransigence, indifference and inefficiency”.

The DA has previously questioned Home Affairs in parliament on why the papers have not been filed for over two years in this case and who has been held accountable. It is this same indifference and inefficiency experienced daily by South Africans applying for unabridged and vault copies of birth and marriage certificates. They are forced to put their lives on hold at the hands of the Incapable State and wait between six and 24 months for these applications to be processed.

The Court further stated that “the systematic act of stripping millions of black South Africans of their citizenship was one of the most pernicious policies of the apartheid regime, which left many as foreigners in the land of [their] birth.” While the ANC Government has been trying to suppress the right to citizenship in countless cases it is the DA that has raised the plight of hundreds of thousands of undocumented South African children that leaves them stateless in their own land.

The Democratic Alliance through DA Abroad has been fighting for thousands of South Africans applying for citizenship of another country being unconstitutionally stripped of their South African citizenship in the process.

The DA has demanded action where an applicant and her minor child have not been granted citizenship a year since a court order. Home Affairs have finally committed to implement the order by 31 July 2020.

Justice delayed is justice denied. The DA will be keeping a close watching brief on these court orders to ensure that South African identity numbers, documents and birth certificates are issued to the affected citizens as soon as possible.

We will continue to fight for the fundamental right of South Africans to citizenship and the rights that go with it – access to decent healthcare, freedom of movement and the ability to work.

Opinion | Covid-19 must be politicised when the ANC’s politics have failed South Africa

Earlier this week National Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, called on the Democratic Alliance to refrain from politicising the battle against the spread of the coronavirus in the country, stating that: “It’s wrong for the DA to try and politicise Covid-19 responses because the crisis is bigger than any political party”.

While Minister Mkhize may be correct in his assertion that the crisis is bigger than any political party, he is wrong and, quite frankly, impertinent to dissuade South Africans from politicising this pandemic when it has laid bare the deadly effects of ANC politics and corruption over the past decade. While South Africans of all walks of life have united in the fight against the coronavirus, we cannot simply glaze over the fact that our crumbling public health system, and its collapse under the weight of this pandemic as a result, are a direct and irrefutable result of the ANC’s politics and government in our country.

The ANC cannot absolve itself of its corruption, and it cannot expect South Africans to fall into a state of selective amnesia when it comes to the party’s track record in government. It has been 26 years since the ANC came into power. There are no longer any scapegoats for its entrenchment of a criminal state through cadre deployment and corruption which have, over the years, stolen the money meant for our citizens. The ultimate price for the ANC’s politics is now finally being exposed: the very lives of the South African people.

At the Financial Times Africa Summit in London last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa estimated that South Africa has lost close to R1 trillion in corruption over the past decade. To put this into perspective, R1 trillion equates to almost 20 years of our current national health budget of R51 billion for 2019/20. Many analysts have conceded that even this is a conservative estimate if one does a more comprehensive investigation. This excludes the billions wasted on projects from which South Africa has received zero return on investment such as Eskom and South African Airways bailouts, which are dangerous examples of how the ANC continues to flagrantly waste taxpayers’ money on bad investments for the benefit of its party and not the country.

Dr Joachim Vermooten and economist Jacques Jonker of the Free Market Foundation have estimated that SAA alone has received close to R84 billion in total cash and loan guarantees since 1999. After more than a decade of government bailouts, SAA is still in business rescue. Tragically, and astonishingly, government is still negotiating further bailouts footed by the taxpayer. These negotiations are currently underway while residents in the Eastern Cape are fighting over oxygen tanks and waiting for hours in hospital passageways for medical treatment.

A BBC exposé on a Port Elizabeth public hospital’s response to the coronavirus outbreak reported a harrowing account of mothers and babies dying, rats feeding off of red-stained medical waste, and terrified hospital staff on the verge of complete mental breakdown. Nurses report war-like conditions where a job that was once a passion, is now a daily dose of sheer torment, anguish, and misery. The coronavirus pandemic has finally given a face to the ANC’s corruption in South Africa, and it is gruesome, bloodied, and monstrous.

