Minister Motshekga tells parents to look after their children “outside” classrooms if they opt out of Comprehensive Sexual Education

In a response to a Democratic Alliance (DA) question in Parliament on Wednesday on whether the Department of Basic Education plans on formulating an alternative policy to the Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) for parents who choose to opt-out their children, the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga responded by stating:

“If parents want their children not to learn what other children are learning, [parents] will have to come to our schools [and] when it’s the class for that subject [CSE] come and look after their kids outside. After the class bring them back.” 

The DA is flabbergasted by the Minister’s comments as it speaks to a great insensitivity to the genuine concerns of parents across the country.

In a previous response to a DA Parliamentary question, the Minister stated that parents will be able to opt-out of the curriculum provided they can have an alternative curriculum that meets the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) requirements. Now, the Minister has gone a step further by stating that parents will have to mind their children at school, during the period when the CSE is being taught.

Given the confusion and fear which exist in the public domain about the content contained in CSE material, the DA would have expected a more serious and responsible response from the Minister.

Parents and schools need to be satisfied that the level of detail included in the CSE is age appropriate and not harmful to children.

The DA is of the view that sex education must strike a careful balance between equipping young people with the information they need to make the right choices, without unintentionally over-sexualizing learners.

Minister Cele and Parliament bungle Firearm Amnesty

In terms of Section 139 (2) (a) of the Firearm Control Act a notice to declare a firearm amnesty will only be valid if it is approved by Parliament.

Police Minister Bheki Cele and the majority of the members of the portfolio committee on Police have rushed the approval of the firearm amnesty and in so doing may have exposed Parliament and SAPS to unnecessary and costly litigation.

At the outset the Democratic Alliance (DA) warned that the process should be approached with caution and due diligence so as not to cause confusion.

The DA has now written to Minister Cele encouraging him to terminate the current amnesty notice and restart the process. A new notice should be sent to Parliament so that all technicalities can be ironed out by SAPS and presented to Parliament for approval.

Below is the timeline of the process as it has unfolded:

  • On 28 August 2019 the Minister tabled a notice to declare an amnesty with the Speaker of Parliament. The notice had as its commencement date the 1st of October 2019.
  • On 11 September the Committee Chairperson added the firearm amnesty as a last minute item to the agenda for the committee and SAPS hurriedly presented to the committee with a presentation designed for the NCOP. The committee rightly sent SAPS back to address a number of concerns and shortcomings.
  • On 23 October SAPS returned to the committee with the original notice which still had its commencement date as 1 October. The committee could not retrospectively approve the amnesty and so, in its meeting, it amended the commencement date from 1 October to 1 December and referred the matter to the National Assembly (NA). The DA reserved our rights.
  • On the 21st of November a report from the portfolio committee was tabled in the National Assembly. No notice was attached to this report (not the original notice nor an amended notice) and the committee, up to this stage, had not been provided with the final amended notice. In the debate in the NA the DA opposed the amnesty notice and the report citing procedural concerns relating to the notice and its commencement date.
  • On the 27th of November the Minister of Police gazetted the notice with the amended commencement date of 1 December but his signature on the notice is dated 28 August 2019 which was the date of the draft notice.
  • Finally, the committee had agreed to a list of 46 police stations to be excluded from the amnesty. The notice gazetted by the Minister on 27 November 2019 only listed 3 police stations.

In their haste, the Minister and the Portfolio Committee have caused unnecessary confusion which may well lead to costly legal action being brought against the Minister and Parliament.

The notice to declare an amnesty must be withdrawn by the Minister so that SAPS can ensure that all technicalities are dealt with and the notice must be sent back to Parliament.

The DA will not allow Parliament to become a rubber stamp for the Executive.

Public Service Commission: DA 2 – ANC 0

For the second week in a row, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Parliament helped stop Luthuli House from “deploying” disgraced ANC cadre Zanele Hlatshwayo to capture the Public Service Commission (PSC). In terms of the Constitution, at least 201 members of the National Assembly need to vote in favour of a candidate to recommend them for appointment to the PSC. Last week, the ANC fell short by 33 votes. Despite what was doubtless a week of intense pressure from Ace Magashule at Luthuli House, today the ANC’s second effort to appoint this disgraced cadre again fell short by 26 votes.

