DA led Johannesburg and Tshwane tackle youth unemployment through SMME hubs

The DA-led governments in Johannesburg and Tshwane have a vision of being attractive places for young people to do business. We want these cities to be the simplest, quickest places to start a business, and where young entrepreneurs can get the support they need to turn great ideas into profitable companies.

Today I saw what progress we are making, by visiting the Khoebo Opportunity Centre (OPC) in Johannesburg and the eKasiLab Programme in Tshwane. It was inspiring to meet dozens of young entrepreneurs whose innovative ideas are shaping an exciting future for South Africa.

With 42,8% of young South Africans between the ages of 25 and 34 who are unemployed and a slow economic growth of 1.3%, these hubs are crucial to assist our youth to become actively involved in our economy and can ultimately build successful and sustainable job-creating businesses.

These are not just offices. They are spaces of creation where ideas can be turned into small businesses within hours. They offer expert advice, practical help and useful services.

These visits show what is possible with a government that facilitates successful entrepreneurialism, rather than trying to direct the economy.

A multidisciplinary team of private and public sector partners have come on board the Khoebo OPC venture with some of these key players based at the hub. Skills training and appropriate courses have been earmarked hand in hand with the partners providing an SMME “Single Point of Entry,” SARS systems and company registration, business growth, economic infrastructure, markets, funding access and document assistance.

The DA-led City of Johannesburg will launch five more OPCs by the end of the year and aim to launch fourteen by 2021. The City is setting the bar as a government that builds an enabling environment for a generation of young jobless South Africans to get work.

This encouraging progress has been matched by the City of Tshwane’s eKasiLab programme, brought about by a partnership with The Innovation Hub Management Company as part of the City’s External Innovation Programme. It is a township-based programme that has created a space for young South Africans to create and innovate in their communities, to develop entrepreneurs, stimulate the growth of young people’s skills particularly in the ICT space and for township enterprises to be created that are self-sustaining.

Already this programme is bearing much fruit. Almost 200 young entrepreneurs have already received training and 50 entrepreneurs have been accelerated through this programme. These young entrepreneurs have even been given the chance by the City to present their prototypes and those who achieved the bar set by the Innovation Steering Committee have received funding.

The Khoebo OPC and eKasiLab programme are some of the best examples of how we can together create a South Africa where every person can overcome poverty and unemployment, and achieve their fullest potential.

The DA in government is showing how creative solutions can answer seemingly intractable problems like youth unemployment.

 

Nhlanhla Nene cannot sit on the fence when it comes to transparency at the PIC

The Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, cannot sit on the fence when it comes to the “transparency clause” contained in my Private Members Bill, entitled the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B1-2018], which is currently before Parliament.

We have been informed that the minister was briefed, and did authorize, the submission of National Treasury’s response to the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B1-2018], aimed at promoting transparency at the Public Investment Corporation.

However, we were also informed that the minister was not specifically briefed, and did not specifically authorize, National Treasury’s decision to oppose the provision in the Public Investment Corporation Bill [B1-2018], aimed at promoting transparency at the Public Investment Corporation.

This follows National Treasury, the Public Investment Corporation and the Government Employees Pension Fund’s stunning “about turn” on transparency and opposition to the amendment proposed in the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B1-2018] as follows:

Amendment of section 10 of Act 23 of 2004

Section 10 of the principal Act is hereby amended by the addition after subsection (2) of the following subsection:
‘‘(3) A report reflecting all investments of deposits, whether listed or unlisted, must annually be—
(a) submitted to the Minister for tabling with the annual report of the department; and
(b) published on the website of the corporation.’’

This is a major setback for the campaign for greater transparency at the Public Investment Corporation, which is responsible for investing R1.928 trillion on behalf of its clients, most importantly the Government Employees Pension Fund, and wipes out a major disincentive to “rent seekers”, with political influence, who may want to raid the Public Investment Corporation.

That is why I will write to the Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, requesting him to clarify his position on the “transparency clause” contained in the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bill [B1-2018].

We will not sit back and allow the Public Investment Corporation to become a “piggy bank” for the “rent seekers” swarming around the governing party in South Africa.

