The failed Eastern Cape Department of Education has been placed under administration by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.

The Democratic Alliance concurs wholeheartedly with the decision of the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, to place the Eastern Cape Department of Education under administration. Although the DA is opposed to centralisation, we agree in this case that any intervention that is for the benefit of the learners in this province should be supported.

The DA has warned the department on numerous occasions that it is dysfunctional because it is riddled with people who simply cannot do their jobs.

This department has a leadership and management problem. The solution to the impasse is for a skills audit to be commissioned and a wholesale sacking of people incapable of performing their tasks.

We already had four national interventions without any positive sustainable results. The DA sincerely hopes that this time around this intervention will produce the anticipated outcomes. This department has for far too long failed thousands of disadvantaged leaders. It should be demolished and restarted all over again. The DA will be watching closely to see how this process unfolds.

STATE OF THE NATION 2011: JACOB ZUMA'S BROKEN PROMISES, February 7 2011

Introduction

Ahead of this year's State of the Nation address, the Democratic Alliance is releasing a list of President Zuma's 50 broken promises

We have done this because the President has, in the past, made a number of commitments, in the State of the Nation address and elsewhere, that he has failed to follow through with action. Promises range from job creation to Eskom, and from corruption to mud schools. They tell a story of a President who is often more concerned with appeasing narrow interests, than acting to advance the interests of all South Africans.

We hope that the President will take heed of these serious failures to match words with deeds. Given the seriousness of the problems we face in South Africa, we cannot afford to see another year of failed promises. We believe that this year's State of the Nation address will present President Zuma with an invaluable opportunity to demonstrate to South Africans that his administration is committed to tackling the issues that really matter- service delivery, unemployment, the criminal justice system. He needs to prove that he is committed to action. The first step is by publically making himself accountable for the promises he makes.

Section 1: Jobs

1. Youth wage subsidy

Promise: "Proposals will be tabled to subsidise the cost of hiring younger workers, to encourage firms to take on inexperienced staff." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: Despite being referred to at the beginning of 2010 by both President Zuma in his State of the Nation Address, and Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan in his budget speech, the wage subsidy proposal subsequently fell victim to internal tripartite alliance conflicts. No proposals were tabled. Minister Gordhan initially said a discussion document would be produced by March 2010, but the document was never forthcoming. Although ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe recently indicated that the policy may be back on the table, President Zuma has as yet made no firm commitment regarding its implementation.

2. Job creation

Promise: "Between now and December 2009, we plan to create about 500 000 job opportunities." (State of the Nation, 2009)

Reality: There seems to be rampant confusion regarding the nation's rate of job creation. Former Minister of Public Works Geoff Doidge, stated in December 2009 that 223 000 "work opportunities" had been created that year. However, the following January President Zuma indicated that the figure was in fact 483 000. This anomaly has never been adequately explained. Moreover, DA parliamentary questions later revealed that the Zuma administration had been double counting workers who received more than one job opportunity, and that the average length of time employed per job opportunity was just 45 days, In total, we calculated that the "job opportunities" referred to by the president equated to the creation of just 87 000 full time jobs - in a year when ten times as many jobs, 870 000 in total, were lost overall. However you do the maths, 500 000 jobs or ‘job opportunities' weren't created in 2009.

3. Job creation

Promise: "Now is the time to lay the groundwork for stronger growth going forward, and for growth that gives rise to more jobs." (State of the Nation, February 2010)

Reality: On 17 December 2010, the Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Bill was published in the Government Gazette. This bill will make jobs more difficult to come by- primarily by making the labour market more rigid and highly regulated and by punishing workers and the unemployed by making it more difficult for businesses to expand their staff complement- thereby impeding growth.

4. Job creation

Promise: "The ANC is therefore committed to addressing the problem of unemployment through practical measures in this year. Therefore, 2011 will be the year of job creation through meaningful economic transformation." (Address delivered at the ANC's 99^th birthday celebrations, January 2010)

Reality: The Employment Equity Amendment Bill, gazetted on 17 December 2010, includes a number of concerning clauses that have the potential to seriously undermine efforts to promote job creation. Firstly, the vagueness of some of the Bill's clauses, for example the provision relating to equal terms of employment for employees performing roughly equal work, hampers its ability function as effective legislation. Secondly, the bill includes clauses that escalate penalties for contravention of the Act to preposterously high levels. Thirdly, the Bill's employment equity requirements represent another example of a centralised, one-size-fits-all policy that does not take unique regional variations and demographics into account.

