ActionSA sinks its own MONC in KwaDukuza

The DA in KwaZulu-Natal notes today’s outcome in the ActionSA sponsored Motion of No Confidence (MONC) in the political office bearers in the KwaDukuza Local Municipality.

Bizarrely, one of ActionSA’s own councillors failed to attend today’s meeting in support of their MONC, that potentially only had a majority of one vote if all opposition parties supported it.

There can be no doubt that ActionSA has been the master of their own demise on this issue.

The DA has insisted from day one, that we can not be part of a MONC without a signed coalition agreement, as this would create a power vacuum in KwaDukuza which would be filled by ANC appointed administrators. This is the worst possible outcome, which ActionSA has being willing to embrace at all costs.

We hope ActionSA would take this opportunity to introspect on the results of today’s vote. Of the 30 votes available, and needed to secure a majority, and form a new government, they were only able to garner 4.

A number of parties have told the DA how they have been insulted and hurt by ActionSA’s arrogance and bullying tactics towards them.

They have mentioned being spoken to like “boys” and being treated like “ActionSA branch members”. The “baas” approach adopted by ActionSA towards opposition parties is the reason for today’s outcome which saw the DA, IFP, ACDP and Independent Alliance (IA) abstained from the MONC, because there was no signed coalition agreement.

The ANC, African Independent Alliance (AIC), African Transformation Movement (ATM) and EFF voted against the MONC.

From their own councillor not turning up to support their MONC, to the bullying and arrogance displayed by ActionsSA to opposition parties, to the EFF dumping ActionSA, despite their constant threats that a coalition would not work unless parties “collaborated” with the EFF, the list of lies by ActionSA is long. This whole MONC has been an unmitigated disaster for them.

Even the AIC and IA which ActionSA held a joint press conference with on the 25th of July 2022, in support of the MONC, did not back it in the end.

ActionSA has made a number of bold claims, couched in political posturing over the last few months in an attempt to embarrass other parties , including:

  • 30 June – “ActionSA will act to nurture this process to provide the greatest prospect of its success.” – Today’s result is evident that this is not true.
  • 18 July – “ActionSA appears to have the support of a number of political parties for these motions” – They could not even must muster one third of the opposition votes on offer.
  • 25 July – “We believe that every party stands ready to support this motion” – Only 1 of the of the 8 opposition parties supported the motion.

“I believe we are joined in spirit by the IFP, ACDP and ATM” – None of these parties, as claimed, support the motion.

  • 2 August – “The Speaker of Council has been given until 8 August 2022 to confirm whether secret ballots will be accommodated. Should the Speaker refuse to do so, ActionSA will proceed to the High Court in an urgent basis” – Despite their threats, ActionSA have still not approached the court.
  • 31 August – “There will be no shame in standing alone on this matter” – This is only partly true. But we agree they are the only one standing alone.

In the end, ActionSA has squandered a historic opportunity to be apart of a coalition government. Instead, they have chosen a path of pettiness and political point scoring. They have severely embarrassed themselves in this debacle, to the detriment of the residents of KwaDukuza.

After all the bluster, it is now clear that ActionSA has been exposed as all talk and no action.

National Women’s Day Debate Speeches

The following speeches were delivered in Parliament on Wednesday, 31 August during the National Women’s Day debate.

Thandeka Mbabama MPWe need to empower rural women

DA Deputy Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development

073 050 9467

Nazley Sharif MPWomen do not fight for themselves but for entire generations to come

DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities

079 875 4930

Luyolo Mphithi MPMen, we need more guts. We must challenge each other to bring change

DA Shadow Minister on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities

079 551 9791

‘Judge Zondo is not governing on our behalf’: ANC protects corruption by sabotaging DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill

Please find attached a soundbite by Dr Leon Schreiber MP.

During a meeting today of the parliamentary portfolio committee on public service and administration, the ANC deliberately sabotaged the DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill in order to protect the corruption network that unleashed state capture on our country.

In a clearly coordinated effort to prevent the DA from abolishing this evil practice, ANC members of the committee disregarded the Zondo Commission’s findings that cadre deployment is unconstitutional and illegal, voiced a full-throated defence of cadre deployment, and outright lied about the DA’s proposed bill.

At the end of the meeting, the committee chairperson, Tyotyo James, even took direct aim at Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who chaired the State Capture Commission, by claiming that “cadre deployment as a concept, there’s nothing wrong with it,” and “judge Zondo is not governing on our behalf.”

These words echo a similar attack on judge Zondo by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week, when he also desperately tried to defend ANC cadre deployment by dismissing the Zondo recommendations as “not binding.”

