ANC captures Free State with Stalinst approach

17 July 2019

In his book “Political Ideology in the Modern World” (1995: 156), Bernard Susser quotes Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky regarding the rise of the communist dictator Joseph Stalin in the former Soviet Union.

Trotsky warns that revolutionary organisations are soon corrupted by their leaders with the quote: ‘…the organisation of the party takes the place of the party itself; the central committee takes the place of the organisation: and finally, the dictator takes the place of the central committee’.

This is true of how the National Democratic Revolution has taken shape, not only at national level, but also in the Free State where the strategy of democratic centralism, otherwise known as the cadre policy, was usurped by Ace Magashule to build his notorious political empire.

His control of the party in the province as chairperson and later his rise to Premier gave him not only party political power, but also executive authority over the provincial government.

Operation Hlasela was his government strategy to legitimise his very successful campaign to entrench patronage and dependency both inside and outside of government.

We all know that patronage and dependency require nepotism, corruption and state capture to be successful.

Now as Secretary General of the ANC, Magashule will use the same strategy in his rise to power at national level with his sights levelled clearly at the Presidency. If he had been alive in South Africa today, Trotsky would be shouting his warnings from the rooftops.

During the past week and a half of budget debates, we have been subjected to history lessons dealt out by ANC members.

We must obviously acknowledge our history, but should never allow it to consume us, and more importantly not allow it to be the primary factor that dictates our future.

South Africa’s history has many sides - good, bad and ugly.

We cannot ignore the more than 161 pieces of discriminatory Apartheid legislation that were implemented before 1994. We will similarly never ignore the political arrests, incarcerations and executions that took place during this time.

The previous governing National Party’s ‘Vlakplaas’ will be remembered alongside the current governing ANC party’s Quatro camp in Angola which the ANC’s Stuart Commission of inquiry indicated that “women were treated as sex objects who could not develop politically or militarily”.

Other abuses against freedom fighters such as floggers, killings and torture were implemented by the “imbokodo” (grinding stone of the junta authority) at Quatro in a similar fashion to those implemented by the security personnel at ‘Vlakplaas’.

It was eventually a logical outcome of our history that the last leader of the “New” National Party, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, would find his final political home in the ANC and not the DA.

It is sad that South Africa has become a text-book case for state capture through a Stalinist approach to government. In fact, both former President Jacob Zuma and former Premier of the Free State Ace Magashule proved correct the words of the 19th century French Economist Frederick Bastiat who proclaimed similar warnings as Trotsky with the comment: “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

Bastiat’s words apply to the previous NP regime, but unfortunately in recent times also to the current ANC regime.

The DA was founded in 2000 by then DP leader Tony Leon who refused to take up an offer of a cabinet position alongside the ANC, NP and IFP’s government of national unity, preferring to carry out his duty to build a strong opposition, which remains the foundation of any democracy.

He only followed the example of one of his former leaders Helen Suzman, of whom former President Nelson Mandela said: “Your courage, integrity and principled commitment to justice have marked you as one of the outstanding figures in the history of public life in South Africa”.

It is with Helen Suzman’s “courage, integrity and principled commitment to justice” that this Free State Legislature DA caucus acknowledges the injustices of a previous non-democratic dispensation, but continues the fight against injustices and abuses in our current democratic dispensation by speaking truth to power.

We will continue to do so until our people in the Free State recognise that they are being misled through rhetoric, and understand that true liberty from our current enemies of poverty, inequality and unemployment lie with their willingness to use their hard won democratic right to vote.

The sacrifices of those people who were tortured, abused and murdered at places such as ‘Vlakplaas’ and Quatro must not be in vain.

Today’s debates are about the budgets of the seat of our democracy in the province through the Free State Legislature, the power of the purse through Provincial Treasury and the authority of our provincial government through the Office of the Premier.

As we debate these institutions, we must always keep our eyes steadfastly focussed on ensuring a better future and never just a better past.

I cannot discuss the 2019/20 financial year’s R625,7 million budget for the Office of the Premier without comparing it with the Treasury’s R367,6 million and the Legislature’s R266,2 million budgets. It is sad that our seat of democracy, the Free State Legislature, should struggle to implement its constitutional mandate to hold the executive collectively and individually accountable due to budgetary constraints, while the Office of the Premier which provides oversight, leadership and monitoring over other government departments is over-funded.

As I debate the budget vote of the Office of the Premier today, I will discuss the respective strategic objectives, which are also the four programmes within this Office, in order to determine whether in fact the people of the Free State are receiving value for money.

The first strategic objective is “to provide strategic leadership and support to ensure effective and efficient government practices and resource management”.

In this respect the Free State government executive committee and departments continue to surf rudderless in a sea of political unrest and poor service delivery with little light at the end of the tunnel. The provincial executive currently has little legislative experience and continue to reflect the will of the Stalinist caricature in Luthuli House. The Auditor-General warns every year that poor audit outcomes in provincial government departments are largely due to poor supply chain management and lack of leadership.

The second objective is to “render corporate support functions to the department of the Premier and strategically direct and coordinate corporate support functions of provincial departments”.

This programme receives the highest proportion of funds within the Office of the Premier. This programme is responsible for transversal functions, human resources, legal services, training and development, and overseeing and coordinating the learnership programmes and national skills fund as well as media and community liaison.
This programme continues to consume large amounts of money with questionable outcomes.

The provincial government’s bursary schemes have left many students without usable qualifications and appear in some instances to be money laundering schemes. The thousands of students at out universities are crying out for funding, while each student abroad could probably fund about ten in South Africa. While this programme is meant to supply legal services, out government departments face billions of Rands of legal challenges.

The third strategic objective is meant to “align, integrate and coordinate the activities of all National, Provincial Departments, Municipalities and State Owned Entities towards goals and objectives of government” Integrated research planning, infrastructure coordination and programmes focussing on youth, gender and military veteran’s falls within this objective.

Our provincial government itself is one of the biggest offenders regarding poor record of payment to municipalities for services and rates and taxes.

This Office has been unsuccessful in ensuring that our municipalities pay their Eskom and Water Board debt that continues to escalate. Meanwhile our liberation war veterans in the Free State are complaining about the lack of support and nepotism in housing and other support. This programme is failing dismally.

The fourth objective, with the second largest funding, is “to lead and provide monitoring and evaluation services in Provincial and Local government to ensure optimal results with regards to service delivery and implementation”.

This objective is responsible for carrying out these services on provincial and local government levels and to ensure that services reach the intended communities.

Mangaung residents face an uncertain water supply, not because of water scarcity, but this time because of a lack of payment to Bloemwater.

No municipality in the Free State was able to receive a clean audit and service delivery is collapsing or has collapsed. Claiming a lack of funds, many municipalities cannot even send out accounts to residents for services or rates and taxes. Like service delivery, municipal infrastructure maintenance has become another remnant of our contemporary history.

Similarly, our provincial departments face serious scandals relating to housing schemes, asbestos identification contracts, agricultural schemes and nepotism regarding the families of our current and former Premiers and MEC’s, to name but a few.

As the official opposition in the Free State legislature, the DA will continue to hold the ANC-run provincial government accountable, especially the politicians who prefer to throw officials under the bus of accountability. In this respect the words of American Author Edward Abbey are applicable: “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government”.

The DA will continue to patriotically defend the people of the Free State from a government that has moralised plundering under the pretext of the National Democratic Revolution and entrenched nepotism through a strategy of democratic centralism.

Issued by Roy Jankielsohn, MPL and Leader of the official Opposition in the Free State Legislature, 17 July 2019