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SPEECH ON THE DEBATE ON PREMIER’S STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY DR. NEIL CAMPBELL DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON 26 FEBRUARY 2015

Madam Speaker

 

I listened attentively to Premier Makhura’s address on Monday and must agree that many of the ideals outlined by him are what we would all dream of for our beloved country.

 

However, having heard the same promises made by his predecessor, Premier Mokonyana, every year for 5 years without much output at the end of her term, I realised that this Premier whom I hoped would really deliver, must either be extremely badly informed by his aides or be the new king of empty promises.

 

We must never forget, educationally speaking, that although Gauteng may be the best performer in South Africa, the output of state schools in our country has been so dumbed-down that we are at the bottom of the ranking for all the countries in the world in maths and only a couple from the bottom in general education.

 

The grand plans announcing the intention to spend billions of rand on infrastructure improvement must be seen against the background of a declining economy, lowered international credit rating and an extremely limited or non-existent ability to borrow on world markets. South Africa is, in fact depressing the economic performance of the rest of Africa.

 

We exist in a country where corruption is now so rife that companies build bribes into their budgets in order to continue functioning.

 

The Premier spoke often of his reliance on the private sector to realise his dreams but it is his party’s business unfriendly policy that ties businesses up in unnecessary red tape and commits especially SMMEs to unaffordable salary increases without increased productivity. It is his party’s policy that forces well run businesses to rather install robots on assembly lines than give desperately needed jobs to our people because robots never demand huge increases and never embark on wildcat  strikes.

 

On transport matters he spoke of the O R Tambo aerotropolis as a saviour for the Ekurhuleni economy but the land around the airport is already too expensive for this scheme to ever succeed.

He lauded the bus rapid transit undertakings in the three metros but one has not got off the ground, one is presently moribund because of a strike and the third is mired in controversy and allegations of corruption and graft.

 

Our driver licensing testing stations, road worthy centres and TOLABS are all hot-beds of corruption which the GDRT is unable or unwilling to eradicate and our traffic police seem only able to man speed traps (but only,  when the weather is good) and also to solicit bribes and gridlock the cities by amateurish point duty such as happened on Monday.

 

The grass on our road verges and medians go uncut and the added lack of lighting on many provincial roads has caused several crashes.

Taxis regularly swing across several lanes of traffic, drive on the wrong side of the road, clog up emergency lanes, ignore traffic signs and block intersections but are rarely fined because our police are too scared to act against them. Our trucks crawl up steep gradients in the fast lanes and often travel at speeds exceeding 115kph on the down-hills but as speed traps are set at 125 kph they are seldom stopped for speeding. A truck at 115 kmh is infinitely more dangerous than a car exceeding the speed-limit by a similar 35 kph as proven by the N12 crash last year.

 

The Premier promised the consultative forum following the advisory panel feedback, that he would respond to the outright rejection by the public of both e-tolls and the proposed hybrid model by month end.

 

If the ambiguous report in his address is supposed  to clarify matters it has failed.  One must again ask the question why Sanral, the National Department of Roads and Transport and the ANC outside of Gauteng are hell-bent on using the expensive gantries.?

 

There remain many unexplained clauses in the contract between Sanral and ETC and KAPSH which defy logic. Who exactly is being enriched by the e-toll system?

 

Is the government determined to clog our courts with e-toll infringers while the many real criminals in detention wait to come to trial? The Premier should conduct a referendum on the public attitude to e-tolls and then stnd by the wishes of Gauteng citizens by rejecting the e-tolls unconditionally.

 

Our existing infrastructure has, on the admission of the ANC, been woefully neglected for decades. While our existing assets crumble and fail, the Premier is putting forward expensive and unrealistic new major projects.

 

It is time for the ANC to fully identify what assets it has and their state of repair or disrepair. It should carefully work out a cost sustainable maintenance routine and then carefully identify those new projects that have a reasonable chance of coming to fruition on time and on budget and concentrate on those.

