SAFA needs a new broom, not a 3rd term for Danny Jordaan

Please find attached a soundbite by Tsepo Mhlongo MP.

The DA notes the re-election of Danny Jordaan a President of the South African Football Association (SAFA).

We want to reiterate our concern with the election of Mr Jordaan in this role. This will be his third term as President of the association yet until now Vision 2022 had not been implemented and can only be viewed as a failed project.

In fact, since Mr Jordaan became the President of SAFA in 2013, South African football has gone from bad to worse.

The DA believes that the only way to realise the dream of “rebuilding the structures of SAFA at all levels to create the conditions that will bring about the sustained national success of our national teams” will be to appoint fresh blood to head up this association.

Mr Jordaan has proven over the past almost 10 years that he lacks the ability and propensity to do so.

We also call for a National Football Indaba where all role-players across the board can map a sensible way forward to ensure that South Africa strengthens its position and becomes a real contender in international football.

Mantashe’s brazen defiance of Zondo confirms urgency of DA court case against cadre deployment

The way in which Gwede Mantashe, ANC chairperson and a person directly implicated in Bosasa corruption by the State Capture Commission, has brazenly defied the findings of the Commission mere days after the completion of its final report, confirms that the DA’s court challenge against ANC cadre deployment is now likely the single most important court case in South Africa. More than any other individual action, it is this court case and the abolition of cadre deployment that will determine whether our country will ever be freed from ANC state capture.

Mantashe, an alleged beneficiary of Bosasa state capture corruption, clearly knows this. Which is why, in response to the Report’s confirmation of the DA’s long-held standpoint that cadre deployment is unconstitutional and unlawful, Mantashe tried to rubbish Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s finding by claiming that it was “just a commission’s finding, not a court judgement.”

This makes it clear that the ANC is hellbent on defying Zondo by continuing to practice cadre deployment even though the Chief Justice of the Republic has rightly declared the practice to be in violation of our Constitution.

While it is disgusting that one of the most senior officials in the ANC and national government is already attacking the Commission’s findings less than a week after its release, it is not at all surprising. In fact, the DA has always anticipated that the ANC, a party held together only by the corruption and patronage generated by cadre deployment, would attempt to defy these findings. That is why we dragged the entire ANC to the North Gauteng High Court even before the final volume of the Report was released: to ensure that we get a full court order declaring that Mantashe and former cadre deployment chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa violate our laws and Constitution every time they “deploy” a corrupt and incompetent ANC cadre into the public administration.

Mantashe’s defiance bolsters our case even further. In addition to including the Commission’s findings against cadre deployment as evidence in our court case, the DA will now also use Mantashe’s comments to further enhance our case, because his comments prove that the ANC intends to defy the Commission. His brazen comments also confirm that only the full court order that the DA is fighting for will be enough to start undoing the damage wrought by the unconstitutional and unlawful practice of cadre deployment.

The DA has steadfastly maintained that ANC cadre deployment is the foundation of state capture and corruption in South Africa, because it extends the control of the ANC well-beyond the political sphere and deep into the public administration that is supposed to be independent, impartial and merit-based. Now that the State Capture Commission has completely vindicated the DA, Mantashe and the ANC are in a state of complete panic. It appears that the ANC has finally realized that the DA will not stop until we have completely kneecapped cadre deployment, freed the state from ANC capture, and ripped the heart out of their corrupt National Democratic Revolution. Mantashe is right to be panicked, because that is exactly what we are busy doing.

An era of clean, capable government is on the horizon

If you’re feeling hopeless about South Africa’s future, here’s some good news showing that the DA is a proven alternative for South African voters, and we are fighting hard for a real new dawn.

Clean government

Last week, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke released the annual municipal audit outcomes. She reported that 73% of municipalities in DA-run Western Cape received clean audits (22 out of 30), while the eight ANC-run provinces averaged just 8% (19 out of 227). DA-run Midvaal in Gauteng received its eighth consecutive clean audit.

Practically, a clean audit means public money is spent on the public, so things work, so people feel confident to invest in the future, so jobs are created.

