Hawks must now prioritise an investigation into the Guptas R70 million tax refund

The DA notes the move by the Hawks and the South African Revenue Services (SARS) on arresting nine suspects linked to a VAT scam that has cost the economy R90 million.

We are encouraged by this move and hopeful that more similar arrests will take place soon.

The Hawks must do everything that is within their power in order to investigate and prosecute with equal diligence the Gupta proceeds, implicating them in a suspicious R70 million tax pay-out from SARS last year.

This includes obtaining the necessary court orders to gain access to information that is with SARS.

The DA urges Police Minister, Fikile Mbalula, to ensure that the Hawks have all the necessary support that they need in this regard.

SARS paid this money into the bank account of Oakbay Investments. Normally, pay-outs are only paid into the account of the taxpayer and not into the account of the third party or proxy.

This was after South Africa’s major banks closed Gupta-linked accounts.

The DA finds the personal involvement by SARS Commissioner, Tom Moyane, in intervening and securing the payment into the Gupta account far from regular.

SARS cannot be used to advance certain agendas for politicians and those who are politically connected such as the Gupta family.

The extent of corruption and State Capture by the Guptas has collapsed institutions and State-Owned-Enterprises, which has adversely impacted on the country’s economy and jobs.

That is why the Guptas must fully account for every cent that they have unduly benefitted by stealing the fruits of the hard labour of innocent South Africans.

Mbalula must show decisive leadership and offer both the Hawks and SARS all the necessary support needed to establish and expedite the investigation into R70 million Gupta tax refund.

Resignation of ESKOM Chairperson welcome, but heads must roll

The DA welcomes the long-overdue resignation of ESKOM Chairperson, Zethemba Khoza. However, his resignation does not absolve him of the role he played in ESKOM’s decline and the DA will not allow Khoza, or any other person implicated in corruption at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or State Capture, to escape the consequences.

It is imperative that there is no unnecessary delay in the appointment of a new ESKOM Chair and CEO. We cannot allow speculation to do even more damage to our besieged energy utility.

Khoza’s resignation and the leadership vacuum at ESKOM once again shows Minister Lynn Brown’s complete inability to manage our SOEs.

The appointment of suitable and capable Chairperson and CEO is only the first step in helping ESKOM recover from the chronic mismanagement and looting which has brought the parastatal to the brink of collapse.

