DA welcomes R10 million abalone bust

The DA welcomes the arrest of two persons who were busted for transporting 70 boxes of dried illegal abalone worth approximately R10 million. The arrests of the Chinese and Zimbabwean nationals is a small but positive step towards curtailing the illegal trade in abalone which is closely linked to the drug trade and international criminal syndicates. 

Under the ANC government the ongoing poaching of endangered coastal species has skyrocketed and this has had a severe impact on the sustainability of the coastal marine environment. It has also affected coastal fishing communities where drugs are sold and exchanged for dried abalone.

The impact of this trade has led to proliferation of rival gangs in many coastal communities and the recruitment of young men into a life of poaching. Many of these gangs are linked to international crime syndicates and the sale of illegal abalone continues to fuel drug addiction and violence amongst coastal youth. 

One of the key strategic objectives that Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has committed to is to “ensure the conservation, protection, rehabilitation and recovery of depleted and degraded natural resources.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment is obligated to do all it can to prevent the ongoing threats to coastal marine life, including ensuring that it works hand in hand with relevant law enforcement agencies. It has been alleged that some officials may themselves be implicated in the illegal trade of coastal marine life and it is essential that the Minister takes the relevant steps to address this as a matter of urgency.

There have been some positive signs regarding steps being taken to address internal corruption within SANParks and it is now high time that the same steps are taken to identify and prosecute those involved in any similar activities within fisheries. 

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

Government’s slow vaccine roll-out to blame for suspension of school contact sports

Please find attached soundbite by Baxolile ‘Bax’ Nodada MP.

The DA takes note of the Department of Basic Education’s decision to suspend all contact sports in schools following Covid-19 outbreaks after sporting events in the Gauteng province.

These outbreaks can only be blamed on government’s failure to procure the necessary vaccines on time, and its further failure to ensure a speedy and comprehensive vaccine roll-out programme. It is this failure that has led South Africa to the brink of the third wave, leaving us in very similar circumstances to this time last year.

Government clearly does not have a hand on the Covid-19 pandemic, and this undifferentiated approach is a clear example of its ineptitude.

It is time that government took serious stock of its role in perpetuating the Covid-19 crisis on South African shores. History will remember this government as one that refused to prioritise its vulnerable citizens.

The Department of Basic Education must work with the Department of Health to ensure that our teachers are registered and in line to receive the vaccinations. They should also enforce stricter Covid-19 safety compliance measures at schools to ensure that children are able to participate in school sports safely. The positive impact of school sports on children should never be underestimated, nor the negative impact the suspension could have on sport development and school attendance. School sports not only encourages healthy habits, but also provides children with safe environments away from the streets.

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

DA calls on Kruger National Park to audit rangers to pinpoint those who may be involved in rhino poaching

The DA calls for an audit of all employees and rangers at the Kruger National Park (KNP) to ascertain who may have been charged or convicted of rhino poaching.

This follows the recent court case where poachers were sent to jail by the Skukuza District Court. One of the convicted is Phineas Dinda, a ranger-corporal at KNP. His two co-accused, Arlindo Manyike and Alfa Gwebane, were sentenced to 16 years in jail yesterday.

They were found guilty of trespassing in a National Park, conspiracy to commit a crime, possession of an unlicensed firearm, live ammunition and an axe. Manyike was also found guilty of contravening the Immigration Act and trespassing of the National Park.

The convictions follow an incident in 2019 when two rangers were apprehended for involvement in rhino poaching.
These ongoing incidents raise the very worrying trend of insiders at KNP assisting criminals to poach rhinos. It also speaks to the lack of effective security on the eastern borders of KNP and the Mozambican border. The DA calls on SANParks and the KNP to strengthen the border control on the eastern side.

After almost a year since the Skukuza District Court was closed, the DA believes that the opening of this court on 1 April and the functioning of this court is critical in stopping and punishing rhino poachers.

The DA calls on KNP to institute a comprehensive consequence management programme and for a monthly audit of all employees involved in poaching to be undertaken. Information provided to the DA suggests that often suspended rangers or those caught attempting to poach are simply reinstated in their old jobs once internal disciplinary processes have been completed. The recent announcement that polygraph testing will be stepped up is welcomed and it is hoped that this will play a key role in identifying those involved in poaching.

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

Government ignores 85% of Public Service Commission recommendations

Please find attached a soundbite by Leon Schreiber MP.

The DA can today reveal that during the 2019/2020 financial year, national and provincial government departments ignored a staggering 85% of all recommendations issued following investigations by the Public Service Commission (PSC). These statistics, which are contained in the PSC’s annual report to the National Assembly in terms of section 196(6) of the Constitution, reveal that out of the total of 550 recommendations issued by the Commission during the previous financial year, only 86 were ever implemented.

