DA does not support Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill

Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Okkie Terblanche MP.

The DA notes that President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into power the controversial Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill, which restricts foreign ownership of private security companies and also seeks to regulate the private security industry in an effort to control it.

The DA, as well as industry experts and foreign embassies, have vehemently opposed this Bill since it was first introduced in 2012. The DA believes this Bill will have serious implications on foreign direct investment and employment in an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people.

South Africa’s economy is already in tatters due to years of ill-conceived and poorly implemented economic policy from the ANC government and to add insult to injury, this Bill will also impact how people residing in South Africa protect themselves, their loved ones, and their property against rising violent crime rates.

The devastating riots and anarchy in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have exposed once and for all the many and varied shortcomings of the South African Police Service (SAPS). Not only were SAPS unable to restore peace and order, they could not protect communities from the violence and residents had to fend for themselves. Had SAPS had strong leadership who valued human life and law and order above the futile displays of power we so often see in Minister Bheki Cele, more than 300 lives might have been spared. And now the ANC government is making the private security industry that many residents rely on to protect them, vulnerable.

South Africans already know that the ANC government does not want citizens to have the right to protect themselves, which is why they are trying to disempower people even further by pushing through the draconian Firearms Control Amendment Bill. By signing Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill, President Ramaphosa has effectively told vulnerable South Africans that they’re only worth voting fodder during elections.

The ANC government has shown through word and deed that South African lives do not matter. Their lives do not matter to national government in the Western Cape where the DA is fighting for the devolution of SAPS to better protect our communities. They did not matter in Gauteng and KZN when lives and livelihoods were put at risk and more than 300 people died. And the lives of vulnerable people certainly does not matter to the ANC government in any of the other provinces either.

Help us to bring change to more towns and municipalities by making a donation towards our 2021 Local Government Election campaign, click here.

DA is SA’s most pro-poor party

The DA is South Africa’s most pro-poor party. We do best at providing those living in poverty with the things they need most, such as jobs, piped water, sanitation, electricity, education, school-feeding programmes, ECD support, healthcare, safety, and financially sustainable government.

This claim is based on objective measures from third party sources which have no incentive whatsoever to favour the DA: StatsSA, the Department of Basic Education, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Ratings Afrika, the Auditor General, the CoGTA report on the state of local government (Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs), court rulings.

Jobs. The DA strongly supports social grants for the poor. But we believe that there is nothing more pro-poor than lifting people out of grants and into income. Where the DA governs, job numbers are highest and unemployment is lowest. At 29.1%, the Western Cape has the lowest broad unemployment rate in South, 17.3 percentage points lower than the average for the other eight provinces, according to the most recent Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) released in August 2021. Midvaal, where the DA has enjoyed a full majority for an uninterrupted period of 19 years, has the lowest unemployment of any municipality in Gauteng.

Midvaal is also a “shining light of service delivery”. This should come as no surprise, because service delivery and job creation go hand in hand. Businesses, especially smaller operators, like poorer households, rely heavily on government services.

Piped water. According to Stats SA, 43.5% of Western Cape households receive free basic water, which is roughly double the national average of 21.8% of households. (Source: Stats SA non-financial census of municipalities published 31 March 2021 code P9115.)

Sanitation. According to Stats SA, 47.9% of Western Cape households receive free basic sewerage and sanitation services, which is more than double the national average of 18.7% of households. (Source: Stats SA non-financial census of municipalities published 31 March 2021 code P9115.)

Electricity. According to Stats SA, 27% of Western Cape households receive free basic electricity, which is far higher than the national average of 16.7% of households. (Source: Stats SA non-financial census of municipalities published 31 March 2021 code P9115.)

Education. The Western Cape is consistently the top performing province on key education indicators: matric pass rates (80% for the 2020 NSC examinations, despite the severe disruptions caused by the pandemic), Bachelor passes (44%), Mathematics passes (71%), and Mathematical Literacy passes (83%), with learner retention from grade 10 to matric being the highest in the country, at 67%. According to the HSRC’s TIMSS 2019 results for grade 9, the Western Cape scored 13% higher than the SA average for maths and 18% higher for science. The SACMEQ 4 report indicated an advanced reading score of 72.7% for the Western Cape, which is double the national average of 36.1%. The Western Cape was also well ahead of the 2nd ranked province, Gauteng, at 54%.

School-feeding programmes. During the hard lockdown last year, the Western Cape was the only province to continue its school nutrition programme. The other eight provinces had to be forced by a court order to resume the programme.

ECD subsidies. During the hard lockdown last year, the Western Cape was also the only province to continue paying subsidies to Early Childhood Development centres. The other eight provinces once again had to be forced by a court order to resume the payments. The Western Cape also has the highest percentage of children in subsidised ECDs in the country.

Healthcare. At 91.5%, the Western Cape has the highest percentage of households living within 30 minutes of their nearest health facility, according to Stats SA’s General Household Survey 2016.