We are making history as we plot our country’s new beginning

My fellow Democrats,
The best gift South Africans can receive this festive season is an assurance that 2018 will be better than 2017. That our country is headed for a better future, and that those responsible for the looting of the state are brought to book.
We now have a reason for precisely such news. On Thursday the deadline came and went for Jacob Zuma to make representations to the NPA regarding his 783 counts of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering.
Now there can be no more delaying. The NPA has to announce the date of his first court appearance.
Like any charged criminal, Jacob Zuma must appear in court to have his charges formally put to him. I am calling on Shaun Abrahams to schedule this initial appearance to take place before Christmas this year. There is no reason why this should not happen.
In fact, any ordinary criminal would have had their charges presented in court before making any representations to the NPA. Why Jacob Zuma should be regarded as an extraordinary criminal still needs to be explained.
What we do know is that, according to Abrahams, all the evidence is still available for trial, and the witnesses would have been contacted by this week. So we are good to go. Let’s have that court date then, and let’s have it within the next three weeks.
South Africans deserve to head into the new year with some straight answers and a promise of swift justice.
Democrats,
Yesterday was great day for democracy in our country, but it was a truly awful day for the ruling party. Two separate Motions of No Confidence and one municipal-wide by-election later, and it has become clear that the political tide in South Africa has shifted a great deal.
In Johannesburg, the members of the Metro council said an emphatic No to the ANC’s attempts to remove Mayor Mashaba from office.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, the members of the Metro council said an emphatic No to attempts to remove Mayor Athol Trollip from office.
And in Metsimaholo in the Free State, the people of Sasolburg, Kragbron and Deneysville said an emphatic No to the idea of going back to an ANC government.
We are seeing a new chapter unfolding for our country – a chapter in which the ANC will play no role. It will be written by those who want what’s best for South Africa and can work together to make it happen.
In this new chapter, there will be no place for the corrupt and the dishonest. There will be no place for Presidents who serve the Guptas or for ministers who push through nuclear deals. There will be no place for fat cats in blue light convoys, like the Premier of this province.
There will be no place for public servants who run their towns into the ground, but still live it up like Hollywood celebrities. People like the Mayor of Madibeng, who just blew R100,000 in six months renting a luxury BMW while her municipality can’t even pay for water.
What we saw yesterday in Joburg, in Nelson Mandela Bay and in Metsimaholo were signs of this new post-ANC South Africa. It’s taken a long time to get here, but the movement for change will quickly gather momentum.
Democrats, you have an important role to play in writing this new chapter for our country. What you do, over the next 18 months, to bring our message of change to the people of the North-West will be of critical importance to our campaign.
Your job begins with the proceedings here at this Provincial Congress today. You are tasked with electing leadership that will not serve individuals or factions, or even the party. Your job is to choose leaders who will serve ordinary South Africans, and particularly the poor.
Once we have accomplished this, then the real work begins – then we must take our message into every community and convince the people that we have a plan that can pull South Africa back from the brink.
I am often asked what this plan is. People want to know what we will do differently from the ANC. Apart from not stealing and not wasting public funds, what steps will we take to boost the economy and create jobs?
There are many parts of our plan that will require time to be implemented and to bear fruit, like overhauling education and reducing the size of our bloated state. But there are a number of key interventions we can make straight away that will have a profound effect on our economy. And I’d like to mention six of them:
Number one: we must sort out our State-Owned Enterprises. And by sort out, I mean make a decision on which ones are strategic to us and which ones are not. Then we must sell the non-strategic ones, and appoint qualified, uncaptured boards to the strategic ones.
Number two: We have to reform our labour legislation so that it does not get in the way of job creation. Small and medium enterprises must create the bulk of the new jobs we need. To do so, they must be able to compete with big businesses and cannot be held to the same restrictive regulations.
Number three: We must change our approach to redress and empowerment. To be of any value, BEE has to be truly broad-based – it has to serve the 99%, not the 1%. One way to achieve this is through a redress fund – what I call a Jobs and Justice Fund – which will incentivise companies to fund new entrants into key sectors of the economy.
Number four: We have to fling our doors open to the rest of the world when it comes to trade and investment. This means reducing corporate taxes, abolishing exchange controls, removing trade barriers and establishing export processing zones. It also means better regional integration into Africa.
Number five: While we’re opening our doors to trade and investment, we must also do so for tourists. Yes, our country already does well from tourism, but we can do so much more if we made it easier for people to travel here. And we can start by issuing travel visas upon arrival.
And number six: We must immediately appoint a real head to the NPA. Not a puppet of the Presidency whose only job it is to shield his boss from the law. Someone who stands independent and who treats every citizen as equal before the law. Going forward, the power to make this appointment must be taken away from the President and handed to Parliament.
There are many more things we could do in the medium to long term, but these six steps can give an immediate boost to our country’s economy and help provide a new beginning for millions of South Africans.
It is clear that none of these steps will be implemented by the ANC, and so it will fall to a new government in 2019 to do so.
If anyone still thought 2019 was too ambitious a goal for a DA-led government in the Union Buildings, then yesterday’s developments in Joburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and Metsimaholo would have gone a long way towards erasing those doubts.
People are turning their backs on the ANC in great numbers. Whatever happens later this month at Nasrec – whoever they elect to replace Jacob Zuma – will make no difference at all. The ANC is already dead.
Our future lies in a post-ANC South Africa. A South Africa served by an honest, accountable and selfless DA-led government.
We are making history, and each of you in this room is part of this remarkable effort.
Thank you.

BOKAMOSO | In the 21st century, corruption shouldn’t be this easy.