The ANC’s clearly predetermined decision to reject this Bill in the face of overwhelming evidence that it would cut corruption and improve service delivery not only defies the DA and the Zondo Commission, but is also an insult to the civil society organisations that joined the committee meeting to make inputs on the Bill. Worst of all, however, is the fact that the ANC’s vote against ending cadre deployment is a profound betrayal of the people of South Africa.

Recent years have been filled with rhetoric from the ANC about some newfound desire to fight corruption and “professionalise” the state. But the ANC’s actions today, as well as their despicable defence of the President’s refusal to answer questions over Phala Phala yesterday, reveal that this has been a complete lie all along.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is nothing more than a two-bit con-artist in charge of a criminal syndicate, who tricked the people of South Africa into believing that that he cared about corruption when his actual intention is to protect cadre corruption at all costs.

Now that the ANC has abused its majority in Parliament to formally ensure the continued operation of cadre deployment, it is absolutely clear that the DA is the only political party that is able and working to save South Africa from the scourge of cadre corruption.

Fortunately, the DA yesterday received confirmation that our court case to abolish cadre deployment will be heard by a full bench of judges from the Gauteng High Court on 23 and 24 January 2023.

We look forward to using the court case to teach the ANC a lesson they will never forget, and we call on all South Africans who are tired of being held for fools by Ramaphosa’s corrupt government to support the DA’s upcoming court case to abolish cadre deployment corruption.

DA nominates retired judges to serve on Ramaposa impeachment inquiry panel in Parliament

Please find attached a soundbite by Siviwe Gwarube MP.

The DA has nominated three retired judges to serve on the Section 89 Parliamentary Inquiry panel which will conduct a preliminary inquiry for an impeachment process concerning President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala scandal.

The panel will consider whether there is prima facie evidence for Parliament to institute an impeachment process in accordance to Section 89 of the Constitution – the first of its kind since the adoption of the rules a couple of years ago.

Today, we submitted the names of retired judge Jeanette Traverso and retired justices Yvonne Makgoro and Dikgang Moseneke for the purposes of Rule 129D of the National Assembly rules.

All three nominees have vast legal experience and would fully appreciate the role required by the Section 89 Panel and the need for its independence.

  • Judge Traverso has served as a respected judge for 15 years and in 1994 she became only the second woman to serve as a judge in South Africa. In 2001, she was appointed the Deputy Judge President of the Western Cape High Court, the first woman to hold the position at a High Court in South Africa.
  • Judge Moseneke has been in the legal fraternity for approximately 40 years, with 15 of these years being in service on the bench. In 2002 he was appointed to the Constitutional Court and 2005 he was appointed Deputy Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa. Moseneke remained Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court until his retirement in May 2016. He was considered to be one of the strongest Judges whilst sitting on the Constitutional Court.
  • Justice Mokgoro was appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1994, where she served a 15- year term until 2009. She is also experienced in academia as a law lecturer, having worked within the Department of Jurisprudence of the University of Bophuthatswana from 1984. She ultimately was appointed as an Associate Professor and served in this position until 1991. From 1992 to 1993 she served as an Associate Professor at the University of Western Cape.

Following the flagrant disregard for the rules of Parliament in the plenary yesterday by Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula, it is clear that we need to ensure that we explore all parliamentary avenues available to hold the President accountable. The Speaker has shown that she’s determined to render Parliament useless and continue the carnage by some of her predecessors.

Last night’s disastrous parliamentary session reinforces the need for an ad hoc committee to investigate the President and the extent to which state entities are alleged to have been abused. We will continue fighting for this to happen.

This panel will now be appointed by the Speaker in accordance with the rules. Following the appointments, the panel must make a recommendation to the Speaker and the House within 30 days. We will monitor this process closely.

DA rejects Ramaphosa backing Cele, takes to the streets

Please find attached a soundbite by Solly Malatsi MP.

President Ramaphosa’s declaration of “complete trust” in the failing Police Ministerc Bheki Cele during yesterday’s parliamentary sitting is a serious and profound line in the sand.

The President chose to side with an obstinate minister over millions of women who live with the real threat of getting raped daily.

The DA rejects Ramaphosa’s continued backing of Cele in the face of an out-of-control crime crisis, desperately under-resourced SAPS and Cele’s personal outbursts that characterise him as grossly incompatible with the high office he holds.

Already hundreds of thousands of South Africans have signed recent petitions calling on the President to fire Cele, and the DA’s petition alone has more than 33 000 signatures. There is a ‘whole-of-society’ movement building for Bheki Cele to be fired and by backing Cele, the President has now drawn a line in the sand for the DA, upon which we will act.