Safety. The Western Cape is the only province to have taken significant steps to boost SAPS’ failing law enforcement efforts. Policing is a national government mandate, but the Western Cape has added an additional 1100 law enforcement officers to the most high-risk areas of the province (Gugulethu, Kraaifontein, Mfuleni, Harare, Delft, Mitchells Plain) in a bid to keep people safe. (LEAP)

Good governance. Good governance is more critical, the poorer people are. Corruption, cadre deployment and inefficiency hit the poor hardest, as they are most reliant on public services and delivery, being unable to afford private sector alternatives.

One need only compare the R15 million Enoch Mgijima bench “stadium” built by the ANC-run Enoch Mgijima Municipality in the Eastern Cape with the R13 million Saldanha stadium, or the two new stadia built by DA-run Hessequa Municipality for under R10 million each, to see the difference that good governance makes to delivery.

According to CoGTA’s 2021 report on the state of local government, only 16 out of 257 municipalities (6%) are functional, and almost all of these are DA-run. For the 2019/20 financial year, the Auditor General awarded clean audits to 18 of the Western Cape’s 30 municipalities, and they were all governed by the DA. Five of the seven municipalities that sustained their clean audit status over four years are DA-governed. And according to Ratings Afrika, the top five best-run municipalities in SA are all DA-governed.

South Africans across the wealth spectrum are feeling insecure about the future in the context of state failure and collapsing service delivery under the ANC. The difference is that the poor have no buffer of protection, whereas the middle classes can in many instances rely on private service provision to fill the gaping voids.

Only the DA can claim this track record of superior delivery to the poor. Of course, there is room for improvement. DA governments can and will continue to make steady inroads into tackling the roots of poverty and the unequal access to opportunity that drives inequality.

At the same time, it should be acknowledged that with a dysfunctional national government, unacceptable levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality will persist in every municipality and province in the country, no matter the quality of service delivery to the poor in individual municipalities and provinces. So the point is necessarily one of comparison.

The best way to protect the poor from collapsing service delivery is to vote DA on 1 November. Because, more than any other party in South Africa, the DA gets things done for the poor.

DA betoog teen Nzimande se haatdraende klassifikasie van Afrikaans as ‘uitheemse’ taal

Vind asseblief aangeheg ‘n klankgreep deur dr. Leon Schreiber


Die DA het vanoggend buite die kantoor van die Minister van Hoër Onderwys, Blade Nzimande, in Pretoria betoog en aangedring dat Nzimande en die ANC-regering onmiddellik Afrikaans erken as volwaardige inheemse Suid-Afrikaanse taal. Vandag se betoging volg ná maande waarin die DA gepoog het om Nzimande te oorreed om na rede te luister en sy foutiewe klassifikasie van Afrikaans as “uitheems” in sy departement se taalbeleidsraamwerk vir hoër onderwysinstellings reg te stel.

Nadat Nzimande by herhaling geweier het om ag te slaan op die DA se beroep om Afrikaans by sy departement se definisie van Afrika-tale in te sluit, het ons verlede maand ’n klag by die menseregtekommissie ingedien en ’n petisie begin om Afrikaans as inheems te erken. Tydens vandag se betoging het die DA-afvaardiging – gelei deur die federale leier, John Steenhuisen, die DA se skaduminister vir hoër onderwys, Chantel King, en die DA se skaduminister vir openbare dienste en administrasie, dr. Leon Schreiber – die petisie wat deur meer as 5 500 mense onderteken is aan Nzimande se kantoor oorhandig.

Ons petisie dring aan dat Nzimande onmiddellik sy departement se beleidsraamwerk wysig om Afrikaans se status as inheemse Suid-Afrikaanse taal te erken. Die raamwerk beskou tans net tale wat aan die “suidelike Bantoe-taalfamilie” behoort as inheems en sluit daardeur Afrikaans doelbewus uit. Die definisie is onwetekenskaplik en in teenstelling met die presedent wat deur die Grondwethof tot stand gebring is in sy onlangse uitspraak in die Unisa-taalgeding en is sowel kwetsend en haatdraend teen die diverse Afrikaanssprekende taalgemeenskap.

Die beledigende klassifikasie van Afrikaans as “uitheemse” taal baan die weg vir die ANC-regering om verder Afrikaans as ’n moedertaal in onderrig in openbare universiteite te verweer. Die klassifikasie is reeds opgeneem in die nuwe taalbeleid van die Universiteit Stellenbosch, wat die status van Afrikaans verder wil verkleineer by een van die laaste universiteite wat die kapasiteit het om in dié taal te onderrig.

Die DA se petisie dring aan dat Nzimande in die openbaar en onvoorwaardelik om verskoning vra aan die Afrikaanssprekende gemeenskap vir die wyse waarin hy die gemeenskap se konstitusionele regte tot waardigheid, moedertaalonderrig en gelykheid ondermyn het. Nadat Afrikaans se regmatige status as inheemse taal erken is, vra die DA se petisie voorts dat Nzimande alle openbare universiteite versoek om hul taalbeleide aan te pas om Afrikaans se status as volwaardige inheemse taal te reflekteer sodat moedertaalonderrig in Afrikaans uitgebrei kan word, pleks van beperk.