The deep divide within the ANC over this disgraceful candidate is now holding the PSC hostage, and undermining its ability to do its crucial work of holding public servants accountable. The position of PSC commissioner has been vacant since 2 April 2019, and due to the escalating battle within the ANC, Parliament will not have another opportunity to fill the vacancy before February next year.

The DA reiterates our call that Hlatshwayo’s name must be immediately withdrawn as she is not independent nor fit and proper. Instead, we recommend the appointment of Kevin Malunga, the current Deputy Public Protector of the Republic who also applied for the PSC position. Unlike Hlatshwayo, Malunga is a distinguished public servant and not an ANC cadre.

From the very start of the process, the DA has warned that appointing Hlatshwayo would undermine the independence of the PSC, which is required by the Constitution to be “independent and impartial.” Hlatshwayo was reportedly 33rd on the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal list to become a Member of Parliament. In her CV, she boasts about being an active national working committee member of SANCO. This cadre also removed all doubt about her political bias when she stated during her interview that “I will never stop being political.”

She is also not a “fit and proper” person, as the Constitution demands. Hlatshwayo destroyed the Msunduzi municipality during her time as mayor between 2007 and 2010. She allegedly spent millions of Rands in taxpayer funds on her pet projects, including an extravagant trip to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration as president of the United States. After only three years, even the ANC had had enough and fired her. In the wake of hurricane Hlatshwayo, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government was forced to place Msunduzi under administration.

As a vital and independent constitutional organization, the PSC must not be captured by a disgraced cadre, and it must also not be held hostage by the ANC’s deepening internal political divides. After two successive defeats in Parliament, it is clear that cadre Hlatshwayo does not have the confidence of the representatives of the South African people. It is high time to withdraw Hlatshwayo’s recommendation and instead recommend Kevin Malunga.

Minister Mbalula confirms that the Moloto Railway Corridor is a pipe dream

In response to a question by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Parliament on Tuesday, the Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula finally confirmed that the Moloto Rail Corridor project was nothing but an election gimmick and a pipe dream.

In his response to the DA, the Minister said “the National Treasury declined a Public-Private Partnership TA1 application by PRASA on the 3rd of December 2015 on the basis that the project was mainly unaffordable, and the unlikelihood of the project yielding the social economic and developmental benefits as envisaged in the feasibility study”.

This essentially confirms a long held view of the DA that the project was nothing but a scheme to solicit votes for the past decade. For the past 12 years, the ANC has promised the Moloto Rail Corridor in what is clearly an attempt to dupe voters and play on the emotions of the people of Siyabuswa, KwaMhlanga, Moloto and surrounding areas in Mpumalanga. The DA will continue to seek accountability for this project, given the fact that in the 2013/14 financial year the Department of Transport (DoT) had already spent more than R10 million on the project and a further R7.6 million in the 2014/15 financial year on undertaking a detailed feasibility study that was concluded in October 2014. This will constitute a R18 million in taxpayers money that has gone down the drain for this “pie in the sky” project.

The most patriotic thing South Africans can do is help shutdown SAA

The following speech was delivered in Parliament’s debate on the 2019 Medium Term Budget Policy.

Chair,

The story of this budget and the circumstances that inform it is the story, repeated so often in so many parts of the world, of the inevitable collision between the vain ideology of state control, and what is fair and right for society.

Our country continues to suffer low growth, and a shrinking economy, as confirmed by StatsSA yesterday, and continues to suffer ever-growing unemployment lines, and growing poverty, but still, the government will not admit the truth that everyone now knows: the state control project has failed.

But our main objection to this budget has not been that it continues the lie of arrogant ideological stubbornness. Indeed, the Finance Minister is one of those who sees clearly the truth, and says plainly what needs to be done.

Our main objection is that the budget is so deeply and so indefensibly unfair to the 10 million unemployed South Africans, and to those living in poverty.

