To all of those who chose stones or the race card today to attack the most diverse party in South Africa, watch the DA unfold before you as a truly non-racial party which will be lead by any South African regardless of race – because they are the best person to lead us.

Watch us win Gauteng and the Northern Cape in 2014 and watch us push the ANC to the brink in the North West. Watch us win Johannesburg, Tshwane, Port Elizabeth and many other local municipalities in 2016.

In all these provincial and local governments, watch us eradicate corruption, improveme job creation and ramp up service delivery.”

Helen Zille recently said:
“Why are there “No More Mandelas”? Why is it that most current ANC leaders seek to entrench division rather than promote reconciliation? The answer is that this formula suits them well. All they have to do to keep winning elections, is to divide people on the basis of race, and keep them hating each other. It is the easiest recipe in politics for short-term power, and long-term disaster. And, as Nelson Mandela said: “We have to be better than that”. That is the most difficult challenge of politics.”

It is easy to attack using populism and hate and much harder to address the real problems plaguing our society. We need all the support we can get on the orad to 2014.

Download the “Project Reclaim” Dossier here.

See the DA press release and the Politics Web coverage.

Redress means a number of things for the DA. This paper sets out some of the key components of our position but is, of necessity, not all that could be said.

1. We recognise that achieving human dignity and human rights for all are issues for which all DA public representatives must be seen to be passionately committed. Actions or statements by organisations or individuals which abuse or devalue the worth of any of our fellow South Africans must be condemned without reservation. The DA must be seen to be at the forefront of any campaign which defends our Constitutional rights.

2. Practical measure to achieve redress include various forms of structural intervention to level the economic playing fields between rich and poor. This means supporting budget allocations in the areas which can eliminate the inter-generational transmission of poverty and inequality – especially in education, health, transport and housing. This means supporting dedicated funding and programmes which by transform the quality of people’s lives and which give them enhanced opportunities to achieve their own and their children’s potential. The delivery of quality and accessible public health care and schooling must be imperatives for the DA wherever we are in government.

3. The DA is opposed to the further racialising of society but we are supportive of creating economic opportunities for all those who are currently disadvantaged in terms of their employment skills or access to business contracts. Structural measures which rely simply on racial categories are crude and destroy national reconciliation and cohesion and the DA will look for other means of creating opportunities for all than the currently favoured BEE legislation. We need to support the efforts of local entrepreneurs, for small businesses and for companies which reflect SA’s diversity without resorting to racial bean counting or quotas. In terms of preferential procurement we need to create space for small emergent companies to compete and win market share against larger more established entities provided that the quality and efficiency of service delivery are not compromised.

4. Being committed to redress also means tackling the symbolic and very visible ways our society used to reflect the relative advantage of the few over the many. Whether in the naming of public places or institutions, or the celebration of national events and festivals, we need to seek the most inclusive solutions wherever possible. Names and places must reflect our truly rainbow heritage and become a celebration of our diversity not the cause of further division and racial enmity.

5. Ensuring food security for our people means protecting commercial agricultural production, but the DA supports creating opportunities for people from all communities to achieve access to farming skills and land. Opening up land ownership to all our citizens must go hand in hand with measures which will promote individual land ownership, enhanced agricultural productivity and ensuring that small-scale farmers have access to larger markets.

Mark Steele MPL is a DA member of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Legislature and was previously an MP in the National Assembly.

14 September, 2011

Warwick Chapman, DA Spokesperson on Human Settlements in eThekwini

Yesterday I visited the Lamontville Transit Facility along with Cllr Hlanganani Gumbi and Cllr Sithembiso Ngema to investigate allegations of ANC branch-level corruption.

We met with about 50 community members who stated that the hundreds of people living at the camp were either documented, meaning they have papers entitling them to a council house at some stage in the future, or undocumented and paying rent. When we enquired who they were paying rent to, community members responded that the councillors committee members were taking the rent money. Since ward committees have not yet been established since the election, we enquired whether the committee they referred to was the local ANC Branch Executive Committee. The community members confirmed this to be the case.

They said they had been visited by the ANC Councillor Mr Sandile Ndlovu yesterday to inform them that those people without documentation would be evicted to make way for recently evicted shack dwellers.

I immediately called Head: Housing, Mr Cogi Pather, who confirmed that such evictions were not driven by housing department and since they manage the facility were illegal. He did, however, indicate that eThekwini Housing were seeking legal advice on how to remove the undocumented residents.