Nzimande se blatante diskriminasie teen Afrikaans is direk in teenstelling met die meerderheidsuitspraak wat onlangs deur die Grondwethof in die Unisa-taalgeding gelewer is. In sy uitspraak bevestig regter Steven Majiedt Afrikaans se status as inheemse taal en as “een van die kulturele skatte van Suid-Afrikaanse nasionale lewe [en] moontlik die grootste ‘reënboog’ van alle Suid-Afrikaanse tale”.

Die Hof betreur “die wanopvatting dat dit die ‘taal van die wittes’ is en ‘die taal van die onderdrukker’ [as] ’n ongeregtige uitbeelding van die taal en sy ware wortels”. Majiedt beklemtoon voorts dat “Afrikaans vandag oorwegend deur swart mense gepraat word. En nie net deur swart mense in die sogenaamde ‘bruin’ buurte nie, maar ook in baie swart woonbuurte in verskeie streke in die land. Dit is die taal van die prinse en armes, wat gemaklik bestaan in die akademie en beroepe aan die een kant, sowel as in alledaagse taal andersyds”.

In kontras tot Nzimande en die ANC-regering se volgehoue uittarting van dié uitspraak, assosieer die DA ons met trots by dié seining wat deur die Hof verwoord is dat Afrikaans as ’n inheemse Suid-Afrikaanse taal is. Ons sal voortgaan om elke gereedskap tot ons beskikking in te span om Nzimande te dwing om sy haatdraende klassifikasie van Afrikaans reg te stel, en om al ons land se linguistieke en kulturele skatte van die ANC se ideologiese aanval op ons inheemse tale te beskerm.

DA protests against Nzimande’s hateful classification of Afrikaans as a “foreign” language

This statement follows protest action by the DA outside the office of Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande in Pretoria. Please find attached pictures here, here, here and here.  

This morning, the Democratic Alliance (DA) held a public protest outside the office of Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande in Pretoria to demand that Nzimande and the ANC national government immediately recognise Afrikaans as a fully-fledged indigenous South African language. Today’s protest follows after months of attempts by the DA to persuade Nzimande to see reason and correct his erroneous classification of Afrikaans as a “foreign” language in his department’s Language Policy Framework for Higher Education Institutions.

But after Nzimande repeatedly refused to heed the DA’s call to include Afrikaans in his department’s definition of African languages, we last month filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission and launched a petition to recognise Afrikaans as an indigenous language. During today’s protest, the DA delegation – led by federal leader John Steenhuisen, DA Shadow Minister for Higher Education Chantel King, and DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration Dr. Leon Schreiber – handed the petition, which was signed by over 5 500 people, to Nzimande’s office.

Our petition demands that Nzimande immediately amend his department’s Policy Framework to recognise Afrikaans’ status as an indigenous South African language. The Framework currently only recognises languages ​​belonging to the “Southern Bantu language family” as indigenous, thereby deliberately excluding Afrikaans. This definition is unscientific, contrary to the precedent established by the Constitutional Court’s ruling in the recent Unisa case, and hurtful and hateful towards the diverse Afrikaans-speaking language community.

The insulting classification of Afrikaans as a “foreign” language lays the groundwork for the ANC national government to further erode Afrikaans mother tongue education at public universities. The classification has already been incorporated into the proposed new language policy of Stellenbosch University, which is set to further reduce the status of Afrikaans at one of the last universities with the capacity to provide teaching in the language.

The DA’s petition demands that Nzimande publicly and unconditionally apologises to the Afrikaans-speaking community for the way in which he undermined this community’s constitutional rights to dignity, mother tongue education and equality. After recognising Afrikaans’ rightful status as an indigenous language, the DA’s petition further calls on Nzimande to request all public universities to adapt their language policies to take account of Afrikaans’ status as a full-fledged indigenous language, so that mother tongue instruction in Afrikaans is expanded rather than restricted.

Nzimande’s blatant discrimination against Afrikaans is directly at odds with the unanimous judgement recently delivered by the Constitutional Court in the Unisa case. In a judgement authored by Justice Steven Majiedt, the Court confirmed Afrikaans’ status as an indigenous language and as “one of the cultural treasures of South African national life [and] possibly the most ‘rainbow’ of all South African tongues.”

The Court bemoaned “the misconception that it is ‘the language of whites’ and ‘the language of the oppressor’ [as] an iniquitous portrayal of the language and its true roots.” Majiedt went on to stress that “today, Afrikaans is spoken predominantly by black people. And it is spoken by black people in not only so-called ‘coloured’ townships, but also in many African townships in several regions in this country. It is the language of prince and pauper alike, existing comfortably in academia and the professions on the one hand, and in everyday parlance on the other.”