 

It cannot do everything at once and prioritisation and pragmatism are required. To this end we need to be circumspect about extensions to the Gautrain. The train already costs R1.5 billion annually in subsidies and these are budgeted to increase to R1.8 billion in the next two yers. Furthermore the fares on Gautrain are deliberately set above Prasa’s fares and do not transport the real workers in Gauteng.

 

South Africa does not have the ability to offer free housing, free healthcare, free education and social grants to almost a third of our population on a sustainable basis.

 

Let us not be “jacks of all things” but rather,  masters of those things that make the most impact.

 

 

I thank you madam Speaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact: Cell 082 387 2540

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SPEECH ON THE DEBATE ON PREMIER’S STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY MR. ASHOR SARUPEN DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON 26 FEBRUARY 2015.

Madame Speaker,

 

The honourable Premier told us that the focus will be on the economy. “Economy, economy, economy” – as it was emphasized. The plan for development corridors, in which the private sector was embraced as a partner – at least in words – is a sensible one. Our economic growth has been stifled and hampered by decades of underinvestment into infrastructure for job growth. Global experience shows that a country needs to invest at least 25% of its GDP into infrastructure to achieve economic growth and create jobs. South Africa barely invests 15%, which is just above the rate required to replace existing infrastructure. This is why, as our economy grew, we ran out of roads, rail, ports and energy to support an expanding economy, let alone spur job growth. The policy and legislative framework chosen by the ANC has stifled investment, and monopolies in transport, energy and telecommunications has deterred meaningful investment in our country – pushing investors elsewhere into Africa. Perhaps it’s time the ANC sat down with policy makers from growing African economies and realised that their fundamental approach to maintaining public and private monopolies, their approach to labour, their approach to regulation and their approach to taxation is fundamentally wrong. WE have just irrevocably damaged our investment prospects with the recent announcements around land, pushing more investment north.

 

Until these macroeconomic factors are corrected, the ten pillars advocated by the premier will remain talk. We need decisive action on those factors to achieve jobs and growth.

 

Let me give you an example of all talk and no action. The premier waxed lyrical about the aerotropolis in Ekurhuleni. This was first mooted in 2010. By 2011 it became a huge ‘programme’ of the metro – and I use the word programme loosely. Five years, hundreds of millions spent and billboards, advertising, marketing and consultants later, there is nothing. Nothing to show for it. Now, the premier speaks of it as though it’s a new innovation. At the rate things happen, and with the ANCs disdain for private sector investment and their constant calls for the building of a soviet economy – which ANC members in this house keep calling for – means that it will take decades for this programme to get anywhere. In the meantime, the ANC mayor and his mayoral committee will continue to spend hundreds of millions, as they have now done for half a decade, on overseas trips, advertising and consultants at a time when the ANC government is trying to tax and e-toll every cent out of the economy.

 

The promotion of monopolistic behaviour by the ANC is borne out in another programme announced that recently belies the Premiers lofty ambitions – the President had, in one swift stroke, set broadband back in our country and in turn damaging growth prospects by giving Telkom a monopoly on broadband roll out – contradicting the national policy on broadband. Its funny how there was a surge in Telkom share purchases ahead of the announcement and the share price has almost tripled. It’s not the economy, economy, economy – it’s the corrupt economy. Telkom had bid for broadband projects in two provinces, governed by two parties, and lost. Now they have made it clear they are opposed to those projects they lost out on – including the Gauteng Broadband Network. If you look at how fixed line broadband has been bungled in this country, how the government promotes monopolistic behaviour against the citizens and for cronyism.

 

To mask this, the ANC pretends there aren’t barriers to entry. The premier blamed racial monopoly capital instead. What the premier meant to use was the white monopoly capital straw man. The reason we don’t have black industrialists is because the ANC prefers taking shares in existing big firms to enrich its ruling clique from time to time, instead of decisively transforming the economic environment so that small black businesses can compete. There is always lip service to reducing red tape before introducing more. Provided there isn’t any delays and corruption, it would take 22 days to start a small business in South Africa if you jump through all the government hoops. In New Zealand, it takes 24 hours. This is where decisive transformation needs to happen. This situation exists not because of white monopoly capital, but the ANCs policies that protect its shares in business from competition.

