DA condemns ANC’s Cuban court action
29 March 2022
Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by Bridget Masango MP.
The DA condemns the Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (DIRCO) decision to continue with court action after the Gauteng High Court granted AfriForum’s interdict of a R50 million payment to Cuba.
It is utterly infuriating that the ANC government would choose to spend money that South Africa does not have on the purported woes of their Cuban comrades while caring not one iota about the very serious issues plaguing our shores.
While its own party owes the South African Revenue Service (SARS) R102 million rand in tax and has struggled to pay staff salaries last year, the ANC government still thinks it a good idea to donate critical funds to Cuba and further engage in a costly court battle. How does this make sense?
The plight of hungry Cuban children apparently weighs heavy on the ANC government’s mind, but it pays no thought to children dying of hunger in this country.
Seven children died of starvation in the Eastern Cape since January. Another six have been hospitalized with severe acute malnutrition. Are these children mere statistics to the ANC government? Do they merely form part of the estimated 27% of children that suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition countrywide?
The ANC government once again shows the absolute callousness they feel for South Africans in their eagerness to score points with their Cuban friends. They do not care about our children – only about historic alliances. And while donations to starving countries might seem admirable on paper, in practice it is simply another means of government withholding life-giving aid to its own people.
In the 27 years of the ANC’s reign, this country has gone from the brink of greatness to a broken nation ruled over by a morally corrupt government that intentionally blinds itself to the adversity of South Africans.
Had the ANC truly cared about starving, hopeless people – starving children – they would not have facilitated and partook in the corruption that has seeped into the core of its government.
It would have ensured that families had the dignity of work to provide for their families by building and maintaining infrastructure, by fostering local and foreign investment, by ensuring quality education, and by rooting out corruption. It would have protected its most vulnerable citizens instead of exploiting them. The death of seven children by starvation would have outraged them, and would have propelled them to action. Instead, they ignore the cries on their doorstep to help their comrades.
The ANC government must prioritise food security for the people of South Africa. Spending money on their friends while their children are starving to death is obscene.
Issued by Bridget Masango, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 29 March 2022