In contrast to Blade Nzimande and the ANC national government’s ongoing defiance of this ruling, the DA proudly associates ourselves with the view articulated by the Court that Afrikaans is an indigenous South African language. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to force Nzimande to correct his hateful classification of Afrikaans, and to protect all of our country’s linguistic and cultural treasures from the ANC’s ideological assault on our indigenous languages.

Help us to bring change to more towns and municipalities by making a donation towards our 2021 Local Government Election campaign, click here.

R8 million to protect a VIP: Time to slash the SAPS VIP budget to fund local policing

Please find an attached soundbite by Andrew Whitfield MP

The DA can reveal that the total cost of protecting one VIP for the 2021/2022 financial year is R8 million. This according to a calculation done based on a reply to a DA parliamentary question.

In response to the DA’s question regarding the number of VIPs under protection of the South African Police Service (SAPS) the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, said the number was 209 while the current VIP protection budget is sitting at R1.7 billion.

The DA has in the past called on the SAPS VIP protection budget to be slashed in half and for the money to be redirected to front line policing. Instead the SAPS budget has been slashed by R3.8 billion in this financial year with the majority of the cuts affecting the frontline visible policing programme. At the same time the SAPS VIP budget was increased by R26 million.

In the year 2000 the VIP protection budget was R138 million. Over the next ten years as the cabinet grew, alongside its sense of self-importance, the VIP protection budget grew to R530 million by 2010 and 11 years later in 2021 it is now sitting at a staggering R1.7 billion. This means that over the past twenty one years the budget designed to protect only the elite and nobody else has increased by nearly 1150 %

The DA therefore proposes that the quickest and easiest way to support local frontline policing services is to slash the VIP protection budget in half and redirect the funds to capable local government’s to augment their safety budgets.

The DA believes that the R8 million used to protect one VIP could be better spent on local policing. As an example, at a cost of R8 million the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Police could do one of the following:

  • Employ 22 additional metro police officers
  • Procure 30 additional metro police vehicles
  • Roll out 4 additional Shotspotter sites

The SAPS is simply not capable of fighting crime on its own and must work together with local law enforcement agencies which can get the job done. The National Police Commissioner, Gen. Khehla Sitole, has twice admitted in Parliament that the SAPS cannot fulfil its mandate.

The future of policing is to ensure the devolution of policing powers to provicnial and local authorities while providing the right security mix of SAPS, Metro Police and Law Enforcement together with Neighbourhood Watches and Crime Prevention Forums (CPFs).

Help us to bring change to more towns and municipalities by making a donation towards our 2021 Local Government Election campaign, click here.

Transnet should explain to Parliament the delayed release of its Annual Financial Statements 

Please find an attached soundbite by Ghaleb Cachalia MP

Transnet must urgently appear before the Public Enterprises Committee in Parliament to explain the delay in the release of its Annual Financial Statements (AFS).

Transnet’s AFS for the financial year ended 31 March 2021 and should have been released at the end of September 2021.

The timely release of AFS is crucial for oversight, potential investor confidence and clarity on the allocation of costs.

On 8 October 2021, Transnet issued a second ‘update to the market’ in which it presented more reasons as to delay the release of its AFS.

If Transnet had sound corporate governance practices in place, the reasons that it is citing for the delay should have been mitigated through timely interventions. Instead, Transnet has essentially outsourced its responsibilities to external third parties and is no longer in control of the process on the AFS release.

On the first ‘update to the market’ that they made on the 29 September, Transnet placed the blame on the delayed release of the AFS on the Auditor General. It is claimed that a delay in the completion of the External Audit by the A-G was one of the primary reasons for the delay. In the latest update, issued on 8 October 2021, Transnet now claims that consultations ‘on the matter of irregular expenditure, engagements with National Treasury as a custodian of the Public Finance Management Act, the AGSA and Transnet are still ongoing’. The next market update, they claim, will be on the 15th of October 2021.

To be clear, consultations with external third parties relevant to the release of the AFS should have been conducted early in the year. This scramble at the last minute is symptomatic of poor leadership and poor financial management practices.

The DA has tabled a private members bill to ensure the timely release of AFS.

Transnet’s behaviour does not inspire confidence and is guaranteed to negatively affect investor confidence. South African ports are already ranked poorly on international tracking indices and the rail and pipeline infrastructure is in a suboptimal state. This continued chaos within Transnet will only make the situation worse.

The DA will write to the Chairperson of the Public Enterprises Committee, Khayalethu Magaxa, requesting that he calls on Transnet to urgently appear before the committee to explain the delay in the release of its Annual Financial Statements (AFS).

Lotteries COO finally suspended after SIU’s intervention

Please find an attached soundbite by Mat Cuthbert MP

The DA welcomes the Special Investigative Unit’s (SIU) recommendation that the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) suspends its rogue COO, Philemon Letwaba.

