Summary extract of Speech by Jack Bloom on the budget vote of the Premier's Office in the Gauteng Legislature on 14 July 2011:

The failed promises of a shadow Premier

The real premier of this province does not sit in this Legislature. When the history of this province is written it will be clear that the pivotal week of your premiership was the first week of May last year.

You started that week by making public the Resolve Group report into allegations of corruption in the Gauteng Public Transport, Roads and Works Department.

You said then that you had handed over the report to the presidency so that the relevant investigatory bodies could decide what action needed to be taken. But later that week you lost to Paul Mashatile in the race to become the Gauteng Chairperson of the ANC.

I believe that you intended to hand that report over to the presidency, but as you recently told the House, the report was actually dealt with only by your office. In that very significant week you lost your unfettered freedom of action to do what was good for this province. You became trapped by the internal politics of the ANC.

We saw this when you were forced to reshuffle your executive council in November last year. As you said in this House on 24 May this year "the issue of the reshuffle had nothing to do with underperformance, it was a political determination".

We see the same pattern of retreat on other key promises that you have made.

In many instances it is not Kuyasheshwa ("hurry up") but Akusheshwa ("not hurry up").

As in the 75% of companies that are not paid within 30 days despite your promise that late payments would be a thing of the past. Your biggest failure of all is with the Roads and Transport Department.

The Auditor-General has found that Westpoint Trading Enterprises was irregularly awarded R148 million for a driving licence testing centre contract in April 2008. Then they were irregularly awarded a R35 million extension of contract to turn around the very centres they had messed up in the first place. But that's not all.

Despite being instructed explicitly by MEC Ismael Vadi and Finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe that it was an illegal contract that should not be signed, Ms Benedicta Monama, the head of department, signed a new R3 billion 10 year contract with Westpoint on 21 April this year.

In my view Ms Monama would only have proceeded in signing this illegal contract if she knew that she had protection at the very highest level. MEC Vadi suspended Monama, but what she did in wilfully disobeying an instruction was undoubtedly a summary dismissal offence.

But only the Honourable Premier has the power to fire a Head of Department, and she has so far chosen not to do so. It is a great pity that you have not exercised your power to fire her. It would send an extremely strong signal that this provincial government is tough on corruption, that no person is politically protected.

This provincial government has fundamentally failed in fighting corruption without fear or favour. It chooses some targets but not others because of the interests of certain very powerful political people. Ms Monama is going to walk away free because her contract conveniently ends tomorrow. But we may still be saddled with this R3 billion Westpoint contract because it was indeed signed by the accounting officer.

In terms of section 86 of the PFMA, it is a criminal offense for which you can get five years jail for wilful or gross negligence in contravening a provision of the PFMA. I intend to lay a charge against Ms Monama myself as it is likely that this will not be done by this provincial government.

The Honourable Premier has said that it was inhuman of me to continue to pursue Mr Buthelezi. But it is inhuman not to be tough on all possible corruption because it hurts the poor the most.

The real reason you backed off was because the real premier of this province does not sit in this Legislature. ANC Gauteng Chairperson Paul Mashatile calls the shots on key projects, he can order an Executive Council reshuffle, and he can protect those who should not be protected.

What we have in this house is a shadow premier. She continues her reign as the queen of empty promises.

The DA in Gauteng will show a different way in which this province can be a real success. We will promote the good practices in DA-run Western Cape that should be adopted here.

Our role as an opposition is to point out areas where things are wrong, and provide solutions to put things right.

We aim to provide hope for all those who have been sorely let down by the premier's unfulfilled promises.

That is how we will serve the people of this province. And we are ready to govern when the voters so decide.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Caucus Leader, July 14 2011

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