DA Gauteng Election Results

We are delighted to announce the results of the leadership elections which took place at the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Virtual Provincial Congress 2020 today. 

 The new leadership team has received a huge mandate to take the party forward and will seek to regain lost ground and go beyond by unseating the African National Congress in Gauteng.

Voting took place using the online OpaVote platform and this system worked well. The election results were compliant with all DA election requirements and rules. They were signed off by us, as presiding officers, as well as the candidates’ party agents who oversaw the voting process.

 All individuals who observed voting consider the elections free and fair.

 This congress was the largest virtual and participatory congress in Gauteng. 

We thank all delegates for their participation and their compliance with the rules of our internal democracy, which remains healthy, strong and vibrant.

 The results of the elections are:

 Provincial Leader

 Solly Msimanga (75% )

 Provincial Chairperson

 Fred Nel ( 67%)

 Deputy Provincial Chairperson

 Bongani Nkomo

We extend our congratulations to all elected candidates as we enter an exciting new chapter of Achieving Real Growth in Gauteng. 

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

The Greatest Showman in the ANC has his day in court

Today, the Secretary-General of the African National Congress (ANC), and former Premier of the Free State, Elias Sekgobelo Magashule, was brought before the Bloemfontein Regional Court with 21 charges of fraud, money laundering and corruption.

These charges relate to the illegal payments made in connection with the controversial asbestos housing tender saga, which the Democratic Alliance (DA) first brought to the Bloemfontein High Court in July of 2015.

The DA is relieved that Mr Magashule will at last appear before court for the pain and suffering he has brought for over 32,500 families who still live in houses with dangerous asbestos roofs in the Free State.

These are the families we must keep in mind, when we hear in the coming months about the wheelings and dealings of the various officials and cronies, and their jostling for portions of the loot which was extracted from the Free State Department of Public Works and Human Settlements in the name of these poor people.

It was the fake concern for the wellbeing of these disadvantaged people, which provided the justification for this looting.
When we hear about the luxury cars purchased and the palaces built which were bought with money from state coffers, we will remember those who contracted asbestosis and tuberculosis to fund these extravagant lifestyles.

This is truly a tragedy which was perpetrated upon the people of the Free State by their elected ANC leaders, the very leaders who stood on stages and promised ‘a better life for all’ and spoke of a ‘good story to tell’ while buying votes with T-shirts and food parcels during elections.

And leading the charge to ensure continued power and access to government funds was Ace Magashule. We can still hear the rallying cries of “Ace! Ace! Aaace!” How the people loved him and his false Operation Hlasela promises!

We now hope that Ace Magashule has reached the end of his impunity. He will now have to explain to the criminal justice system what his role was in conceiving and implementing this grand theft.

He will have to explain how, even if he was not involved in the planning of the scheme, he failed to act when he had learnt about the monies being laundered out of the government coffers.

He will have to explain how he was involved in the many other corrupt schemes which were implemented in the Free State, such as the Vrede Dairy Project, the Ramkraal scheme, the dozens of other fake agricultural schemes, the overseas student bursary schemes, the destruction of Agriqwa and the Free State Development Corporation, as well as the donations of state properties to cronies.

The list seemingly has no end. And we believe that the asbestos case is only the beginning of Ace Magashule’s fight within the criminal justice system.

It is shameful that the ANC have not been prepared to speak out against Mr Magashule and their refusal to suspend him as SG speaks volumes on the party’s stance on corruption.

The ANC have to date also not been clear on how they plan to handle Mr Ace Magashule and Mr Bongani Bongo’s corruption charges. Whilst Ace Magashule remains the only high profile ANC cadre facing corruption charges, the DA want to see others within the governing party following suite, as it remains clear that the organisation is corrupt to the core.

We as the DA will be watching with close interest how these grand schemes are slowly unravelled before court. And we will weep at every revelation of how the poorest people were used as the instruments for plunder.

We will watch as more and more of the evil heart of darkness is exposed.

The DA will ensure that the wheels of justice continue to grind relentlessly until the price has been paid for what has been done to the beautiful people of the Free State.

We will continue to fight doggedly until hope can once more be restored in the hearts of the hopeless, and that they too can again look forward to a better future.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

DA submits petitions to Parliament to reform dysfunctional passport and document service delivery to South Africans abroad

The Democratic Alliance (DA) and its ancillary organisation, DA Abroad, in conjunction with SAPeople, today submitted petitions to Parliament with over 15 000 signatures calling for South African citizens living abroad to receive their citizenship and travel documents timeously and for urgent assistance to those currently unable to renew their passports.

