DA has a bold plan to return land to the people

Tomorrow, 26 June 2018, the important work of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), tasked with the review of Section 25 of the Constitution – dealing with property rights, begins in earnest as the first of a series of public hearings takes place in the Northern Cape.

Along with my DA colleagues, Dr Annelie Lotriet, Adv Glynnis Breytenbach and Vusumzi Magwebu, we look forward to hearing the voices of ordinary South Africans on the crucial matter of land.

The DA fully supports land reform as a means to address the long history of violent and legislative dispossession of land. The DA wants South Africans to own their land and property because they are the ones who best know how to use their land.

That is why we are opposed to the ANC and EFF proposal to change the Constitution to allow government to expropriate all land without compensation. We oppose any efforts to have all property and land owned by the state, and to make citizens rent their homes and land from the state for life.

What we need is land reform that gives ownership can be achieved immediately without placing the land in state custodianship.

The DA has held, from the beginning, that the move to amend Section 25 of the Constitution is nothing more than misdirection and a distraction from the failure of land reform under the ANC government.

Indeed, the report of the High-Level Panel (HLP), chaired by former President Kgalema Motlanthe, correctly diagnosed the problem with land reform in South Africa when it found that “increasing evidence of corruption by officials, the diversion of the land reform budget to elites, lack of political will, and lack of training and capacity have proved more serious stumbling blocks to land reform.”

The failure of land reform is also not due to the unavailability of land, as revealed in a reply to a recent Parliamentary question posed by the DA which showed that the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and its entities, by itself, owns or has exclusive rights to nearly 20.7 million hectares of land.

Disagreement and confusion within the ANC has also become rife since the misguided decision to support the EFF’s opportunistic motion on this Constitutional amendment. Indeed, even senior members of government have spoken about their misgivings, none more so than the Deputy Minister of Public Works, Jeremy Cronin, who stated only last week that “the property clause is not an obstacle for effective land reform and land restitution”. Cronin has previously been quoted as saying that he agreed with former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, that “clause 25 is in fact radical in both spirit and in its letter … [and that] it is misguided to blame clause 25 for the weaknesses in land reform”. He rightly concludes that “we don’t need to change the Constitution, we need to implement it”.

Despite our disagreement with the ANC and the EFF over the need to amend the Constitution to allow for expropriation without compensation, we will go into the public hearings with open minds and hearts. We encourage all concerned citizens to participate in the process and will listen respectfully to every submission made at the hearings.

The DA has a bold plan to return land to the people through the biggest land redistribution in South African history. Our plan for land reform includes:

  • Prioritising land reform in the budget and cutting back on unnecessary spending, where the current government is spending more on VIP Protection than it does on land reform;
  • Giving communal land to those living on it, and dividing suitable government-owned land that isn’t being used;
  • Giving title deeds to urban housing beneficiaries;
  • Incentivising voluntary partnerships that will enable farmworkers to own shares in the farms they work on;
  • Supporting those land owners who want to farm through the transference of skills and providing access to the resources and markets they need to sell their goods.

Minister Nzimande must ensure all stolen Prasa money is paid back with interest

The DA will write to the Minister of Transport, Blade Nzimande, to ensure that former acting  Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) CEO, Collins Letsoalo, pays back every cent with interest for his massive 350% salary hike.

The Auditor-General (A-G) Kimi Makwetu, found that Letsoalo was undeserving of the extremely high raise he give himself.

The DA finds it ludicrous that such a large of was apportioned to one individual when it could be channelled towards fixing the rudderless state of the beleaguered entity. It is a well-known scandal that PRASA is struggling under the weight of debt.

This is precisely why Minister Nzimande must ensure that Letsoalo, who is still a member of the PRASA board, repay all the money he unduly awarded himself with added interest. This proves the DA’s position that the breakdown in the rail system in South Africa is no accident, it is directly due to the rampant corruption and mismanagement by successive Ministers and PRASA.