This comes after he was on a so-called “leave of absence” for 17 months (despite a brief period back at work) in which he pocketed in excess of R3 million.

According to media outlet GroundUp:

“At the time, some NLC sources claimed he had in fact been placed on precautionary suspension while the SkX investigation was being conducted. This was done to ensure that he could not interfere with the investigation, in which he is a key person of interest, one source said.”

However, he returned to work in July 2021 despite the SkX investigation not having been completed.

This move by the SIU shows that its investigation into corruption and malfeasance at NLC is nearing its conclusion.

The DA looks forward to the parliamentary committee being briefed on the SIU’s investigation as soon as it is complete.

Those within and linked to the NLC who have stolen from the poor and vulnerable must face the full might of the law and be held accountable for their cruel actions.

Under a DA government, a town like Upington will come alive

The following speech was delivered by the DA Federal Leader John Steenhuisen at the Mxolisi Dicky Jacobs Stadium in Upington in the Northern Cape today.

Please find soundbites attached in English and Afrikaans .

Pictures are attached here, here, here and here.

Good morning, fellow Democrats, fellow South Africans,

It’s wonderful to be here in your beautiful town of Upington, on the banks of the great Orange River.

I don’t come here as often as I’d like to. Yours is not the easiest town to travel to in a busy election year. But when I am here, I am always glad I made the trip.

And I think this is true for almost everyone who ever visits here. Most South Africans don’t know what this place offers and not that many make the trip out here. But almost everyone who comes to Upington once, returns again.

It’s just that kind of place. Here you will find some of our country’s most genuine, down-to-earth people, living out here in this incredible landscape.

Then there’s the region’s agriculture – the wine industry here, and all the farms with raisins and fruit and nuts – which has turned this stretch of the Orange River into a fertile oasis on the edge of the Kalahari.

This Upington area is a truly special place.

But… and there’s always a but – for everything Upington and its greater Dawid Kruiper Municipality has got going for it, it also has one major disadvantage. And that is its local government.

Like so many other wonderful towns across the length and breadth of our country, Upington is being held back by a local government that simply does not care about the communities it is meant to serve and has long since abandoned any idea of accountability.

If it weren’t for the residents in this town who have taken to filling potholes, mowing verges and cleaning parks themselves, Upington would be in a far worse state.

As is the case in so many other towns, the community – individuals, businesses, churches and NGOs – have to act as a buffer between a failed local government and the residents of the municipality.

And they get nothing in return. I have been told about the exorbitant water tariffs here and the erratic billing for water and electricity. I know how detrimental that can be for those trying to run a business, not to mention all the ordinary households who are struggling to pay bills.

I have been told about the raw sewage that continues to pollute this community’s lifeline, the Orange River.

I saw for myself the state of some of the roads here – the crumbling surfaces and the growing potholes. This too makes it near impossible for businesses to operate properly.

I am told that the municipality’s licensing is in a state of disaster, with only a handful of licenses being processed daily, and scores of people being turned away and told to queue again on a different day.

I have heard about places like Rietfontein, where the people have no water and have to fetch their drinking water from elsewhere on donkey carts. And of places like Askam and Andriesvale that still don’t have any toilets.

All these things are the very minimum a local government should be doing. If they can’t do these basics, there is no way they will ever get round to implementing a long-term plan and vision for this municipality.

But the problem in an ANC-run municipality like this is that it hasn’t been about serving the people for a very long time. In these municipalities it’s every cadre for him or herself, and the people are an afterthought.

We see this in the bogus municipal positions created for ANC councillors who lost their seats in the previous Local Government Elections. And even a Public Protector finding against the municipality has not forced them to take action and cancel these positions.

They see it as one big jobs-for-pals scheme, even if this sucks up all the money meant for service delivery.

We also see it in the absurd amount of overtime paid to municipal officials, because there’s no one who will stop them from abusing the system. While residents have to wait forever to have issues attended to, many jobs are deliberately scheduled for after-hours just for the overtime pay.

Again, as long as there is a way to extract a little more from the system, the people can wait.

We see it in the number of vehicles and equipment lying unserviced and unusable while the work backlog piles up. This municipality’s backlog of vehicle repairs – which includes literally hundreds of vehicles just waiting for tyre repairs – has brought service delivery to a halt here.

I am told that a refuse truck has been out of service since March because it is waiting for tyres, and that the municipal bulldozer has been standing idle for over six months now simply because there is no order number to have the pump repaired.

That is what a failed local government looks like. Because when you can’t keep your refuse truck or bulldozer operational despite such minor issues, you cannot do your basic job of collecting residents’ refuse and doing earthworks for service delivery projects.

I am told the lack of a functional bulldozer has meant that the development of sewage works in Dakota Bay has ground to a complete halt.

Similarly, I am told that the nearly brand new compactor at the landfill site is also now out of commission because it has not been serviced, resulting in trash being dumped all around the site and along the roads.