With an average waiting time of six to twelve months for such documents, the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) are failing in their joint responsibility. These delays greatly impact citizens’ ability to work, access to vital services abroad and their freedom to travel. Many are forced to fly back to South Africa in order to renew their documents at great personal cost. Those that cannot afford this simply are left waiting in limbo for over a year.

The first petition deals with longstanding issues regarding poor service delivery for South African citizens living abroad. It petitions the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, and the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, to:

  • Reduce waiting times for civic documents such as passports, ID books and birth certificates from six months to two months.
  • Ensure that electronic services implemented in South Africa be implemented abroad as well.
  • Make an online tracking service available so that those abroad can receive updates and check on the status of their applications.
  • Provide foreign missions with adequate resources to contact consular offices and ensure that enquiries are responded to.

Respondents have made their frustrations clear: “It is a disgrace that these important documents take so long to reach us in foreign countries once requested from our embassies. People from other countries are shocked and find it laughable when we tell them how long it takes to receive new passports and other important documents.”

Another respondent highlighted that “It’s massively frustrating. There’s no way to track your application, no way to know how long it’s going to take, no way to make contact with the High Commission (they don’t answer phones or respond to emails!)”

One citizen proposed, “A possible solution could be to allow SA citizens living abroad, to submit electronic applications for passport renewals online via the eHomeAffairs website, and then present themselves in person at respective local mission to capture biometric data”, with another proposing, “I don’t understand the necessity of couriering documents when an electronic online facility exists.”

The second petition was necessitated by those stranded overseas due to the lockdown who currently have no home or work prospects in South Africa and require valid documents to live and work overseas and calls on the Minister of Home Affairs to:

  • Ensure South Africans living, working and studying abroad who are facing long waits for their renewed passports have an emergency extension to their passport that covers the 6 to 12-month average wait.
  • Co-ordinate with DIRCO to ensure all facilities where applications are made abroad are fully open for business and are Covid-19 safety compliant.

The excessive delays in the issuing of civic and travel documents, applied from overseas, is a threat to the freedom to travel, the opportunity to work and the ability of South African citizens abroad to access vital services. These petitions call on government stakeholders to find workable solutions to reform and modernise the outdated and dysfunctional system currently in place. This is well in line with Home Affairs’ commitment to become a secure and modern department.

The DA will ensure that the voices of South African people are heard whether they live at home in South Africa or abroad anywhere around the world.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

Lifting the “red list” system is the first step to rebuilding tourism

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that the disastrous “red list” of international nations has been scrapped and sees it as an admission that this ill-conceived system hadn’t worked. The arbitrary and illogical categorization of certain countries as high risk that disallowed persons from those countries entry to South Africa was destroying an already decimated tourism sector.

The DA hopes that at last government will allow the tourism, travel and hospitality sectors to do what it’s good at – without government’s involvement or hindrance. The government has done nothing but destroy and stunt the tourism and related sectors since lockdown started in March. It is now time for the sector and the free market to flourish. In allowing this to take place, the sector will be developed, and opportunities will arise. In turn growth will occur and jobs will be created.

What the sector now needs is stability and policy consistency as these are the main criteria used by most of our greatest tourism markets. This will ensure that tourists from all over the world will come flooding back to our shores, which will allow the sector to rebuild and jobs to be created again.

The current state of the world means South Africa is in competition with other destinations that will work hard to attract much needed and overdue tourism. As a result, we have to be attractive, convenient and interesting so that tourists will make our country their destination of choice. The President’s announcements to allow tourism to flourish is the first step in this direction.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

43% unemployment rate: Labour market reforms key to economic recovery 

The announcement today by StatsSA that the unemployment rate reached a record, catastrophic high of 43.1% in the third quarter (on the expanded definition of unemployment) underlines the urgent need for a programme of sweeping labour market reforms.

Without a comprehensive package of reforms, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic recovery plan will be stillborn, and the country will continue its downward spiral.

The key takeaway from today’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) is that between the second quarter and third quarter of 2020, the number of unemployed people increased substantially by 2.2 million to 6.5 million. This excludes 2.7 million discouraged work-seekers. The official unemployment rate increased from 23.3% to 30.8% between the second and third quarters, or by 7.5 percentage points. This is the highest unemployment rate recorded since the start of the QLFS in 2008. The unemployment rate for those aged between 15 and 24 stands at an alarming 61.3%.

These shocking figures underscore the need for President Ramaphosa to put job creation and labour market deregulation at the heart of his post-Covid-19 economic recovery plan.

We face a tough set of circumstances: an economy shrinking by roughly 8%, a revenue shortfall over R300 billion and an incapable state borrowing R2 billion a day.