Minister must prevent a repeat of the Esidimeni tragedy in North West

The DA will write to the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to urgently request that he ensure proper staffing and resources at the Klerksdorp/Tshepong Hospital Complex in Klerksdorp.

During our oversight inspection, we were shocked when doctors asked us for urgent help on the eve of a planned strike by NEHAWU which would see nurses down their tools. The strike in Klerksdorp is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

The doctors indicated that they are extremely concerned for the lives of patients who are currently receiving critical care. The complex (which includes Klerksdorp Hospital) has more than 1 000 beds.

Without professional nursing staff and proper care, these patients’ lives are at risk. Professional medical staff said this can escalate into “a tragedy that will have a bigger aftermath than the deaths at the Esidimeni Health Care Centre”.

NEHAWU is demanding that North West Premier, Supra Mahumapelo, steps down. During our visit, a group of members barged into the hospital complex singing and dancing amongst the waiting patients. See video here.

The hospital management confirmed they do not have enough security staff to keep order and that they will have to make use of freelance nurses once the strikes begin.

At the Khuma Clinic, in Stilfontein, there is a lack of chronic medications and some patients have been sent home without medication.

Medical staff in North West shared an open letter that was signed by 73 medical doctors. This was published in the Mail and Guardian today.

Herein they state who the biggest losers during the strikes are:

  1. Poor/ homeless;
  2. Disadvantaged;
  3. Disabled/vulnerable;
  4. Those with lack of access to private care; and
  5. Those with chronic illnesses that include HIV, TB, Hypertension, diabetes, psychiatric disorders, etc.

An extract of the letter reads: “As caregivers, we have been silent for too long. We have taken an oath to “do no harm” and in our silence, we have contributed to harm. This cannot go on as we are concerned about methods used which include closure of health care facilities that affect the health of our society. Of note provision of health care is an entrenched Constitutional right in South Africa”.

It is time for Total Change. A DA-led government will always support the Constitutional Rights of patients to receive health care and will ensure that proper resources are available to support our healthcare workers in their important quest to save lives.

Standing Committee on Finance turns a blind eye to the controversy surrounding Sagarmatha Technologies Limited

Last week, I wrote to the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, requesting a special hearing on the controversy surrounding the Public Investment Corporation, Sagarmatha Technologies Limited and Ayo Technology Solutions in Parliament.

However, today the finance committee reject my proposal for a special hearing following an intervention from the Deputy President of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Floyd Shivambu, who argued that the Public Investment Corporation had not actually invested in Sagarmatha Technologies Limited.

The suggestion that questions on the controversy could be raised at a general meeting with the Public Investment Corporation sometime in the future is ridiculous not least because no such meeting has been scheduled in the second term of Parliament.

The fact is that Standing Committee on Finance is turning a blind eye to the controversy surrounding the Public Investment Corporation, Sagarmatha Technologies Limited and Ayo Technology Solutions.

Which is a dereliction of duty given the massive exposure of the Government Employees Pension Fund to Independent Media, which was to be part of the Sagarmatha Technologies Limited.

We were assured by Dr Dan Matjila, the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Investment Corporation, when it came to the investment in Independent Media work on an “exit strategy” was underway.

The suspicion was that the “exit strategy”, referred to by Dr Dan Matjia, was Sagarmatha Technologies Limited, will probably never be confirmed, given the blind eye being turned by the Standing Committee on Finance.

Land Bank supports DA call to release land to black emerging farmers

In the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries today, the Land Bank told Parliament that they want the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) to release farms under their custodianship to black emerging farmers on a “free title ownership” basis.

In its presentation to the committee, the Land Bank weighed in on the issue of emerging farmers not having enough collateral due to historical disadvantage in terms of dispossession and a lack of ownership.

In the Western Cape we leverage approximately R80 million per annum from the private sector to support emerging farms, especially black female farmers.

The DA believes the call can be made for the same to be replicated in other provinces in order grow support for emerging farmers nationally.

This is where the ANC’s land policies have failed to fast-track and achieve meaningful land reform. To this day, too many people who were violently dispossessed of land remain destitute and without the dignity of land rights.

The DA believes that overcoming this challenge is the first step to unlocking our people’s entrepreneurial potential as this, coupled with adequate training and support, will enable black South Africans to become commercial farmers.