The DA has always maintained that PRASA is crippled because the ANC has used it as a piggy bank like all other State-Owned Entities (SOEs). The ANC keeps deploying past and current officials at PRASA who simply don’t care about the plight of South Africans.

It is all in Minister Nzimande’s hands now to ensure a disciplinary and investigation instituted against Letsoalo to find answers as to how this happened despite the courts saying Letsoalo’s conduct was wrong and unethical.

While millions of South Africans suffer from a broken rail system, PRASA and successive Ministers spend their time covering up blatant corruption.

The DA will not allow a situation where millions of people are made to endure a terrible service from Metrorail while the Minister and PRASA executives dodge accountability.

VBS Heist: COGTA Minister must instruct councils to remove MMs and CFOs

The Democratic Alliance is unsurprised at the rampant looting and large-scale corruption that has occurred at VBS Mutual Bank. We will now write to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, to take firm steps to ensure that these municipalities’ corrupt officials do not get away with what is essentially theft from the public purse.

The Minister must instruct local councils to remove Municipal Managers and Chief Financial Officers who have plundered public money in the VBS heist.

The initial chink in the bank’s dubious façade came about when the DA asked parliamentary questions about the illegal deposits made by municipalities in October 2016.

The DA has already laid criminal charges against the municipal managers and Chief Financial Officers in the affected municipalities, and will now seek to have the Minister issue a directive to these municipalities to ensure internal disciplinary processes are initiated by the relevant municipal councils.

This feeding frenzy at the VBS trough was empowered by a number of municipalities who illegally deposited funds with VBS, in contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act. It is unlikely that these funds, amounting to more than R1.5 billion spread across some 15 municipalities in Limpopo, Gauteng and the North West, will ever be recovered. This means that service delivery in these municipalities will be severely impaired for the foreseeable future.

Of particular concern is the fact that, to date, not one municipal official has been held accountable for these illegal actions. Today’s reports reveal that whenever VBS faced a liquidity crunch, they would pressurise municipal officials to make deposits. This is supported by evidence in the possession of the DA that in February 2018, some six months after National Treasury instructed municipalities not to invest or deposit funds with VBS, certain municipalities were still opening new accounts with the beleaguered bank.

The DA will not permit corruption on our watch. Public money must benefit the ratepayers and citizens of South Africa, not the corrupt and connected few.

City launches extended rehabilitation centre as war on drugs continue

The City of Johannesburg is accelerating its war on drug abuse. Early this week, it launched an extension of the Golden Harvest Rehabilitation Centre in Northworld, Johannesburg.

The centre started operating in 2011 as an in-patient centre for 12 teenage boys between the ages of 13 and 17, who were addicted to alcohol and various other drugs.

Today, the centre has extended its premises to cater for 58 patients, both male and female. The aim  is to provide services to poor individuals, who cannot afford the cost of accessing exorbitant private owned rehabilitation centres.

The City of Johannesburg will work closely with the African National Council on Alcoholism (ANCA), and the facility will offer a six-week in-patient treatment programme.

“Of the total admissions, 24 children were admitted for Marijuana as a substance of choice, 15 children for Nyaope, while 12 were admitted for either Methamphetamine, Cat or Mandrax.”

–     Executive Mayor, Herman Mashaba

In the 2018/19 budget, R30 million in operational expenditure, and R12.5 million in capital expenditure has been allocated to the Departments of Health and Social Development to fully capacitate the City’s free Community Substance Abuse Treatment Centres.

This will see the establishment of another in-patient rehabilitation centre in Poortjie, Region G.

DA rail oversight highlights crisis in public railway system

This statement follows a Metrorail train ride by the DA Shadow Minister of Transport, Manny de Freitas MP and DA Western Cape Metro Chairperson, Grant Twigg, from the Nyanga Train Station to the Cape Town Central Station. De Freitas and Twigg was later joined by DA Shadow Minister of Police, Zakhele Mbhele MP, and City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.

Please find attached English soundbites by De Frietas, Mbhele, Smith, Twigg and a commuter.  IsiXhosa soundbite by a Metrorail employee and an Afrikaans soundbite by a commuter.

