Government would need a miracle to meet deadline to calibrate traffic equipment ahead of Easter weekend

Unless government can work a miracle, it will miss the deadline to calibrate and validate equipment used for road traffic law enforcement before midnight tonight, as prescribed by the Legal Metrology Act and Legal Metrology Regulations.

The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel, must therefore urgently gazette an extension for the verification of the equipment by a designated body in an accredited laboratory today, otherwise it might not be used as evidentiary purposes in a court of law. Section 22 of the Legal Metrology Act, No.9 of 2014 states that “every type of measuring instrument used for a prescribed purpose, is subject to type approval, unless excluded by regulation”.

According to DA sources, the breathalyser, used for evidentiary breath alcohol testing, has been typed approved.

The Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, and Minister Patel had ample time to correct the situation as the DA wrote to Minister Mbalula two weeks ago asking him to urgently engage with his counterpart to push back the deadline.

The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) have reportedly also requested the Minister to urgently intervene, to no avail.

The DA will write to Minister Mbalula again regarding the grievous oversight and ask whether

  • He has been in contact with Minister Patel regarding this issue and what the outcome of the engagement was; and
  • If he has any insight into why Minister Patel has failed to put these measures in place.

This failure of Minister Patel might have far-reaching consequences. Easter weekend, traditionally one of the most fatal periods every year, is upon us and many people will be traveling for religious purposes, to see their loved ones, or to holiday destinations. It seems the Minister has not considered what the effect the non-compliance will have in terms of law enforcement on our roads as any fine that is issued from 1 April can be contested in court, or the adverse effect on the income of municipalities.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

Mpumalanga evictions: These are the farmers’ stories

This past week, the DA was on the ground to meet with farmers in the Gert Sibande District who are on the verge of losing their farms due to illegal eviction orders from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD). The meeting came after I wrote to Minister Thoko Didiza, one month ago, requesting her urgent intervention in resolving the pending Mpumalanga farm evictions. She has not responded despite making promises to reconsider all pending farm evictions across the country.

Today the DA releases the individual stories of each affected farmer on the uncertainty brought by the Department’s chaotic farm eviction process:

1. Mr Thabani Nxumalo – Klipplaatdrift farm 

Mr Nxumalo had a three-year lease agreement on the Ultkyk farm from 2013. In 2019 he had to move to Klipplaatdrift farm because his farming operation was too big for Ultkyk farm. In 2020 he received an eviction order from the Department, despite making an undertaking to resign from his current job to meet the requirements for renewing the lease. The Department has since advertised the farm for new potential lessees to come and view the farm.

2. Mr John Mabasa – Goedehoop 

Mr Mabasa’s family had been farming their family land for over two centuries. When he submitted a land claim in 1998 to formalise his family’s land holdings, the Department claimed that they had no records of the claim. In 2013, after a Public Protector finding instructed the Department to buy him a farm, he was given caretakership on a portion of land. The award came with the condition that he should farm as part of a co-op. When he refused to pay R25 000 to ensure that a proposed business plan was approved by the Department, his land was advertised for occupation for interested new leases.

3. Mr Motha – Rietspruit farm 

Mr Motha is part of a group of three farmers who in 2013 were granted a lease to a farm. In 2019, when asked to apply for financial assistance, they were told to “pay something” to facilitate the signing of the contract. They refused to pay the bribe and received a letter of termination in 2019.

4. Mr Nxumalo – Tweefontein farm 

Mr Nxumalo started farming in 2009 after signing a three-year lease agreement. In 2018/2019 he signed a 30-year lease agreement, for which the Department did not give him a copy. He was given a strategic partner to work with for 5 years. Without notice, he was told that his lease agreement will not be renewed.

5. Ms Nconwane – Steenwyk farm 

Ms Nconwane has been farming since 2016. In 2017 she drew up a business plan to access farmer support funding. Her application for financial support has not been granted, instead officials have told her that “everything I do is wrong”. Despite her efforts to get one, she has never been given a lease agreement.

6. Mr Isaac Buthelezi – Dorpsplaas/Drinkwater farm 

Mr Buthelezi had a three-year lease agreement since 2009, with an offer to purchase. When the lease lapsed, he renewed it again until 2017 but this time, the Department removed the offer to purchase. After 2017, the Department refused to renew the lease completely. The Department sent notice of eviction in 2019 through WhatsApp.

