Public Protector report must be tabled in Parliament for scrutiny

10 May 2016

The DA calls on the Public Protector’s latest investigative reports into the abuse of public funds for party-political purposes to be tabled in Parliament in terms of section 181(5) of the Constitution.

In so doing Parliament must ensure that the remedial action as ordered by the Public Protector into the impropriety of the then ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema, in collusion with the Department of Social Development is diligently and timeously carried out. This is as demanded by the Constitution and the Constitutional Court judgement into the force and effect of the Public Protector’s remedial action.

This is with specific respect to the irregular distribution of SASSA food parcels and a R100 000 in social grants at an electioneering event in 2009 led by EFF CIC Julius Malema, then ANCYL President. This abuse of public funds for party-political campaigning is a clear breach of the doctrine of the separation of party and state.

Specifically the Public Protector ordered that appropriate remedial action was to ensure that the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the agency SASSA develops and circulates policy setting out a clear separation between the state and party activities in all their entities at all times and all employees were to be made aware of this policy. This is critical if we are to ensure that state resources are not pilfered for undue party-political purposes as prescribed by the Constitution.

This policy should be finalised before the upcoming local government elections and include at the very least:

 checks and balances to prohibit state funds to be used in party-political activity;

That the ANC wishes to take this report on review is a clear indication that they wish to again abuse the court system to defend the indefensible to keep abusing state resources to unduly sway elections. The courts have in most recent times been steadfast in their defence of the Constitution and we have every faith that they will see this review application for what it is and dismiss it accordingly.

It is abundantly clear that the use of public funds in a bias manner is a violation of the Constitution.

Additionally, the DA will submit parliamentary questions to all government departments to determine:  

Whether public money has been utilized to fund the ANC’s Local Government Election Campaign this year; and 

Whether any government departments were approached for funding, and if so, whether they will be providing funding for the ANC’s Election Campaign this year. 

If the ANC government did what it promised the people of South Africa, it would not have to stoop as low as using bread and butter issues to manipulate the poor and vulnerable into voting for them. 

The idea of clean and accountable governance has, over Zuma’s term become a foreign concept to the ANC. Zuma and his cronies have pillaged state funds, taking food out of the mouths of the poor through an endless list of corrupt activities without regard and in the process dragged our country’s constitution through the mud. 

It adds insult to injury to dangle food parcels in the faces of thousands of poor people made even more destitute by the governments’ inability to serve its people. 

The ANC has changed and is no longer a party that truly cares for the people but one that uses the vulnerabilities of the poor to cling onto power while using state resources that are to benefit all South Africans all the times and not just in the election season.

South Africans have a chance at 03 August to vote for a DA that puts the needs of our most vulnerable at the forefront of its agenda always, and not just during elections.

Issued by Bridget Masango, DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, 10 May 2016