Section 2: Education

5. Teachers in the classroom

Promise: "We reiterate our non-negotiables. Teachers should be in school, in class, on time, teaching, with no neglect of duty and no abuse of pupils!." (State of the Nation Address, 3 Jun 2009)

Reality: The Zuma administration's poor management of labour relations lead to the eruption of a protracted public service strike in August 2010- which saw schools across the country shut in the crucial weeks prior to the matric exams. In addition, a group of regional leaders of teachers' union SADTU were found to have urged union members to disrupt schools which were not on strike- further disrupting learning. Teachers have not been "in school, in class, on time" during President Zuma's tenure, and clearly such an outcome has not been "non-negotiable" in the President's handling of SADTU.

6. Provision of workbooks

Promise: "Targets have been set for the improvements in results at various grades over time. In order to achieve this, we will be providing all schools with appropriate learner and teacher support materials such as lesson plans, workbooks and textbooks, to ensure proper coverage of the curriculum". (Statement on the July 2010 Cabinet Lekgotla, 22 July 2010)

Reality: Despite promising that basic literacy and numeracy workbooks would be delivered to schools by the beginning of the school year, two weeks into the first term of 2011, 37% of the 11.8 million workbooks had not been delivered. [i]

7. and 8. Mud Schools and Classrooms without Desks

Promise: "We will ensure that learners and teachers are in class and that learning is taking place and that schools have the facilities they need, and learners the materials they require" (Final Election Speech, Sunday 19 April 2009)

Reality: In November 2010, 22 schoolchildren were injured by the collapse of four mud classrooms at the Mrwabo Junior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape. A year and a half after this pledge, a parliamentary question revealed that 4 million South African students still do not have chairs to sit on in class, and 3 million still do not have desks. In the Eastern Cape, only 790 of 5600 schools have a desk and chair for every student.

9. Quality of maths and science schooling

Promise: "The ANC government will...[i]mprove the quality of schooling, particularly performance in mathematics, science, technology and language development." (ANC 2009 Election Manifesto)

Reality: The 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), published annually by the World Economic Forum, ranked the quality of South Africa's schooling as 130^th out of 139 countries (with 139 being the lowest score), and the quality of its maths and science education as 137^th out of 139 countries.[ii] In the 2010 matric examinations, Mathematics and Physical Science had the lowest pass rates of any subject, with pass rates of 47.4% and 47.8% respectively for those pupils who achieved a 30% pass or higher[iii]. For those students that achieved a 40% pass rate- the minimum required to gain access to university, the pass rates fell further to 30.9% and 29.7% respectively[iv].

10. School feeding schemes

Promise: "We also must pay continuous attention to improving safety in our schools, to improved transport and to adequate school nutrition schemes. Earlier this week, the Minister of Finance announced that funding for the primary school nutrition programme will be increased, to reach 8,6 million children in the year 2012/13. This is particularly important for children from poor families, and is essential to aid concentration and attendance." (National Teaching Awards Gala Dinner, October 2009)

Reality: Despite the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) being allocated more than R7.6 billion in the five financial years since 2005/06, the effectiveness of these funds has been undermined by poor financial management and irregularities in the awarding of tenders. Over R215 million has gone unused between 2005/6 and the past financial year- these funds could have fed an extra 850 209 school children over this period. 

Section 3: Health

11. Meeting women's healthcare needs

Promise: "We will work tirelessly to create a health system that promotes women's health as a fundamental human right." (Statement of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress on the occasion of the 99th Anniversary of the ANC, 8 January 2011)

Reality: The Zuma administration has thus far failed to tackle South Africa's high levels of maternal mortality. Data from the 2010 Millennium Development Goal South Africa Country Report indicates that South Africa's maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is high, and increasing.[v] According to statistics from the Department of Health[vi], 70% of all maternal deaths caused by direct factors (e.g. hypertension) are avoidable, as are 28% of those caused by indirect factors (e.g. AIDS).