Thereafter Cllr Ngema called and informed W/O Khawula from Lamontville SAPS of the situation and requested that SAPS members be advised accordingly and be on stand-by should any action take place.

Today just after 11:00, nearby evicted shack dwellers and residents from the nearby Community Residential Unit (Hostel), descended on the transit facility threatening the residents and telling them they were to be kicked out.

Just before twelve today, eThekwini Municipality truck NDM7010 and Vehicle NDM6998 marked “Security Management”, supported by armed personnel and moved in on the Lamontville Transit Camp.

I again confirmed with Head: eThekwini Housing that they do not have authority yet to evict anyone from that facility. Allegations that the local ANC BEC has been renting out empty rooms would suggest that the same BEC and is now using the council to evict its ‘tenants’.

All indications are that local ANC structures in Lamontville have been illegally renting units in the transit camp and are now scrambling to evict these people to make way for the intended use of this facility.

As at 12:15, we are advised that evictions have started, the locks to units are being smashed and people’s belongings removed.

We URGENTLY call on SAPS to enforce the law and require that legal documentation be presented proving the basis for the evictions, failing which the action be stopped immediately. We have just requested Durban Flying Squad intervene.

We wish a formal investigation to be instituted into the allegations that undocumented residents were renting their units from a local political structure or persons in said structure.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

Cllr Warwick Chapman
083 7797 094

Statement by
Cllr Ronnie Veeran
DA eThekwini Mayoral Candidate

21 April 2011

Release: immediate

The Democratic Alliance recognises the need for safe and clean communities where people can live and work free from fear and danger. We recognise that the community itself has a central role to play in the fight against crime and that a partnership between South African Police Service, private security and the community and the municipality is required to reduce crime in eThekwini.

The Democratic Alliance has a plan to reduce the space in our communities which allows criminals to operate.

A DA government in eThekwini would ensure that:

- in partnership with SAPS, functioning Community Policing Fora will be established in every policing area in the Metro and will engage in real crime prevention activities;
- we will establish a small, effective Community Safety unit to initiate and support the establishment of street and neighbourhood watches to work with CPFs based on best practices learned from around the Metro;
- we will support and encourage reasonable partnerships between communities and private security to secure neighbourhoods and streets;
- Metro Police specialised units will be re-established and revitalised to combat specific crime types and Metro Police will be required to participate in all CPF activities in their area;
- we will increase communication and collaboration between CPF leadership, SAPS station commanders and Metro Police commanders;
- all councillors will be required to involve themselves in CPF and neighbourhood watch activities.

The primary role of crime prevention and investigating crimes falls with the SAPS who are a Provincial and National run competency. Our Metro Police service do play a role in crime fighting, and must play a greater role going forward. Some communities run neighbourhood watches and vibrant Community Policing forums but many others do not.

Any criminal who enters a neighbourhood with an intention to commit a crime is unable to do so without being seen by a member of the community. Improved communication between community members, the SAPS, private security and Metro Police can be the difference between a crime being committed or prevented.

Crime is a complex problem, deeply integrated into our social fabric. We recognise that all three spheres of government need to play a role in combating and preventing crime in our communities. A DA government in eThekwini will ensure that the fight against crime is a top priority.

1. The DA delivers twice as many houses in the City of Cape Town than the ANC were able to when they ran the City. Across all DA-run local governments and in the Western Cape the DA delivers more, better quality houses than any other party.

2. The Gauteng Planning Commission’s Quality of Life Survey ranks the DA-run Midvaal Municipality as the province’s top municipality for quality of life. This year Midvaal’s achieved its 8th unqualified audit report in a row. Clean, effective local government.

3. The DA understands what the word “accountability” really means. The DA fires corrupt politicians and government officials instead of moving them somewhere else.

4. While unemployment increased by 1% in all other provinces in the aftermath of the recession, it decreased by 1% in the Western Cape, driven by Cape Town’s healthy economic growth. More than 50000 people move to the Western Cape every year and unemployment is still dropping. Better Government, more jobs!

5. The Democratic Alliance allocates significant resources every year to invest in a year long development programme for inspiring young leaders – the Young Leaders Programme develops tomorrow’s great leaders today.

6. The DA-run Western Cape Government became the first provincial government since 1994 to be given a clean audit by the Auditor General of South Africa – and it achieved this after only one year in office.

7. The DA-run City of Cape Town reduced crime in the CBD by 90% and the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading programme reduced crime in Khayelitsha by 24%.