Today, DA public representatives travelled with fellow commuters from Nyanga Train Station to Cape Town Central Station to highlight the current conditions of rail transportation in South Africa.

Commuters on the Cape Town Central Line, specifically, have for years been subjected to crime, vandalism, overcrowding and chronic delays.

The DA spoke to a number of commuters who shared their frustrations with us. Safety remains a major concern for most commuters. They expressed their daily fears of falling prey to violent crime.

According to reports, there are only 89 operational police officers to protect the more than 500 000 commuters travelling by train in the Western Cape. This is far lower than the 571 police officers that were supposedly allocated to the Western Cape, as indicated in a parliamentary reply to the DA.

Due to the continued crises in rail safety, the City of Cape Town, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), and the Western Cape Government signed a memorandum of agreement for the formation of a dedicated enforcement unit which will focus on the safety and security of train commuters and infrastructure. The City and the Provincial government took this initaitive, despite railway safety being a national competency.

From our interactions with passengers, it became clear that they have completely lost faith in the country’s railway services.

Many commuters spoke of how the railway system failed them,as they have very few alternatives available to them when trains break down or are delayed, due to vandalism.

Commuters explained that train transport remains the cheapest alternative due to high fuel prices and limited alternative transport.

The chronic delays on the Central Line have also put job security for many commuters at risk. However, beyond the risk of losing employment, commuters spoke about their children being late for school.

Our interactions with Cape Town train commuters tell the story of how millions of South African train commuters across the country have become subjected to an unreliable public railway system by a detached ANC government.

Unlike the ANC, the DA has a rail plan that will create a safe and well-managed railway system which put commuters first and will ensure job security. The plan is based on four aspects:

  1. Stabilising and modernising the current rail system

The Public Protector report, “Derailed”, exposed the true extent of the rot at PRASA. The failure of governance at the agency has had a direct impact of public confidence.

One of the reasons for this decline is the issue of security. What is required is a dedicated Railway Police service to take over security operations at train stations.

An urgent update is also required to ascertain the progress which has been made in upgrading the current signal system so that no manual signal is used. This is to prevent further unnecessary instances of crashes and derailment.

  1. Merge Transnet and PRASA under the Department of Transport

This means all rail-related passenger and freight services should become the direct responsibility of the Minister of Transport. This will streamline decision making and improve planning and integration.

  1. Ceding control of Metrorail services to Metros

This process will see Metropolitan governments take over Metrorail functions gradually which will ensure integrated public transportation systems and better governance.

In October last year, the Cape Town City Council gave the DA-run metro approval to proceed with its plans to take over the management of the City’s railway services. The Western Cape Government and the City have already committed additional security personal thus ensuring increased protection of commuters and infrastructure at risk.

  1. Diversifying Ownership

While the state should retain ownership of the infrastructure, the DA calls for the gradual privatisation of some railway operations. This will increase competition and choice for transportation in the rail sector.

The DA’s plan is the only alternative to the ANC’s broken public railway transportation system. Our rail plan will put commuters first and ensure job security because it will be safe, well-run and corruption free.

We are committed to empowering South African public transport commuters and ensuring that the rail transportation system puts the safety of South Africans first

 

David Mabuza should be in prison, not the Presidency

The following remarks were made today by DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane, in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. Maimane was joined by DA Mpumalanga Provincial Leader, Jane Sithole, Deputy Provincial Leader, Trudie Grove-Morgan, Provincial Chairperson, Bosman Grobler and Deputy Provincial Chairperson, Themba Mlotshwa.

Fellow Democrats,

Today we are here in the community of Rockdale, Middelburg, witnessing the harrowing effects of the disastrous decade of David Mabuza’s reign as Premier of Mpumalanga.

In this community a cluster of RDP homes was built using millions of rands of public money. During my walkabout I encountered the real-life experiences of what many poor South Africans face daily. That is, an ANC in government which cares more about patronage and profit than the most vulnerable members of our society.