12. Quality of healthcare

Promise: "In practical terms, the ANC government will... [i]mprove quality standards for both public and private sectors, which will include specific targets for the provision of adequate numbers of workers at all levels of the health care system, including recruitment, training and filling of vacant posts..." (ANC 2009 Election Manifesto)

Reality: While strides have been made in certain aspects of health care, particularly regarding tackling HIV/AIDS, the quality of South Africa's public health system continues to be regarded as one of the worst in the world- Newsweek's 2010 World's Best Countries survey ranked it as the 8^th worst out of 100 countries[vii]. In terms of budget allocation, the national health care budget grew by 7.6 per cent in 2009/10 to R17.1 billion and by an average annual rate of 9.6 per cent over the MTEF period to reach R20.9 billion by 2011/12, which amounts to real growth of R5.3 billion over six years[viii]. However financial mismanagement and poor resourcing means that increases in expenditure have not translated into improvements in healthcare quality. In many cases, this can be attributed to the deployment of poorly qualified and inexperienced ANC cadres to key positions in hospital management. 

Section 4: Governance

13. Presidential hotline

Promise: "As you are aware, we introduced the Presidential Hotline to make government and The Presidency more accessible to the public, and to help unblock service-delivery blockages.." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: In fact, the Hotline has become a striking example of the Zuma administration's failure to deliver. For a start, the Presidency seems to have no reliable data concerning the Hotline's activities. In reply to a parliamentary question in May 2010, the President stated that 674 894 calls had been made to the Hotline since it was established in September 2009. However, in a statement released a few months later to mark the Hotline's first anniversary, the Presidency claimed that 72,299 calls had been received by the Hotline during its first year. This figure is 9 times smaller than the number of calls referred to in the President's initial parliamentary reply.

14. Presidential hotline

Promise: The hotline represents our determination to do things differently in government. It has made a difference in the lives of many South Africans.." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: According to a parliamentary reply received by the DA in May 2010, the President confirmed that 484 327 of the Hotline's 674 864 received calls had been dropped, meaning that 70% of the calls made to the Hotline had never even reached an operator.

15. Review of State Owned Enterprises

Promise: "There have been problems with the SOEs all the time, particularly at SAA and Eskom. I have taken a decision which is going to solve SOE problems forever: I have ordered a review of all of them with a final decision on what to do. It is being done by outside people who have no interest." (Interview with Sunday Times, February 2010)

Reality: In response to a DA parliamentary question, the President revealed in July 2010 that a decision was yet to be made about the terms of reference of the committee established to review the country's ailing State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). In addition, details concerning the remuneration of committee members had yet to be finalized.

16. Promoting Accountability

Promise: "We are committed to a service delivery culture that will put every elected official and public servant to work for our people, and ensure accountability to our people." (ANC 2009 Election Manifesto)

Reality: In March 2010, it was revealed that President Zuma had failed to declare his financial interests within the stipulated 60 days, thereby breaching the Executive Ethics Code and undermining this important accountability mechanism. The Public Protector branded the President "tardy" for his transgression, and highlighted the "systematic pattern of non-compliance" by cabinet with the provisions of the Ethics Code.

17. Role of parliament

Promise: "As the national executive, we welcome increased oversight to assist us in achieving our target of effective and efficient government. We will work harder and smarter and the South African people will be the beneficiaries of this constructive robust role of Parliament." (Address in response to the Debate on the State of The Nation Address, 9 Jun 2009)

Reality: Under President Zuma, the executive has displayed increasing disdain for the work of parliament. Leader of Government Business, Kgalema Motlanthe, has twice had to address ministers' poor answering of parliamentary questions and the DA last year revealed that numerous ministers had failed to tender apologies for missing oral question sessions. The contempt shown by the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Lindiwe Sisulu, for the oversight role of parliament during the standoff over the Interim National Defence Force Service Commission reports set a dangerous precedent- as did the ANC's subsequent decision to remove the chairman of the Defence Portfolio Committee, Nyami Booi, from his post.

18. The Ministry of women, children and people with disabilities

Promise: "The establishment of a Ministry and corresponding department that will focus solely on issues affecting women, children and persons with disabilities means that this will be the last time this function reports to the National Assembly as part of the Budget Vote of The Presidency. We are confident that this change will result in better - and not less - focus on these vulnerable groups. As the Presidency, we will continue to lend this Ministry all the support. We will do so because we know that, a society in which women, children and persons with disabilities remain marginalised, cannot claim to be truly free. Minister Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya will outline the plans of the new Ministry." (Address on the occasion of the Budget Vote of The Presidency, 24 Jun 2009)

Reality: This ministry was intended to oversee all other departments' implementation of various gender, youth and accessibility targets. But the department's lack of capacity and the abysmal performance of its first minister, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, made this a virtually impossible task. Under Mayende-Sibiya, the ministry managed to lose some of its top lieutenants, fill a measly 24 posts, and leave 142 vacant, and failed even to produce an annual report. The minister's failure to turn up at the first public hearing of the Domestic Violence Act spoke volumes about her commitment to her portfolio. That President Zuma chose to replace Mayende-Sibiya with former Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana, who has had a disastrous track record in her two previous cabinet posts and is known for destroying institutions under her management, raises serious questions about the current administration's commitment to seeing the ministry's mandate upheld.