It is simply wrong to ask the public, and particularly the poor, to carry the cost of your failed dogma. It is ethically indefensible.

The truth is, we can build a fairer society. We can build a society in which public resources are used to care for the poor, grow the economy, and spread opportunity to all.

Let us assess it on that yardstick.

Over the course of this budget process, the Democratic Alliance has shown three things:

  1. This budget takes money from basic services on which the public at large, and the poor in particular, depend. It redirects those funds to the bailing out of zombie state owned entities.
  2. This budget takes money from the pockets of working families and redirects that money to bailing out zombie state owned entities.
  3. This budget does not present a credible plan to stabilise national debt. Indeed it sees a further explosion in national debt of R1.5 trillion over the next three years, which will burden present and future generations of taxpayers with higher taxes to pay off that debt.

Over the next three years, just under 3 million babies will be born in South Africa. They should be born into a country that offers opportunity, hope, and fairness. Instead, they will each be born with R500 000 in debt to pay off on behalf of the state, before they have even taken their first breath.

So, this budget pinches from the poor wrangles more from working families and burdens newborn babies.

Taken together, these three points show a budget which does not advance fairness in our society. If anything, it advances inequality and deepens poverty. It fails all of the basic tests.

That is why we will not support this budget. Neither should this House.

This House should not support any Budget that contains bailouts for zombie state owned companies.

Eventually, the stubborn ideology is confronted by reality. The fact is that the state should not run an airline, and I suspect that by the time we meet in February for the main budget, we will not have a state-run airline.

This is a key test of credibility for the government and for Treasury. If the government capitulates, prostrate themselves before unions and offer more guarantees to lenders, they will show themselves totally incapable of doing what is necessary to rein in government spending.

If they fail this test, the government will come here to present the main budget in February with no credibility left.

SAA must be placed into business rescue to prepare for break up and sale as soon as possible.

Not one further cent of public money, or a guarantee backed by public money, should be spent on SAA.

Minister Gordhan says all South Africans must support SAA. That shows that even now, after R20 billion in bailouts in recent years, the Minister still cannot pry himself away from his ideology, no matter what it costs the poor.

No, no, no, Minister. The most patriotic thing for South Africans can do is to help shut down SAA.

The public could force SAA into closure in a matter of days, by simply refusing to fly on it, so that it can be wound up and sold off.

Chair,

This will not be a restful Christmas for the Minister of Finance.

By February, he must deliver R160 billion in cuts to the public wage bill, he must get debt under control, he must present a plan to slash the deficit, and he must lead the government in shutting down SAA.

And he must do it without cutting services to the poor, and without taxing working families.

That is what we judge him on today, it is what we will judge him on in February, and it is why we will not support this budget.

Tourism Minister confirms Western Cape only province with additional programmes to keep local and international tourists safe

In a response to a Democratic Alliance (DA) question, the Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, confirmed in the National Assembly today that DA-governed Western Cape and the City of Cape Town are the only governments to have additional safety tourism programmes.

The National Department of Tourism has introduced the Tourism Safety Monitor Programme in all the provinces.  This programme is being rolled out across the country. However, only the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town have additional programmes to ensure the safety of tourists.

The City of Cape Town will roll out the Bank-Aid Programme.  Through Band-Aid the City will provide services such, but not limited to, Trauma counselling, Translation services and assistance with lost or stolen passports and bank cards.

In addition, Cape Town has appointed Tourism Safety Ambassadors who serve as additional on-the-ground support in the CBD and other tourism hotspots. They guide visitors around the city, offer advice and keep a keen eye out for any suspicious behavior.

It is clear that through these tangible programmes that only the DA-governed Western Cape and the City of Cape Town are serious about ensuring the safety of local and international visitors.  Although all and sundry talk about the importance of the safety of tourists, no other Province is actually doing something about it.  Only the DA, is demonstrating and understands that the safety of tourists are intricately linked to the overall success of tourism in South Africa which is an “easy win” for economic growth and job creation.