We know that the State Capture Inquiry and the Zondo Commission are living, breathing evidence of just how deeply, and appallingly the ANC’s corruption has ravaged our country. And yet even in the wake of such treachery having been exposed and laid bare for all to see, there are still vultures clothed in black, gold, and green pecking at the corpse of our once healthy and thriving economy. ANC cadres continue to syphon off Covid-19 relief funds meant for afflicted South Africans, the Eastern Cape Health Department wasted R10 million on scooters fitted with emergency beds, and even the husband of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s own spokesperson, Khusela Diko, is alleged to have pocketed a R125 million Covid-19 personal protective equipment contract.

Those who once believed that Cyril Ramaphosa would reform the ANC and morph into South Africa’s proverbial saviour, will be disappointed to realise what many knew all along: that the ANC is beyond saving and cannot be reformed without an internal purge which would cause the entire organisation to implode. After 26 years of ANC government we now know two things: that struggle credentials do not a competent public servant make, and that a liberation movement does not a capable government become. The ANC wants so desperately for South Africa to cling to and remember the days when it was the only answer to our future, that it wants to lobotomise us of 26 years of its bad politics.

And this is precisely why Minister Mkhize’s call for the coronavirus pandemic not be politicised is so ill-placed, because South Africa continues to suffer to this day from the way in which the ANC has politicised our economy, our public service, and each and every part of our society.

The ANC has politicised the public service through cadre deployment which, over time, has eroded the capability of the state by appointing those loyal to the ANC instead of those fit for purpose. The ANC has politicised empowerment policies such as B-BBEE by catapulting a small elite linked to the party and privy to the workings of government into obscene wealth. The ANC has politicised the State by creating a separate economy which runs parallel to government comprised of tenderpreneurs and party hacks. The ANC has even gone as far as to politicise our society, rashly claiming ownership of black thought entirely, and pitting races against each other as a deflection mechanism, all the while collecting, wasting, and stealing tax revenue from the ‘white economy’ that it denounces so vociferously.

South Africa must politicise the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, because it is bad politics fed into a corrupt government that has brought our public health system to its knees and rendered it incapable of saving the lives of our people. The politics in question belong to the ANC and the ANC alone. This is undisputable, unavoidable, and now very much palpable. It is just sad that this moment of clarity has come at far too high a cost: the dear lives of our very people, their families, and their loved ones.

Minister Mkhize cannot distance his government from its politics, when they are one in the same. Ultimately, we must politicise this crisis, because it has shown us, in stark detail, that South Africa desperately needs a different kind of politics to survive. This is especially true when our fight for survival has become desperately and fearfully literal under 26 years of the ANC’s watch. I’m afraid this is the kind of politics that South Africa simply cannot ignore, nor forget.

Budget Vote Speeches: Police and Small Business Development

The following budget speeches on Vote 28: Police and Vote 36: Small Business Development were delivered in Parliament.

Vote 28: Police

Andrew Whitfield MP –  Mr President, come out of hiding and address farm murders

DA Shadow Minister of Police

072 613 9265

Okkie Terblanche MP – SAPS transgressions no surprise when Rambo leads them

DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Police

082 778 9259

Vote 36: Small Business Development

Zakhele Mbhele MP – Government’s irrational lockdown regulations, a sledgehammer that delivered a final blow to many businesses

DA Shadow Minister of Small Business Development

083 600 2349

Henro Kruger MP – Small Businesses in South Africa are on their knees, and the ANC couldn’t care less

DA Deputy Shadow Minister of Small Business Development

083 258 5734

DA concerned about alleged attack on Onderstepoort Biological Property

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes with concern the alleged attack on leadership of the Onderstepoort Biological Property (OBP) and will submit parliamentary questions to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza.

The OBP CEO, Dr Baptiste Dungu, and members of the Board have reportedly received calls in recent times from unknown people making “malicious and mischievous statements” about the management of the State-owned enterprise (SOE).

This is deeply concerning as OBP is one of the few SOEs that continue to operate profitably and has its own cash reserves. The company has also seen an increase in turnover since the takeover of Dr Dungu as the CEO in 2019.

These attacks on the OBP is therefore alarming as it is common knowledge that SOEs are usually looted once they come under attack.