19. Ministerial accountability

Promise: "People who do not work will be fired, because when they are not performing well, it is the name of the ANC that is damaged. We want people to work. We don't want people who think they are more important than others." (Address delivered at Human Rights Rally, March 2009)

Reality: On 31 October 2010, President Zuma reshuffled his cabinet in what was to be the greatest shake-up of the executive in between elections since 1994. However, rather than displaying a sincere commitment to accountability, President Zuma fired two of his best performing ministers- Minister of Public Enterprises Barbara Hogan and Minister of Public Enterprises Geoff Doidge- and kept some of the worst, including Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande and Minister of Public Service and Administration, Richard Baloyi.

20. The Constitution

Promise: "We have worked hard to defend and protect the Constitution from Opposition parties and many others who, even as we speak, want to tamper with it in various ways. We will always uphold, defend, promote and protect the Constitution of our country and all our democratic institutions." (Final Election Speech, 19 April 2009)

Reality: The ANC government continues to seek to systematically undermine key principles underpinning our constitution, such as transparency, accountability and freedom of expression. Recent examples of this include legislative proposals such as the Protection of Information Bill, the State Security Bill and the Public Administration Management Bill.

21. Prudent use of state funds

Promise: "Since the implementation of our programme will take place in the face of the economic downturn, we will have to act prudently - no wastage, no rollovers of funds - every cent must be spent wisely and fruitfully. We must cut our cloth according to our size." (State of the Nation, 3 June 2009)

Reality: Irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure continues to plague provincial and national departments- notable examples include the inability of three provincial education departments to account for R44 billion in the 2009/10 financial year, the South African State Social Security Agency (SASSA) failed to account for R10.5 billion in the 2009/10 financial year and the R2 billion worth of wasteful and fruitless expenditure tracked by DA last year.

22. Eskom funding

Promise: "Cabinet noted and supported a hybrid funding solution to enable Eskom to continue with its Build programme to ensure the security of supply of energy. The hybrid solution consists of increasing the guarantee framework from R176 billion to R350 billion to enable the utility to continue with its committed Build Programme up to Kusile Power Station and an equity injection of R20 billion over three years starting in the 2011/12 financial year. The equity injection will be funded from liquidating state holdings in non-strategic and non-core assets. National Treasury will identify such assets in due course and in consultation with the Department of Public Enterprises and other relevant departments." (Cabinet statement, 11 Nov 2010)

Reality: Shortly after this statement was released, Cabinet released a "corrected" statement, which read: "The R20 billion equity injection to Eskom will be funded through the Minister's Committee on the Budget as part of the budgeting process." Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters, then told Parliament, "It is not additional funding... but it is a R20 billion guarantee from government to allow us, Eskom, to raise loans from the market." Conversely, Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan indicated that the R20 billion is a proposed equity injection, that has not been agreed to by the cabinet, and has not been incorporated into any budgets. The South African public was therefore presented with four different explanations as to where Eskom's funding would be sourced from. That cabinet would announce a decision with such significance for the fiscus seemingly without a clear financial plan, and without apparently even consulting the Minister of Finance, indicates a reckless approach to public expenditure. Either the President thought that this grave oversight would go unnoticed, or was not concerned with its implications.

23. Ministerial accountability

Promise: In July 2009, Cabinet established a Ministerial Task Team to address problems such as, "addressing public concerns that Government is ‘living large' while citizens are feeling the pain caused by the economic downturn; changing the culture towards greater prudence and less extravagance; achieving greater value for money and delivering more and better services with less resources.". An important part of this process was reviewing the Ministerial Handbook, which sets out guidelines for expenditure by members of the executive. (Cabinet statement, 13 August 2009)

Reality: Despite assertions by Minister of Public Service and Administration, Richard Baloyi, that the amendments to the handbook would be made public "certainly before the World Cup", President Zuma's cabinet continues to stall on the release of the changes.