8. The Cooperative Governance Department’s 2010 Universal Household Access to Basic Services survey showed that nine in ten residents of the DA-run Cape Town have “universal access” to basic services – a higher proportion than any other metro in the country. On each of the individual service delivery metrics, the DA’s performance stands head and shoulders over that of the ANC-run metros.

9. The DA is the most multi-racial party in South Africa and has a proud history of fighting for liberty through the Apartheid years and in the new South Africa.

10. The DA tables significantly more parliamentary, provincial and council questions than the rest of the opposition parties put together, exposing more dodgy dealings, wasted expenditure and mismanagement than any other party. The DA tables more reports, policy proposals and discussion documents than any other party. DA politicians do the job the public pay them to do!

(Bonus reasons)

11. Helen Zille, now Premier of the Western Cape, won World Mayor of the Year in 2008 for her efforts in leading the turnaround of the City of Cape Town in only 2 years. Helen Zille is a courageous and principled woman who has been fighting for liberty from her younger days as the journalist who uncovered the murder of Steve Biko to today’s tough leadership during a difficult political climate.

12. BBBEE deals in the City of Cape Town have increased dramatically since the DA took over the municipality. DA-run municipalities grant tenders using an open-to-the-public tendering system which applies BBBEE legislation as it was intended – to empower a broad base of black entrepreneurs.

13. The DA is a party that delivers for all and prioritises growth and job creation. The DA is more effective in government because DA-run municipalities focus resources government’s core functions: basic service delivery, revenue collection, bulk infrastructure development, local economic development.

Mr Meth, in Daily News 17 February, says that the DA is hypocritcal for “blacklisting” Anna Majavu. Anna Majuva was removed from a mailing list providing DA press releases. She still has access to them via the website and could ask any of her colleagues for them if she needed. This is not blacklisting, it is the DA excercising its own freedom of choice. The DA is is under no obligation to send press releases to journalists which it believes have an anti-DA agenda.

Ms Majavu is still able to attend DA press conferences and report on DA statements. Considering these facts, I wonder how Ms Majavu’s freedoms, the freedom of speech or the freedom of the press been affected in anyway by the DA’s choice not to email her press statements?

Mr Meth would do well to look at the analysis by the ANC-run national Department of Co-operative Governance, and he will see that DA-run municipalities score the highest figures for the provision of basic services and the overall quality of life. I can assure you that even “brilliant public relations workers” would be not be able to convince an ANC-run national department to release reports which make the DA look good.

Core to the principles of the DA is real accountability, not the ANC-style accountability which involves talking about and consulting around corruption and mismanagement and doing nothing to hold those responsible to account. The unqualified audits of the Western Cape Provincial Government for the first time since 1994 and those of all DA-run municipalities are the proof of the application of these principles to the DA itself.

Lastly, as defined in the DA Regulations for the Nomination of Candidates, the definition of “fitness for purpose” explicitly addresses the euro-centric concern expressed by Mr Meth. “fitness for purpose” is described as “the sum total of attributes and competences of a candidate that are most likely to achieve key objectives of the Party, including attracting votes, providing competent activism, contributing expertise and experience, adding to diversity and building the Party’s brand.”

Many South Africans, across the spectrum have not yet experienced a government which is truly good to all. The NP government of white privilege and the ANC government of cadre privilege will be remembered for serving only some South Africans.

The Apartheid government made itself infamous for harnessing the wealth and human resources of a country to enrich a racial minority, and the new government was always going to have a mammoth task transforming it into a government which delivers for all.

But in too many respects, the ANC Government isn’t doing much better than its predecessor. Non-whites in general, and blacks in particular, continue to live in poor conditions, with little real prospect of material improvement. Cadres of the ANC meanwhile have jobs and contracts which they aren’t doing well enough to ensure the required service delivery and economic growth required.

What we saw in Egypt over the past weeks was not a people’s struggle for better delivery, but instead for the fundamental bedrock we already take for granted here in South Africa: a democratic system of government. The Egyptians want to be able to choose one party over another, one public representative over another. They want real choice.

Technically, we have real choice in South Africa but only to the extent that everyone in the country has the theoretical freedom to vote as they so choose. I believe that there are two practical limitations to that choice: intimidation and lack of experience.

First, threats that pensions and grants will be cancelled if beneficiaries do not vote ANC are widespread and well-known. This claim is repeatedly rubbished by the ANC as being unfounded and unproven and yet political activists come across it election after election and on an increasingly regular basis.