Unfortunately, the economic recovery plan blindly and destructively pins its hopes on the incapable state to get us out of the mess that it created and exacerbated in the first place.

The plan fails to recognise that only the private sector can create jobs at scale and rapidly absorb predominantly unskilled workers into the economy. That, in turn, relies on freeing up the private sector from the dead hand of state overregulation.

Overregulation and inflexible labour laws, as well as collective bargaining rules that empower politically connected unions over individual workers and employers, continue to lock millions of citizens out of productive employment. These are among the key drivers of South Africa’s consistently high levels of unemployment.

At its recent Federal Congress, the Democratic Alliance (DA) resolved that DA governments, where possible, would empower workers and employers by deregulating the labour market while opening up the collective bargaining rules to give workers more choice. This includes making it easier to employ new workers, enforcing the need for secret ballots on planned industrial action across all sectors of the economy, scrapping the legal requirement that causes collective bargaining agreements reached between individual employers and particular trade unions to be extended to “non-parties” across entire industries or sectors, empowering individual economic sectors to set their own minimum wages, and offering tax exemptions to small businesses to help them absorb the cost of minimum wages.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

DA to grill Nkoana-Mashabane over department’s nepotism scandal

In today’s meeting of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will grill Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane to give a detailed account of reasons behind the appointment of Ms Phuti Mabelebele to a senior position in her department.

Mabelebele is the wife of Mbhazima Shiviti, a director in the department. It has come to light that her appointment as Chief Director of Rights of People with Disabilities was facilitated by her husband.

The advertisement for the post required that a person with a disability be appointed. This requirement was ignored, seemingly to pave the way for the appointment of the director’s wife. Not only is Ms Mabelebele able-bodied, but she has no experience in the disability sector to justify her appointment. Mr Shiviti oversaw the process that led to the hiring of his wife, but despite this knowledge Minister Nkoana-Mashabane and the Director-General Advocate Mikateko Maluleke approved the appointment.

The DA condemns this alleged nepotism and we call on the Minister to overturn this appointment and to ensure that proper disciplinary action is instituted against Shiviti for the alleged nepotism and flouting of due processes.

It is an injustice to persons living with disabilities that a Chief Director with no history or experience in the sector has been appointed. It is also completely unacceptable for suitably qualified disabled candidates to be overlooked in this manner.

November is disability visibility month and the Minister has started it with a clear dismissal of the persons living with disabilities.

The DA will on Friday, 13 November, pose several questions to the Minister on her inaction to stop nepotism and corruption under her watch. The Minister’s failure to address irregularities happening right under her nose, makes her complicit to the deterioration of functions within her department.

People living with disabilities deserve better from the department responsible for advancing their cause.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

DA retains 14 wards during by-elections and wins 2 new wards

On Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) retained 14 wards in a series of by-elections that took place in various wards across South Africa.

The Party also won two new wards – in Matjhabeng in the Free State and in the Walter Sisulu municipality in the Eastern Cape where we beat the ANC. This is the second time in two years that the ANC has lost wards to the DA in the Eastern Cape.

However, the DA faced a net loss of 7 wards in the by-elections, and we are analysing them very carefully, ward by ward.

The DA has democratically mature voters who punish us where we have disappointed them through weak local councillors or perceived governance failures.

There is also the phenomenon of “identity politics” – a worldwide trend that has also impacted the South African electoral landscape.

The debacle of Schweizer-Reneke continues to haunt the DA in the North West Province, and the months of conflict between the DA and Patricia de Lille, which gave rise to the party known as GOOD, has eaten into our support base in certain Western Cape wards.

The DA has learnt many lessons of its poor handling of these events, and it will take time for us to rebuild trust with the voters.

However, we are very pleased that we retained the majority of our wards, showed growth in some of them and even won two new wards in a period when we are busy consolidating and stabilizing internal systems and processes.

Yesterday’s by-election also brought to light challenges in the run-up to next year’s election, which the DA intends to tackle head-on, based on the lessons we have learnt.

Recent events have once again shown that South Africa must build the moderate non-racial centre, and that the DA is the only party that can do so successfully.

We are in for the politics of the long haul. There are no short cuts. These only lead to set backs. The DA is on the road again.

We thank every South African who voted for the DA yesterday.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

Stop the fearmongering, stop the economy-bashing, and end the state of disaster, Mr President

It is incomprehensible that the state of disaster has been extended by yet another month. Government cannot keep managing South Africa around a single risk when our nation is so imperiled by far greater risks, such as poverty, hunger and unemployment.

