Durban Engen Refinery closure: DA concerned about jobs and economic impact

The DA has noted reports today that the Engen Refinery in Durban North will be closing and converted into an import terminal by 2023. This has been confirmed by Engen Chief Executive Officer Yusa Hassan. The company intends to convert the 120 000-barrel-a-day refinery into an import terminal and operations at the site will be limited between now and then.

It is important to establish what level of consultation has taken place between representatives of the community and Engen in the run-up to this decision being taken. While the DA would welcome the potential decrease in danger to the surrounding community from emissions and explosions, as witnessed with the major explosion took place in December last year economic impacts must also be considered as a matter of utmost urgency.

We need to know what the plans are for current workers and the site and whether they are being factored in to the proposed changes. We cannot have a situation where people are left without employment in a neighbourhood centered around the refinery and the activities associated with it.

As we observed Earth Day yesterday, we must remember that our environment and the economy are intrinsically linked and both are essential to the quality of people’s lives.

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

Opinion: Zondo Commission has given us a golden opportunity to end cadre deployment

Cadre deployment by the ANC created the mechanism that looters like the Guptas used to further their corrupt aims. They didn’t simply waltz in and capture the state on their own. The Guptas exploited the fact that the state was already captured by the ANC through cadre deployment.

With every passing day of testimony delivered in front of the State Capture Commission, it becomes clearer that a historic window of opportunity is slowly opening for South Africa to right one of the greatest evils visited upon our country since the dawn of democracy. That evil is called cadre deployment.

And for the first time in a quarter of a century, there are signs that we may just get a chance to make some of the fundamental changes we need to substitute the corrupt and rapidly failing state with a capable, non-partisan and professional civil service that serves our country rather than the ANC.

To be clear: the window of opportunity has only opened ever so slightly. But even through the small gap that has appeared, we can already see the light shining through. Over the coming months, the Zondo Commission, political parties and ordinary South Africans alike have an historic chance to force this window of opportunity all the way open so that we can drive through the change we desperately need to save our country.

Based on the testimony delivered in front of the Zondo Commission by the likes of Barbara Hogan and Gwede Mantashe, it is already clear that the DA’s decades-long campaign against cadre deployment is steadily being vindicated. As we have argued for many years, cadre deployment provides the ANC with the ability to unconstitutionally influence civil service appointments – which are supposed to be non-partisan and based on merit – to instead appoint people to positions of power on the basis of their loyalty to the party.

This created the mechanism that looters like the Guptas used to further their corrupt aims. They didn’t simply waltz in and capture the state on their own. The Guptas exploited the fact that the state was already captured by the ANC through cadre deployment.

But cadre deployment not only laid the foundation for corruption and State Capture. It also contributed to the collapse of service delivery, as highly skilled applicants who were not deemed “loyal enough” to the ANC by the deployment committee were locked out from opportunities to become public servants.

For proof, look no further than the DA’s recent revelations that 47% of municipal managers, and 35% of the most senior civil servants in national and provincial government departments, do not even meet the basic qualifications criteria for the positions they hold.

This disastrous situation exists because the ANC uses cadre deployment to influence selection processes and bypass the relevant qualifications requirements in favour of “loyal comrades”.

Every South African should be grateful that the Zondo Commission is not shying away from investigating and exposing this reality. During Mantashe’s evidence last week, evidence leader advocate Alec Freund even forcefully made the point that “cadre deployment goes to the heart of the appointment process that is the subject of this commission”.

It is this determination by the commission to expose the truth about cadre deployment that has opened a window of opportunity for us to outlaw this evil practice.

Despite cloaking his testimony in the language of denial, Mantashe inadvertently opened the window a little more when he cited his personal experience of how the cadre deployment committee interfered with the appointment process in his own department.

Try as ANC leaders might to obfuscate and deny, the evidence emerging in front of the State Capture Commission is systematically exposing how their ideological project of cadre deployment caused the looting and decline that has brought South Africa to its knees. 

Mantashe recounted how he at one stage submitted to the party’s deployment committee a “long list” containing the names of five candidates for appointment to a position in the state. But the ANC disapproved of the gender composition of the list, with Mantashe then admitting that he took the committee’s response as a “directive” to revise the list.

Gwede Mantashe is likely so ideologically blinded by his desire for the ANC to control all levers of power in society that he utterly fails to realise that this one example already amounts to smoking gun evidence that the ANC uses cadre deployment to exercise unconstitutional influence over state appointments.

