COSATU is deeply dismayed by the Parliamentary rascals’ sequel
6 September 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is deeply dismayed by the Parliamentary rascals’ sequel. Three months into the 7th Parliament, the nation has been made to watch various shenanigans and skulduggery by some less than illustrious Members of Parliament.
Just under three months ago, the Democratic Alliance (DA) promised swift action when one of its MPs, Mr. Renaldo Gouws, was found to have unleashed countless recordings dripping with incitements for racial violence on social media. Since then, nothing has been heard from the DA, yet it has found time to appoint this poster boy for racially inflammatory speech as one of its spokespersons at Parliament where he is proudly attending meetings notwithstanding his “suspension”.
Whilst the DA is well-known for its bizarre blind spot when it comes to understanding South Africa’s painful racial history, its leader and now Minister for Agriculture, Mr. John Steenhuisen, has found fit to appoint another gem of racial incitement, Mr. Roman Cabanac, as his Ministerial Chief of Staff. To make matters worse, he appears to be woefully unqualified for such a senior position with his glaring lack of experience in government, Parliament or agriculture, beyond a fetish for being a twitter troll spewing all sorts of hate speech.
Few South Africans expect much from former President Jacob Zuma’s MK Party. This low bar has been affirmed with a constant purging of its parliamentary ranks. Former President Zuma, himself now a convicted felon, has sought fit to scrounge the bottom of the barrel and unleash all sorts of disreputable characters found by the Judge Zondo Commission into State Capture and Corruption to have been at the heart of state capture of key State-Owned Enterprises, upon the august Houses of Parliament. Society has the right to be irritated and offended at having to foot the bill for the salaries of persons who oversaw the collapse of SOEs, who are now masquerading as Parliamentarians, more so when this rogue gallery has yet to account to the nation for their role in this chapter of treason.
Workers have paid the price for having public representatives with the moral compass of an infectious disease. COSATU felt the pain with the assassination of South African Municipal Workers’ Union shop stewards and an African National Congress Councillor in Vhembe for blowing the whistle on the corruption that collapsed the Venda Building Society (VBS). It was VBS employees who lost their jobs, pensioners and workers who lost their savings, and municipal workers today struggling to get paid because of the looting of VBS.
Yet we now are plunged into deeply worrying circumstances of a Minister for Justice, Ms. Thembi Simelane, confirming she received what is at best a loan from a person currently before court for charges of VBS related corruption and at worst, what it is not only a serious conflict of interest and non-disclosure but may also fall foul of the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Act.
COSATU had hoped, like millions of exhausted South Africans, that the May 29th election results would be a sobering moment for all political parties and their public representatives. Given the growing instances of delinquency by our MPs, it is becoming increasingly clear, that too many of our elected public representatives are incapable of acting like adults, let alone within the parameters of the law.
Society has the right to expect those entrusted to hold the state accountable, pass budgets and draft laws, should be persons of integrity, and not persons better placed in our Correctional Service facilities.
If we are to halt this slide into moral anarchy, Parliament and our law enforcement organs need to act when MPs lose their moral bearings. Treating political miscreants with kid gloves is not only an affront to the public but will embolden further chapters of state capture and looting.
Issued by Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 6 September 2024