 

While I want to wish the premier well, his parties calls for a soviet economy in this house last year and his parties hatred of private investment belies his words and the existing policy environment will not allow the premier to succeed. I believe the premier gets it, I really do – this Premier is the first person in the ANC I have heard say that we need to move welfare beneficiaries into jobs – but he speaks with wisdom that the rest of his party does not have. Until they realise that his approach needs major structural approaches, it is, sadly, just talk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact: Cell 060 558 8303

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SPEECH ON THE DEBATE ON PREMIER’S STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY MRS. JANET SEMPLE DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON 26 FEBRUARY 2015.

The Premier quite rightly devoted the bulk of his State of the Province Address to the economy.  The South African economy is at its lowest point since President Jacob Zuma took office in 2009 and Gauteng has not escaped the effects. The numbers speak for themselves: in the last five years more than 1.6 million South Africans have become unemployed.

The focus on creating jobs and work opportunities for all South Africans is a priority for all of us. Without jobs and decent work, millions of South Africans remain trapped in poverty with very little prospect of a better life.

The Premier has told us about the billions of Rand that are planned to be spent on the economic development of Gauteng, the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are going to be created and the massive rollout of infrastructure that will take place. The plans are impressive Hon Premier but we also know that the ANC has just celebrated its 103rd anniversary. The plans are reminiscent of the candles on the 103rd birthday cake. Each breath to blow out those candles is just another wish on the Premier’s list.

Much of the plans and the expenditure are based on current and future investment by the private sector. Much of the work will take place in the municipalities.  We have been told very little about how the Province is actually involved and what its contribution will be. We know there are many in the ANC who would rather “own” the economy instead of facilitating its growth through clean and effective government.  To quote Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”.

There is also very little evidence that the so-called private sector investors will not be the same politically connected cronies all over again.  Can the Premier guarantee that there will be an open tender process for these projects that allows everyone regardless of their political connections an equal opportunity to bid?

The Premier alludes to the role of municipalities as members of the stakeholder circle that will bring about “radical” transformation. No mention is made of the poor financial status of Gauteng municipalities or any plans to support and address their serious shortcomings before throwing more money at incompetent mayors. Economic transformation cannot happen where municipal service delivery is inefficient and completely compromised by corruption and wasteful expenditure.

Current projects undertaken by the Department of Economic Development are started with the best of intentions but we cannot keep throwing money at projects when they fail time and time again. Let’s take the Mohlakeng hub for example. This project cannot expand any further until an MOU has been signed by the Department of Economic Development, the Randfontein municipality and the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP). What is causing the delay? The very same GEP, an entity of the Department.

This is unacceptable Hon Premier and Hon MEC Maile especially given the circumstances of high unemployment and unrest that prevail in Mohlakeng. Is it too much to believe that the Department and its entities would priorotise the speedy development of this hub?  If we cannot get such a small detail right, how are we going to manage billions of Rand of investment? Equally the small budget that the Department of Economic Development has should be used to maximum effect to make every cent it spends count.

The Premier announced ambitious plans for agriculture but the rollout for infrastructure does not even mention agriculture. We maintain that the current GDARD budget together with the budget from Economic Development is not enough to finance the agriculture promises made by the Premier. Why would the Province want to establish more Agri-parks when the current ones are a spectacular failure? Our biggest unemployment figures are for the youth but why does the Premier thinks the “youth on the periphery” would be interested in farming?

The Premier is absolutely right in recognising the need for a stable energy supply and the current threat to water security.  There is no possibility of reindustrialisation and the revitalization of Gauteng’s economy without these two components.

Clearly this Province cannot rely on the bulk of our electricity coming from Eskom.  Foreign investment will not come to Gauteng if we cannot guarantee a secure energy supply.  We welcome the Premier’s plans for alternative energy sources such as solar panels on government buildings and changing to LED globes but we suggest also making sure street lights are not burning during the day, motion sensitive lights are used in toilets and that air-conditioning units are regularly maintained. Hail storms

The Premier has made no mention of using Independent Power Producers. He needs to pressurise his comrades in National government to move on the enabling legislation. A veil of secrecy currently surrounds exactly who these producers are and how much energy they are capable of producing. Eskom’s monopoly needs to be broken.