You cannot run a municipality like that. If you want to fulfil your constitutional duty as a government, you have to start by doing the basics right.

And let me tell you, there are towns across South Africa where this does happen – where vehicles are serviced, where equipment is maintained, where finances are meticulously managed and where no unqualified cadre will ever be deployed to a crucial job simply for his or her political loyalty.

These towns may be in the minority, but they are there, and they serve as a reminder of what is possible when a local government has its priorities straight.

I am talking, of course, of the towns and cities run by the Democratic Alliance.

We may govern less than 10% of South Africa’s 278 municipalities, but the top 5 best run municipalities are all DA-governed, and all the failing ones are managed by the ANC.

That alone should be all the reason you need to choose a DA government on 1 November.

When I was told about the absurd number of municipal vehicles here in Dawid Kruiper Municipality that are not currently in use because of the massive service backlog, I thought immediately of DA-run Kouga municipality in the Eastern Cape.

We won that municipality in the last local government election in 2016, and one of the very first projects the new DA government there undertook was to clear the vehicle service and repair backlog and get the municipal fleet on the road again.

They realised that as long as all these cars, trucks and equipment that had fallen into disrepair under the ANC were just gathering dust in a depot, the job they were meant to be doing was not getting done.

That is also why DA local governments are so obsessed with maintaining water treatment plants and fixing pipe leaks. They know that this is not something you want to allow to get out of control. You need to stay on top of the maintenance if you want these machines to stay in service.

Similarly, you need to attend, right away, to reports of water leaks, potholes and broken streetlights.

These sound like small things, but all the small things add up. And it is this cumulative effect of doing the basics well, across every aspect of the municipality, that sets DA towns and cities apart.

I have just visited the municipality of Midvaal in Gauteng – the only outright DA-run municipality in that province, and by far the best run municipality in Gauteng. In fact, it is one of the top 5 best-run municipalities in the country.

Compared to its ANC-run neighbours, it is like we’re talking about two different worlds. Now, the thing about Midvaal is that it has benefited from twenty years under a DA government, but those twenty years had to start somewhere. And even in the first DA term there, the municipality left its neighbours in its wake.

When I see a beautiful town like Upington – and I think of all the potential this place has with its agriculture and tourism – I just know it will come alive under a DA government.

Because all you want, from a local government, is for things to get done. You want problems solved when they are reported. You want water when you open your tap. You want light when you flick on the switch. You want to be able to book your license or get yours renewed right away, when it suits you.

And when you look at track records in government, only one party can truly say it gets things done. That party is the DA.

But there is something else about the DA that you need to know too. While we are very good at doing the basics of a local government, we don’t stop there.

We know that there are many functions of national government that simply do not work, and we will not stop fighting to have these functions supplemented, or even taken over completely, by competent local governments.

One such a function is the provision of electricity, and it is no secret that the ANC government has failed dismally in this regard.

But there are DA local governments in the Western Cape that have launched a pilot programme that will look to make them less reliant on Eskom by procuring their power directly from Independent Power Producers, or by allowing residents and businesses to generate their own electricity, and even sell their surplus back into the grid.

The outcome of this programme will have far-reaching implications for millions of South Africans, and particularly those living in DA-run towns and cities.

Another area where the DA is challenging national government’s sole mandate is that of policing, and this will be of particular interest to vulnerable farming communities like yours here around Upington.

The DA has long maintained that a critical function of government such as policing is best managed by those who are closest to the issues on the ground – in other words the local government.

There is no way that a bunch of ministers and officials in the Union Buildings in Pretoria know how to best protect a community on the Cape Flats from gangsters. Similarly, there is no way they will know how to protect farming communities from the brutal attacks that have become far too common of late.

I recently spoke at our election manifesto launch in Tshwane, where I announced that, if given the mandate to do so by voters, the DA would introduce a rural safety unit in the city’s Metro Police Force, because that metro has such a substantial farming community.

This is something we take very seriously. Not only do we believe in devolving more police functions from national government to local government, we also believe very strongly that specialised police units are the answer to specific crime problems.

And one such a specific crime problem that will most certainly benefit from a specialised unit is rural safety and farm attacks.

These are the kinds of fights you can expect your local DA government to fight on your behalf, should your municipality elect such a government.

And let me tell you, Dawid Kruiper Municipality is not that far away from electing a DA local government. There are only two significant parties in the race here, and they are the DA and the ANC.

The DA needs to take just four seats off the ANC to draw level with them. And in this unpredictable election, that’s not out of reach.

And this is where you come in. The final, most important step in the process of bringing change is taken by the voter. I can stand here and offer you plans to turn your town around, but only you have the power to make those plans happen.

If you want to live in a municipality that guarantees reliable, clean water, you need to vote for a government with a track record of delivering reliable, clean water.

If you want to live in a municipality where the vehicles and equipment are maintained and stay in service, you need to vote for a government that does those things.