7. Sibusiso Parinengatua – Tarbert farm 

Mr Sibusiso received a three-year lease in 2011, which was renewed for 5 years in 2014. He received an eviction letter in 2017 with the claim that he is behind on lease payments and he must vacate the land. He left the farm in 2019 when his lease expired and after he was told that his lease will not be renewed. To his knowledge, the farm is still vacant.

8. Sisonke Farmers Group, represented by Mr Isaac Muvhali – Tweefontein farm in Dipaliseng 

They received a lease in 2009, which was renewed for 5 years in 2012. In 2019, they saw an advert stating that the farm was advertised for state lease. No one had informed them of this. People come to the farm to view it. They were asked to pay a bribe of R250 000 if they want the lease renewed, they did not pay the bribe.

All these farmers have every right to be treated fairly and with dignity in the administration of their lease agreements. DALRRD has obviously failed to do this and has, instead, become the worst enemy to farmers who are trying to build successful farming enterprises. The DA has told farmers, who are still on their farms, to ignore the eviction orders and continue farming. The Department has to get its house in order first and deal with errant officials before harassing farmers with dubious eviction orders.

I will be writing to the chairperson of the committee, Honourable Mandla Mandela, to request him to get the full list of all farms under the control of the DALRRD, as requested during our committee meeting on 23 March. This list must include a section of all farms that already concluded 30 years lease agreements.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

Conflict between Mthethwa and CSA pushing cricket into further turmoil 

The DA calls on the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, and the Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) Members’ Council to resolve their infighting and place the country’s cricket interests at the top of their agenda.

The ongoing row between the CSA Members’ Council and the Minister Mthethwa is jeopardising South Africa’s participation in international cricket, as self-interest and politics continue to triumph over the best interests of the sport.

According to reports, the CSA Members’ Council voted in defiance of Minister Mthethwa’s appointed interim board when it decided not to amend the governing body’s constitution, to provide for a more independent council in future.

This has created another collision course with Sports Minister Mthethwa and we are concerned that this may lead to him taking over the running of CSA which would put entity in breach of International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations. This outcome would come at the detriment of cricket in the country.

The DA is in full agreement that some of the recommendations that Judge Chris Nicholson made in 2013 following a commission of inquiry should be implemented, but we must guard against any interference that would force ICC intervention.

These internal battles and power struggled must be addressed urgently and the Minister and the Members’ Council must find a common ground and put in the interest of sports and cricket first above self-interest and politics.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

Cyril’s Great Vaccine Failure – no vaccines, no plan, no information, no urgency

South Africa is heading into the Easter weekend and a possible third wave without a single vaccine having been administered outside of trials.

It is not poverty or “vaccine apartheid” condemning people to death. It is President Ramaphosa’s administration, which has failed spectacularly to deliver timeously on a Covid-19 vaccine rollout, just as President Mbeki’s failed to deliver an ARV rollout.

Benchmark countries such as Chile and Rwanda have achieved rates of 300 000 and 70 000 doses administered per day, respectively. Israel has already covered 55% of its population and the US, UK and Chile 25%.

They’re trying to spin it otherwise, but there is no national rollout by government. The “rollout” they are crowing about is the expansion of the Johnson & Johnson trials, run by trial scientists around existing trial sites, using other countries’ leftover J&J trial vaccines. The J&J vaccine has not even been approved yet by SAHPRA for general rollout in South Africa.

Hence South Africa fell 75% short of its target for March, vaccinating only a quarter of the one million healthcare workers it promised. This means 99.6% of our population remains unprotected ahead of an expected third wave.

Having failed to secure bulk supplies of any other vaccines, the decision to resell South Africa’s million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the African Union was irrational and unforgivable. They squandered this one precious opportunity to protect half a million high-risk individuals from severe disease and death.

A group of top medical scientists has called this decision irresponsible. They also find it to be unethical, since if government truly believed the AstraZeneca vaccine does not work, they should not have sold it on to the AU where the same variants are circulating.

Quite likely, the true reason behind this bizarre decision was to hide the fact that government still lacks a workable rollout plan and fears being shown up by the DA-run Western Cape Provincial Government which stands ready to administer 30 000 to 40 000 doses per day as soon as vaccines are available.

Discovery Health claims it can administer 50 000 doses per day once it gets vaccines. Yet there are no vaccines and there is no hard information on when and how many vaccines will be delivered. As with our energy and jobs shortages, the people of South Africa have the solutions, but the ANC government stands in their way, obsessed with centralizing control, yet incapable of delivering.