With so many blows raining on the Zupta state capture project, one could be forgiven for expecting it to be on its knees, with the looters beating a hasty retreat. The fightback includes: the incriminating GuptaLeaks; Bell Pottinger’s demise; KPMG, McKinsey and SAP in the firing line; global media coverage; the Supreme Court of Appeal judgement last week that revived Zuma’s 2009 corruption charges; parliamentary inquiries and Gerrie Nel’s private prosecution of Duduzane Zuma – all major blows against the looters.
And yet if anything, the state capture project is picking up pace. Recently, the Zuptas have targeted the PIC, staged an aggressive campaign to get their candidate installed as ANC president, and continued a brisk looting spree at SOEs. The project went into overdrive this week, when President Zuma reshuffled his cabinet to fast track his nuclear deal by deploying a close and compliant crony, David Mahlobo, as Energy Minister. Mahlobo wasted no time in confirming his support for nuclear energy, even as Brian Dames, former CEO and nuclear physicist at Eskom, told Parliament that South Africa doesn’t need and cannot afford nuclear.
The fact is, the Zuptas played a long-term game, lining up their supporters and fortifying their defense years ago. It has held up against every blow. Their strategy for narrow self-enrichment has won out against our Constitution, which was designed to heal the wounds of the past and build an inclusive, prosperous nation. Impressive as it is, the new Constitution just wasn’t designed with such parasitic leadership in mind.
No matter what else separates us as South Africans, we all agree that corruption must have no place in a free and democratic South Africa. It is the greatest enemy in our fight against poverty, unemployment and inequality. So we have to up our game and put in place new systems that combat it. There must be no way for corruption to take hold and flourish in our country.
The DA has some big, bold ideas to win the war against corruption.
For one thing, South Africa needs a new and powerful independent commission dedicated to fighting corruption – a kind of Scorpions on steroids. It must have a high level of independence – it cannot be answerable to the executive. Candidates for leadership must be short-listed by Parliament and then appointed by the Judicial Services Commission, based on competence, experience and ethical conduct.
This corruption-busting unit must be well resourced, and have comprehensive powers to investigate and prosecute. It must have a 24 hour corruption reporting centre where people may anonymously report corrupt activities in either the private or public sector. The DA would enforce a minimum fifteen year sentence for those found guilty of corruption.
Prevention is as important as cure, and a DA government would use genius new Blockchain technology to make the payment of all public money transparent. Blockchain may be the most revolutionary invention of the 21st century. It enables a payment system that is decentralized, totally transparent and virtually incorruptible. It would totally transform public finances management, making every transaction concerning public money publicly available.
The system requires transactions to be verified by more than one person or entity, and only once all verifiers have approved the transaction, the transfer of money occurs. The transaction is combined with other transactions to create a new block of data in a digital ledger that is permanent and unalterable. The technology would be used not just for transactions but for tender processes too – a kind of “internet of public finances management”.
It is time to get really tough on corruption. These, and other such big, bold ideas, would equip South Africa well to fight and win the war. Under a DA government, there will be no place for corrupt politicians, public servants and business people to hide. Building a free, fair and opportunity-driven society begins with defeating corruption. We South Africans have learnt that the hard way. But if we can build systems that make our society robust and resilient as a result, it may yet turn out to have been a valuable lesson.

DA calls for a debate of national importance on SAA’s financial position

The DA will call for a debate of national importance on the financial position of South African Airways (SAA).
SAA recorded a loss of R1.5 billion in 2015/16 which spiked to R4.7 billion in 2016/17. At the current rate, it seems almost certain that the airline will record an even higher loss in 2017/18 than in the previous financial year.
Investors are already not willing to invest because of the poor state of SAA. In June, Standard and Chartered’s unwillingness to roll over their loan to SAA caused a R2.203 billion bailout and recent revelations confirm that Citibank will not extend a R1.8 billion loan due at the end of September.
The total loan amount maturing at the end of September amounts to R6.785 billion. There is next to no hope that any of the lenders will roll the debt over.
Finance Minister, Malusi Gigaba, has therefore approved a R10 billion bailout for 2017/18 which does not even take in to account the R23.3 billion in bailouts and guarantees to SAA over the past decade. However, given that the corporate plan and memo indicate that there will be a R13 billion bailout from 2017/18 to 2019/20, it can be assumed that there is a R3 billion bailout planned for either next year or the year thereafter.
The airline has R7.8 billion in debt maturing between 2019 and 2022. Assuming that the R13 billion will be the last bailout would mean that the airline could pay its debt that matures between 2019 and 2022 which is entirely untenable. Therefore, another bailout beyond 2019 is highly likely.
SAA is a colossal drag on the fiscus and highlights the drain that State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) present to our country, with a staggering R780 billion in guarantees already extended to SOEs. This debate of national importance on the ticking time bomb that is SAA is more imperative now than ever before.