The Land Bank’s call to release land to emerging black farmers, as the DA has previously called for it, would enable commercial banks to finance emerging black farmers as they will have full ownership rights of the land.

The credit assessment criteria that financiers, especially commercial banks, usually apply when evaluating a farmer’s credit application includes collateral which refers to the land that the farmer has title over.

The DA has previously called for the DRDLR and other government departments to release land under their control. The Land Bank’s commitment to emerging farmers should be welcomed and the DA agrees with their call to increase funding in the form of equity support for farmers.

This goes directly against the ANC and EFF’s call for expropriation of land without compensation which is not only bad on principle but has practically failed where it’s been tried before. The ANC government has, through its land reform programme, opted for state custodianship  other than giving title deeds to black farmers.

The DA is optimistic that through key interventions, such as those advocated by the Land Bank will ensure adequate financial support and sufficient training for black emerging farmers to become successful.

The DA will continue engaging with various stakeholders and industry experts in our quest to address the land question as well as expanding support for emerging black farmers.

 

 

People of the North West far from free under the ANC and Supra

Note the following debate speech was delivered by Joe McGluwa, MPL, DA North West Leader today, Tuesday 24 April 2018 in the Provincial Legislature.

On 27 April 1994 a whole nation was bright-eyed, optimistically awaiting the dawn of the Rainbow Nation.

We were a nation ready for change and new beginnings. We were looking towards a prosperous future for all.

Now, 24 years later, we are disappointed by all the promises and good intentions. Yes, progress has been made for some but if you aren’t part of a politically connected clique, real freedom is but a dream.

Instead of real freedom, our young democracy has been captured by a selfish cabal intent on amassing wealth for themselves, while the majority are without work and go hungry. The dreams and hopes of the people were sold to the Guptas by Supra Mahumapelo.

Here in the North West, we cannot claim to be free at all. We are tied down by unemployment, corruption and the looting of state coffers.

This province has been subjected to violence – all by the doing of the Gupta gang. One of the members of this notorious gang is our own Premier Supra Mahumapelo, who refuses to step down despite the bellowing call from the people and even those in his own party.

Mahumapelo will stop at nothing to fill his pockets and cling onto power. How long will you ignore the voices of the people; the people whose money you have stolen and dreams you have shattered?

The allegations are many. Was the Gupta contract not enough reason to step down already? The R1-million bursary to his son. The collapse of the healthcare system services are not being delivered. And a million rand stolen from emerging black farmers to buy cows for another crook named Jacob Zuma.

What freedoms can our people claim when the friends of Mahumapelo are with jobs, houses, healthcare, education and services?

Our people can not be free for as long as Supra Mahumapelo and the ANC lead this Province. This Province will only be free under a DA government, which will bring total change. This kind of change will ensure that our people are able to find work, services are delivered to all and those who are corrupt sit behind bars, not in the Office of the Premier.

There is talk of early elections, so that the ANC can take advantage of Ramaphosa’s so-called new dawn. The reality is that there is no new dawn for the people of the North West, only old tricks and broken promises.

We are ready to meet you at the polls on any day. We are ready to go door-to-door, telling the people of the North West that the DA will lead and listen when the speak. Under a DA government we will not lie and loot. Under a DA government, our mothers and children will feel safe in their homes and on the streets. Under a DA government the people will always come first.

Under the ANC government in this province, which Ramaphosa is seemingly scared of, not a single municipality received a clean audit. How can our people receive the services they deserve if the money is not spent as intended for? The ANC is not qualified to lead this province.

It is actually not a difficult choice: Supra or the people; the two cannot co-exist.

Freedom Day will have meaning to the people of the North West when they are free from unemployment; when they are free from corruption and when they are free from the shackles of the ANC and Mahumapelo!

If you continue to back this member of the Gupta gang, you will be harshly punished in 2019 when the people vote for Total Change.

It is time for Total Change – where we can really live and work and prosper together. It is time to put the people first.

Freedom and Mahumapelo cannot co-exist.

Supra must go!

DHET fails to answer why poor students have not been paid their NSFAS allowances

The DA will write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, Cornelia September, requesting an urgent meeting with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) on why thousands of students have reportedly not received allowances in months.