In a speech on Monday, President Ramaphosa tried to lay the blame on “vaccine apartheid”, implying it is deeply unfair that countries which didn’t bother to order vaccines last year haven’t received any. Is “vaccine apartheid” also to blame for our lack of workable rollout plan and lack of transparency?

Ramaphosa can point as many fingers as he likes, but the buck stops with him.

The vaccine programme should be his top priority and he should have been directing it himself from the get-go, not delegating to his corrupt deputy president and hapless health minister, both of whom are far more interested in their own career progression than they are in saving lives and livelihoods.

Last week, I sent the president a list of 15 questions relating to South Africa’s vaccine programme, asking him to be open and clear with South Africans. The reply from the Presidency was dismissive, referring me to the Health Department, from whence very little hard information has been forthcoming.

The Israeli president personally made seventeen calls to vaccine suppliers last year. Ramaphosa has known since last year that Aspen Pharmacare would be manufacturing 300 million vaccines for J&J at their facility in Port Elizabeth. Yet he only took it upon himself to intervene and “secure” J&J vaccines for South Africa this week.

Instead of answers, all he has been able to offer the nation is spin. This week it was his announcement that South Africa “will have access to” 30 million J&J vaccines produced at the Aspen facility in the Eastern Cape. Without a definite date, this statement is as meaningless as all the past ones announcing other bulk vaccines his government has “secured”, none of which has materialised.

More telling is the revelation this week that we can expect delays in the delivery of J&J vaccines because government has failed to implement a key contract clause in its agreement with the supplier, concluded in early February.

Meantime, South Africans remain locked down and locked out, living in an effective dictatorship under a continuous state of disaster as the most travel-restricted people on the planet. Prospects for revival of our tourism industry remain distant.

At some point in the second half of 2021, global vaccine shortages will suddenly swing to global glut, as large countries such as the US reach herd immunity. Then, last-in-line Ramaphosa will spin it as a massive victory when his feckless government procures sufficient vaccines. Don’t be fooled.

History will judge Ramaphosa harshly for his great vaccine failure. Voters should too.

A four day alcohol restriction over Easter is just an indifferent ANC government trying to look busy

Imposing a restriction on off-site alcohol sales for four days around Easter is not only entirely unscientific, it also places an unnecessary further strain on the livelihoods of those who make their living in this sector. This is the action of a government completely out of ideas and out of touch with the plight of its citizens. A government whose own generous salaries are not affected by its arbitrary decrees.

The first two alcohol bans were directly responsible for 165,000 lost jobs in South Africa. Each of those jobs sustained a household, sometimes more. Over two-thirds of businesses surveyed by Cape Town Tourism had to let staff go. More than 80% had to cut salaries. Our country is in an unprecedented jobs crisis. It is almost unthinkable that our government would turn a blind eye to this and, with the stroke of a pen, impose arbitrary, unscientific restrictions that have nothing to do with fighting Covid-19, and threaten to destroy even more jobs and livelihoods.

You might say: but it’s only four days, and it’s only off-site consumption sales. But it’s four entirely meaningless days. And the only reason we’re seeing this senseless ban is because the things that would actually make a difference are seemingly beyond the abilities of this government. This is just the ANC government trying desperately to look busy. Unable to do the one thing that really matters – procure and administer millions of vaccines – it now feels it has to do something ahead of Easter, even if that something does more harm than good. It has no vaccine plan, it’s no longer trying to build hospital capacity, it doesn’t have the political muscle to get interest groups such as churches to accept tighter restrictions on indoor gatherings, and so it turns to the one ban it knows it can impose and lift at will.

Why alcohol, and why now? Last year, when they introduced alcohol bans, we were told this was to spare hospital beds. Yet very little was done since then to augment hospital capacity in eight of our nine provinces. In the Western Cape, where Covid cases, hospital admissions and deaths are still declining and where multiple temporary Covid hospitals were set up last year, capacity is not an issue at all heading into Easter. Across the Cape Town Metro, Winelands and Southern Cape, Covid bed capacity is now between 15% and 23% and there are hundreds of available beds in the two Hospitals of Hope (Mitchells Plain and Brackengate). So why should an industry already on its knees be threatened by a 4 day alcohol ban? And why 4 days? That too is entirely arbitrary, and indifferent to the damage it causes.