The next opportunity to expose cadre deployment will come when ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa testifies in front of the commission in a few weeks’ time. The DA has already written to the commission requesting it to subpoena full records of decisions taken by the ANC’s cadre deployment committee since Ramaphosa became its chairperson in 2013.

The ANC previously refused to comply with a request submitted by the DA in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act to obtain these records, confirming that they clearly have something to hide. The commission should now use its powers of subpoena to obtain the records and confront Ramaphosa with hard evidence of how the deployment committee he chaired facilitated the capture of the state by his party.

But South Africans do not have to wait for the Zondo Commission to complete its work. The DA has already gazetted our intention to introduce to Parliament the End Cadre Deployment Bill. This bill would make it illegal for a political office-holder to be appointed to any position in the civil service, and would make it a crime to appoint an official on the basis of political loyalty rather than demonstrated merit. It would also significantly expand the powers of the Public Service Commission to take remedial action against corruption and make it wholly independent of the executive.

Try as ANC leaders might to obfuscate and deny, the evidence emerging in front of the State Capture Commission is systematically exposing how their ideological project of cadre deployment caused the looting and decline that has brought South Africa to its knees.

The DA stands ready with the solution in the form of the End Cadre Deployment Bill. Every citizen who wants a capable and corruption-free state, where civil servants are appointed on the basis of merit, should help us seize the moment by writing to speaker@parliament.gov.za demanding that the bill be passed in the interests of our country.

Our country is in steep decline because cadre deployment puts the ANC’s greed before the needs of the country.

Let’s now force open the window of opportunity to replace the evil of cadre deployment with professional appointments that unashamedly put the interests of South Africa first.

Lotteries’ Commission uses R720 000 to wage war against Minister Patel 

In response to parliamentary questions posed by the DA, Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Ebrahim Patel has revealed that the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) spent R720 000 litigating against his department.

The response furnished to him by NLC Commissioner, Thabang Mampane, has said that these costs are related to “…the investigation commissioned by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition and final report thereof as reported to Parliament and law enforcement agencies”. 

However, Patel raises the following concern about the quality of response received;

“I am advised by my officials that there are apparent discrepancies between the reply furnished herein and information supplied to the department by the NLC and will seek to have these explained and if it requires a revised reply, this will be submitted to parliament”.

The legal action taken by the NLC comes after the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) Director-General, Lionel October, stated in a portfolio committee meeting in September 2020 that;

“After numerous articles continued to appear in the media alleging abuse of Lottery funding, the Department in March 2020, authorised an investigation into the allegations”. The mandate of this investigation included four projects namely; Life for Impact (R10 106 800); I am Made for God’s Glory (R11 000 000); Zibsimasi (R4 800 000) and Denzhe Primary Care (R27 500 000).

These allegations included the hijacking of a drug rehabilitation centre that was never completed to shelf companies – linked to the NLC hierarchy – that received grants.

This latest action by the rogue NLC board, is yet another indication that there is full-blown civil war going on between Patel and themselves.

As this follows a series of strategic leaks to the media by the NLC board, letters to and from between the Patel and the board as well as the board’s public rejection of the appointment of an acting chairperson of the NLC – until a new chairperson is appointed by Patel.

The DA has repeatedly called on Patel to fire the board and place the organisation under administration but this has fallen on deaf ears.

Now, he must deal with consequences for failing to act decisively against them.

Lastly, the DA finds it unconscionable that the R720 000 that has been spent on vexatious litigation could have rather been spent on providing funding to the most vulnerable in our society.

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

Minister Thoko Didiza should honour ‘lease to buy’ agreements entered into with farmers 

In yet another example of how the government’s chaotic land reform programme has short-changed farmers since 1994, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has reneged on the ‘lease-to-buy’ agreements that it entered into with 6 farmers.

The DA will write to Minister Thoko Didiza to request that her office directly intervenes and resolves this injustice against farmers who have been thrown from pillar to post by administratively inept officials.