Here in Rockdale over 200 RDP houses were built, yet the intended legal beneficiaries are left in the lurch as most houses lie bare without any access to basic services. Many are occupants, but do not have title deed over the property they live in. For many, what ought to have become their family home has now become a family headache.

The quality of the infrastructure is substandard, and many of these homes are dilapidated after only months of being erected – and have thus become a target for vandalism and theft. Many occupants are left with no option but to illegally connect to electricity to cook food and provide for their families as electricity has not been connected for many houses.

Like most projects in ANC governments, there is some connected cadre who is profiting off the suffering of poor South Africans. This, sadly, is the legacy of now Deputy President David Mabuza in this province.

During his tenure as Mpumalanga Premier, Mabuza used and abused this province – turning it into his own fiefdom of patronage, power and profits. From allegations of political assassinations to muffling journalists and the media – Mabuza is the poster boy for the modern-day ANC.

This is a man who maintained his patronage network by bloating the provincial government with loyal cadres. In the 2013/14 financial year, the total budgeted expenditure of the province was R34,2 billion, of which almost 60% – or R20 billion – was to pay salaries.

This is also a man who was served with a temporary protection order which ordered him to stop harassing and intimidating businessman and conservationist in the Cradle of Life Reserve in Bayplans, Mpumalanga, Frederick Coenraad Daniel in January this year.

Mabuza’s links to Jacob Zuma and the Guptas are well known. On 26 October 2015, he flew from Johannesburg to Moscow aboard the Gupta owned Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft. He then returned to South Africa on the same aircraft on 14 November 2015. Mabuza claimed that he has accepted a ride with the Guptas to seek medical treatment in Moscow for his alleged August 2015 poisoning.

David Mabuza has left Mpumalanga in tatters, with joblessness, corruption, and lack of basic service delivery rife across the province. With all the allegations against Mabuza, he ought to have been put in jail.

Despite this, David Mabuza now holds the second highest office in the land – as Deputy President. While the people of Mpumalanga can account first-hand the disastrous legacy of Mabuza, the ANC saw fit to promote him to the position of Deputy President.

In fact, Cyril Ramaphosa threw his own Deputy Presidential candidate, Lindiwe Sisulu, under the bus in order to team up with Mabuza at the ANC’s elective conference in December last year. A marriage of compromise in the pursuit of power.

Certainly, there can be no ‘New Dawn” with David Mabuza as second in charge. Mpumalanga – and South Africa – need change, and that change can only come from a DA government that create jobs, eliminates crime and corruption, and ensures basic services are delivered to all South Africans.

South Africa deserves a post-ANC future, and that future lies in a DA-led government.

DA urges Ramaphosa to stop paying Zuma legal fees

The DA has today written to President Cyril Ramaphosa to request that he reconsider his decision to continue to pay for former president, Jacob Zuma’s, legal fees.

The State has already spent at least R15.3 million on Mr Zuma’s legal costs. This figure is likely to be significantly higher as it is still unclear whether this amount is confined only to the litigation involving the DA.

In March, the DA filed papers with the North Gauteng High Court asking that the agreement between the Presidency and Jacob Zuma, to cover the legal costs incurred by him for his criminal prosecution be reviewed, declared invalid and set aside.

We have also requested that the court order that the R15.3 million already spent on past criminal and civil proceedings, be refunded.

The DA welcomed the President’s decision to abide by this upcoming decision of the Court as well as the previous commitment that the State would no longer pay Mr Zuma’s legal costs, which has now seemingly been reversed.

President Ramaphosa’s decision may pave the way for Mr Zuma to file an application to review the decision of the National Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute him. Therefore, these costs could escalate alarmingly at precisely the time when 9.5 South Africans are unemployed.

Mr Zuma has repeatedly abused court processes over the last ten years by launching civil proceedings and opposing applications with the clear intention of avoiding or significantly delaying the criminal prosecution against him.

The reason he did this is that he knew full well that the State, and therefore the people of South Africa, would pay for his legal fees.