NSFAS and the Minister of Higher Education, Naledi Pandor, needed to answer three key questions at their press conference today:

  1. How many students have not received their allowances;
  2. Why has this happened; and
  3. When will these students receive their funding?

Unfortunately, they failed to do so, aside from some vague assurances that they are “working on” some problems that have arisen with loan agreements and data integration.

This kind of vague answer means nothing to students who have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat, as has been widely reported in the media.

It is shocking that the Minister did not demand proper answers from NSFAS officials when protests continue around the country over unpaid NSFAS funding. We will therefore ask NSFAS to answer these questions before Committee.

NSFAS confirmed today that their budget for 2020/2021 will reach R35.3 billion to be distributed through the student-centred funding model that will help them allocate the right amount of money to each student.

This system should be able to tell them immediately how many students awarded funding have not received it, and why this is. If it can’t, how can we expect it to handle paying out a R35 billion budget?

It is pointless to praise a new bursary model when NSFAS cannot cover the basic needs of students. NSFAS must do the right thing and account for not delivering on their mandate of providing funding for all deserving students.

SABC spent over half a million on travel costs for officials to testify, or not, before SABC Inquiry

Please find attached a soundbite by the DA Shadow Miniter of Communications, Phumzile Van Damme MP

The SABC spent more than R680 000 on the travel costs of board members and officials who were supposed to testify before the Ad Hoc Committee on SABC Board Inquiry, some of whom refused to testify, referring to it as a “kangaroo court”.

This is according to a reply to a DA Parliamentary question.

The SABC forked out over R20 000 on flights and accommodation for former COO, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, and more than R31 000 on the travel costs of former CEO, James Aguma.

Some of the other estimated travel costs the SABC covered, include:

  • R183 000  for former SABC Chairman, Professor Mbulaheni Maguvhe;
  • R100 000 for former SABC company secretary, Theresa Geldenhuys; and
  • R34 000 for SABC company secretary, Lindiwe Bayi

Some of the hotels the officials stayed at include the five-star African Pride Crystal Towers and the Hilton Hotel in Cape Town. Clearly, no expense was spared for these extended hotel stays.

In the reply, the financially distressed SABC stated that it would not recover these monies from individuals who did not attend the Inquiry. This means that the public essentially footed the bill for a luxury holiday in Cape Town for people who destroyed a once world-class public broadcaster.

The DA will write to the Chairperson of the SABC Board, Bongumusa Makhathini, to request that the SABC recoup the costs from all individuals who travelled to Cape Town for the SABC Inquiry, but refused to testify, or walked out. The SABC must recover the monies to individuals who brought the public broadcaster to its knees.

The SABC is facing financial ruin and every cent that has been unduly spent on compromised individuals must be returned to the public broadcaster.

Solar Water Heater programme in hot water

The Department of Energy (DOE) has cut the budget for its Solar Water Heater (SWH) programme from R394 million last year to zero in the 2018/19 financial year.

The DOE’s Annual Performance Plan (APP) stated that since the programme was moved back from Eskom, over 80 000 units have been manufactured. One of the goals set out in the APP is to provide a further 20 000 households per year with non-grid (mainly solar) electrification and 57 000 solar water heaters are expected to be manufactured over the medium-term.

However, no progress has been registered in respect of the last and important phase of the SWH programme, which is the installation phase. The Department moved this phase to the Central Energy Fund (CEF) for it to commence with installation in collaboration with the Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office.

The DA will therefore write to the Minister of Energy, Jeff Radebe, to request that he explain how it came to be that there is no money allocated for the programme when almost R400 million was budgeted for it previously. The Minister must also provide steps to prevent the closure of the industry.

To date, the IPP Office and energy officials have not responded to queries on this budget cut.  The budget cuts will affect a number of small medium enterprises, with closures and job losses on the cards.

We have been informed by one such company that 85 jobs are on the line. The DA will conduct an oversight at the company to engage with the management and staff.

A further indictment on the Department is the closure of the request for proposals phase of the programme to supply SWHs. It was cancelled based on the fact that it took too long to finalise.

