Democratic Alliance

Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Michele Clarke MP.

Today, the DA members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on health walked out as objection to the ANC’s blatant attempt to bulldoze the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill through Parliament. We were followed by other opposition parties.

As part of today’s meeting, legal opinions of both the Parliamentary Legal Advisor (PLA) and the State Law Advisors (SLA) were presented based on concerns raised by committee members regarding the constitutionality of the NHI Bill.

It took over two months for the two entities to deliver the 100 pages of legal opinions, with the PLA stating that the Bill was flawed and could be challenged constitutionally, while the SLA advised that the NHI Bill had no flaws at all.

In light of the two conflicting reports and the huge amount of information received from both the entities, the DA requested that today’s meeting be postponed so that legal opinions could be sought independently.

The request was denied by the Chairperson, Dr Kenneth Jacobs, and the Acting Chairperson, Elvis Kholwana Siwela (who stood in for Dr Jacobs today.)

The DA’s concerns that parties were not able to get proper legal opinions on over a hundred pages of documents in just two days, as many businesses had closed due to the long weekend, and our reasonable request supported by opposition parties were ignored and the ANC insisting that the meeting continue.

The ANC are desperate to get the unconstitutional NHI Bill passed before the end of the current parliamentary term. They were adamant that the meeting continue so that the Bill could be rushed to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

It is clear that the ANC is desperate to use the NHI Bill as an electioneering tool for the 2024 elections, as they have nothing else to offer South Africans.

The DA has written to the Parliamentary Chair of Chairs, Cedric Frolick, to request an urgent intervention in the matter and to our legal advisors requesting a letter to confirm that it is not possible to do justice to a 100-page document in just two days.

Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Dr Dion George MP.

The latest inflation statistics underscore the severe cost of living crisis facing South African households. A year-on-year inflation rate of 7% has been reported, which is a significant increase from the previous month and exceeds the target range established by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

A closer examination of these figures reveals the extent of the crisis. Transportation costs have risen by 9.9%, with fuel prices experiencing a 10.6% increase.

Food prices have seen a staggering 14% hike, with the cost of bread, a fundamental food item, surging by 20.5% within the year.

The ANC government remains detached from the harsh realities of hunger and starvation in the country. Ministers remain shielded from the effects of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, as millions of rands in taxpayer funds are allocated to cover their water and electricity expenses. This stark contrast highlights the callousness of the ANC government, which has failed to implement economic measures to alleviate the burden of escalating costs and persistent power outages.

A government that cares would: reduce the fuel levy, enhance solar tax rebates to liberate consumers from Eskom’s grasp, and broaden the zero-VAT rated food basket to encompass essential items such as bone-in chicken, beef, tinned beans, wheat flour, margarine, peanut butter, baby food, tea, coffee, and soup powder. VAT on these items disproportionately affects the poorest 50% of South Africans, who are already struggling to provide food for their families. These interventions are easy to implement and easily affordable if government made the right choices in spending the people’s money.

The DA refuses to stand idly by as the government engages in political manoeuvring at the expense of South African citizens. In February, the DA presented our Alternative Budget, replete with practical and effective solutions to enable the government to address the cost-of-living crisis head-on.

The escalating cost of living crisis in South Africa calls for urgent and decisive action from the government. It is high time for the ANC government to set aside political interests and prioritize the welfare of the people. The people of South Africa deserve concrete action, and the DA will not rest until our proposals are implemented to alleviate their hardship.

Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Solly Malatsi MP.

The EFF’s “National Shutdown” yesterday was truly much ado about nothing. The mountain clearly gave birth to a mouse.

The DA believes that this was largely due to two factors:

– The EFF’s bark is always bigger than its bite. We have seen far too many times in the past how the EFF claimed to have national influence and the truth is they don’t.

– The DA’s two interdicts against the threats of violence – one by the City of Cape Town and the other by the DA – prevented the EFF from illegal behaviour yesterday. They knew that the consequences would be too severe to bear.

On Saturday the Gauteng High Court, on the DA’s request, interdicted the EFF from violating the rights of South Africans to work, go to school, and trade, by any means of intimidation, violence, or coercion, on the party’s planned national shutdown on Monday 20 March 2023.

We believe that this interdict was instrumental in strengthening the arm of South Africa’s law enforcement bodies and security services to uphold the law on a “national shutdown”.

The only way to get rid of almost 30 years of ANC mismanagement is not through threats of a “shutdown” or any form of intimidation or violence.

The only way is by voting for a party that can really bring an end to three decades of ANC-rule that has robbed the country and its people and is directly responsible for the misery of millions of South Africans.

Note to Editors: A voicenote from the DA Federal John Steenhuisen is attached here

Today, the Democratic Alliance visited the family of Langalam Viki, whose tragic death by drowning in a pit toilet in Mngcqangele village near Queenstown earlier this month, horrified the nation.

