COPE (WESTERN CAPE) REPLY TO STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS 2012

20 Feb. 2012

Introduction

I begin by paying tribute kumaqhawe namagorha Omzantsi Afrika awazika neQnawa uMendi. Siyabulela kurhulumente ngokukhumbhula lamaqhawe noxa apha kule indlu engakhankanywa. I could politicise this neglect, but what would be the point.

The sinking of the troopship Mendi during World War 1 was a disaster in its own right. However, the way in which this disaster was conveniently forgotten is a tragedy which betrays the gallantry of those involved.

The men from the 802 SANLC were mostly from the rural areas of the Pondo Kingdom in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. They were not to be used as a fighting force and were forbidden to bear arms as there was a fear that they could revolt against military or civilian authority. Instead they were to be utilised as labourers digging trenches and performing other manual labour as well as forming stretcher bearer parties.

Better Life Together

Listening to the Premier's speech the impression I got was that we are now expected to take a call of Better Life Together?

Does this mean the Premier and the DA have finally come to the true realisation that poverty is "an affront to the human dignity and the primary obstacle to living a full life" for all, and not just the affluent and privileged?

Is the DA finally getting off its parallel universe, and joining the reality of the rest of South Africans?

Or is this just another ruse of political opportunism, because in their minds the DA think people, especially black people, are sheep that are lured by collective slogans?

Only time will tell!

Although if I was the Premier, and the DA, I should be embarrassed to plagiarise the ANC slogan ‘Better Life For All' into ‘Better Together'.

I was surprised at the levels DA opportunism would go when last weekend I listened to its parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko on the Mail and Guardian debate saying that the DA's Open Society philosophy was never against restoration and balancing the historical imbalances of the past.

Indeed, it seems as if pigs do fly! But we welcome the DA to true reality of the land.

Clean Governance

Going back to the Premier's previous speeches since the DA took over power in the Western Cape you realise that she has portrayed herself to be this Hercules coming to clean the dirty stables of corruption in this province.

Ask now what came of that.

The best you get is that the corruption cases are with the FIU (Forensic Investigative Unit). And when you dig deeper you find out that hardly anything has been done beyond what was instigated by the previous administration of Ms Lynne Brown.

We had a presentation of the FIU stats only last week, 15 Feb 2012. It became clear that 66% of cases have not been resolved that were reported as far back as 2005.

In fact 70% of total FIU case load as of 31 December 2011 had not yet been started. At 26% each the departments of Health and Agriculture have the highest reported cases out of the total 93 reported in 2011/2012, and most of these cases are of alleged Conflict of Interest and theft.

On the outcomes of cases completed for 2011/2012 47% of them were of Fraud and or Irregularity. What picture does this paint? The DA government is not as clean as its propaganda machine would have us believe.

Worse still, you discover that the dirty stables have poured into the DA house - in the form of TWA for instance.

The Premier told us if there was any corruption found to have been done by any of her officials she would resign. But when her glory boys in the likes of Ryan Coetzee were found to be implicated in the whole they were rewarded with redeployments to the national assembly.

Is this what we should read in the redeployment of the previous Speaker? Certainly his departure leave a lot of unanswered questions about the procurement policy of this DA administration in this parliament.

I can mention another example of municipality regression under the DA that the Premier purposefully avoided on her address. The Auditor General (AG) MFMA audit outcomes of 2010-11 reports that;

• Municipalities that were financially unqualified with findings regressed by two,
• The qualified regressed by one municipality;
• Swellendam municipality, which is under the DA, has not submitted audit for two consecutive years (2009-10 and 2010-11), yet nothing much has been done about it by the Local Government department.
• We know the refusal to submit audit is usually done to avoid adverse audit or disclaimer. And then the DA goes around bragging that it had no disclaimers and is the better administered province.

Meantime the MFMA audit outcomes also reports that in this province there has been

• No progress made in implementing key controls like, Leadership, Financial Perfomance Management and Governance. In fact these have gone down.
• Worse still, only 15% of audit findings have been corrected by municipalities.
• And the AG is concerned by the over use of consultants by the municipalities that does not lead to skill transfer;
• And only 7% municipalities comply with laws and regulations.

That's DA's style is to talk the talk but never walk the walk. And they get away with it because, frankly we as opposition parties make it easy for them by not holding them into account about what they have said.

Poverty Eradication and Economic Growth

Too much time has been spent in the last few years since 2009, Mr Speaker, with the DA denying the reality of our province, and making us all chase a bouncing ball by constantly changing the proverbial goals.

The DA is very good at talking the talk, but when it has to walk the walk it reverts to its old skin of prioritising interest of rich business and affluent people at the expense of the dignity of the poor.

For instance, in her state of the province address last year the Premier went on and on about the ‘Western Cape of our dreams'. She said all was needed was giving space to the creation of entrepreneurs. And she made all these plans that never materialised to much.

This year the plans have been rebranded.

They are now called Economic Development Partnership (EDP). But it's the same thing "where all stakeholders in the economy will come together to develop and help implement a shared agenda for economic growth, development, and inclusion."

You'll be excused if you yawn.

The EDP too will "include a steering committee of prominent leaders from the business community and government" as the previous promises.