Finding solutions to the acid mine drainage problem cannot be overemphasized but the current treatment of polluted water results in salt as a by-product. The only way to get rid of the salt is through reverse osmosis, an extremely costly process. An oversupply of salt is not only going to destroy our drinking water but it is also going to contaminate the fertile farmlands which provide food security for our province.  Urgent attention needs to be paid to this threat.

Economic growth is dependent on good policy decisions and active economic leadership.  The Premier’s address was big on plans, short on detail and the economy of Gauteng cannot wait another year to get those details

Contact: Cell 082 462 8239

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SPEECH ON THE DEBATE ON PREMIER’S STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY MR. KHUME RAMULIFHO DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON 26 FEBRUARY 2015.

We need to invest in knowledge and skills.

 

The MEC for education has done a great job in facilitating placements of learners considering the demand of learners who were expected to be placed in January this year. Indeed, in terms of access to learning institutions the government has done well.

 

However, the battle to afford many young people with an opportunity to access quality basic education is still a huge challenge. It is difficult to experience real changes in many schools especially in townships. For instance, how will this be possible when 3 learners at Rebongwe primary school in Meadowlands are still sharing 2 chairs?

 

At the same school, kids sit on a “bankstoel”. This is depriving innocent children from conducive learning environment. Imagine 62 learners in one class! The department seems to have paid all the attention to paperless classrooms which they are only seven and forget other real challenges.

 

Another typical example is Buyani Primary school in Finetown. Grade 1 class has 80 learners in one classroom. On average classes have between 50 and 70 learners per class. I’m told that teachers bunk classes more often than at an acceptable level. Surely this is not what we are expecting. Where are the districts responsible for these schools?

 

It is regrettable that only 44 schools in Gauteng managed to get 100% pass in 2014. Quintile 1 has 3 schools, 26 of these schools are from Quintile 5. This is an indication of inequality in our education system. The DA believes that these schools in quintile 1,2 & 3 should be rewarded with more resources as recognition for excellent performance. This is good guide to fund learners from low-income families to receive most support from government.

 

The DA congratulates these schools as they achieved 100% pass from quintile 1,2 and 3 schools. Thuto Pele, Ramusukula, Dalpark, Phomolong and LG Holele secondary schools.

 

30 schools performed below 60%, the biggest concern is that many technical schools in quintile 4 performed badly. The quintile system is skewed, it needs to be reviewed.

 

There will be developments in our province, but the job will be done by outsiders as we aren’t producing scarce skills required.

 

Who will build all these projects you mentioned?

 

Manage the government’s money better. What we have been witnessing from schools through hidden forensic audit reports tell us different picture. Premier – I doubt your commitment with regard to fighting corruption.

 

You have the information about 159 schools where forensic audits findings confirm that principals committed fraud, corruption and there were maladministration or financial irregularities. At least 29 principals are implicated on the reports. Annual reports indicates that all cases are completed, so take action!

 

Why constitutionally constituted body, school governing bodies mandated by the constitution are denied access to these reports. Including the public, if you are found guilty why are we ashamed to let the public know?

 

You hide the forensic audit reports. Elected school governing bodies have no access to forensic audit reports about their own schools where they are entrusted with responsibility to look after. We then asked parents to be involved. I doubt if this is in line with clean government.

 

Fight fraud and corruption in our schools. Many schools in this province are cited as the highest in terms of corruption where some SGB members and principals are alleged to be the beneficiaries.

 

The DA has been questioning government commitment to fight corruption. Forensic audit reports conducted confirm that there is corruption and fraud being committed using state resources but no actions against the perpetrators. Why we can’t name and shame them?

 

How do we encourage schools to share resources and facilities, between schools and communities when individual schools aren’t held to account. SGB elections are coming next months, the DA is urging parents to take active stand and be agents in their children’s future through informed participation in we’ll run school governing bodies.