The affected farmers include:

  • Mr NJ Matsheni, Rus de Winter 180 JR – offer to purchase
  • Mr MP Seku, Rus de Winter 180 JR – offer to purchase
  • Mr Ramokoko Lekgate, Tambotielaagte NW – offer to purchase
  • Mr Opperman –  Hammanskraal – offer to purchase
  • Mr JM Kutu, Radium Limpopo – offer to purchase
  • Mr CR Msiza – offer to purchase 

The affected farmers obtained their farmland under the government’s Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme. Under LRAD, the government undertook to transfer land to previously disadvantaged citizens under lease to buy agreements. It is the same programme in which Mr David Rakgase had to go to court to force the government to sell him his farm, after the latter appeared to renege on the initial agreement.

However, not all farmers will be so lucky as Mr Rakgase to see their farms transferred to them before they die. Mr J.M Kutu’s father, who was the original party to the lease to buy agreement, passed on before he could realise his dream of owning his farm. The Department has simply failed to fulfil its side of the agreement despite the commitment made in 2005.

While the DA welcomes the moratorium that Didiza placed on farms evictions across the country, we call on her to honor the contractual agreements that her Department entered into under the LRAD programme.

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

34 Vacant Director-General and Head of Department positions in government 

A written reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed that several key positions within the public service have been without permanent appointments for years, with positions such as Directors-General (DGs) and Heads of Departments (HoDs) being vacant for an average of 22 months.

As a case in point, the Mpumalanga Provincial Department of Health has had an HoD vacancy for 7.5 years.

As government is always quick to lay the blame for its poor or non-existent service delivery on the absence of substantive positions such as HoDs or DGs, the DA is surprised to find that currently 8 national and 1 provincial DG have only been appointed in an acting capacity, and that 25 of 87 provincial departments are without permanent HoDs. This, despite the Public Service Act and the Public Service Regulations requiring that an acting official may not be in a post for more than 12 consecutive calendar months.

The ANC government appears to have abused this loophole with a revolving door of acting DGs and HoDs, while key positions remain vacant for years on end. Section 32 of the Public Service Act gives the executive authority or HoD the power to direct an employee under his or her control to temporarily perform any functions other than those ordinarily assigned to that employee or appropriate for his or her grade or post. This leaves departments vulnerable to exploitation and undue influence by government on the appointment of key positions in the public service, which is non-political in nature. Such cadre deployment is driving the country to its knees.

The DA will submit follow-up parliamentary questions to further interrogate the issue on why such key positions have not been filled in an effort to ensure that government meets its service delivery commitments. South Africans are fed-up with government only being interested in serving the politically connected. Government is there to serve the people, not the other way around and filling key public service positions to ensure stability in departments is one of the first steps towards ensuring effective service delivery.

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

By-elections: Signs of recovery for the DA as well as areas for improvement

The DA notes the results of yesterday’s by-elections, where the party retained one and lost one ward, among the four by-elections contested. These results contained some encouraging trends for us, as well as some areas where we know we have work to do between now and the local government elections later this year.

In this regard we welcome yesterday’s announcement that the elections will take place on 27 October 2021. The right to vote for your government is one of the most fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution. In a time when South Africans have, over the course of the past year, been forced to surrender to government many of their other hard-fought democratic rights, it is critical that these elections take place and that the balance of power swings back to the citizens, where it belongs.

We are also happy that other parties have now conceded that it is crucial for these elections to go ahead, after some of them initially tried to block this. A mature democracy requires that all of its participants understand and support the importance of regular, free and fair elections.

As far as last night’s by-election results are concerned, we are satisfied to have retained Ward 20 in Cape Town (Delft), albeit with a reduced majority. This ward was a litmus test for the party’s support among coloured voters, and last night showed that this support stood firm. Taking a voting district off the ANC in a predominately black ward is a big win for us. Given the DA’s decline there from 2016 to 2019, retaining this ward is a sign that we are indeed starting to turn this ship around. We have plenty of work to do there before voters go to the polls in October, but I am confident that we can make up any ground we lost.

Similarly, our result in Ward 2 Nama Khoi, where the DA held steady at 42%, is a sign that our support is stabilising once again. This result gives us a good base on which to build our upcoming election campaign in that municipality, and the broader region.

In Ward 4 Beaufort West, where both the DA and the ANC lost votes to the Patriotic Alliance, we have our work cut out to win back the hearts of those voters and shore up our support in this crucial Karoo municipality. I know the caliber of our people there and I have full confidence that they will be able to turn this around for the DA.