Yesterday, StatsSA released the 2021 General Household Survey confirming that DA-run Western Cape scores highest on almost all service delivery metrics:

  • 99.4% of households having access to piped or tap water
  • Less than 4.9% of households reporting water interruptions (the national average is 30.8%)
  • 94.5% of households with access to improved sanitation in the country
  • 94.8% of households of households with access to flush toilets
  • the WC having the highest proportion of households that get refuse removal at least once a week
  • 95.1% of households connected to the mains electricity supply
  • the WC having the highest proportion of children in pre-school and grade R
  • 71.2% of WC households deriving their income from salaries (the highest in the country – speaks to the relatively high number of people employed in the province compared to other provinces)

Where things work, people work. So it is no coincidence that the unemployment rate (including those who’ve given up looking for work) is 16.5 percentage points lower in DA-run Western Cape (29%) than the average for South Africa (45.5%), according to StatsSA’s QLFS 2022Q1.

Clean government translates into jobs and a higher quality of life. Where the DA governs, life is far more likely to be easier and get better.

Pro-poor government

The DA-run Western Cape also comes out tops by far on delivery to indigent households, being  households that qualify and are registered for poverty relief in the form of a basket of free basic services. According to StatsSA’s Non-Financial Census of Municipalities 2019:

  • Overall service delivery to indigent households is 96.8% for Western Cape against a national average of 53.1%
  • Water: 97.4% compared to SA average of 74.4%
  • Electricity: 97.9% compared to SA average of 63.2%
  • Solid waste management: 96.6% compared with SA average of 68.8%

Capable government

The DA difference springs from merit-based public appointments. Ability to serve the public is the sole criterion that DA governments use for selecting public officials. This tends to build a clean, capable state that delivers to all.

By contrast, the ANC’s policy of deploying politically loyal cadres systemically destroys the public service, producing a corrupt, incapable, captured state that enriches those in the ANC’s patronage network at the expense of the rest.

I cannot emphasize this enough: the difference between merit-based appointment versus cadre deployment is between keeping the taps running during the Cape Town drought and the taps running dry during the NMB drought; between safe roads in good condition and dangerous potholed roads; between keeping the lights on and being regularly load-shed; between affordable rail transport and a collapsed rail system; between having a job and being unemployed.

This week, the DA released a mini documentary showing how ANC cadre deployment is the root cause of corruption and state capture.

DA vindicated

Also this week, the DA’s decades-long fight against cadre deployment was fully vindicated when Chief Justice Zondo released the final instalment of his State Capture Report, confirming that cadre deployment was the mechanism whereby ANC cronies captured the state.

The report states: “it is unlawful and unconstitutional for a President of this country or any other government official to take into account recommendations of the ANC Deployment Committee.”

The Zondo Report personally implicates President Ramaphosa as being deeply complicit in state capture. “It must be noted that President Ramaphosa was the Chairperson of the Deployment Committee for a period of five years, between December 2012 and December 2017, and that many of these appointments (and indeed the worst excess of State Capture) occurred during this period.”

DA action

The DA has fought cadre deployment relentlessly. By exposing it at every opportunity, by making critical submissions to the Zondo Commission, through our End Cadre Deployment Bill in parliament, and through our ongoing court challenge to outlaw this destructive policy, we are rewriting the history of South Africa.

We are also pursuing every avenue to hold President Ramaphosa to account for his alleged actions in the 2020 theft at his Phala Phala game farm and for the central role he played in state capture. We do so to uphold the principle of equality before the law and to defend South Africa. The entire ANC, from the head down, is a criminal syndicate that must go.

Conclusion

With ANC support having fallen below 50% in 2021, the era of extractive, incompetent, corrupt government is drawing to a close. The DA has shown South Africa that we have what it takes to build an honest, skilled state that delivers to all the people of South Africa. Progress is faster where we govern outright, but we have shown we can manage complex coalitions that make steady, if slower progress. A real new dawn is on the horizon.

Eskom should interdict the wildcat strike action at its generation plants

The DA calls on Eskom to exercise its rights as an essential services provider and approach the Labour court with the intention to interdict the wildcat strike action at its power generation plants.

Notwithstanding the fact that Eskom is currently struggling to keep the lights on, wilful disruption of power generation plants through strike action is sabotage.
Less than 24 hours since Eskom issued a warning that the ongoing strike action at its power generation plants increased the risk of load-shedding, the country has been plunged into stage 4 load-shedding.

Should it be established that this escalation to a high level of load-shedding was directly caused by the strike action, the DA calls for immediate criminal charges to be laid against the offending parties.