DA welcomes Johannesburg High Court’s decision to set aside ‘tall trains’ tender

The DA welcomes the judgment by the Johannesburg High Court to set aside the controversial Swifambo Rail Leasing contract.
Swifambo, which had no previous experience in the rail industry when it won the tender in March 2013, was contracted to supply 70 new locomotives to Prasa at a cost of R3.5 billion. The company received an initial payment of R460 million and supplied 13 locomotives but they were too tall and thus unsuitable for South Africa’s railways.
It was also alleged that the ANC were beneficiaries of an R80 million bribe aimed at securing the deal for Swifambo, with payments made to Zuma-aligned Maria de Cruz Gomes for business unrelated to Prasa’s operations. The DA has already previously laid charges in this regard in 2016.
The judgment states that “harm will be done to the administration of justice” and “corruption will triumph” if the court did not set aside the tender.
This is an indictment on Prasa and exposes how flawed the procurement procedures of Prasa and many other state-owned entities (SOEs) are.
The judgment is thus welcomed as it reaffirms the strength of the country’s judiciary and gives us hope that more SOEs can be rescued from State Capture, corrupt ANC officials and unscrupulous “businesspeople”.

DA rejects Parliament’s half-baked state capture “probe” and reiterates need for ad hoc committee

The DA is angered by the 19 June announcement by Parliament that a select number of parliamentary committees have been directed to “urgently probe” allegations of state capture and report back to the National Assembly. This is an ANC attempt to shield President Jacob Zuma and the executive from answering to serious State Capture evidence.
This half-baked “probe” has been introduced by the ANC in bad faith and without any effort to gain multi-party agreement.
It is especially exasperating considering the ongoing discussions taking place in the Chief Whips’ Forum around Parliament’s response to allegations of state capture and the “special meeting” of the Forum which is scheduled to discuss, among other things, the Public Protector’s State of Capture Report on Wednesday, 21 June.
The instruction, reportedly issued by House Chairperson of Committees, Cedric Frolick, for the chairpersons of the portfolio committees on Home Affairs, Mineral Resources, Public Enterprises and Transport to “ensure immediate engagement with the concerned Ministers to ensure that Parliament gets to the bottom of the allegations” is both disingenuous and an attempt at subterfuge. It is also unclear by what authority the Chairperson has issued this instruction as his authority is limited to “implement[ing] policy or guidelines on the scheduling and co-ordination of meetings of all committees”. Portfolio committees may initiate probes themselves or can be instructed to do so by the House; the Chairperson does not have that authority.
This proposal was never brought before the Chief Whips’ Forum for discussion and, as such, ignores the opinion of 12 parties representing millions of voters in Parliament.
Furthermore, the investigation into state capture cannot be narrowly reduced to those four portfolios and cannot be effectively carried out by “engaging” the concerned Ministers as several ministers are at the heart of the state capture allegations.
Indeed, this proposed course of action conveniently side-steps the most prominent member of the Executive, President Jacob Zuma, whose relationship with the Gupta family is the very nexus of the state capture allegations.
On Wednesday, 21 June, the DA will once again lobby support for our draft resolution into the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee on State Capture. This committee will be the only way in which Parliament will be able to hold the entire Executive to account, including the president and deputy ministers, and can easily conduct its business in concert with the relevant portfolio committees.
To illustrate, the Ad Hoc Committee on State Capture can begin its enquiry “into [the] undue influence by certain individuals over the executive in their exercise of executive authority” precisely as the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises begins its inquiry into Eskom, a process which is scheduled to commence on 21 June. The DA has consistently lobbied for portfolio committees to carry out inquiries into allegations of state capture, especially those actions targeting our state-owned entities (SOEs). However, recent allegations have shown that the tentacles of state capture extends well beyond a clutch of SOEs and certainly beyond the four committees tasked with carrying out this “Parliamentary probe”. The DA recognises the sterling work done by portfolio committees in the recent past, but we cannot afford “probes” that pass the blame to officials and let members of the Executive off the hook.
Consider the case of former Minister of Communications and current Minister of Public Service and Administration, Faith Muthambi: how will the proposed “probe” deal with the allegations that she sent confidential information on cabinet meetings to the Guptas? How will this “probe” deal with the well-ventilated accusations, also confirmed by then-Deputy Minister of Finance, Mcebisi Jonas, that the Guptas were aware and possibly influenced Cabinet appointments? The “probe” also conveniently glosses over key departments which have allegedly been targets of state capture in recent times, including the departments of Finance, Communications and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Agreement was reached during last week’s Chief Whips’ Forum that Parliament should never again be found wanting, as was the case with the Nkandla debacle. However, instead of dealing decisively with the scourge of state capture, the ANC in Parliament are weaseling out by choosing to implement a damage containment strategy. This is the wrong choice to make and will once again leave Parliament exposed to accusations of failing to perform its effective oversight role.
The DA is undeterred and will continue to fight for the creation of an Ad Hoc Committee on State Capture.