Even more alarming is the fact that 9 out of every 10 officials flagged for corruption by PSC investigations simply get away scot-free. The data show that government departments last year failed to implement 91% of all PSC recommendations related to integrity and anti-corruption matters. Out of the 130 recommendations made following investigations into corruption and integrity failures, only 12 were ever implemented.

Overall, the percentage of PSC recommendations simply ignored by government departments increased to 85% in 2019/2020 from 72% during 2018/2019, when 104 out of 359 PSC recommendations were implemented. This means that at the same time that sky-rocketing corruption and mismanagement have forced the PSC to issue more annual recommendations than before – up to 550 in 2019/2020 from 359 in 2018/2019 – government departments are simply ignoring these very same PSC recommendations at an even higher rate (85%) than before (72%).

This double-whammy of increasing corruption combined with even greater impunity is costing the people of South Africa dearly, as is clearly evidenced by the recent orgy of looting related to Covid-19 procurement.

These revelations also come a day after the ANC offered its allies in radical public sector unions a R15.6 billion wage increase, at a time when South Africa is already teetering on the brink of fiscal collapse. This means that the ANC is hellbent on milking already struggling taxpayers even more just to pay higher salaries to cadres and officials who increasingly ignore any efforts by the PSC to rein in corruption.

It is clear that these ANC cadres have nothing but disdain for taxpayers and the PSC alike, which is supposed to be South Africa’s most respected public sector ethics watchdog. The increasing contempt with which officials treat the PSC is precisely the reason why the DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill will give the Commission far greater powers to take remedial action against rogue officials. Instead of simply ignoring the PSC, the DA’s Bill will make corrupt cadres fear the Commission. We reiterate our call on South Africans to sign our petition in support of the End Cadre Deployment Bill, so that the era of impunity can truly be brought to an end once and for all.

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

Government’s R15.6 billion capitulation to public sector unions

Please find attached soundbite by Geordin Hill-Lewis MP 

The government’s offer of a “cash gratuity” to all public servants of R978 per month is a capitulation to the threats of public sector unions.

South Africans will rightly ask – what is this cash bonus for? While millions of South Africans have lost their jobs, and families are going through very difficult times financially, a monthly bonus for every public servant is simply not warranted at this time. Especially as the actual delivery of essential public services is at a low point.

Government has recently ended the Covid relief grant of R350 per month. The government’s message to the country seems to be: “we have no money for the poor, but we can afford monthly cash bonuses for civil servants”.

The gratuity payment constitutes a massive step back in reining in the public wage bill and enforcing fiscal discipline, as it would add at least R15.6 billion in new expenditure to the already desperately overstretched budget.

There have been vague statements to the effect that this offer will be fiscally neutral. It is hard to see how that is true, or if it is, how it will be done without more deep cuts to other services. The Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Public Service, should brief the public in detail on how this cash bonus will be paid for.

Assuming that the 1.5% wage increase was already incorporated into Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni’s 2020/21 budget as a pay progression that employees qualify for based on their performance, this gratuity benefit will lead to total spending on public servant compensation to increase by over 2%.

In the Democratic Alliance’s alternative budget, it was proposed that the following measures be undertaken:

  • Freezing the wages of public servants not covered by the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) (including the likes of head-office managers and supervisors) over the three-year MTEF period. This would yield savings of R116.7 billion;
  • Ensuring that the 66.3% of public servants covered by OSD receive inflation-linked increases over the MTEF period. In order to achieve this and stay within the deficit target, the government needs to mobilize an additional R9.55 billion. This can be achieved by reducing the number of managers at non-OSD salary levels 11 to 16; and
  • Reducing millionaire managers in the public service by 9000, saving a further R29.4 billion.

The net savings yielded by these suggested measures would have been R136.55 billion over the medium-term.

This shows that it is still possible to improve the pay of front line public servants, like nurses, police officers and social workers, while achieving the needed cuts. This is our preferred approach.

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

DA seeks update on NPA’s Independent Directorate on Zondo Commission allegations 

Please find attached soundbite by Adv Glynnis Breytenbach MP.

The DA will submit a written parliamentary question to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, requesting an update of the progress the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate has made in prosecuting those individuals implicated in corruption at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

The Directorate was specifically established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019 to deal with evidence emerging at the Zondo Commission. In addition to this, a protocol regarding the sharing of information and evidence between the Directorate and the Commission that safeguards the permissibility of this evidence before a court was established and signed in August 2020.