Government claims to follow the science in its decision-making, but then does the exact opposite. A nation-wide alcohol ban irrespective of regional Covid-19 transmission trends, is unscientific and makes a mockery of government’s supposed commitment to data. Last year, when specific regions were experiencing surges in transmission and hospitalisation, government saw fit to implement differentiated lockdown levels for areas such as Nelson Mandela Bay and the Garden Route, while keeping the rest of the country at a lower level. Yet now, with some parts of the country stable and declining – and with the need for economic recovery more urgent than ever – government has seemingly forgotten all about its localised lockdown plan.

The truth is that government has taken this ineffective action to mask the fact that it has failed so spectacularly to vaccinate its people. While other middle-income countries across the world are vaccinating at rates of 70,000 to 150,000 people a day, we are yet to start with our programme. And this is not, as President Ramaphosa repeatedly claims, due to vaccine nationalism or vaccine “apartheid”. Nothing prevented our government from negotiating with vaccine suppliers last year, when everyone else was doing so. The fact that these other countries now have their vaccines and are well underway in their efforts to safeguard their people, and we are not, is the fault of no one but President Ramaphosa and Minister Mkhize.

Let us also not fall for yesterday’s spin that South Africa “will have access to” 30 million Johnson and Johnson vaccines produced at the Aspen facility in the Eastern Cape. Without a confirmed delivery date for a confirmed amount of vaccines, this means absolutely nothing. Just as all the President’s earlier assurances of “vaccines secured” meant nothing when it turned out that these stocks were not available to us. We have already missed our own deadline to vaccinate our healthcare workers by a massive margin, and we are certain to miss our own deadline to vaccinate two-thirds of our population by an even bigger margin. This is an unforgivable failure of government and the President. At some point in the future there is going to be a glut of affordable vaccines available on the global market. Securing the tens of millions we need only then will be another massive failure, which government will no doubt try to claim as a victory.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

Renaming Mbizana Municipality a poor attempt to gloss over delivery failures 

Please find attached a soundbite by Cilliers Brink MP 

The DA has noted the media advisory released by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in which she refers to the renaming of Mbizana Local Municipality as “an important step towards ensuring that the Winnie Madikizela Mandela Municipality serve communities” and that “[at] the heart of the renaming of this municipality is a resolve to serve communities better. 

The DA rejects this assertion by the Minister that the renaming of the municipality after Winnie Madikizela-Mandela will in some way increase the municipality’s response towards meeting the needs of the community. 

This is simply ridiculous and should be seen for what it is – the ANC government’s desperate attempt to use name changes as a way of painting over their service delivery cracks that are widening by the day. 

Changing a name of a municipality after an ANC stalwart will do nothing to improve the lives of the people in this municipality and it certainly will not increase service delivery – only a capable state that is run by capable and competent municipal officials will do that. 

The DA does not support the Mbizana Local Municipality name change, as this clearly has nothing to do with reconciliation or nation building. It is just a means by the ANC to direct residents’ attention away from the service delivery failures in that municipality.

This is merely an attempt to gloss over the fact that as a party, the ANC has presided over the collapse of municipalities and the decimation of the economy. 

There is nothing left to loot for the governing party, and now as our State is broken and our people live in squalor, misery and hopelessness, the ANC resorts to the psychological manipulation and fig-leaf politics of a name change.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

DA welcomes forensic investigation into NAC management of PESP fund

The DA welcomes the announcement from the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, that he has instituted a forensic investigation into the National Art Council’s (NAC) mismanagement of the R300 million the Presidential Economic Stimulus Programme (PESP) relief funding.

The DA requested a forensic investigation last week after another bout of serious allegations of malfeasance, this time to the tune of millions of Rands, were reported in the media.

The cracks in the NAC have been showing for some time, and the suspension of the CEO, Rosemary Mangope, and CFO, Clifton Changfoot, pending an investigation into the mismanagement of the PESP fund, was a step in the right direction. The Minister must give feedback to the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture on the progress of that investigation. The rest of the Council must also be suspended without pay while this new forensic investigation is conducted.

Should any member of the NAC wish to resign, criminal investigations should be instituted against them. No one should be allowed to escape disciplinary action should they be guilty of corruption. All money found to have been fraudulently and corruptly dispersed must be recovered and distributed fairly.

The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the NAC have for too long piloted the sector like the Titanic heading for the iceberg. Instead of trying to save as many people employed in the sector as possible, they have ignored the urgency of the crisis the extended Covid-19 lockdown has brought and blindly kept the collision course. This cannot continue.