Eskom has an Essential Services Agreement in place with its workers which enjoins both parties to not to engage in action that may disrupt or interfere with the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.

The striking workers are not only interrupting the operations of power generation plants, they are also ‘endangering the life, health or personal safety of the whole or part of the population’ by increasing the risk of high levels of load-shedding.

In terms of the Labour Relations Act, and though its designation as an essential service provider, Eskom is exempt from giving notice to the striking workers on its intention to approach the Labour Court for an interdict.

To protect critical infrastructure under its management, Eskom should make a direct application to the Labour Court seeking an immediate stop to strike action at its plants.
South Africa’s electricity generation ecosystem is already teetering over the edge and we simply cannot afford to have acts of sabotage worsen the crisis. Eskom infrastructure, even under its current state of strain, still remains the lifeblood of the country’s economy and should not be deliberately interfered with.

This chimes with the DAs call for a State of Disaster to be declared around Eskom and would represent an incremental step towards the realisation of what is required to fix what we have to keep the lights on for businesses, industry and ordinary citizens.

Mthethwa’s department must support sportspeople and artists now that regulations have lifted

Please find attached soundbite by Tsepo Mhlongo MP.

The DA welcomes the lifting of all regulations to allow for venues to operate at full capacity for the first time in over two years. We now call on the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, to ensure that those who depend on the sports, arts, and culture sectors receive the required support to recover from the devastating effects of more than two years of Covid regulations.

The announcement this week that venues and events may fill to full capacity was long overdue. While government, for months, ignored desperate pleas to open up, those people whose livelihoods depended on it suffered daily.

In the months of lockdown, the Department woefully failed to provide adequate support for artists and sports people. From the alleged mismanagement of the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) funds to dismissing and ignoring the various serious concerns raised by the sectors, the Minister has dropped the ball and the people he’s mandated to serve have suffered terribly.

The sports, arts and culture industries finally have an opportunity to try and recoup the losses of the past 2 years, and Minister Mthethwa and his Department must work hard to support and enable them.

BRICS summit presents Ramaphosa with an opportunity to save face

The BRICS summit that comes to an end today is the perfect opportunity for President Cyril Ramaphosa to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw from Ukraine and allow the free movement of goods held in ships.

This call has become more urgent than ever as the people of Ukraine and Russia suffer tremendous losses and the countries that surround them cushion the blow. South Africa’s economy and reputation continue to deteriorate, with devastating consequences for our people.

With rising expenses and stagnation afflicting South Africa, the President has a responsibility to his people as well as the South African and Southern African economies. A continuation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has a direct and dangerous impact on South Africa as food prices will rise, living expenses will increase, crime will increase and demand for social reliance will soar. This will potentially place South Africa in unprecedented economic turmoil similar to Venezuela, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

The summit hosted by Xi Jinping and attended by Putin virtually, will be a crucial test for Ramaphosa, his presidency, his leadership and for South Africa as a world player.

Agriculture funds stolen for Gupta wedding must be recovered

Please find an attached soundbite by Noko Masipa MP

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s (DALRRD) funding of the Guptas’ extravagant 2013 wedding was confirmed in the final instalment of the Zondo Commission report.

The DA will write to Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development Thoko Didiza to call for urgent steps to be taken by the department to hold implicated officials accountable, and to recover the funds that were stolen.

It is disgusting that public funds were laundered to pay for this event while thousands of South Africans were and are still struggling with their land claim and government support for their land reform projects.

This is not an isolated incident, there are many failed land reform projects.

We will, therefore, also request a detailed report on all land reform projects that were funded by her department which failed dismally the same way as the Estina/Vrede Dairy Farm project, and the steps the department has put in place  to prevent gross looting from occurring again.

The below chronicles how ANC cronies paid for the Guptas’ wedding instead of supporting beneficiaries of the land reform projects:

  • on the 6thof April 2013, Tony Gupta met with Ms Rockman who was appointed MEC from the position of the Director-General in the Free State Provincial Government;
  • it was at that meeting that a request for a R34.9 million payment was made by Tony Gupta to be paid into Estina account;
  • two tranches of R34.9 million and R30 million were paid into the Estina account on the 18th and 26th April 2013 respectively. Meanwhile, the Guptas hosted a family wedding at Sun City from the 26th of April to the 4th of May 2013; and
  • whilst the wedding was on, a further R19 050 000 was paid into the Estina account – possibly to cover the escalating costs of the wedding.