If you want to live in a municipality where potholes are filled, pipe leaks are fixed, streetlights are fixed, parks are kept neat, pavements are tidy and refuse is regularly collected, you need to vote for a government that gets things done.

There is only one such a government, and that’s a DA government.

On 1 November, let Upington go out in great numbers and elect the DA government that will make this town come alive.

Viva DA! Viva!

Bheki Cele must resign so the DA can take over policing in Cape Town

Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Geordin Hill-Lewis.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on Police Minister Bheki Cele to resign in disgrace after his latest insult to the victims of crime in Cape Town. During a deranged rant on Friday that came in direct response to the DA’s protest march in Mitchells Plain against Cele’s plan to usurp Cape Town’s law enforcement powers, Cele tried to blame “potholes” for SAPS’ failure to combat hijackings in Cape Town.

Cele’s effort to blame “potholes” for the failure of SAPS to keep Capetonians safe comes at the same time that he is personally masterminding the ANC’s very own hijacking effort – to take away Cape Town’s law enforcement powers through his plan for a Single Police Service. This plan would limit the powers of Cape Town’s peace officers, move the law enforcement command-and-control structure away from the City and into SAPS, and take away Cape Town’s power to set its own local policing priorities.

Worse still, Cele essentially told the people of Cape Town to stop complaining about the way in which SAPS has systematically taken resources away from the most vulnerable communities in our city. As far back as 2018, the Equality Court confirmed that Cele’s ongoing effort to reduce SAPS resources discriminates against some of the poorest and most crime-ridden neighbourhoods in Cape Town.

The officer-to-citizen ratio in police precincts like Ravensmead (1:895), Grassy Park (1:800), Nyanga (1:682) and Gugulethu (1:642) is currently up to four times lower than the international norm of 1:225. In total, over the past three years, Cele has disgracefully cut police numbers in Cape Town by 551.

The DA rejects with contempt Cele suggestion that Capetonians should accept this unacceptable discrimination against our city. We will not simply stand back and allow Cele to put lives at risk as part of his long-standing effort to undermine the fight against crime in Cape Town. That is why, while Cele has cut policing numbers by 551, DA-led Cape Town, in partnership with the DA-led Western Cape, is deploying 1 100 additional local law enforcement officers under the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP).

And we are ready to do even more. While Cele continues to play cheap politics with the lives of Capetonians by cutting SAPS resources, I have already pledged to deploy hundreds of additional law enforcement officers and fight for expanded local policing powers.

The people of Cape Town are tired of being failed by the national government. They are tired of a national police force that cannot and does not want to keep them safe, and a clownish police minister who blames potholes for his own failures and tells victims to stop complaining about crime spiralling out of control.

It is time for Cele to resign in disgrace so that the DA can build on the success of our LEAP program to take over policing in Cape Town.

If you want to see change in Metsimaholo, you have to vote for that change

The following speech was delivered by the DA Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen at Zamdela in the Metsimaholo Municipality in the Free State.

Pictures are attached here, here and here.

My fellow Democrats.

Thank you for joining us here today – for taking the time to come and listen to the DA’s plan to fix South Africa’s many broken municipalities.

We are just three weeks away from an election that could radically alter the path our country is on, and it is critical that every South African knows exactly what is at stake, and the power they have to influence the future.

These local government elections are about two things: Firstly, it’s about rescuing towns and cities from their dysfunctional ANC governments while there is still something to save, and replacing them with DA governments that get things done.

And secondly, it’s about paving the way for an even bigger change, at national level, to save our country from its national ANC government.

Because the way you bring change is bit by bit. You don’t look at the challenge in its entirety and say: there’s no way we could win that fight, so we may as well give up.

No, you look at all the individual battles within that fight, and you tackle each of them as a battle that can either be won, or where you can make such headway that it is in play the next time round.

If we want to paint more towns and cities blue after 1 November, we’ll do so ward by ward.

That is how you turn a municipality like Metsimaholo – where no party has an outright majority, and where the DA has a realistic shot at displacing the ANC as the biggest party in the council – into a DA-run municipality.

You win the small individual battles of the voting districts, which swings the balance in the wards and ultimately puts the DA in charge of a coalition government.

That then paves the way for an outright majority at the next election, and this is how you bring about real change in these towns.

If you want to see what that looks like, take a look at your neighbouring municipality just across the river, to the north-east. I’m talking about Midvaal on the Gauteng side of the river – the only outright DA-run municipality in that province, and also the only functional municipality in that province.

The DA has been in the driving seat in Midvaal for the past 21 years, and in an outright majority there for the last nineteen years. That extended, uninterrupted period under a DA government is the sole reason Midvaal works while everything around it falls apart.

It is ranked among South Africa’s top 5 municipalities, and it boasts an impressive seven year run of clean audits. And thanks to this sound financial management, it is able to offer the highest access to basic services and the lowest unemployment rate in the province.