 

School infrastructure

 

We need better resources to ensure that our schools environment is conducive for learning and teaching. The approach adopted by this government to attract, retain, up-skill retrain teachers is weak considering that many teachers received shoddy education and the country is in desperate need to produce certain skills.

 

Many schools in township still lack libraries, laboratories, sporting fields and ICT infrastructure. The paperless classrooms are encouraging developments but all learners deserve opportunities. The new six schools to be made paperless, can they be in other municipality not Ekurhuleni alone.

 

Meadowlands, Dobsonville, Soshanguve, Sharpeville, Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Attredgeville, Kagiso,  Munsieville learners deserve paperless classrooms too! There is a need to reconsider the utilization of Gauteng on line facilities, they can’t be neglected as is the case in many schools to date.

 

Better resources require proper planning and infrastructure spending. Unfortunately there is poor planning and insufficient capacity to spend the budget.

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

Contact: Cell 082 398 7375

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SPEECH ON THE DEBATE ON PREMIER’S STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY MR. JACK BLOOM DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON 26 FEBRUARY 2015.

Madam Speaker, the Honourable Premier delivered the longest ever opening address in this House.

 

I understand that he wanted to flesh out his Ten Pillars of radical Transformation, Modernisation and Re-industrialisation, which he calls TMR for short.

 

When I was at university TM stood for Transcendental Meditation, so I wondered if TMR was an updated version.

 

Transcendental Meditation is all in the mind, which made me also wonder if the Honourable Premier is living in the same province as the rest of us.

 

This is a province where the provincial government has a long history of failed promises, which is why it would be radical indeed if new promises were actually kept.

 

I’m glad the Honourable Premier praises the private sector, unlike his Economic Development MEC who raves on about white monopoly capital.

 

The truth is that we live in a dynamic province with dynamic people, which is why we have made welcome strides over the last 20 years.

 

But when it comes to the public sector, we see failure, waste and corruption that is a huge drain on what we are capable of achieving.

 

The Honourable Premier mentions huge building projects, but the only ones that are likely to be done in time and within budget are the private sector ones.

 

This provincial government is incapable of building anything in a cost-effective way that is anywhere near scheduled deadlines.

 

It’s not just big projects like the Jabulani and Natalspruit hospitals – a failed contractor has been paid R14.2 million for a half-built clinic in Randfontein.

 

The Honourable Premier praises Natalspruit as the hospital of the future, an exemplar of modernised health care.

 

He should do an unannounced visit there and he’ll find that many patients say they preferred the old hospital because it had shorter queues.

 

They have to re-register on the electronic system every time they come because it does not record their previous details.

 

The hospital is not too clean either and staff are leaving in droves. It’s really a great disappointment.

 

Honourable Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu announced last year that electronic files would be implemented at the South Rand Hospital by the end of March this year.

 

Honourable Premier, please visit this hospital because you will find that the scanning of files is way behind schedule and queues are as bad as ever.

 

I could go on and on about failed promises in this department which has still not recovered from the rampant corruption that erupted when Honourable Member Brian Hlongwa took over as Health MEC.

 

The reason we still have paper files is that according to court documents, the health information contract was corruptly awarded in 2008. This R1.2 billion contract was cancelled but the department could not award a new contract because the Baoki Consortium was claiming damages for the cancellation.

 

The Boaki Consortium has now surrendered this claim because they concede that they cannot defend themselves against evidence that one of their senior directors, Mr Hans Smidek, bought Honourable Member Brian Hlongwa’s house for R4.6 million to assist him in buying a new house for R7.2 million.

 

This is part of a host of allegations about a “generally corrupt relationship” between former MEC Hlongwa and the 3P Consortium that was first supposed to “turn-around” the department. (…)

 

We still hear about the turn-around in this department. The Honourable Premier says there is good progress and that the department will be out of administration by May this year.

 

But the Big C problem will remain. As observed by Reverend Frank Chikane, who was Director General of the Presidency under Thabo Mbeki: “Every tender and contract under an ANC government is designed to make someone in the ANC rich.”

