Warwick Bruce Chapman

The ANC chose to vote down two DA proposals which had won the support of the MF, IFP and other mintor parties that seeked to urgently intervene in resolving dangerous safety concerns which affect the lives of eThekwini residents.

“Death Road”
Cllrs Macpherson and De Boer proposed a motion which would have seen urgent measures taken place to improve the safety of “Death Road” on the M4 Ruth First highway between Broadway and Virginia in Durban North. The proposal suggested barriers be installed to separate the lanes and Metro Police establish a permanent unit to monitor that road. The ANC dismissed the motion with contempt suggesting the proposers were not following protocol despite the numerous efforts by councillors with City officials to see action taken.

The Deputy Mayor went as far as suggesting the DA Cllrs were trying to further protect their “leafy suburbs” while other parts of the City were in a significantly worse condition. DA Cllr Heinz De Boer clarified that “if the Mayor chooses to admit other parts of the City are in a poor state, that is his prerogative and shows up the lack of action by the City and councillors in those area, but as the Councillors responsible for Durban North and Umhlanga, we are doing our jobs as demanded by our communities.”

“Street Lights”
Also dispatched with a stunning display of arrogance and personal attacks was the motion proposed by Cllrs Chapman and Lindsay seeking that a task team be setup comprising councillors and officials from the Metro Electricity Department to urgently address the high number of faulty street lights in the City. Lindsay contended that despite 6 months of trying to get the Electricity department to fix over 200 faulty lights in the Pinetown New Germany area, little or no action had been taken.

Chapman explained that with the FIFA World Cup coming up and noting the serious impact that poor lighting has on crime, the DA wished to see councillors working together with Electricity Department officials to resolve urgent lighting and safety issues ahead of the big event. Again the ANC, through Cllr Reddy, used protocol as their excuse to sideline this constructive proposal.

Chapman, referring to the treatment of both proposals, said that “the ANC chose cheap politics over urgently needed service delivery in what is indicative of the attitude which has seen the gradual decline in support for the ruling party and spawned service delivery protests all over the country.”

– Warwick Chapman (Cllr Ward 18) | 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org | http://warwickchapman.com

In a letter written from the Department of Correctional Services to the Human Rights Commission apologising for the claims made by the head of the Westville Prison, the Department states that Mr Mabanga “could not provide any tangible information or documentation in respect of his comments over the Human Rights stance with regards to the electric fence”.

The letter goes on to state that Mr Mabanga “is not totally informed of the status of the electric fence” and that the fence depicted in the picture in the Daily News 24 February “is still under construction” and “not operational”.

As the councillor who represents the community bordering the prison, I find it totally unacceptable that the head of the Correctional Centre appears to have lied about the stance of the HRC on this matter and additionally that he was not sufficiently informed about the status of the electric fence. I sincerely hope his replacement does a better job.

A copy of the letter is available here.

The beachfront development is a massive undertaking which will hopefully, like the new stadium, give tourism in Durban another shot in the arm. Why though, does it seem so difficult to get the basics right during the construction? Why out of 6 showers at North beach do only 2 work? Why are there dangerous heaps of twisted steel and concrete, rubble and materials on the beach and promenade? How difficult is it for the relevant officials to get 6 working showers on the busiest beach in Durban? Equally, surely it is in the interests of public safety to remove dangerous rubble, steel and concrete from the beach?

eThekwini is not getting enough of the basics right and these are but two of many such examples we experience on a daily basis in our City.

I would, however, like to applaud Durban Solid Waste for getting going with the cleanup at the beachfront promptly on the morning of the 2 January. It goes without saying that the amount of litter generated by the hundreds of thousands of New Year’s day beachgoers is massive and DSW have their work cut out cleaning it all up. They however, seem to have the basics right – they arrived, and they got started.

– DA Councillor, Warwick Chapman

In response to the release of the DA’s Crooked Comrades Monitor, the ANC was quoted in the Mail and Guardian (“Tracking crooked comrades”, 8 October 2009) saying the DA was attempting to “tarnish the image” of the ANC. That comment made think that perhaps we also need to create a list of ANC Comrades with functioning deductive abilities.

I believe it is quite clear that one of our jobs as a political party is to show our opponents up when their actions and practice differ from their words and policies. This is an important component of the greater task of presenting our party as a capable alternative to that opponent. So, for example, when the ANC attempts to show the DA up by accusing us of being racist and then failing to back it up with facts, the DA, through the Crooked Comrades Monitor is not only accusing the ANC of accommodating criminality within its ranks but backing it up with facts.

In the same article, ANC spokesperson, Brian Sokutu said that the deployment of ANC comrades into public and private sector positions was not the business of the DA. Unfortunately on this point Mr Sokutu is wrong. The word public in reference to public sector jobs means appointments are everyone’s business since it is our money being spent, and unfortunately for the ANC, the DA is included in that “everyone”. The Crooked Comrades Monitor deals only with appointments in the public sector since President Zuma came to power on the back of promises to fight crime and corruption.

Were the ANC to attempt to build a similar list for the DA they would find that the Democratic Alliance has at the first hint of any suspicion of illegal activity, suspended membership of the person or terminated the relationship with the organisation involved pending full investigation.

The fact of the matter is that the ANC tolerates corruption and criminalism within its own ranks. How can a government stand up on a soap box and berate corruption as an evil of society, an enemy of the national democratic revolution and then at the same time allow this extent of complicity with corruption and criminalism to continue?

What South Africa needs is a clean, efficient and correctly resourced public service and representatives, and in order to feed the current climate of demand for service delivery, that should the single highest priority for the ruling party.

Dear Julius

In the ANC Youth League press release entitled, “ANC YL FULLY BEHIND SA’S GOLDEN GIRL—MOKGADI CASTER SEMENYA” (11 September), your organisation stated: “The ANC YL is [..] very concerned by the fact that all the media reports about Caster Semenya are generated in Australia, which is the most lucrative destination for South Africa’s racists and fascists, who refused to live under a black democratic government.”

Julius, the true enemies of South African unity are not the racists outside of South Africa but rather those who spread racial prejudice within the borders of our country.  Of course there is the stereotypical white racist, but then there are also people like yourself Julius.  The enemies of South African unity are people who spread words and ideas which are divisive.  In a relatively short period of time you have become a master at sowing seeds of racial conflict and disunity.

Everytime you or one of your Youth League colleagues cry wolf on the issue of race, waving that big red race card, you belittle and undermine the veracity of the fight against racism.  Racism does not exist one way only.  One of the biggest challenges in the fight against racism is to recognise that discrimination on the basis of colour is something that works both ways.

When you stand on your soapbox and tell the country that whites fled the “the black democratic government”, you are doing nothing more than fostering the entrenchment of racism.   We have a hard won democratic government which is supposed to be for all of South Africa’s people.

So Julius, if you truly are interested in uniting this country you need to start thinking before you speak.  Shooting from the lip as irresponsibly as you do does nothing to build confidence in the minds of those South Africans whose skills are being lured away from our country. It does nothing to build confidence in those potential foreign investors who can provide job soaking growth and investment in our economy.

Your vocal commitment to those poor South Africans you purport to represent is not backed up by your regular ill-considered public utterances.  I urge you to think before you speak. Use your platform to spread messages which promote unity and add constructively to the fight against racism.

Warwick Chapman, DA Councillor, eThekwini – ward18@ethekwini.org