Sadly, South Africans have become desensitised to these tragic deaths, which occur frequently in provinces across the country under ANC-run governments.

No child should have to meet this fate in South Africa almost 30 years since the dawn of our democracy.

I was joined by DA Eastern Cape Provincial Leader, Andrew Whitfield, DA Shadow Minister for Basic Education, Baxolile Nodada, DA Shadow MEC for Education, Edmund Van Vuuren, and DA North East Cape Constituency Head, Sanele Magaqa to comfort the family and offer our assistance.

Over successive years, the DA has asked a number of parliamentary questions around the use of pit toilets in all provinces, the replies to which have shown little to no progress in eradicating this deadly infrastructure.

A 2021 Limpopo High Court judgement, handed down by Judge Gerrit Muller, ordered that a plan to eradicate all pit toilets in the province of Limpopo be provided to the court along with a detailed implementation plan.

This judgement, however, has no bearing on other provinces, and while the South African Human Rights Commission has promised to take broader legal action, its papers have, to date, not been filed.

This Human Rights Day, the DA is launching a 2-point plan to eradicate school pit toilets across South Africa, to ensure that no family ever endures the tragic indignity suffered by the Viki family.

The drowning of our children in pit toilets goes far beyond a human rights violation – it is a horror that no South African should ever be forced to contemplate. To address this, the DA will:

In consultation with our lawyers, the DA will be starting litigation proceedings to find the quickest and most effective means to instruct governments across the country to erect proper sanitation facilities for all school children as a fundamental human right.

Given the immense interest in achieving this goal from all sectors of society, we will engage with civil society organisations, public advocacy groups, and non-governmental organisations working in the education space to put together a strong case.

The DA’s Shadow Minister of Basic Education, Baxolile Nodada, will also be launching a country-wide campaign to eradicate pit toilets, which will include widespread oversight visits of all school infrastructure, or a lack thereof, which may place the life of a child at risk. This campaign kicked off today where we sought to assess the sanitation facilities at Mngcqangele school where little Langalam tragically died.

It is clear that while the ANC national government has cut education budgets to bail out ailing state-owned entities, and presided over government departments where billions have been lost to corruption, it does not care that young children do not have a safe place to relieve themselves in dignity, without the threat of death.

We cannot commemorate Human Rights Day until every child has access to safe and dignified sanitation in schools. As South Africans today commemorates our hard-won human rights, we must never lose sight of the basic rights of which millions are still deprived.

Until all South Africans have access to three meals a day, until every citizen has access to housing and sanitation, and until all South Africans can live in dignity, we will never truly be free.

The DA will ensure that freedom is afforded to all South Africans, even the 4-year-old child without a voice who simply wishes to use the bathroom safely at school.

 

The DA expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Cloete Murray and his son Thomas who were assassinated this past Saturday.

Murray was a court-appointed liquidator for Bosasa, which was implicated in widespread corruption during testimony at the Zondo Commission. He was also involved in the insolvency proceedings of a variety of other high-profile arms of state affected by state capture. His assassination serves as a blow to the fight against corruption and may act as a deterrent to curators and liquidators involved in serious corruption matters.

This tragic murder joins a long list of both attempted and fatal hits on persons involved in uncovering and eradicating corruption in our state.

In 2021, Babita Deokaran, a financial manager who flagged fraudulent payments out of Tembisa Hospital was gunned down after dropping her daughter off at school.

Andre de Ruyter survived a cyanide poisoning attempt as he got closer to unveiling the widespread corruption in Eskom’s supply networks.

Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, the Vice-Chancellor of Fort Hare University, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt which killed his bodyguard in January 2023, while he attempted to close the taps on procurement corruption.

The inability of the ANC government to effectively tackle corruption and crime within its ranks is increasingly turning our nation into a mafia state, where the government and many of its officials are tied with organized crime. It has become increasingly apparent that high-level politicians, often occupying the highest offices in the land are potentially linked to insidious criminal networks.

The state is increasingly seen as a mechanism to access resources and wealth through looting and extensive patronage networks. When these networks are exposed, violent and criminal pushback is often experienced.

Unless the state effectively deals assassinations of whistleblowers and corruption fighters, increasingly fewer South Africans will be willing to risk their lives to join the fight against corruption.

The DA has previously revealed that the cost of protecting one ‘VIP’’ in South Africa was approximately R8 million for the 2021/22 financial year. The DA calls on this funding to be slashed, and greater protection instead provided to whistleblowers, corruption fighters and front-line policing. By better protecting those who expose and investigate corruption, South Africa will be better positioned to tackle the mafia state head on.

We call on President Ramaphosa to tackle the problem of assassinations, and the infiltration of gangsters into the SAPS with the urgency it requires and protect those who stand up against corruption.