The DA once again urges Minister Mthethwa to directly engage with artists staging a sit-in at the NAC offices in Braamfontein on 7 April 2021 when the committee conducts its oversight there. The artists deserve to have their concerns addressed directly and honestly. They will not give up, nor should they. And the DA will continue to do all in our power to hold the Executive to account and help the sector.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

The Western Cape Government does not support a move to Alert Level 2

“The Western Cape Government does not support a move to Alert Level 2 – it is not supported by our data, and it will undermine our economic recovery” 

The Western Cape Government’s response to COVID-19 has from the very beginning been based on data, evidence and science.

We have also always maintained that a balance must be achieved in saving both lives and livelihoods in our province.

This is because a humanitarian crisis caused by economic restrictions will also cost lives in the Western Cape and South Africa.

In considering whether a move to Alert Level 2 should be introduced ahead of the upcoming religious holidays, we have again applied these guiding principles and compared the data available to us.

Our health platform data, as per last week’s DigiCon, is as follows:

  • There continues to be a decline in cases, admissions and deaths in the Western Cape (although starting to plateau).
  • The proportion of positive tests remains stable at 5.1%.
  • We are approaching the situation seen between the first and second waves, although we have not reached it yet.
  • The reproductive number remains below 1.
  • Cases in the Cape Metro declined by 20%.
  • Cases in the rural districts overall have declined by 26%.
  • 18 treatment plants have detected no COVID-19 in wastewater, up from 9 previously.
  • There are only 20 active COVID-19 cases amongst our healthcare workers.
  • Occupancy in COVID-19 beds in the Cape Metro are at 15%, in the George drainage area at 16%, in the Paarl drainage area at 21%, and the Worcester drainage area at 23%.
  • COVID-19 positive patients and People Under Investigation (PUI) only make up 7% of all general acute care beds in the province.
  • There are just 27 patients at the Brackengate Hospital of Hope (338 bed capacity).
  • There are just 41 patients at the Mitchells Plain Hospital of Hope (200 bed capacity).

This data, overall, demonstrates a health platform that currently has the capacity to respond to COVID-19.

On the other hand, the Western Cape’s economy was hit hard last year, and we are only now starting to see signs of a delicate recovery.

Our economic and humanitarian considerations are as follows:

  • According to Wesgro’s research, net job losses in 2020 exceeded 150 000 in the Western Cape.
  • Almost all the top tourism attractions in the Western Cape reflected a more than 60% drop in visitors over the peak tourism season in December.
  • The Easter period is very important for domestic tourism in South Africa and limiting demand now will result in even more job losses.
  • Nearly 30% of restaurants surveyed have closed temporarily or permanently, based on data from the Restaurant Association of South Africa.
  • The previous beach ban is estimated to have cost the sector at least R120 million a month. Some 12,8% of visitors indicate beach visits as their top priority.
  • According to an industry impact report by Cape Town Tourism, released in February 2021, 68% of businesses surveyed have already let staff go and 83% have implemented pay cuts.
  • The same report found that of those businesses that are still operating, 68% are relying on the domestic market to keep their doors open, given low demand by international travelers.
  • The first two bans on alcohol have already resulted in an estimated 165 000 job losses country wide, and this sector is important for sustaining agri jobs in the Western Cape.
  • For example, wine grapes represent 50,3% of the 181,233ha under production in our province, and the replacement value of these wine grapes amounts to R33,94 billion.
  • The Western Cape’s Department of Agriculture further estimates that 45 610 people work in the primary production side of the wine industry alone, supporting 228 053 people.
  • According to the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey, 18% of South African households reported someone going hungry by the end of last year.

When comparing this concerning data with the current status of our health platform, it becomes clear that moving to Alert Level 2 at this stage would not achieve the balance we need to save both lives and livelihoods in the Western Cape.

I am particularly worried that it will level another devastating blow to our tourism and hospitality economy in the Western Cape, which is under immense pressure currently, and which needs this upcoming holiday period to recover.
One must also consider that there are currently numerous restrictions in place under Alert Level 1, which need to be properly enforced to ensure compliance with important health protocols.
With this said, our government will continue to do everything we can to ensure we delay a possible third wave for as long as possible.
We fully agree that this period is a major risk and that every single person, family, business, and civil society grouping has a role to play. Personal responsibility is going to be critical over the next few weeks.