 

Is any member on the other side of the House prepared to publicly repudiate Frank Chikane’s devastating observation on tenders making ANC people rich?

 

Please let us know.

 

The truth is that so long as there is corruption, cronyism and cadre deployment, there will be government failure and the people will suffer.

 

The criminal justice system is so slow that we still do not have accountability for the period when the Gauteng Health Department plunged into disaster.

 

The Honourable Premier is on record as saying at the ANC’s 2012 Policy Conference that stepping aside doesn’t mean a person is guilty, but no-one should “hide behind” the argument that they are innocent until proven guilty, and thereby worsen the “troubled image” of the party.

 

Honourable Premier, you weren’t the premier then, but you are now, and you will have a “troubled image” so long as Honourable Member Hlongwa is still an official representative of your party.

 

You are the lead figure in your party’s provincial leadership. You can show a decisive break with the past by ensuring that he is no longer a prominent representative of your party.

 

You say that you wish to drive the agenda of integrity promotion across government departments.

 

Honourable Premier, I think you should meditate on this.

 

This is a test case. The more you delay, the more you must expect scepticism that the real reason you cannot get rid of the rot is because it is entrenched in the way your party operates.

 

The choice is yours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact: Cell 082 333 4222

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E-tolls: Whose interests do they serve, Minister Nene?

Finance minister Nhlanhla Nene needs to face the public and spell out exactly who stands to benefit by continuing to impose e-tolls on motorists.

 

During his budget announcement yesterday the minister said that but that e-tolls would remain the principal funding mechanism of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).

 

After the newly announced cap, e-tolls are now projected to earn R2 billion per year, based on the assumption that every motorist would pay. This of course is not happening.

 

Of that amount, half would service the GFIP debt while the other half would go to the collection agent.

 

It makes no sense to R5 to an agent to collect R10 when by using the fuel levy you can collect for free and save.

 

This of course begs the question: Why not scrap e-tolls in their entirety, ring-fence 10 cents a litre of the fuel levy, and service the debt?

 

All taxpayers eventually pay the e-toll via the passing on of costs through every loaf of bread and every litre of milk.

 

Government’s ongoing insistence to levy e-tolls, only to lose half to a collection agent, increases perceptions that certain individuals have interests in the e-tolls contract, and are benefitting at the expense of Gauteng’s citizens.

 

It is now the only logical conclusion. But is a perception and Minister Nene must address it.

 

It is time for minister Nene to come clean and state Treasury’s reasons behind the refusal to ring-fence a portion of the fuel levy to fund GFIP, when clearly this would be the cheapest way of paying for the roads.

 

Media enquiries:

Mike Moriarty MPL

DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Finance

082 492 4410

 

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Clayville Ext 45 residents none the wiser about improved infrastructure

Gersbach-Graham1Gauteng MEC for Housing and Traditional Affairs, Jacob Mamabolo, has pronounced noble intentions to improve the living conditions of residents of Clayville Ext 45, Ekurhuleni, but has failed to provide detailed plans as to how this is to be done.

 

In a written reply, the MEC stated that 3 384 stands in Clayville Ext 45 were to be developed providing for 200 single residential RDP units, 1 704 High Density Walk-up units, 380 rental units and 1 100 GAP / FLISP units (for persons not qualifying for RDP or bonded units).

 

Beneficiaries of these plans include residents of the nearby Madelakufa 1 & 2 Informal Settlements, Freedom Square and applicants on the Tembisa housing waiting list.

 

Whilst the reply stated that schools, parks, medical facilities, roads and transport facilities were being planned – no detail of these facilities was provided.

 

The nearby Mpumelelo Primary School, designed for 1 800 learners, has an enrolment in excess of 2 300 yet is still housed in temporary facilities.

 

Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, mentioned in his State of the Province Address that Clayville Ext 45 is one of the areas included in the delivery of more than 100,000 housing units in the next 5 years.

 

However, there are still no details as to what is planned.