The Zondo report also laid bare the failures of the national parliamentary committee in providing proper oversight mechanisms on land reform projects. While ANC cadres and the Guptas help themselves to taxpayers’ money to fund their lavish lifestyle, parliament as an oversight institution was becoming weaker and weaker.

In fact, when the looting was at its worst, corrupt ANC parliamentarians joined the chorus for the expropriation of private property without compensation. It is clear now, that their only goal was to allow for more ANC cronies to loot from the deserving beneficiaries of the land reform projects, as they did with Guptas.

The DA will not tolerate beneficiaries of land reform projects languishing in poverty due to looting and the inefficiency of the ANC government. The stolen funds must be recovered and appropriated to the rightful beneficiaries of land reform projects.

Western Cape is the top performing Province on service delivery, General Household Survey

Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cilliers Brink MP.

The 2021 General Household Survey (GHS) released by StatsSA today confirmed the DA-run Western Cape as the top-performing province in terms of service delivery. Compared to other provinces, residents in the Western Cape have a better quality of life that is supported by an efficient and clean government.

According to the GHS, the Western Cape comes out top on almost all service delivery metrics with:

  • 99.4% of households having access to piped or tap water;
  • Less than 4.9% of households reporting water interruptions (the national average is 30.8%);
  • 94.5% of households with access to improved sanitation in the country;
  • 94.8% of households of households with access to flush toilets;
  • the WC having the highest number of households that get refuse removal at least once a week;
  • 95.1% of households connected to the mains electricity supply;
  • the WC having the highest number of children in pre-school and grade R;
  • 71.2% of WC households deriving their income from salaries (the highest in the country – speaks to the relatively high number of people employed in the province compared to other provinces)

With the Auditor-General recently confirming that the Western Cape has the highest number of well-run municipalities in South Africa, it is clear that running clean governments translates into a high quality of life for residents.

While the ANC busies itself with stealing people’s money and capturing State institutions for connected cadres, the DA has once again proven that it is committed to improving people’s lives through better service delivery.

Zondo Report: DA Free State demands justice

Please find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Dr Roy Jankielsohn.

The damning findings of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture that implicate politicians such as former Free State premier Ace Magashule and former MEC of Agriculture, Mosebenzi Zwane, are grounds to institute criminal proceedings against them and other implicated individuals. It is clear from the report that the residents of the Free State have been robbed and deserve justice.

These findings align themselves with the DA-initiated Public Protector Report that indicated criminal investigations should commence against former MEC members Magashule, Zwane, Elsebe Rockman, the current MEC of Social Development, Mamiki Qabathe, and other implicated officials.

There is no doubt that politicians were involved in supporting the criminal Gupta enterprise in the Free State and South Africa through their abuse of the Free State Provincial Government’s financial resources. This was done through devious money laundering schemes using the Vrede Dairy Project and the New Age newspaper as vehicles.

In this regard, the report states: “With respect to the subscription to New Age newspaper, it would appear that a political decision to support the Gupta family financially was a prevailing rationale for the Free State Government signing the subscription agreement”.

The report also alludes to Magashule’s incompetence as premier with the comments that “the Premier should have performed his oversight function over the MEC, Mr Zwane and the Head of Department and failed dismally”, and that “Mr Ace Magashule also failed dismally to supervise his MECs and now we see the same failure in respect of the Vrede Dairy Project”.

The DA will continue to drive this issue on behalf of the residents of the Free State whose money has been stolen by ensuring that implicated officials and politicians are held liable for their malfeasance.

Scrapping of regulations were long overdue

Please find an attached soundbite by Michele Clarke MP.

810 days later, lockdown is finally over. The DA welcomes the scrapping of all remaining Covid-19 regulations, including mask wearing, entry requirements and limits on social gatherings that were gazetted last night.

The DA has been calling for the lifting of these regulations for some time now. More than three months ago, we pointed out that the only state of disaster that the country was in at the time, was the self-imposed state caused by ongoing and irrational restrictions.

For months now, Covid-19 has not been a threat. Yet, South Africa remained one of the few countries in the world where unscientific restrictions were kept in place, to the detriment of the economy and people’s physical and emotional well-being.

We now call on the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, to repeal the draft regulations relating to forced vaccinations and forced quarantines that are still up for public comment until 5 August 2022.