Mr Zuma should not be entitled to any further financial support from the government and the people of South Africa.

The DA is, therefore, considering an application to interdict the State from paying any further costs related to Mr Zuma’s legal fees in this matter as he has already cost the people of South Africa dearly and unjustifiably.

However, we do not wish to litigate needlessly and have therefore requested that President Ramaphosa reconsiders his decision to continue to pay for Mr Zuma’s legal costs both in the best interests of all South Africans and so that justice will be allowed to prevail.

DA’s railway plan will improve safety on trains and protect commuters from job losses

The statement below follows a presentation by the DA Shadow Minister of Transport, Manny De Freitas MP,  to the Competition Commission on the DA’s railway safety plan. Please find attached a soundbite by Mr de Freitas.  

Today, the DA presented our railway plan to the Competition Commission. This follows the Commission instituting a market inquiry into land-based public passenger transport to ascertain the general state of competition in the sector.

South African train commuters have for years been subjected to horrendous railway conditions and a lack of choice. From opportunistic criminals who prey on vulnerable passengers, to an unreliable railway system as a result of vandalism and a lack of resources.

This has also resulted in a considerable decrease in rail passenger numbers over the past decade. South Africans have clearly lost faith in their public railway services.

The failure of the public railway system lies squarely at the feet of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). The agency has been beleaguered by mismanagement and corruption. In addition to this, it’s failure to invest in Metrorail has further exacerbated the troubles in railway services.

The challenges in rail industry have a direct impact on job security. Workers are often late to their place of employment due to the chronic delays of trains which have resulted in job losses.

The DA‘s transport policy will create a railway system which is safe, well managed, put commuters first, and ensure job security. The plan is based on four aspects:

  1. Stabilising and modernising the current rail system

The Public Protector report, “Derailed”, exposed the true extent of the rot at PRASA. The failure of governance at the agency has had a direct impact of public confidence.

In the past 10 years, PRASA lost nearly 60% of their clients – from 2.7 million passengers per day in 2008 to 1.2 million to date. One of the reasons for this decline is the issue of security.

What is required is a dedicated Railway Police service to take over security operations at train stations.

An urgent update is also required to ascertain the progress which has been made in upgrading the current signal system so that no manual signal is used. This is to prevent further unnecessary instances of crashes and derailment.

  1. Merge Transnet and PRASA under the Department of Transport

This means all rail-related passenger and freight services should become the direct responsibility of the Minister of Transport. This will streamline decision making and improve planning and integration.

  1. Ceding control of Metrorail services to Metros

This process will see Metropolitan governments take over Metrorail functions gradually which will ensure integrated public transportation systems and better governance.

In October last year, the Cape Town City Council gave the DA-run metro approval to proceed with its plans to take over the management of the City’s railway services. The Western Cape Government and the City have already committed additional security personal thus ensuring increased protection of commuters and infrastructure at risk.

  1. Diversifying Ownership

While the state should retain ownership of the infrastructure, the DA calls for the gradual privatisation of some railway operations. This will increase competition and choice for transportation in the rail sector.

The DA’s plan will not only enforce integrated public transportation planning but it will also lead to job security as there will be an efficient transport system devoid of crime.

We remain committed to the vision of a well-run, corruption free and accountable rail transportation system that puts the safety of South Africans first.

SADTU proves it does not care about children’s safety

Today, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Nomsa Marchesi MP, and DA Gauteng Shadow MEC of Basic Education, Khume Ramulifho MPL, went to the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) headquarters to hand over a letter calling on the union to support our bid to have a minimum service level declared for key school staff by the Essential Services Commission (ESC).

SADTU officials proved today that they simply do not care about children’s safety by refusing to even read our letter to them. They eventually sent a security guard down to accept the letter.

The DA corresponded with SADTU ahead of our visit to their offices, stating our intention to hand over the letter. It is therefore disappointing that the union has mischaracterised our visit, claiming we intended to “barge into SADTU offices”, and refused to send an official to accept our letter.