South Africa is NOT for sale

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, Natasha Mazzone MP, during the Budget Vote on Public Enterprises.
House Chairperson, Members of Parliament, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Afternoon.
Today I dedicate my 2017 budget vote speech to the brave men and women of South Africa, who, despite facing tremendous pressure, potential job loss and alienation from certain sectors, have boldly spoken out against and exposed corruption, state capture, nepotism, cronyism and mismanagement.
To you all, I say thank you on behalf of South Africa for your determination to look after the South African coffers, and for your relentless patriotism in the face of serious opposition from the highest echelons of power.
Your names will go down in history as true South African heroes.
Our state owned entities are not just in a state of chaos, they are in fact in a state of capture.
Every single morning, another scandal breaks in the media. If we are not dealing with Gupta associated businesses being given tenders, we are dealing with children of employees being given multi-million rand deals or, most recently, resignations … no wait, retirements … no wait … retrenchments … no wait … re-appointments of inept CEOs.
The Public Protector has certainly had her hands full with the DA requesting multiple investigations into issues within the SOEs.
We have asked the Public Protector to probe revelations in the unfolding nepotism scandal at Eskom involving the acting CEO, Matshela Koko, and his stepdaughter Koketso Choma, and a R1.7 million donation that was paid from Choma’s company to the ANC.
The DA has asked the Public Protector to include this new, shocking allegation of a massive donation to the ANC, into an already established investigation into Koko and Choma as requested by the DA in March 2017.
It now appears that, not only did Koko allegedly improperly award tenders worth R1 billion to Impulse International, a company of which his stepdaughter is a Director, when he was head of Eskom’s Generation Unit, but the arrangement was used as a conduit to siphon money to the ANC.
The Public Protector must now investigate and expose what the relationship between Koko, Choma, Impulse and the ANC really is.
It is totally unacceptable that so much public money was allegedly improperly directed toward a family member of the acting CEO of Eskom, only to land in the hands of the ANC!
This latest revelation, including the intimidation of journalists who have exposed this scandal, shows the lengths to which those with much to hide are willing to go to cover up.
Eskom has been reluctant to release the Denton Report that contains details of widespread corruption at the parastatal, and it seems that corruption scandals are only increasing under the current leadership.
The DA welcomed Public Enterprises Minister, Lynn Brown’s, rejection of an exorbitant and unjustified R30 million golden handshake “pension” payout to the disgraced Brian Molefe.
Indeed, after leaving Eskom under the most swirling clouds of state capture allegations, and close collusion with the Guptas, and then being rewarded with an ANC seat as a Member of Parliament, Mr. Molefe does not deserve one further cent from the public purse.
Our joy, however, was very short lived, as we soon learned of the return of Brian Molefe to Eskom.
This was a monumental disaster for the power utility, which is currently in a dire state of affairs and is surrounded by a wave of Gupta-linked corruption allegations as a result of Molefe’s tenure.
The return of Molefe to Eskom will see the Gupta hand return to the power utility, and most likely to the forthcoming nuclear procurement deal.
This South Africa cannot accept.
It was clear in the Public Protector’s damning State of Capture Report that Molefe was seriously compromised in his position at Eskom. He, himself, cited the interests of corporate good governance as the reason for him leaving Eskom.
The State of Capture Report details the close relationship between Molefe and the Guptas and how key decisions were taken by Molefe, as the head of Eskom, for the ultimate benefit of the Guptas and at the expense of the people of South Africa.
Specifically, Molefe called Ajay Gupta a total of 44 times and Ajay Gupta called Molefe a total of 14 times in 8 months. Molefe can further be placed in the Saxonwold area on 19 occasions between August 2015 and November 2015.
Importantly, the criminal charges that I laid against Molefe still stand and I trust are being actively investigated by the South African Police Service.
The ANC themselves came out and said that Molefe is unfit to return to Eskom as his name has not been cleared.
This is somewhat ironic given that he was, just the other day, on their own Parliamentary back benches.
South Africa deserves to know the truth behind the many scandals currently engulfing Eskom.
The damning allegations by the former Minister of Mineral Resources, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, that Eskom’s then CEO Brian Molefe and Chairperson Ben Ngubane tried to force him to withdraw Glencore’s Optimum mining licences in a bid to help the Gupta’s takeover Glencore’s coal mines, are astounding and deserve a full scale investigation as part of the Parliamentary inquiry into Eskom which the DA has requested.
I am most pleased that the Committee on Public Enterprises has stood firm and has agreed that a full parliamentary investigation begin into the shenanigans at Eskom.
Chairperson, I advised the Minister on Tuesday, and I will repeat myself today, suspend the Board of Eskom with immediate effect. Send a full team from Public Enterprises to Megawatt park and collect all the documents pertaining to the reappointment of Brian Molefe as well as all documents related to alleged corruption charges so that we know they are safe and are unable to be destroyed.
Denel has had their fair share of scandals involving of course, the family that is causing chaos in our state owned enterprises (SOEs) and our country, the Guptas.
To this end, Denel will be called to appear before the committee together with National Treasury so that once and for all, we can get to the bottom of capture allegations. Perhaps the next the time they appear, they will be better prepared to answer our many questions.
South Africa is NOT for sale. Our SOEs cannot be bought by the Gupta family with the help of Number One.
As the web of state capture starts to unravel, so will the stranglehold that this unwelcome family has over our country.
It is now the time to put a stop to this corruption and capture and the DA is the only party that can bring an end to the crisis the ANC-government has created at the SOEs.
When the DA comes into national government in 2019, we will ensure that our SOEs work for our people and bring an end to the scourge of corruption that has manifested under ANC governance.
South Africa is NOT for sale, NOT on our watch!