OBP has had its fair share of controversy over the years:

  • In his 2018-2019 external audit report, the Auditor-General (AG) uncovered serious mismanagement, irregular expenditure of more than R80 million and supply chain irregularities that took place over a 4-year period, before the appointment of the new CEO.
  • According to an OBP media statement released in January 2020, these irregularities were linked to the facility improvement project that was funded by National Treasury to the tune of R492 million in 2014.
  • Issues of mismanagement led to disciplinary processes which resulted in some executives and senior staff members resigning from the company.
  • The AG recommended a forensic report which was initiated. The initial findings confirmed the AG’s findings regarding the irregular expenditure.

The DA commend the work that OBP has been doing on its journey to recover from the past misery of losing market share by ensuring that products are available and addressing challenges of the new products and their adaptation.

The DA will be asking the following questions to Minister Didiza:

  • What the Department is doing to protect the institution against attacks;
  • Requesting updates on what the Department and OPB are doing to recover the irregular expenses incurred by those found to have acted wrongfully; and
  • Requesting an update regarding the refurbishment and modernization of the existing Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility which is expected to be completed by 2020/21.

With so many SOEs failing due to mismanagement and looting, South Africa cannot afford to let another one fall foul of what seems to be attempts to destabilise this SOE.

Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court

You are killing thousands of restaurants and ruining people’s lives for nothing, President Ramaphosa

The Democratic Alliance (DA) condemns the actions by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on restaurant industry protestors this morning in the Cape Town city centre.

The DA was present at the protest action today in support of the industry and witnessed the police’s senseless violence first hand.

Protesters gathered at Parliament to hand over a petition, as they are constitutionally allowed to do, and which we as Members of Parliament are constitutionally obliged to accept.

However, the SAPS decided to overreact and used water cannons to disperse peaceful protestors, consequently injuring a few. The force of the water cannons has also subsequently caused damage to private property.

The DA will, therefore, be laying criminal charges following this morning’s inexcusable actions on protestors.

We stand in solidarity with the restaurant industry and their right to have their voices heard in order to save their businesses and their livelihoods from the destruction of government’s ill-advised lockdown.

If government does not rescind the ban on alcohol sales and lift the 9pm curfew, these restaurants cannot operate. Many of them have already closed down, and thousands more face imminent closure if government doesn’t come to its senses and do away with regulations that have nothing to do with fighting the threat of Covid19.

The hospitality sector is a critical part of our country’s economy, and particularly here in the Western Cape. South Africa’s unique and exceptional food and drink is part of our identity, and a big reason for visitors choosing to come here. Killing off this crucial sector through regulations based on bad science, secret science or even no science at all would be nothing less than criminal.

And this sector does not operate in a vacuum. Up and downstream from the restaurants who were protesting  today are countless other suppliers and service providers across many different industries who are all now facing financial ruin. For every one person you see working in a restaurant there are dozens more who work to supply fresh produce, equipment, crockery, laundry services, cleaning services, security and transport.

These are the hundreds of thousands of South Africans who stand to lose their livelihoods, putting the very survival of their families in jeopardy. And the truth is, there is nothing to gain from doing so.

If restaurants follow sensible protocols, they are no more dangerous than any other business or public transport that is currently allowed to operate. If they can allow for sufficient distancing of patrons, and if they achieve proper ventilation through open windows and doors, and air con systems that extract air rather and circulate it, then they should be allowed to trade as usual.

But this means lifting the curfew and allowing the sale of alcohol. There is no way that kitchen and waiting staff can return home after an evening dinner shift and do so by 9pm. There is also little hope of restaurants breaking even, let alone turning a profit, if they are not allowed to serve alcohol with meals.

Banning the sale of alcohol because a small minority of people abuse it is like banning cars from the road because some drivers are reckless. You wouldn’t do the latter, so why do the former?

It is incomprehensible that the ANC government under President Cyril Ramaphosa is steering us willingly towards this economic crisis. They have had so many opportunities to admit that their lockdown was an unmitigated disaster and make a u-turn, and yet they simply cannot muster the will to do so. With the hospitality sector on its knees, this is yet another such an opportunity. For once in your term of presidency, do the right thing by the people of South Africa, President Ramaphosa.

Regardless of Covid-19 and the national lockdown, basic democratic and constitutional rights must be protected, such as the right to peaceful protest.

Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court

Rapid deployment guidelines will lead to lower data costs

The gazetting on 22 July by the Minister of Communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, of what is essentially a rapid deployment policy is a welcome development in the roll-out of effective, economical and reliable telecommunications networks in South Africa.

Despite some wide sensationalist interpretations of the policy proposal, the necessity for a rapid deployment policy is apparent following the withdrawal of the deeply flawed Electronic Communications Amendment Act tabled and then withdrawn at the end of the 5th Parliament.

During the discussions and public participation process at the time, one area of common agreement among all stakeholders, including Government, opposition parties, telecommunications companies and civil society was clear – the need for fast, ubiquitous broadband infrastructure and the importance of guidelines in order to remove obstacles to progress in terms of network roll-out.

Chief among these was the deliberate withholding of access to existing infrastructure by national, provincial and local government authorities, as well as in lesser instances, private property owners. This includes utilities such as road, rail, water and electricity infrastructure as well as access to high points such as tall buildings or natural peaks necessary for line-of-sight from transmitter to transmitter.

While the policy aims to remove these impediments to infrastructure deployment, it certainly doesn’t mean that telecoms companies will arbitrarily pitch up at an individual’s home demanding access to the garden to erect a cell phone mast.

Rather, there are many tales of companies laying fibre, for example, to create national broadband network being stopped by local municipalities or landowners in deep rural areas from trenching, leading to delays or very expensive re-routing around disputed areas. Less costly network roll-out means cheaper data costs for consumers.

In the event that access is disputed, an extensive process for an appeals tribunal has been proposed and any legislative changes or regulation flowing from this policy directive must adhere to all existing legislation, including property rights enshrined in the Constitution.

While not perfect, the proposed policy directive is a welcome starting point for rapid deployment guidelines. As the process is still in its infancy, we would urge interested parties to take advantage of the opportunity to make their voices heard by providing written comments in the next 30 days addressed to the Acting Director-General, Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, for attention of Mr. A Wiltz, Chief Director, Telecommunications and IT Policy First Floor, Block A3, iParioli Office Park, 1166 Park Street, Hatfield, Pretoria Private Bag X860, Pretoria, 0001.

The DA will continue to follow this process closely to ensure the rights of property owners are protected in balancing the requirements of the rapid deployment of network infrastructure that will enable South Africa to maintain its leading telecommunications networks on the African continent while continuing to drive data prices down.

Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court

DA writes to SAA lenders advising them to demand an immediate recall of government guarantees

Today, the South African Airways (SAA) creditors once again kicked the SAA can down the road for the umpteenth time. I have written to the commercial banks who comprise the lenders secured by government guarantees to demand that they take immediate action to call in the government guarantees and to put an end to the agony for every South African of the SAA disaster.

In their meeting today, the creditors voted in favour of another delay by giving Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises, more time to meet the simple condition contained in paragraph 42.1 of the SAA Business Rescue Plan.

We can only conclude that Gordhan is battling to get agreement from his reluctant colleague Tito Mboweni, the Minister of Finance.

The DA calls on the creditors to reject the SAA Business Rescue Plan with the contempt it now deserves.

The creditors, particularly the secured creditors, have been led by the nose by the Minister Gordhan, who has simply ignored condition 42.1 of the SAA Business Rescue Plan which requires the Government to provide confirmation that “… the Guarantees issued to them in respect of the Pre-commencement Claims and the PCF (Post Commencement Finance) provided by them to the Company (SAA) shall continue in full force and effect until the Lender Claims are discharged in full as contemplated in this Business Rescue Plan.”

Ministers Gordhan and Mboweni have displayed an incredible degree of contempt by publicly stating that they support the SAA Business Rescue Plan and then simply ignoring their own obligation contained in paragraph 42.1 of the Plan, a vital aspect of the Plan!

Given the bankruptcy of SAA and its complete inability either now or in the future to repay the R16,4 billion which is secured by way of government guarantees, it beggars belief as to why creditors who hold the government guarantees have failed to simply call in these guarantees and recover their money.

By not doing so they are prolonging the agony for poor South Africans as more and more bailout money is poured by the ANC government into their “flag carrier” vanity airline project.

There is absolutely no national interest that can justify the continued and immoral funding of the SAA albatross that hangs around the necks of already overburdened South African taxpayers.

Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court