The time for mere talk on fighting crime and corruption is over. The government needs to protect those who stand up to state capture – it is the minimum these brave individuals deserve.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, 21 March 2023, Democratic Alliance Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen MP, will visit the family of the 4-year-old girl who died tragically after falling into a school pit-latrine at a school in Vaalbank near Dordrecht in the Eastern Cape. Steenhuisen will then lead a delegation of DA public representatives to conduct an oversight visit to the school, where he will announce the party’s legal action to eradicate pit toilets across South Africa.

Steenhuisen will be joined by DA EC Provincial Leader Andrew Whitfield MP, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education Baxolile Nodada MP, Chief Whip of the Official Opposition Siviwe Gwarube MP, DA EC Shadow MEC for Education Edmund van Vuuren MPL and North East Cape Constituency Leader Sanele Magaqa MPL.

Little Langalam Viki’s tragic death at the hands of an uncaring ANC government could have been prevented if the Department of Education had not wasted time in eradicating all pit toilets from schools.

This Human Rights Day, the DA will remind the ANC national government that proper sanitation is a fundamental human right that government must ensure all South Africans have access to.

Details of the visit are:

Date: Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Time: 10:30

Meeting point: Vaalbank Clinic

Address: 40 km from Komani (Queenstown) on the R392

Location pin: https://goo.gl/maps/a2xnfCibvAqofZkU6 (Pin for turn-off from the R392 to Mngcwangele village)

Unless President Ramaphosa intends to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin the moment he sets foot on South African soil, he should not allow him to attend the BRICS summit. The country simply cannot afford another hit to our reputation – the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) greylisting due to the failure to effectively combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism has already caused the rest of the world to view South Africa’s global transactions as high-risk. And the failure to arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2015 certainly indicates that despite its many utterances to the contrary, the ANC government does not prioritise human rights.

The DA calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to prioritise the country’s reputation and well-being over that of Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and ensure that he is not among the leaders set to attend the BRICS summit in South Africa in August.

The ICC’s issuing of a warrant for Putin’s arrest for alleged war crimes should serve as a final warning to the ANC that while the governing party might make light of the invasion of a neighbouring country, the international community does not.

Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, are being accused of unlawfully deporting children and people from Ukraine to Russia.

President Ramaphosa’s attempt to evade DA Leader John Steenhuisen’s question regarding the attendees of the BRICS summit, shows that his admiration for Putin is blinding him to the strain Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has placed on South African citizens.

If President Ramaphosa insists on placing his friendship with a wanted war-criminal over the well-being of his people, we call on him to ensure the meeting takes place on neutral ground and that peace and Russia’s immediate withdrawal from Ukraine be prioritised.

This would be the most productive and effective use of BRICS resources and energy to ensure a recovery of the global economy.

South Africa is already seen as weak, inactive and rudderless – we do not need to add sympathiser of war-criminals to the list.

Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by Baxolile ‘Bax’ Nodada MP. 

Despite repeated warnings by the DA that the ANC is trying to capture the public participation process of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill, this is exactly what has transpired this weekend.

The DA will be writing to the National Assembly House Chairperson, Cedric Frolick, to inform him of breached processes regarding the public participation process and to request an investigation. We will also request the postponement of further hearings until Parliament gets its ducks in a row.

On Friday, the Chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education, Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, informed committee members that this weekend’s public hearings would proceed without the necessary support from Parliament’s public education office as they were short staffed.

This meant that the normal procedure for public hearings was not followed and that Parliament did not scout the communities the week before to identify and arrange suitable venues, nor did they communicate with the communities and stakeholders to educate them on the Bill and mobilise them to attend the hearings.

Instead, the whole weekend’s arrangements and communication were shouldered by the Chair’s team – and the attempts to present public sentiment in a particular light is clear as day.

The weekend’s hearings were one fiasco after another.

Today’s public hearing was cancelled at the last minute, because venue and time changes led to confusion and robbed the Ermelo-communities of an opportunity make their voices heard.

The hearings on Friday in Bushbuckridge contained merely a handful of actual community members – the majority of participants were bussed in ANC-members from other communities.

While the hearings in Kanyamazane were better represented by the communities, that was largely due to independent advertising of the meetings by stakeholders and the DA. Had it not been for that, the ANC would have completely undermined the community’s voice there as well.

Parliament’s botching of the BELA Bill participation process has left the door wide open for the ANC’s capture. It seems the governing party will do whatever it takes to bulldoze the draconian BELA Bill through Parliament and rob communities and school governing boards (SGBs) of their rights to determine their own language and admission policies.

The ANC has made its disdain for public participation clear – this will continue when communities later try to oppose damaging polices inflicted by the Department of Basic Education.

The DA will not stand for such subterfuge. We believe in democratic Parliamentary processes and the rights of communities to determine how to best meet their children’s education needs. We will not stop fighting the ANC’s attempts to capture the public hearings.