24. Appointment criteria

Promise: "In answering some of the specific questions raised by the Honourable Leader of the Opposition, executives at state owned enterprises are appointed on merit." (Response to an oral parliamentary question, March 2010)

Reality: In a speech delivered at the ANC's 99^th birthday celebrations in January 2010, Present Zuma reaffirmed the ANC's commitment to cadre deployment, stating: "We reiterate what we said in our 2007 Strategy and Tactics document that we place a high premium on the involvement of our cadres in all centres of power." This statement is in direct contrast to President Zuma's assertion that SOE executives are appointed on the basic of merit, rather than political patronage.

Section 5: Criminal Justice System

25. Appointments to the NPA

Promise: "I would like to assure Honourable Smuts and the House that when the President exercises his powers when it comes to the appointment of judicial officers, in terms of the Constitution, he will act in the best interests of the country." (Address in response to the Debate on the State of The Nation Address, 9 Jun 2009)

Reality: Thus far President Zuma has used personal interest- appointing people who have supported him during his political and legal woes- as the key criterion for selection judicial officers. Most recently, Zuma appointed Menzi Simelane as the National Director of Public Prosecutions, a move that the DA is currently challenging in court. Zuma subsequently appointed Nomgcobo Jiba as Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions. Jiba faced a range of charges, including dishonesty and unprofessional conduct, during her previous tenure at the NPA.

Section 6: Independent media

26. Media freedom

Promise: "We will continue to protect, defend and promote media freedom as we have always done." (Final Election Speech, 19 April 2009)

Reality: Last year's arrest and detention of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika on seemingly spurious grounds, highlighted the increasing threat being posed to the free media by the ANC government. The Freedom of the Press Index (FPI)- an annually released survey compiled by Freedom House, which assesses media independence in 195 countries- decreased South Africa's rating from "Free" to "Partly Free" in 2010. According to Freedom House, this is due to an "increase in official rhetoric against independent or critical voices in recent years, as well as an increase of legal threats to the print media and a lack of independence at the dominant state-run broadcaster..."[ix]. The Protection of Information Bill was tabled in July, two months after the release of this survey. If adopted, the effect of the Bill will be to dramatically increase the measure of political interference in the country's free media, thereby causing our ranking to decline even further.

Section 7: Traditional affairs

27. Defining the status of the San community

Quote: "We are also finalising the status of the Khoi-San communities. Cabinet has approved the policy framework. A bill is being drafted and may be presented to parliament later in the year." (Address delivered at the official opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders, 23 February 2010)

Reality: No such bill was tabled in 2010 and was a policy framework detailing the status of the Khoi-San communities has yet to be developed.

Section 8: Land Reform

28. Post-settlement support for land claimants

Promise: "Working together, we will speed up the land reform process. We will ensure that those who receive land have the financial and technical support to work the land." (Final Election Speech, 19 April 2009)

Reality: No real steps have been taken by the Zuma administration to ensure that land claim claimants receive post-settlement support. In fact, in reply to a DA parliamentary reply in July 2010, it was revealed that government owed land claimants over R3.4 billion in outstanding payments. The failure to provide post-settlement support is certainly a contributory factor to the 90% failure rate of transferred land

29. Promulgation of the Land Use Management Bill

Promise: "It is about transforming our cities and towns and building cohesive, sustainable and caring communities with closer access to work and social amenities, including sports and recreation facilities. In this spirit, we will work with Parliament to speed up the processing of the Land Use Management Bill" (State of the Nation Address, 3 June 2009)

Reality: The Land Use Management Bill is yet to be brought before Parliament

30. Land redistribution

Promise: "Our target is to redistribute 30% of agricultural land before 2014, accompanied by support programmes for the poor, farm workers and small farmers." (Addressing meeting in Durban, September 2010)

Reality: However, earlier in 2010, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti stated at an agriculture conference that, "We cannot talk anymore about acquiring 30% of land [by 2014]. It's just not practically possible." [x] He further went on to say "we cannot raise R75-billion by 2014 to acquire the 82-million hectares of land that we have targeted... we just don't have the money."