Because the department and IPP Office did not finalise it in time, it is now unlawful to continue with this request. This is an administration error that will cost the industry dearly.

The SWH programme is a crucial part of the energy mix and it is up to the government to ensure that its growth is supported and not threatened.

BOKAMOSO | Let’s rewrite our future, not our past

In 1962, during his Commencement Address at Yale University, John F Kennedy had this to say about the danger of substituting myths for truths: “The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

More than half a century later, we are seeing first-hand in our own democracy how myths – “widely held but false ideas” – are employed to capture the narrative and deflect attention away from failures. This is something the ANC is very fond of doing. The longer it can keep the public attention away from its many failures, the better. But in recent weeks the practice has been turbocharged, with a more brazen rewriting of our history than ever.

We’ve had to hear, from some, how Nelson Mandela was a “sell-out”. How his project of reconciling our fractured nation was somehow responsible for the injustice, inequality and exclusion that still characterises our society today. It is difficult to imagine a more preposterous suggestion. 

We’ve had to witness Desmond Tutu’s name being dragged through the mud, and aspersions cast over the important work he and the Commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission did in the 90’s.

We’ve had to watch as principled journalists – men and women who fought for truth and exposed the apartheid government – were summarily rebranded as apartheid spies in the service of the notorious Stratcom division.

We’ve had to hear repeated lies about Judge Ramon Leon following his death – newspapers incorrectly calling him the “hanging judge”, and influential commentators and politicians happily going along with the lie.

The big question is: Why? Why is there this desire to rewrite our history? Why is it deemed necessary to tarnish the names of honourable men and women in order to establish a new set of myths as the “truth”? Post-truth politics is a very slippery slope that doesn’t end well for society. Why would we risk going there?

The answer is simple. The South Africa of today has fallen far short of the promises made to millions of our people. And the people that delivered us here, a quarter of a century into our democracy, have run out of credible explanations for our present and believable promises for our future. The only option that remains is to rewrite our past to conjure up new enemies that could explain the failure of the ANC today.

George Orwell famously wrote in his 1984 novel: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” In other words, if you can determine how history is remembered and retold, you can secure your power going forward. And if you have power right now, you can ensure that you are the writer of this history.

This explains the obsessive arguing over past narratives. If South Africans can be convinced that the 1994 consensus was actually a deal with the devil, then this can be used to excuse the present mess and lay claim to the future.

And so we see, from the ANC, a fixation with symbolism over substance. This allows them to avoid the hard work of changing people’s lives. It buys them leeway when it comes to delivering services, holding poor performance to account, tackling corruption, fixing education and creating an environment in which South Africa’s entrepreneurial spirit can awaken.

It’s a self-serving tactic that is used at great cost to the people of this country. It ignores their lived reality and it offers them no plan to improve this reality. Instead, it just conjures up more scapegoats and enemies to blame.

Unfortunately our media are often complicit in this. They allow narratives to be framed by the ANC, and they accept their rewritten version of the past as the truth. These debates then dominate our discourse, at the expense of real stories about the failures of government in our schools, our hospitals and our communities – stories that tell of the lived experience of millions of South Africans.

It’s not easy to shift the narrative back to the issues that matter. The DA is constantly accused of not having a plan for South Africa. But the truth is that there is no other party with as many detailed and costed policies as the DA, as any cursory visit to our website would show. The trouble is that in the world of clickbait and social media soundbite politics, our plans and our policy are typically not deemed newsworthy when held up against the myths of the ANC. 

This will not deter us though. The DA is the party for the future. We are not concerned with owning and rewriting the past. Our job is to convince enough people that we have a vision and a plan to build a future that works for all.

I’m talking about a truly democratic era where people go to the ballot to express their future ideals and not their race. I’m talking about a future with a healthy, inclusive economy that can wipe out the inequalities in our society derived from race. A future where our country is a sought-after investment destination and the gateway to Africa. A future where all young people receive an education that enables them to compete for a better tomorrow; where the landless can be owners and where the hungry can escape poverty.

This is the South Africa we have to build together. Because if we continue down the path we’re currently on, then we have to accept that our future is already written for us. And that is not a future I want for my children. That’s why we need total change.

Forget about rewriting the past – we need to rewrite our future.