SAA Board finally acknowledges reckless trading

South African Airways (SAA) has this week submitted, to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), a report outlining its plans to finally submit their long overdue annual financial statements to Parliament. At a 13 November SCOPA meeting, the board of directors admitted that the national carrier is insolvent and bankrupt, but denied that it was trading recklessly.

Despite the desperate financial circumstances of SAA, its board of directors have steadfastly refused to publish annual financial statements for the past two financial years and are clearly acting in violation of Section 55 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). In addition to this, the board has essentially allowed SAA to trade recklessly for some time as the national carrier has not been able to pay its debts when they become payable and thus have acted in violation of Section 22 of the Companies Act.

When the Democratic Alliance (DA), at the 13 November SCOPA meeting, stated that the SAA directors were allowing the airline to trade recklessly, they vehemently denied this claim. Now, a mere two weeks later the board of directors, in its report to SCOPA, acknowledge that they are allowing SAA to trade recklessly, as:

  • “lenders were not willing to extend facilities even on the strength of government guarantees”; and
  • “In the circumstances it is clear that the uncertainty of not knowing whether shareholder’s funding is available to the Board and commitment to supply a suitable guarantee to the lenders means the Board can no longer rely on the Bowmans opinion and therefore it would be reckless for the company to continue trading.”

The time has come for SAA to be honest with the public and Parliament, and admit that the airline is at  a point of no return.

The DA will continue to hold the Minister of Public Enterprises and the board and executives of SAA accountable for the billions of Rands of wasteful expenditure on the failing airline all at the expense of service delivery and economic development that would give opportunities for all South Africans, but particularly the poor, to achieve their full potential and to pull themselves out of poverty.

Millionaire Managers have collapsed performance management in the public service

The Democratic Alliance (DA) can today reveal that 77% of the most highly paid millionaire managers in the public service failed to submit their 2018/19 midterm performance reviews on time by the deadline of 31 September 2019. Moreover, nearly half of all millionaire Directors-General (DGs) and Heads of Department (HODs) have, to date, completely ignored the rules by failing altogether to submit performance reviews.

Each of these DGs who brazenly ignored the law and rules of performance management are paid about R2 million per year. We are tired of the way in which they continually insult South Africans by flagrantly ignoring the rules. Today, the DA publishes the names of all the millionaire managers at DG and HOD level who couldn’t be bothered to comply. See the full list here.

By not submitting their midterm performance reviews, these millionaire cadres have made it impossible for the government to even try and monitor their performance. As usual, the only exception to this collapse is the DA-run Western Cape Government, where every single HOD completed their review on time. This is because, unlike the ANC, the DA runs an accountable government and appoints public servants on merit.

In contrast, not one ANC-led government complied. In the national government, 15 millionaire managers simply ignored the rules, followed closely by the collapsed ANC-led provincial governments of Gauteng (11), North West (11), the Eastern Cape (7), Mpumalanga (7), Northern Cape (5), Limpopo (2), KwaZulu-Natal (1), and the Free State (1).

In a demonstration of how just fundamentally performance management is ignored by the ANC, in Gauteng (David Makhura), the Free State (Sisi Ntombela), and North West (Job Mokgoro), even the offices of the Premier failed to conduct performance reviews.

It is not an accident that the majority of millionaire cadres deployed by the ANC routinely fail to comply with performance management requirements. The truth is that they do everything in their power to avoid any form of accountability for the fact that they earn multimillion Rand salaries while delivering nothing but rapidly accelerating state collapse.

It is high time that the government held millionaire managers accountable by cutting the bloated wage bill that is threatening the fiscal survival of South Africa. It can do so by implementing the DA’s proposal to freeze the wages of all managers and administrators for three years and reducing the number of millionaire managers in the public service by a third. This will save taxpayers R168 billion, which will prevent fiscal collapse and stave off junk status. At the same time, ANC-led governments need to ditch cadre deployment and follow the DA example of building a fit-for-purpose public service.

DA to present its Cheaper Electricity Bill in Parliament tomorrow

A copy of the Cheaper Electricity Bill can be downloaded here.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will on Tuesday present its Private Members Bill, the Independent Electricity Management Operator (IEMO) Bill also known as the Cheaper Electricity Bill, before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises.