The DA thus announces a mass march to the office of Bheki Cele next week, demanding that he must go. Enough is enough!

The march will be led by the Leader of the DA, John Steenhuisen and the DA’s Shadow Minister of Police, Andrew Whitfield, but also by civil society including the Director of Community Safety at Action Society, Ian Cameron.

The march will include Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde and the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis.

The DA invites all South Africans to join us on Tuesday 6 September in the streets of Pretoria, on our march to tell Bheki Cele loud and clear: Your time is up! South Africa deserves better! We demand a safe South Africa NOW!

The details of the march are:

Date: Tuesday 6 September

Start time: 10h15

Starting point: Corner of Prince’s Park Avenue and Frances Baard Street

End point: Minister Bheki Cele’s Office, 512 Johannes Ramokhoase (Telkom Building), Pretoria

ORTIA must stop working hard to make things unpleasant for tourists

Please find attached a soundbite by Manny de Freitas MP.

For a few weeks now at the OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA), taxis have suddenly, without warning or explanation, been instructed to make their passenger pick-up point on the first floor parking near the rental car space.

Passengers were not warned in advance nor was there an explanation on how or why these changes would take place.

As a result, thousands of passengers arriving at ORTIA have been left lost and confused as to where they may hail a taxi, whilst also being exposed to criminal elements.

Reports to the DA from international tourists unfamiliar with ORTIA tell us of how, in some cases, they are lost for hours whilst attempting to find a taxi.

Countries with successful tourism industries do everything they can to make tourists comfortable and their arrival as easy, slick and effortless as possible. However, it appears that ACSA and ORTIA have no interest in this and show a total disregard for foreign tourist who bring valuable foreign currency that we so desperately need.

At the same time, my unannounced inspections this week and last week at ORTIA show that many entrances remain locked, making it even more difficult for passengers to navigate the airport.

There is no reason to continue to keep these entrances locked. The entrances were locked at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown and remain locked since.

Due to passengers having to be forced to move around the airport, and hail taxis, in a clumsy manner whilst simultaneously experiencing minimal security, there have been reports of criminal incidents since these sudden changes took place.

We are aware of at least one incident where a foreign tourist was coerced to a quiet part of the airport where he was robbed of his belongings, whilst a German tourist was robbed of $10 000.

Despite these incidents, ACSA and ORTIA appear to do nothing to combat this.

I will be writing to the CEO and Board Chair of ACSA as well as the CEO of ORTIA in this regard, enquiring why these changes took place in the manner they did, what they intend doing to fix these issues and what will be done to make the arrival to Gauteng by tourists and other passengers as pleasant, safe, stress-free and comfortable as possible.

What is taking place at ORTIA is a microcosm of the failed state we witness on a daily basis at all levels and sectors of society in South Africa. This will change when the DA takes over government, ensuring that the tourist arrival experience is the best it can possibly be.

AG report on KZN floods reveals usual corruption trends

The Auditor General (AG) presented her ‘real time’ audit report to Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on the April Floods in Pretoria today.

The report reveals that despite the promises made by the governing party, it is clear that the same corrupt trends continue. It is as if the ANC-run departments simply cannot help themselves.

The Property Management Trading Entity, which falls under the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, was predictably at the heart of the problem.

The AG found that employees or their spouses doing business with the state, contracts were awarded multiple times to companies with the same director, quotations were received after contracts were started, quotation amounts exceeded authorised amounts, contract value split into five quotations to same service provider and contracts were awarded to shelf companies ignoring established suppliers on government databases.

The AG also confirmed the long standing concern highlighted by the DA that the temporary residential units being provided to displaced families were not up to specification. Of the units inspected by the AG all were defective, not built to specification and showed signs of poor workmanship.

Another glaring issue in the report was the exasperating slow pace of recovery which points very clearly to a complete lack of preparation for the disaster. The report highlights lack of capacity, lack of preparation and response as well as ineffective monitoring of contractors. As a result, many of the displaced residents of eThekwini are in the same place as they were three months ago

This fiasco is in contrast with the Western Cape Disaster Centre who obsessively plan months and years ahead for every possible eventuality to ensure that this unit is ready for any emergency or crisis.

The specialist teams from this unit should have been on the ground in KZN, the weekend before the storm. They were ready to go, but COGTA in KZN was sleeping on the job and not keeping an eye on the warning signs.

The DA places the death toll in this disaster square at the feet of the inept and incompetent KZN government and will not rest until accountability measures are brought to bear.

At the same time, the DA will pursue all procurement irregularities to ensure that those responsible are brought to book.