In response to a parliamentary question from the DA in September 2020, Minister Lamola stated that recommendations would be made to him, the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, and the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Adv. Shamila Batohi, regarding the terms and conditions of employment of experts that were to prosecute these cases.

In the ensuing period little has happened, while the rot of State Capture continues to be exposed without any prosecutions or jail time.

  • The most recent ANC member to be implicated in State Capture is former State Security Minister David Mahlobo, who allegedly received millions of Rands from a State Security Agency (SSA) official. That same official testified that she was instructed to funnel millions to the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association to fund factional battles within the ANC.
  • It has been revealed that amongst his many other counts of malfeasance, former President Jacob Zuma’s monthly income was subsidized for two years with millions of Rands in cash payment from the SSA.
  • And then there are the many testimonies of corruption and malfeasance at practically every State-owned entity (SOE)– from Eskom and the SABC to Transnet and PRASA. SOEs were used by many ANC members and the politically connected as their personal piggy banks funding lavish lifestyles while the South African economy wasted away, and our people continue to struggle daily.

With the Commission’s work drawing to a close in June, South Africans need to know that action will follow the terrible revelations of corruption and wholesale theft on a grand scale, and that those responsible will face the most serious consequences. South Africans need more than outrage and promises of retribution, we need to see justice being served.

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

LGE2021: SABC must ensure equitable, fair and unbiased election coverage 

The DA would support the argument for increased SABC coverage of party political activities and messaging ahead of the 2021 Local Government Elections (LGE). However, such coverage must be applied fairly, consistently and equitably to all political parties, in line with the principle of proportionality that is required and enshrined in law.

As South Africa enters a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is every likelihood that this might place major restrictions on political activities and campaigning. The SABC, as the public broadcaster, has a vast footprint across the country and could therefore play a massive role in sharing the various offers of political parties.

The DA does however not support any undue or exclusive increased coverage for the ANC on the SABC. We have noted the report in the Sunday Times over the weekend that President Cyril Ramaphosa wants increased coverage for the ANC on the SABC ahead of 2021 Local Government Elections (LGE). According to the article, the comments formed part of the President’s speech, delivered during the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting last week. 

The DA urges the SABC to guard against political influence and any attempt by the ANC to turn the public broadcaster into its mouthpiece. 

As a public broadcaster, the SABC is mandated to offer a diversity of views, information and analysis. It is bound by the law to ensure the provision of fair, equitable and transparent coverage. We further call on ICASA to, as a matter of priority keep a watchful eye on the SABC to ensure that the broadcaster does not move away from its public service broadcasting mandate due to pressure from the ANC. 

We need to protect the integrity of the SABC from any and all undue political influence, as we cannot allow the public broadcaster to take instructions from any political party.

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

Eskom must come clean on loadshedding and the impact it will have on vaccine rollout

The DA is calling on Eskom to provide an urgent state-of-the-system update and explain how its loadshedding schedule will be managed to ensure that it does not affect the vaccine rollout process.

The latest announcement of loadshedding from Eskom, announced yesterday evening and just minutes before it began at 5pm, was yet another reminder that Eskom’s current status, capacity and operational constraints remain an ever present threat to South Africa’s slow economic recovery.

It is of particular concern that loadshedding will impact the rollout of vaccines sorely needed in the face of the continuing Covid pandemic.

What is required is a transparent assessment of capacity for the winter months so people and companies can plan ahead. An urgent state of the system update will be key in ensuring that the efficacy and storage of vaccines is not impacted negatively.

The return of loadshedding underscores the urgent need to open the market to more generation capacity funded by the private sector. The DMRE needs to up its game in this regard. A case in point is an application form the mining company, Goldfields, for a 40Mw plant which took four years to get approval.

Eskom and the country is in dire need of additional capacity and it is clear that no further delays must be forthcoming; indeed an acceleration is called for. We are in urgent need of an augmentation of 4000 Mw’s.

A clear mandate for the private sector to step in where the public sector has failed is what is needed – not the dithering and delays as our days dim and darken.

Just what the SOE Presidents’ Council is doing or has done since its inception in June 2020 is a matter of concern – even more so as the president appears to be preoccupied with internal party wrangles while the lights dim across the country.

The DA demands a decisive announcement from the President, his Council and the two ministers responsible for Eskom and Energy.

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

Slow and shambolic start to government’s vaccine rollout is more reason to decentralise control

Today marks the start of South Africa’s official vaccine rollout. Although the ultimate aim is to reach herd immunity by vaccinating 40 million people, what matters right now is getting as many high-risk individuals as possible vaccinated before the third wave hits.