The DA once again calls on our colleagues across the political divide to set our differences aside and support the introduction of this Bill in order to ensure secure energy security and future for all South Africans.

Electricity is an essential source of energy without which no economy can flourish,  but Eskom’s monopolistic stranglehold on electricity production and distribution has, without doubt, led to the precarious situation South Africa finds itself in today with regards to the provision of electricity. It has sabotaged our future and has been the single biggest risk to the South African economy.

It is for this reason that, the DA argues for greater competition and for private players to enter the electricity market.

The DA’s Cheaper Energy Bill seeks to break Eskom into two separate entities – a generation and transmission/distribution entity. Our plan would see a generation entity which is privatised in an effort to break Eskom’s monopoly on the production of energy, allowing Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to compete on an equal footing in the generation sector.

Well-functioning metros will be able to source energy directly from IPPs and electricity supply will ultimately become more stable, cleaner and cheaper.

The introduction of this Bill comes at a time when the governing party has literally brought the power utility to its knees, through years of corruption and maladministration, threatening to take the entire country down with it.

South Africans have lost faith in the utility’s ability to keep the lights on and the utility has effectively become a zombie enterprise that is both over-inflated and burning through taxpayers’ money at an alarming rate.

The DA is of the view that our Cheaper Electricity Bill is the only way to guarantee a profitable, efficient Eskom and an energy secure South Africa. We have reached a stage with Eskom where we have to put our political differences aside, as it is in all of our mutual interests to ensure that Eskom gets back to working for all South Africans. Failure to this will result in, not only the collapse of Eskom but the collapse of South Africa.

Ramaphosa-administration’s stance on hard labour and death sentences for offenders, at odds with Constitution

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes with concern President Cyril Ramaphosa’s comments on Sunday at the funeral of the tragically slain Precious Ramabulana.  

The President is reported to have said that “government would work to change the justice system to ensure that people convicted of crimes against women and children remain behind bars for life and under the harshest conditions.”  He went on to state that “they should not be in jail and enjoy life there, they should be subjected to hard labour – the harshest of labour.”

He is further reported to have said: “we must now have an active record of all those who are either found guilty or who have had a brush with the law on crimes against women and children.”  Yet it is his party’s government who have taken since 2007 to get the National Register of Sex Offenders up and running, and there are still no guarantees that it is either complete or accurate. 

His comments follow similar utterances by the Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, who suggested that Cabinet would discuss the return of the death sentence, and later made outrageous suggestions regarding bail for sex offenders.

One wonders who advises the Minister to encourage him making such statements.  It also brings into question whether or not the President and the Minister have come to grips with a Constitutional democracy and just how it works. These types of statements are unfortunate, emotional and coming from the President of a Constitutional democracy, frankly deeply disappointing. It is cheap talk, speaking to placate the general population, but which can never be delivered.  The tragedy which befell Precious Ramabulana happens all too often in South Africa, and now, on an almost weekly basis. 

Gender based violence (GBV) is rampant, and we all need to work together to put an end to it.  It is a complex issue and will require a multi-faceted approach to begin to address this serious problem.  The DA is committed to do all in its power to deal with GBV and all its facets in the most effective way possible.

This will, unfortunately, require a much more comprehensive approach than the frankly unconstitutional suggestions offered by President Ramaphosa.  It will also require a lot of hard work and commitment, and the political will to address the problem. The South African prison system is severely compromised, again largely thanks to the ANC / Bosasa coalition.  There is no hope of rehabilitation for offenders of any nature and increasing sentences and then throwing away the key is no solution to what is largely a societal and socio-economic problem. To suggest that hard labour or the death sentence will solve the problem is to bury one’s head in the sand, and the President will have to do so much better if we are to begin to solve the problem of GBV. 

 The government will have to stop the looting, and then put the taxpayers’ money where their mouth is, and spend money on solving the problem, including recapacitating the entire criminal justice system. We can never begin to address the scourge of GBV when the President makes simplistic statements off the cuff with no regard for the Constitution or the real, underlying causes of this massive, complex problem.