They have also mischaracterised our call, saying that we are asking to make education an essential service. This is, however, an outright lie by SADTU. The DA has, for a long time, been calling for a declaration of a minimum service level for some school staff members and earlier this year, we submitted an application to the ESC on this.

We are pleased that the ESC has given our submission serious consideration and it is now up to SADTU to prove that it cares about the safety and security of all learners. SADTU wants to lock our children into poverty by jeopardising their futures whenever their members go on strike.

Abandoning learners to go on strike means that children are deprived of their rights to education, safety and security – there must always be senior staff members to ensure that children are not left unsupervised.

In requesting the ESC to establish a minimum service level, the DA raised three key concerns:
• Supervision: Adult supervision will ensure that children are safe from crime and violence, which have gripped schools across the country.
• Leadership and safety: During emergencies, senior school staff must communicate with emergency services or other authorities and make alternative arrangements where necessary. They must also ensure safety during union meetings or strikes.
• Nutrition, health and hygiene: Learners must always have access to food and clean facilities and it is the responsibility of school staff to ensure this. Staff also have to be available whenever there are medical emergencies. Learners with chronic illnesses and specific health requirements need constant care.

Establishing a minimum service level will therefore ensure that school staff members entrusted with protecting and caring for children carry out this duty.

We encourage all interested parties to submit comments regarding the establishment of a minimum service level. South Africa’s ever rising unemployment rate, which is currently at 9.5 million, will only go up if learners are denied quality education and prevented from learning.

Young people need to be properly prepared to enter the world of work and SADTU must ensure that this becomes a reality. We challenge SADTU to prioritise learners’ safety and education by publicly endorsing our call to make key school staff an essential service.

Maimane calls on Hawks to deepen probe into ANC corruption at Vrede Dairy Farm

I have today written to the new National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), Adv Godfrey Lebeya, requesting a formal meeting to discuss the ongoing investigation into the Free State Government’s now infamous Estina Dairy Farm project in Vrede.

Yesterday, the Minister of Police confirmed in a written parliamentary question that the investigation into the Estina Dairy Farm Project is still on-going, and that the investigation would be submitted to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) once finalised. I would like to therefore seek clarity on a number of matters from the Hawks, most importantly the progress on investigating the political appointees who were involved in the project. This includes the former Free State Premier and now Secretary-General of the ANC, Ace Magashule, and former Free State MEC for Agriculture, Mosebenzi Zwane.

These individuals abused their roles as public servants, and instead served the interests of ANC-connected crooks. To this point, it appears that the political masterminds behind the fraudulent scam have been let off the hook. This cannot be tolerated.

In August last year, I hand delivered a legal indictment to the Hawks Office, containing over 200 pages of prima facie evidence showing that Mosebenzi Zwane and members of the Gupta family, through an intricate web of companies and actors, stole almost R200 million of public funds which ended up paying for a Gupta family wedding at Sun City in 2013.

This indictment provides concrete evidence which outlines in detail how money was stolen from the intended beneficiaries and provides sufficient evidence to support the criminal charges laid against several members of the Gupta family, their associates, and Zwane in July 2017 by DA Shadow Minister of Finance, David Maynier MP. These charges include money laundering, racketeering, assisting another to benefit from the proceeds of unlawful activities, and acquiring, possessing or using the proceeds of unlawful activities in terms of the Prevention of Organized Crime Act 121 of 1998.

I would therefore like to discuss this matter with Adv. Lebeya, in order to understand the current status of the investigation, its projected timeline, the inclusion of the political principals, and the contents of the legal indictment I provided to the Hawks last year.

What makes the matter of utmost importance is that to date, none of the political principals involved have been held to account. The Public Protector’s report into this matter absolves the very individuals who designed and orchestrated this R220 million scandal. The DA has taken the report on legal review on this very point, as we believe it to be a “whitewash”.

South Africans need to be assured that those politicians who orchestrate the theft of public money are investigated and held to account, and the Hawks is the very body tasked with combatting, investigating and preventing grand scale corruption such as what we’ve seen unfold in Vrede.