Second, the structural inertia among South Africans communities means that few South Africans get to experience the level of service delivered by a party other than the ANC. By this I mean that the lack of economic resources to travel or live in another part of the country means that a great many South Africans have no frame of reference when considering their choices beyond beyond the ANC they know.

I am regularly contacted by friends who have been to Cape Town or another DA-run municipality for the first time. Quite often they say something like, “Now I understand what you guys are on about”, because for the first time they have actually experienced the quality of government delivered by a government focused on delivery.

The miracle of our South African democracy came with a ryder, which like a nasty spell, keeps our democracy from realising its full potential. The race-obsessed mindset which most South Africans have regardless of their desires one way or another is the barrier to the informed choices we need South Africans to make.

The democratic system has become so popular, despite its inherent inefficiency, because it is the only system which manages to put real power in the hands of the people governed by the system. Democracy, however, does not functional very well when one party dominates with an overwhelming majority. This scenario allows that party to abuse its popular position without the real fear of enough voters turning against it in favour of another. One party or one party-dominant democratic systems the world over, with few exceptions, bear testament to the abuses which take place when the voter is dis-empowered.

In the wake of the Egyptian revolution, we are reading of Zimbabweans in South Africa being told to go back to Zimbabwe and stage a revolution of their own. Why such a revolution is not likely to happen, given the proximity of the army to Mugabe is clear, but the topicality of the subject reminds us of the widespread unhappiness with the number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa.

And yet the policies which drove the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy and the flight Southward of millions of its people are too often cited by individuals within the ANC as examples of how South Africa could be doing things. Nationalisation is forever being placed on the agenda, the land problem is regularly directed toward the Zimbabwean solution and the question of foreign ownership remains a concern. These are the grand populist policies, efficacy cast aside, that dominate the politics of out-of-balance democracies such as ours.

I want to see the control of South Africa’s democracy where it needs to be, in the hands of voters who genuinely believe that they have the power. Voters need to believe that their vote can bring the change they want to see in their government, and that is only possible through stiff political competition.

In the eThekwini Council, the IFP sit to our left, and we are forever bamboozled by their voting patterns on council issues. In the nearly two years I have sat on council, I have no idea what informs their positions or what role the IFP plays in eThekwini let alone in KwaZulu-Natal.

The reality is that the IFP is a party which had a role to play in the bad old days when it represented the interests of the oppressed majority in the KwaZulu homeland, of which the Prince was Chief Minister. Since 1994, however, the relevance of that role in the new South Africa has been questioned by voters, resulting in the IFP consistently losing support in the last 4 general elections, from a high of over 2 million votes in 1994 to just over 8 hundred thousand in 2009.

Then IFP MP, Gavin Woods, said in 2004 that the IFP “has no discernible vision, mission or philosophical base, no clear national ambitions or direction, no articulated ideological basis and offers little in the way of current, vibrant original and relevant policies” and importantly, that the party “must treat Buthelezi as the leader of a political party and not the political party itself.”

I believe that Magwaza-Msibi and her followers wanted to modernise and transform the party beyond the restrictive context of being led by Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi and representing the interests of Zulus. The Prince, a former member of the ANC Youth League, founded the IFP in 1975 and has led the Party for the last 36 years – too long by any international guideline on business or political leadership.

The total decline of the IFP is inevitable and the ANC, DA and NFP will fight overs its remaining voters in the coming local government elections and will cleanup in the 2014 general election. That leaves just one race-based one-man party left in KZN. History will show that parties like these survived too long and in the end ultimately only served to the benefit of their leader-for-life.

I’m certain an ANC big wig drove past as well because the index finger he showed us was most certainly the opposite of support. I wonder if it was quite necessary to display the same finger to Cllrs Jean Lindsay and Gill Noyce – but perhaps that’s me just being a little traditional.

Cllr Noma Phungula and two activists from Mpumalanga township she brought along got a fair bit of hecking and sprinking of “we are disappointed in you” from passing motorists. Those giving them stick pretty consistently looked like what one might call a BEE fatcat (or that’s how Noma put it at least!).

If anything the support for protest was a great indication that the issue of the Information Bill and the Media Tribunal is one that surpasses race. Secondarily, it would appear that ANC loyalists are a little prickly on this issue, resorting to the middle finger in response and tackling our activists for selling out (the ANC’s politics of race alive and well!).