Our biggest setback yesterday came in Ward 11 Knysna, where we lost the ward to the ANC. While this certainly puts us on the back foot going into this local government election campaign, it must be stated that the DA took a principled position when one of our popular councillors there sided with the ANC in earlier council votes, both on a motion to improve governance and in a vote for a mayoral candidate. We knew that suspending this councillor would affect the outcome of this ward’s by-election – she duly defected to the ANC, ran as their candidate and won – but we could not and would not compromise on our principles. We had to take action against her.

It is also worth noting, from these election results, the concerning rise of racial nationalism in the messaging of several parties. Many of the smaller – and sometimes newer – parties contest their campaigns entirely on the back of such messaging. The low-hanging fruit of racial nationalism may yield easy initial results, but the future of our country cannot lie in a fractured society with people increasingly retreating into corners of racial identity. Our only way forward has to be as one united people pursuing one future vision. Splitting the opposition vote among such parties not only creates bigger divisions among us, it also effectively hands back these municipalities to the ANC.

Looking ahead to the October elections, it is hugely encouraging to see that yesterday’s round of by-elections could be conducted safely and without any major glitches. This indicates that it is possible for us to conduct our local government elections later this year in the same safe manner. However, if government wants to ensure that South Africans get to exercise their constitutional right to vote freely and fairly, it is critical that our vaccine rollout reaches a majority of people by then. The only way to truly safeguard South Africans is through vaccinations. Now that the election date has been confirmed, such a swift and large-scale vaccination programme must be government’s top priority.

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

Row between Mthethwa and CSA Members’ Council threatening SA’s future in international cricket 

The DA has noted the statement by the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Members’ Council, which gives an account of the events leading up to the recent Special General Meeting (SGM), in which Council members voted against amending the Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI). 

The MOI intended to introduce a more independent governance structure that would have strengthened CSA’s governance. 

The Members’ Council have now come forward to highlight the alleged duress and political pressure which was displayed before the voting. The Council has argued that the platform given to both Minister Nathi Mthethwa and SASCOC before the vote, was their attempt to influence the outcome, something which the Council describes as unorthodox, unfortunate, and unethical.  

The DA agrees that it is indeed highly irregular for parties with a vested interest in the outcome of the vote to be given a platform to seemingly swing and influence vote in a particular direction. It smacks of government trying to undermine the independence of the Council. 

While we have been in full agreement that some of the recommendations that Judge Chris Nicholson made in 2013 following a Commission of Inquiry should be implemented, the process must insulated from unjust political pressure from the Minister.  

We therefore reiterate our call for Mthethwa, SASCOC and the CSA Members’ Council and interim board to find an amicable way forward as the ongoing row might force the International Cricket Council to intervene, something which would cause irreparable damage to South Africa’s participation in international cricket.

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

No economy without ecology. Every day must be Earth Day.

Today, on Earth Day and in this week of devastating fires on Table Mountain, we at the Democratic Alliance reaffirm our commitment to protecting and preserving the natural world on which our lives and livelihoods depend.

This has been a week of heart-breaking loss in which, amongst other precious heritage items, the priceless treasure that was UCT’s African Studies collection has been needlessly destroyed.

Measures could have been taken to prevent this tragedy. SANParks could have better fulfilled its mandate to clear invasive alien vegetation, which burns hotter and faster than fynbos. Firebreaks could have been maintained. Fire response could have been quicker. Vagrancy laws could have been more rational. On a broader level climate change, which is making our summers hotter and drier, could have been avoided.

This is the lesson we must take away. The imperative to act before it is too late.

Preventing ecological collapse cannot be something we think about annually on Earth Day or leave to those most passionate about the natural world. It is a survivalist move for humanity and must be front and centre of how we live.

World-renowned thinker, Yuval Harari, has warned that humanity faces three existential threats in the 21st century: the return to war, technological disruption, and ecological collapse. Whereas the other two are a future risk, ecological collapse is a current reality.

Protecting our environment makes economic sense. To realise the immense potential of tourism to generate jobs and foreign exchange, we need to protect South Africa’s magnificent natural heritage. Imagine too how swiftly Cape Town’s economy would have collapsed had Day Zero arrived in 2018.

Protecting our environment is also a moral imperative, since the poor will always suffer the effects of environmental degradation most keenly, with less buffer against rising food prices and other impacts.

There is much that each of us as individuals can do to live more sustainably. But the key environmental challenges (climate disruption, biodiversity loss, pollution etc) are systemic and require collaboration and cooperation. This means governments – local, provincial, national and international – have a key role to play.