Yawn!

Meantime employment has not proven to be a temporal thing as the Premier had hoped all these past years. Welcome to reality Ms Zille. Now, lets get some real practical solutions on the table.

The former air-force base at Wingfiled, for instance, has been standing vacant and derelict for many years now. We can easily turn it into a training centre for much needed skill development for the lower job sector.

Those huge hangers there that were used to store aircraft could easily be converted into a training centre for skill development for plumbers, bricklayers, electrician, etc.

Drug and Alcohol Abuse

In the past few years again, the Premier seemed serious about tackling the issue of alcohol and drug abuse -in fact that's the sense you get from her speech also this year.

Yet statistics show that the Western Cape is becoming the drug capital of the country. Things are getting worse than better. All the DA can come out with is putting more money to the problem, and

Yet a small NGO called FARR in De Aar was able to reduce foetus alcohol syndrome by 38% within a year through proper and efficient implementation and working with the Health Department of the Eastern Cape.

We cannot just keep throwing money on problems and hoping for the best.

The problem here is that we have a know it all administration who think they have answers to everything and so do not need to work with communities and other stakeholders.

• Our MEC for Safety and security, for instance, sees it fit to first consult with druglords and criminals before the communities they destroy.
• Our MEC for Health's answer to the unhappy communities (Khayelitsha) when they are not happy in a manner his department is hiring the staff for the new hospital is to send in the security forces.
• When the communities (Hout Bay) complain about the legality of building a storied building on their heritage sites the MEC for Public Works and Transport gives them a finger.
• And the Rondebosch Common protesters are met with a police force and 42 people were arrested.

In a way I'm glad people from all sort of area and class are starting to wake up to what the DA really is.

The DA has failed to meet up to most of its promises, especially in houses and job creation. The only thing it is good at, with the biased assistance of most of our media, is propaganda.

Minyaka le siyasixokiswa!

The DA failed in its top priority of economic growth and development for all.

Housing and human settlement

Because it can't solve the housing problem the DA keeps shoving people into sub-standard living, like Blikkiesdorp in Delft.

Blikkiesdorp has become symbol of forced removal from Symphony Way in public psyche. It is without water or ablution, lack of waste control, no medical care or disease control.

People have literally died of starvation / malnutrition there.

There are no facilities for kids, elderly or disabled. And it's in the middle of a sandpit. It would make sense to make it one of the pilot project for keeping youth off the streets by making one of the 174 centres in poor communities offering after-school activities.

Providing Access to Quality Education and Healthcare

There's no doubt about the fact that this country inherited a bad education legacy from the apartheid regime. But the Western Cape inherited a better infrastructure than most other provinces, with the exception perhaps of the then Transvaal, now partly Gauteng.

This is why it is strange to me now that the DA uses this as a political weapon for propaganda that it is a best administration in the country.

Lest look at the education of the provinces for instance. No doubt there has been some improvements on the upper echelons and affluent areas. But this is also true of Gauteng, KZN and even the Eastern Cape.

The problem where it lies is in the schools from the poor areas and background. This problem is glaring in the Eastern Cape because the majority of schools are like that.

All provinces fail the children in poor schools which most still remain with poor infrastructure and breakdown of discipline, including the ones here in the Western Cape.

I don't believe the claim by the Premier that this province spends six times more on poor schools than the more privileged. I would like to challenge the MEC for education to provide this House with hard financial evidence about from the department's actual spending records.

As for the claim of providing a textbook for every child, we heard it last year and as COPE tested it. We didn't have to go far; a school just across national assembly (St Mary's Primary) was still awaiting its texbooks from the department of education by May 2012. I provided that evidence in this House. Instead of the Premier addressing what we said she decided vilify me and insinuated that I made the whole thing up. before she could subsequently shut up. So you will pardon us if this year we take it with a pinch of salt again.

Other than that I congratulate the department of Education and learning in the Western Cape for doing a good work. We need to be even more focused this year.

Let me end with the words of Reverend Isaac Dyobha who was among those left on board of Mendi. He called on the panic stricken men and admonished them to take courage:

"Be quiet and calm, my countrymen, for what is taking place is exactly what you came to do. You are going to die... but that is what you came to do. Brothers, we drilling the death drill. I, a Xhosa, say you are my brothers. Swazi's, Pondo's, Basuto's, we die like brothers. We are the sons of Africa. Raise your war cries, brothers, for though they made us leave our assegais in the kraal, our voices are left with our bodies. "

And I add, white and black, we are brethren. I urge you not regard Western Cape as an independent island of South Africa.

We are all brethren and comrades in arms against the cruelties of history that have brought us to where we are today.

We must not allow hate to divide us. Siyimbumba yamanyama, united in our diversity.

Many among us have perished through exposure to the elements, as it happened to the 802 SANLC troops of Mendi of which 615 perished.

Like the Darro that crashed Mendi, which was discovered to have been travelling at a high speed, the sons of apartheid will refuse us ubuntu to rescue our survivors and each other, though they were responsible for the disaster. But we must stand together for united prosperous South Africa.

Thank you!

T.N. Bevu

COPE MPL

Issued by COPE Western Cape, February 20 2012

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