 

My colleague, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, Khume Ramulifho MPL, and I will address a public meeting on Wednesday, 4 March, 2015 at the Olifantsfontein Community Centre at 19h00 to provide feedback to the community on the DA’s education campaign.

 

Educational needs are critical to sustainable human settlements.

 

The DA will continue to ensure that the needs of the residents are addressed effectively and are not lost in the mists of cheap talk.

 

Media enquiries:
Graham Gersbach MPL
DA Spokesperson on Roads
060 556 4346

 

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Disgraceful barring of media from Bara Hospital

I am appalled that members of the media were yesterday barred access to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

 

According to a report, they were invited to accompany the Public Service Commission on an inspection of the hospital, but the hospital’s CEO Sandile Mfenyane said he was following instructions from the Gauteng Health Department in barring them.

 

This is utterly disgraceful. We seem to be going backwards in access to hospitals to investigate service delivery problems.

 

I have previously been banned from Bara Hospital, and last year I was escorted off the premises of Helen Joseph Hospital by security guards because the department said I did not have permission to be there.

 

According to the Constitution, public representatives have the right to do unannounced inspections, and media also have rights that have now been denied by this hospital.

 

The Gauteng Health Department should respect the Constitution and allow reasonable access to hospitals to assess conditions.

 

They are undermining democracy and are no doubt fearful that poor treatment of patients will be exposed, like the photograph of two babies in a cardboard box that a newspaper published some years ago following a visit to Bara Hospital.

 

Media enquiries:

Jack Bloom MPL

DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health

082 333 4222

 

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Bungled legal processes keep Gauteng’s roads in the dark

A service level agreement, to be signed in December 2014, ensuring the lights on Gauteng’s freeways would be adequately maintained has still not been ratified by the South African Roads Agency (SANRAL) and the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport (GDRAT).Gersbach-Graham1

 

This was revealed in a Roads and Transport committee meeting held at the Provincial Legislature.

 

This agreement would ensure that SANRAL would repair and maintain lights on Provincial Roads including the R24 (Albertina Sisulu freeway) from Johannesburg to O.R Tambo International Airport and the Atlas Road off-ramp from the R21.

 

The lights on the R24 have not been working for close on a year now, and according to residents the lights on the Provincial section of the Atlas Road off-ramp been a problem for over 6 years.

 

Reasons given for the delay include:

 

  • The agreements have been referred back to both the Legal Departments of the Gauteng Provincial Government and SANRAL for further negotiation;
  • The “as built drawings” for the design of the Atlas Road off-ramp when the R21 was handed over by GDRAT to SANRAL were outdated and did not reflect the current configuration of this off ramp;
  • Sections of road inclusive of the P40 and the section to where the lighting type changes should have initially been handed over to SANRAL.

 

In the meantime, whilst GDRT and SANRAL sort out their past mistakes, and the legal departments are sitting on the draft agreement, no maintenance and repairs are being done to any lighting on provincial roads across Gauteng.

 

Residents therefore are at risk of motor vehicle accidents due to poor lighting – while crimes at off ramps like Atlas Road continue to escalate.
Media enquiries:
Graham Gersbach MPL
DA Spokesperson on Roads
060 556 4346

 

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DA strongly condemns Sedibeng protests

The DA Gauteng strongly condemns the current protest action by two opposing ANC factions in the Vereeniging central business district.

 

According to reports, the protesters are demanding the resignation of district mayor Mahole Mofokeng, accusing him of corruption and nepotism. Protestors are causing havoc in the city centre by burning tyres and have brought business to a halt.

Sedibeng2

Sedibeng1

 

The DA strongly condemns violence in any form, and we call on the ANC to deal with its internal problems as a matter of urgency – as residents are being negatively affected by the spill-over into the municipality’s ability to deliver services.

 

The ANC must separate the party from the state, and ensure that internal struggles do not affect residents and business government is meant to serve. (I will insert fotos sent)

 

The DA will continue to monitor the situation and ensure that the ANC is held to account for its reckless behaviour.

 

Media enquiries:

Kingsol Chabalala MPL

DA Gauteng Constituency Head – Evaton

060 558 8299