SOEs a strain on public funds

Note to Editors: The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, Erik Marais MP, during the Budget Vote on Public Enterprises.
House Chairperson, today we debate the budget vote for the Department of Public Enterprises.
As we all know the objective of the National Development Plan (NDP) is to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030, which is a mere 13 years away.
After 23 years of ANC rule, there has never before been a bigger need to rescue our beautiful country. South Africans have been left with empty promises, lip service, and hopelessness.
If we continue to allow the ANC to hijack South Africa at every opportunity available to them, what will the state of our Nation be in 13 years’ time?
It is a chilling realisation and I can confidently say, the people of South Africa have had enough and are not as ill-informed as the governing party believes.
More and more of our people are realising that the DA is the only party to reignite hope and inspiration and has the will to build a better future for South Africans. The Western Cape, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg have already become testament to this.
The aim of the Department of Public Enterprises is to drive investment, productivity and transformation in the state-owned entities (SOEs) in order to unlock growth, propel industrialisation and most importantly, to create jobs and develop skills.
House Chairperson, how prosperous would South Africa be if the ANC government placed as much effort into proactively achieving this essential aim as they do in protecting the personal pockets of a select few?
It is crucial that this Department functions optimally to stop the misappropriation and misuse of taxpayers’ money once and for all.
House Chairperson, can the ANC in this House truthfully and in good conscience tell the people of South Africa that the R266.7 million allocated to this Department for the 2017/18 financial year will be constructively used to give effect to the NDP ‘s objective of creating jobs and providing skills development?
I pose this question because this is the nature of interrogation from our constituents and because the DA believes in shared prosperity for all South Africans.
We have a constitutionally mandated duty to answer them, as millions of South Africans see the DA as the only alternative to the ANC.
House Chairperson, it is stated that clear transparent governance combined with stable leadership will enable SOEs to achieve their developmental potential.
However, this has not been the case.
Look at Denel for example. It came to light in April 2016 that the suspended CEO of Denel had been officially fired, despite not being found guilty of any misconduct.
The timing of his discharge is suspicious and lends credence to the notion that his dismissal was linked to his refusal to broker arms deals with the politically connected Gupta family.
The CEO, Mr Saloojee, the CFO and a group company secretary were suspended in September 2015 while the board examined a number of allegations related to irregular acquisitions.
However, it is widely speculated that the suspension of these three officials was related to the creation of the new company, Denel-Asia, and the proposed joint venture with VR Laser Asia, a Gupta-linked firm.
Denel has been in hot water for this dodgy joint venture which has direct links to Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas.
Treasury has finally put this deal to bed after many months of back and forth between Treasury and Denel. However, Denel is appealing this decision.
House Chairperson, if I may, I also urge Minister Lynne Brown to be mindful of her oath, the plight of the most vulnerable South Africans and the urgency with which we have to collectively rescue South Africa.
Our country is suffering at the hands of a select few, protecting one. The world has lost confidence in our once great rainbow nation and we find ourselves in a national despondency.
While still in a position to bring about real positive change, I ask you to prioritize the over 55 million South Africans Suffering due to patronage politics.
I thank you.