For our part, we will not let our foot off the pedal and will continue to intervene to slow the spread of COVID-19:

  • We will continue with our targeted hotspot approach to ensure an all-of-government, all-of-society response to the pandemic.
  • We have already launched an awareness campaign to urge residents to behave responsibly over this upcoming religious period.
  • We will continue to work with religious groupings through our Faith Based Organisation Network to ensure the behaviour change needed.
  • We will use our advanced surveillance monitoring systems to detect and respond to clusters when they emerge, and we will transparently share this data with the public weekly so they can see when the situation changes.
  • We will continue to work with businesses to ensure they are compliant.
  • The Western Cape Liquor Authority will continue to take action against those businesses that break the rules.
  • We will leverage our partnerships across the Western Cape, especially with local governments, to ensure enforcement of existing restrictions to ensure compliance with important health and safety protocols.

I want to urge every single person to play their part so we keep our infections and hospital admissions down, and so that we can continue to get this delicate balance right in our province.

Please urge your family, friends, neighbours and loved ones to:

  • Avoid crowded places, especially where there is poor ventilation.
  • Wear a mask whenever in public, or with people outside of your own household.
  • Gather outdoors, and remember to keep it short and small, to limit exposure.
  • Protect those at greatest risk of severe COVID-19 infection such as those with comorbidities and the elderly.
  • Think smartly and act responsibly so that you don’t put yourself in a situation where you either get infected with COVID-19 or spread COVID-19.

Let’s all work together now to save both lives and jobs in the Western Cape.

DA calls for urgent response from IPID and SAPS over White River Police Station attack

The DA has written to the Executive Director of IPID to request an urgent investigation into videos which have emerged of a group of men assaulting a man at the White River Police Station in Mpumalanga. The man can be seen being attacked in the police station without any intervention or protection from members of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

According to a statement and video footage, Dalia Jordaan and her fiancé, Barend, were surrounded by several vehicles and threatened with a firearm after they had recorded a motorcade driving recklessly on the R40 near White River. Jordaan and her fiancé were followed to the the police station by the men in the motorcade, instead of being met by protection from SAPS officers, they were instead told to handover their phones while the men from the motorcade proceeded to attack Jordaan’s fiancé.

It is alleged that one of the men from the motorcade had detailed information about Barend and Dalia Jordaan including where they lived and claimed to have connections to members within SAPS as well as judges. This raises serious questions about who these men are and what, if any, security clearance they may have. The fact that the perpetrators of the assault felt safe enough to commit these crimes inside a police station while the victims of the assault feared for their lives highlights the crisis within the SAPS.

The DA has also written to the National Police Commissioner, General Kehla Sitole, requesting an urgent investigation to identify and arrest this violent gang and to determine whether they have any connections to the SAPS. The National Police Commissioner must also launch an internal investigation into the lack of action by SAPS members and the refusal to open a case as well as the poor security at the police station.

The DA strongly condemns this violence and the lack of action taken by the police against the clear display of thuggery and violence.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

DA calls for SADC intervention in Cabo Delgado

Please find attached Afrikaans and English soundbites from Kobus Marais MP.

The DA is calling for a troop surge, comprised of all Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique to counter the scourge of increased terrorist action.

This after a number of South African citizens were killed by insurgents as they tried to reach the safety of transport out of Palma over the weekend.

Given the steady rise of problems with insurgents in the northern most province of Mozambique since mid-2018, the DA will write to the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Naledi Pandor, as to an explanation why the extraordinary summit involving heads of state and government of all the 16 SADC member states that was due to be held in March 2021 in Maputo, Mozambique hasn’t happened.

The problems in Mozambique have the potential to destabilise the whole region and we cannot afford to let it be moved to the back burner or wait until Mozambique is torn apart before our neighbour extends a request for intervention from SADC. The insurgents are growing increasingly emboldened as their control over territories in Cabo Delgado grows. South Africa must extend its hand to our neighbour in need, and while the country should ready itself to assist Mozambique as part of a SADC contingent, the time has come to repatriate our citizens trapped in Palma as a matter of urgency. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) can send the Special Forces to assist with this vital evacuation to Pemba.

While the DA welcomes DIRCO’s announcement this weekend that the embassy in Maputo would be capacitated with more personnel to help trapped South Africans, it is clear that this cannot be the only action from the South African government. South Africa cannot afford another neighbouring country in ruins. Apart from the economic and potential energy supply interests the Cabo Delgado province holds for South Africa and the rest of the region, the insurgents already have the blood of thousands on their hands. This cannot be allowed to stand.

A safe and stable political environment is needed to ensure economic development and job creation reach its potential. SADC needs to intervene now to save Mozambique and ensure stability for the whole region.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.