Nkandla 2.0: Ramaphosa is breaking parliament just like Zuma did

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s outright refusal to answer a question around the Phala Phala debacle posed to him in today’s sitting of the National Assembly, is indistinguishable from the horror South Africans witnessed in the Zuma era where both the Presidency and the Speaker broke parliament to shield a sitting president from accountability.

President Ramaphosa has often spoken about the nine wasted years under former president Jacob Zuma, but today’s sitting has only proven that instead of bringing those nine wasted years to an end, Ramaphosa’s term of office will only seek to lengthen them. Once again, an ANC president is dodging accountability at the expense of our oversight institutions, and ultimately, at the expense of South African democracy itself.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has also revealed herself to be no different to her predecessors during the Zuma era. For hours on end in today’s sitting, the Speaker flouted parliamentary rules and processes by disallowing members of parliament to rightly interrogate President Ramaphosa over Phala Phala, an abominable indictment on the independence and impartiality of the office of the Speaker, and on the integrity of parliament as South Africa’s chief oversight institution.

Now, more than ever, Parliament needs to establish an ad-hoc committee to investigate Phala Phala, a request that the DA has repeatedly called for, and a request which the Speaker of parliament has avoidably denied. Parliament must not be restrained by a Speaker whose allegiance is to her party, and not the people of South Africa. The DA will seek to move a motion of no confidence in Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for shielding the executive from scrutiny.

For all his promises to undo the untold damage inflicted upon our country by his very own party over the last decade, President Ramaphosa has revealed himself to be no different from any other ANC cadre deployed to destroy what’s left of South Africa’s institutions. Nearly five years after the removal of Jacob Zuma from office, and after one of the most comprehensive investigations into rampant and unfettered corruption under ANC-sponsored state capture in the Zondo Report, South Africans are experiencing worrying déjà-vu.

The DA will continue to fight to the very end to ensure that South Africa, our democracy, and our institutions are not hijacked once again to bend to the will of the ANC and its president. President Cyril Ramaphosa is accountable to the people of the republic, and the DA will ensure that South Africans are rightly provided with the answers they deserve for his blatant wrongdoing.

DA provides free advice to the President on how to root out corruption: deregister the ANC as a political party

President Cyril Ramaphosa does not need to appoint an anti-corruption “advisory council” that will again inevitably cost the taxpayers millions.

The DA will give him advice for free.

To root out corruption, the President merely needs to fire his corrupt poverty cabinet. Even better, he should go to the nearest IEC office and deregister the ANC as a political party – thereby deactivating the biggest crime syndicate in the country.

Today, the DA submitted parliamentary questions to find out the cost of the anti-corruption advisory council that the President announced yesterday.

South Africans deserve to know what another toothless council, merely set up as window-dressing, will cost them.

For years now Ramaphosa has been promising the country that he will root out corruption. Yet, in response to the DA’s court action to have cadre deployment declared illegal, he stated that the Zondo Commission was “not binding” – implying that the Commission was essentially a mere “advisory committee”. One that cost the South African taxpayers R1 billion.

It is very clear that this President, who hides millions of dollars in his furniture, is in no way serious about rooting out corruption. And the latest stunt does not fool the DA.

Over 200 public servants are serving as councillors

Please find attached soundbite by Dr Mimmy Gondwe MP

As at 31 May 2022, a total of 281 public servants were serving as either PR or ward councillors in various municipal councils. This is according to information in a written reply to a Parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance (DA), to the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), on the number of public servants currently serving as public representatives, in various capacities, at municipal councils.

Further, according to the DPSA, out of the 281 public servants serving as councillors, approximately 30 are employed in national departments and the remaining 251 in provincial departments. The province of Kwa-Zulu Natal has the highest number of public servants serving as councillors, with 150 public servants serving as either PR or ward councillors.

Moreover, 86 % of the public servants in Kwa-Zulu Natal currently serving as councillors are employed in the Provincial Department of Basic Education.

The Public Service Act provides public servants with leeway to serve as councillors, but only on a part-time basis.

While public servants may undertake part-time council work as PR councillors, this is often not the case for the position of ward councillor as Schedule 5 of the Municipal Structures Act, provides that a full-time councillor may not undertake any other paid work, except with the consent of a municipal council.

This then begs the question of how many of the public servants, currently serving as councillors, sought and obtained approval from their respective municipal councils to continue working as public servants.

In an attempt to solicit an answer to this question and to ensure that the identified public servants are serving as councillors with the requisite approval from their respective municipal councils, the DA will, today, submit follow-up questions to the Minister of Cooperative Governance, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, requesting her to confirm, amongst other things, how many of the public servants which are currently as serving councillors have sought and obtained approval from their respective councils to continue their employment in the public service.