How would a DA national government produce cleaner, greener outcomes? What is the DA doing locally and provincially to build ecological resilience?

The DA is firmly committed to a low-carbon future. We passed a policy resolution at our Federal Congress last year to cut South Africa’s carbon emissions by 80% by 2030, well ahead of the timeline set out by the Paris Agreement.

A DA national government would long since have opened South Africa’s energy market, ending Eskom’s monopoly on power generation. The renewable power industry would be far further developed by now enabling us to reduce coal consumption and avoid dirty emergency measures such as burning diesel in open-cycle gas turbines, and powerships.

Indeed, DA-run Cape Town is Africa’s green economy hub, with 70% of South Africa’s renewable energy manufacturing taking place in DA-run Western Cape.

Under a DA national government, small-scale generation would also be a significant contributor to the national energy supply by now, as the DA would have capped supply at 50 megawatts rather than the 1 megawatt that has so held back this source of energy.

In the DA-run Western Cape, most municipalities have in place the necessary systems to accept rooftop photovoltaic power into their grids and have approved tariffs in place so consumers can be compensated for electricity they feed back into the grid.

A DA national government would fix our broken railway system, privatising it if necessary. We would devolve rail power to metros, enabling rail to be integrated with bus transport. This would take millions of passenger and freight vehicles off our roads, relieving congestion and pollution, since rail is far the greener option.

Cape Town has set the goal of attaining urban forest status and has employed satellite technology to map the tree canopy over the entire metro. It is a member of C40 Cities, one of 97 leading megacities around the world taking climate action, and it will release its updated Climate Action Strategy Document this year.

DA governments have built plastic roads (to create an end-use for plastic waste). They’ve deployed experimental electric vehicle charging stations. They lead in waste recycling initiatives.

The opportunities to innovate, save, and restore are limitless, exciting and urgent. We need to be smart enough to find solutions and wise enough to know how important this is. In the upcoming local government elections on 27 October 2021, a vote for the DA will be a vote for a cleaner, more resilient South Africa.

DA welcomes announcement of LGE date

Please find attached a soundbite by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, John Steenhuisen MP.

The Democratic Alliance welcomes this evening’s announcement that South Africa’s Local Government Elections will indeed proceed on 27 October 2021.

Free, fair, and regular elections are the bedrock of our constitutional democracy and the DA is delighted that South Africans will get an opportunity to exercise their hard-won right to vote later this year.

Nothing is more important to our nation than the freedom to vote, especially when South Africa has spent over a year under the harshest and longest lockdowns in the world as government has failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

The fact that government has completely botched the roll out of a comprehensive and effective vaccination strategy in our country, the only way out of this devastating lockdown, has provided voters with the perfect opportunity to head to the polls. It is high time for South Africans to fire failing ANC governments.

South Africa stands on the precipice of economic ruin with the highest unemployment rate in the world, deep-set government corruption with no accountability, and absolute policy uncertainty. It is this vacuum of leadership, transparency, and integrity that the DA is ready to fill.

The DA has stabilized and is swiftly gaining momentum as our message of change begins to resonate with more and more citizens across South Africa. We are ready to contest the Local Government Elections later this year in thousands of wards across the country where we want to bring real change to all South Africans and deliver the government that our country so deserves.

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

Black economic empowerment laws will be catastrophic for ISP and telecoms industry

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA) recent regulations on ownership of telecoms licensees that will force 30% black ownership and Level 4 broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) status on South African internet service providers (ISPs) will be catastrophic to the ISP and telecoms industry in South Africa.

The regulations will punish non-compliant ISPs with severe penalties of R5 million or 10% of their annual turnover. In an effort to escape this, ISPs might turn to fronting in an effort to abide by the irrational and discriminatory regulations. At the end of the day, South African consumers will bear the ultimate brunt of stunted innovation and increased prices.

ICASA is already jeopardising foreign investment. It is being reported that Elon Musk’s rollout of SpaceX’s Starlink Internet service in South Africa might be at risk due to the enforcement of the new regulations.

This effort from ICASA seems to build on government’s Employment Equity Amendment Bill which seeks to empower the Minister of Employment and Labour to identify national economic sectors and to set quotas for these sectors. The DA unequivocally opposes this and any other legislations that provides for race-based classifications.

True economic empowerment will only come through innovation and job creation, something BBBEE provides for on paper, but in practice kills for all but the politically connected few.

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