We reject with contempt the veiled threat of a return to higher levels of lockdown.

This country is in serious trouble. What people need most right now is maximum freedom and confidence to rebuild the economy and their lives. They need stability and certainty that there will be no return to lockdown, ever.

The state of disaster has itself been disastrous, fuelling not just a feeding frenzy of corruption, but also illegal land invasions and lawlessness. Government needs to get its act together and put regulations for Covid-19 in place for a new normal until a vaccination is widely available, so that the state of disaster can end.

The DA has long called on government to trust people to slow transmission through masks, social distancing and practical common sense interventions.

The state of disaster, the ongoing lockdown, and the continuous threat of a harder lockdown that still hangs over South Africa will greatly harm our economic recovery. The only way to grow jobs and taxes is through investment in productive enterprises.

Government needs to understand that investors like certainty and there’ll be no recovery while the state of disaster remains in place.

We reiterate our call for government to end the lockdown, end the state of disaster, open the borders, end the curfew and allow South Africa to get back to normal economic activity. The possibility of any more lockdowns must be unequivocally rejected.

The Covid fatality rate in developing countries is only about a fifth of the rate in developed countries because of our younger populations. It makes no sense to mindlessly copy far richer, older nations’ responses. Unless of course you want an excuse to run a dictatorship.

Ramaphosa’s cabinet seem to be the last people in South Africa to understand that we cannot afford the luxury of lockdown and do not need them anyway.

Millions of jobs have already been lost, along thousands of businesses, and billions of rands in tax revenue.

More devastation is yet to come. People are desperate. Children are starving. The government has nothing to be proud of in their Covid response and everything to be ashamed of.

Ramaphosa’s cabinet has accused South Africans of acting “recklessly and irresponsibly, as if Covid-19 no longer exists”. People know Covid-19 exists. But they know it exists alongside plenty of other risks they face. They know many of these other risks are greater for them – including the risk of lockdown, which has shown to be far more deadly than Covid in lower income countries due to its effects on poverty, hunger, unemployment, domestic violence and public health in general.

Far from being reckless and irresponsible, the attempts by millions of South Africans to return to normal economic activity is sane and sensible.

What is reckless and irresponsible is the government’s veiled threat to impose more lockdown. And the fearmongering and economy-bashing they have indulged in this year as cover to centralise more and more power in the state.

Stop managing South Africa around a single risk, Mr President. Stop the fear-mongering, stop the economy-bashing, and end the state of disaster.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

DA mourns passing of Kimi Makwetu

The Democratic Alliance (DA) mourns the passing of the outgoing Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) Thembekile Kimi Makwetu.

We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, loved ones, and colleagues at AGSA during this difficult time.

Makwetu has for the past 7 years served as AG with dignity and excellence.

Under his leadership, Makwetu oversaw and sought to protect the integrity and independence of the Office of the Auditor-General.

The DA salutes Makwetu’s service to his country and trust that his legacy will have a lasting impression on all public servants and AGSA.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.

DA asks Institute of Chartered Accountants to probe Yakhe Kwinana 

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) to request an investigation into the alleged malfeasance by Yakhe Kwinana that has been exposed over the past week during hearings of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture.

During the Myeni and Zuma era Kwinana held lucrative board positions at South African Airways (SAA) and SAA Technical (SAAT). At SAAT Kwinana was the Chair of the Board and at SAA she was a Board member and Chair of the SAA Audit Committee.

Kwinana’s performance at the Zondo Commission was appalling and was a clear indication that she was not a suitable person to be a member of a profession such as being a qualified CA(SA) and thus a member of SAICA.
Kwinana has been accused of the following:

  • Having a conflict of interest in terms of her business relationship with Vuyo Ndzeku from whom she received R4.2 million;
  • Soliciting a bribe from AAR Corporation which was in line to be awarded a R1.2 billion SAAT supplier contract;
  • Stated that she didn’t know that she had approved a R1 billion SAA contract with Swissport;
  • Was accused by Kate Hofmeyr, the evidence leader, of being a dishonest witness.
  • Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo:
    • Implied that Kwinana was lying when he said of Kwinana’s statement that she did not have the whole set of documents and retorted “That can’t be true”;
    • Expressed incredulity that Kwinana, as a qualified CA, did not know the meaning of “domicilium”.

We urge the SAICA to investigate Kwinana’s conduct as she seemingly played a pivotal role in the ANC capture of SAA and SAA’s destruction and bankruptcy and must be held accountable for her part in this mess.

Get to know newly elected DA leader, John Steenhuisen, and invest in the 2021 Local Government Election campaign. Click here.