It also continually attracts new businesses, as the municipalities around it shed thousands of jobs as employers shut their doors or relocate elsewhere.

All the independent reports and rankings – from the Auditor General’s report and the Stats SA’s jobs numbers, to the rankings by Ratings Africa and the Quality of Life Survey – confirm that DA-run Midvaal operates in a different league to the rest of Gauteng.

But perhaps the biggest endorsement of all is from the residents themselves.

In 2000, the DA had 9 of the 18 seats in the Midvaal council. In every subsequent election the DA has increased its share of the vote there. What that means is that the people of Midvaal are more and more certain that they don’t want to go back to an ANC government.

A similar scenario played out in the City of Cape Town, where the DA narrowly won control of the metro in a seven-party coalition in 2006. By 2011 the people of Cape Town had seen enough to give the DA an outright majority, and by 2016 this majority was even further increased.

Once exposed to the DA difference, voters know that there is no comparison and there can be no going back.

That is also why you’ll only ever hear people discussing the possibility of independence where the DA currently governs. Because these are the only places that function well. They may say they’re advocating for independence, but what they’re really fighting to protect is the DA difference.

And that is why our mission in the DA must surely be to bring this difference to even more places, and not to isolate it to the places where we already govern.

Take Midvaal as an example. We can either say: this place works, now let us insulate it from the rest of the country. Or we can say: look what we achieved in Midvaal, now imagine if we did the same across the river in Metsimaholo.

And that’s not a far-fetched dream either. As things stand now, we only need to take four seats off the ANC to overtake them as the biggest party here, and to start carving out an island of DA excellence here in the northern Free State.

Fellow Democrats, if any province needs to see the kind of change that only the DA can bring, it is the Free State.

This beautiful province is filled with towns caught in the downward spiral that always accompanies ANC local governments – where the local economies are slowly dying and where young people in particular see no future for themselves.

And Metsimaholo is right at the worst end of this list, with the highest unemployment rate in the entire province.

Do you know what cures unemployment? There’s only one thing, and that is good governance.

I’m talking about the kind of responsible, honest and business-friendly governance that inspires confidence and lets investors know a town is open for business.

Now, when the ANC come round here telling you how they – the government – will create all the jobs you need if you’ll vote for them, they’re lying. There is no way a government can create those numbers of jobs – not even if they spend billions on infrastructure projects. It’s simply not possible.

The only way to create jobs at the scale we need is through a government that is a partner to businesses and makes it easier for them to start up and operate – by creating an environment free from unnecessary bureaucracy and regulations, where basic services are guaranteed, where infrastructure is maintained and where residents feel safe.

That’s the kind of place that investors look to when deciding where to set up their businesses.

It is no coincidence that Midvaal has not only the cleanest track record in terms of financial management, but also the lowest unemployment rate, by far, in the province. These two things go hand in hand.

When your town is run efficiently, more services are delivered. But this also means that more services are billed for and more revenue is collected, which in turn means that even more services can be delivered and more maintenance can be done.

It is a cycle that starts with good governance principles and ends with functional towns and cities where more people have access to the services they need to live a life of dignity, and more people have hope of finding work.

That is our mission in the DA, and that is why I am so excited to stand here before you today, three weeks out from a local government election. Because I want those same things for the people of the Free State too, starting right here in Metsimaholo.

I want you to look at the pledges contained in the DA manifesto for this municipality, and then imagine these towns of Metisimaholo after five years of implementing these pledges.

Imagine five years of working towards clean reliable water, a safe and hygienic environment to live in and a plan to start reducing this municipality’s reliance on Eskom.

Imagine five years of upgrading roads and public transport, of investing in visible law enforcement and of developing sustainable housing options in public-private partnerships.

Imagine five years of the same kind of financial management Midvaal has had these past two decades – better debt collection, making sure creditors are paid on time, stopping illegal connections and turning this municipality’s debt into a positive cashflow.

Imagine five years of cleaning up the administration here, and replacing deadbeat deployed cadres with qualified officials who want to serve.

And imagine five years where the biggest focus of government is bringing the economy back to its feet and starting to attract investment once more – where the massive tourism, agriculture and industrial potential of this municipality is unlocked.

This place would be unrecognisable. And I assure you, after five years of a DA-led coalition, the people of Metsimaholo would want five more years of an outright DA majority. Because that’s how it goes where we govern.

But the ball is now in your court. I cannot make those things happen here in Metsimaholo, and neither can the DA without you playing your part.

If you want change, you have to vote for change.

You won’t change a thing by staying away and letting others decide.

You won’t change a thing by voting for a small party that has no real sway in this council.

You won’t change a thing by voting for a party simply because they speak your language or look like you.

None of those options will bring a clean, efficient and hard-working government to Metsimaholo.

The only way to achieve this is to vote for a party with a proven track record in government, and a party big enough to make a difference.

There is only one such a party, and that is the Democratic Alliance. The party that gets things done.

Viva, DA! Viva!