This crucial objective requires South Africans to pull together in a massive national effort. We need the public and private health sectors working together, with doctors, pharmacies, clinics and mass vaccination centres running at full speed. We need all high-risk individuals to come forward and get registered and vaccinated. Fortunately, around 70% of South Africans are keen to get vaccinated.

Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of a government determined to control the programme centrally yet incapable of delivering efficiently.

The rollout is off to a slow and shambolic start, with very little sense of urgency. As usual, the Ramaphosa administration is under-utilising the private sector, keeping the public in the dark, and setting targets it can’t meet.

Slow: Only 2.6% of vaccination sites are ready to operate from today – just 87 of the more than 3000 sites promised. The need to start small and ramp up is understandable. But our government has had many months to plan this rollout – much more time than our peer countries, whose rollouts are mostly well underway already. Furthermore, government had the option of administering the 1 million AstraZeneca doses that were delivered in March. This would have provided an opportunity to iron out teething problems.

More sites would have been registered if back-up generators weren’t required for vaccine fridges. ANC Eskom failures compounding ANC vaccine failures.

Shambolic: No provisions have been made yet for those people to register, who lack access to the internet. Those who have registered online have still not received the promised sms notification of appointments. According to Mkhize, some 12 000 smses were dispatched during the night last night with invitations to be vaccinated today. Literally no notice at all, from a government which has had over a year to plan its rollout.

The 1.1 million J&J vaccines that were expected in mid-May have not been delivered, so only a limited supply of Pfizer vaccines is available.

Poor communications: Still no detailed rollout programme has been published. What little information there is was communicated to the public piecemeal, in a last-minute presentation between 8pm and 10pm last night, as if government suddenly woke up yesterday morning and realised there is a vulnerable public out there anxious to know when they can get vaccinated.

Private sector under-utilised: Only 4 private sector sites will be operational today. This is astonishing when one considers the thousands of GPs and pharmacies across the country, and the enormous potential of the private sector to deliver jabs to arms. It is inexplicable why so few permits have been issued to private sector entities to approve them as vaccination sites.

Unachievable targets: Given the slow, shambolic start, the targets given by Health Minister Mkhize are unrealistic, and undermine credibility and trust in the programme.

Only 478 733 healthcare workers have been vaccinated so far (in the Sisonke trial), yet Mkhize said last night in his last-minute, late-night statement that they will complete the targeted 1.2million healthcare workers by the end of the week. This is unachievable, given that the Pfizer doses at their disposal require a double dose roughly 3 weeks apart and that even just administering the first dose to the remaining 720 000 healthcare workers requires achieving a rate of over 100 000 doses per day for each day of the week.

At the same time, he said “five million senior citizens (60 years and older) are targeted to be completed by the end of June”. That is just 45 days away. Assuming most of those need a double dose, that requires around 180 000 to 200 000 doses administered per day, every day, starting from today. This is simply not going to happen.

All of which shows that national government is out of its depth and has yet again failed to deliver in this crucial area. South Africa is heading into a third wave unprotected and phenomenally vulnerable. Lives and jobs will be lost unnecessarily, and the blame falls fairly and squarely on national government with its obsession with centralised control.

The solution is to decentralise control to harness the full capabilities of the private sector.

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

Time to take firearm license applications online

The Central Firearms Registry (CFR) needs to move into the twenty first century with urgency and take the entire firearms application process online.

During an oversight visit by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police to the CFR this weekend it became clear that the CFR is dysfunctional and cannot fulfil its mandate as set out in the Firearms Control Act of 2000.

Files piled up in corridors on every floor due to a lack of space, the poor use of IT systems, staff shortages and a building which has been declared unsafe are all contributing factors to the chaos we saw at the CFR. Staff morale is at an all time low under these conditions resulting in rock bottom levels of productivity.

Photo 1: Competency Certificate Applications

Photo 2: Amnesty Applications

During the oversight I challenged the SAPS to take the entire process online from application to approval. This would remove unnecessary delays and ensure a fully digitised system which applicants could access to monitor the progress of their application.

It was revealed by SAPS that amnesty applications are placed on top of one another on the floor as they arrive. This results in amnesty applications submitted at the beginning of an amnesty sitting at the bottom of thousands of pieces of paper. Therefore, if you were one of the first amnesty applicants your application  is likely to be one of the last to be processed.

In February 2021, SAPS presented to the Portfolio Committee that only 4%, or 2 059, of the 50 962 applications received during the 2019/20 amnesty had been finalised. For applications received during the 2020/21 amnesty just 0.92%, or 280, of the 30 356 had been finalised.

Thousands of South Africans waiting for their firearm licences are left vulnerable by the failures of the CFR. This is unacceptable.

The DA will now write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police to request the CFR to present its turnaround plan to Parliament as a matter of urgency.

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