Section 9: Communication

31. Reducing the cost of communication

Promise: "As part of our efforts to encourage greater economic growth, we are working to reduce the cost to communicate. The South African public can look forward to an even further reduction of broadband, cell phone, landline and public phone rates. We will work to increase broadband speed and ensure a high standard of internet service, in line with international norms." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: Following the completion of a statutory market review process, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) gazetted draft regulations on wholesale call termination and commenced public hearings on the process in July 2010. However, to date the public hearings have not been followed by the promised gazetting of the final reduced mobile termination rates.

32. The Independence of the SABC

Promise: "We must emphasise that the public broadcaster is not, and should not be, the mouthpiece of government. It should serve the public interest by providing accurate, credible and comprehensive coverage of events in South Africa and abroad." (Nat Nakasa Awards Dinner, 27 June 2009)

Reality: The ANC's 2007 Polokwane Resolutions read, "The ANC therefore resolved to ‘encourage' the SABC to "promote local content that is consistent with the outlook of the country's Constitution and the values of the ANC." When Zuma came into power, this resolution was given life through a series of Zuma-linked appointments: firstly, Solly Mokoetle, who, on his appointment, announced that he would take his orders from Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, instead of the SABC Board and Parliament as required by law. Secondly, Phil Molefe, who was unilaterally appointed Head of News by the Chairperson of the new SABC Board, Dr Ben Ngubane (a Zuma appointee), instead of by the collective SABC Board. A memorandum reportedly sent by members of the board to Minister Nyanda revealed that Ngubane had reportedly told the board that he was "operating under the direct instructions of the President of the Republic and that he was resolved to appoint his preferred candidate."

Section 10: Economy

33. Tackling poverty and hunger

Promise: "The ANC is committed to creating an environment that ensures that there is adequate food available to all, that we grow our own food and protect the poor communities from the rising prices of food and eradicate hunger." (ANC Election Manifesto, 2009)

"We have to ensure that we grow the economy to meet the needs of our people squarely. Lasting victory over poverty and hunger requires the creation of decent work opportunities and sustainable livelihoods." (ANC Election Manifesto, 2009)

Reality: The ANC government's failure to develop a clear, effective job creation strategy, coupled with the dire performance of its rural development and land reform programme and its tendency to pander to COSATU on matters of job creation, has severely hampered efforts to address high levels of poverty and pervasive hunger in poor communities. According to the South Africa's 2010 Millennium Development Goal Country Report[xi], it has been deemed unlikely that South Africa will succeed in meeting all targets listed under the goal of eradicating poverty and hunger by 2015. Areas of particular concern include unemployment levels among women and the youth, and the continued prevalence of underweight children under the age of five.

34. Economic position of women

Promise: "We also need to integrate gender equity measures into the Government's Programme of Action. This action will ensure that women, children and persons with disabilities can access developmental opportunities." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: The ANC government's interventions to improve gender equality have failed to effectively address the range of socio-economic challenges undermining the development of South African women. The ruling party's insistence on gender quotas, to which the DA is strongly opposed, has less to do with the advancement of women generally, and more to do with the promotion of a handful of (often politically-connected) women to top positions.

While women comprise nearly half the country's labour force, most are still in lower-wage sectors such as domestic services. Women are, on average, more likely to be unemployed and run the poorest households, and are still paid less than men. As a result, South African women often have to remain financially dependent on the state, their families or their partners.

Key concerns about the current position of South African women include poverty, poor quality education and a lack of adequate skills training. These are all barriers to entry, preventing women from being economic agents. Moreover, the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE)'s ability to perform its constitutionally mandated function of promoting and protecting gender equality continues to be undermined by financial impropriety, misconduct and maladministration.

Section 11: The Youth

35. Position of the youth:

Promise: During the NYDA's official launch in 2009, President Zuma talked to the agency's mandate, stating that, "We expect the Agency to initiate programmes directed at poverty alleviation, urban and rural development and the combating of crime, substance abuse and social decay amongst youth. This means that the Agency will work with various government departments that work in these areas, to improve the quality of life of our young people."

Reality: The National Youth Development Agency's (NYDA) first year has been characterized by poor performance and allegations of resources being abused to fight party political battles rather than improve the economic position of young South Africans. According to the Agency's 2009/10 Annual Report, of its 68 targets, 44 were not achieved and 9 could not be measured at all. Insufficient funding and the global financial crisis were largely used to explain the organisation's poor delivery. This stands in stark contrast to the more than R11 million paid in salaries to the 12 members of the NYDA's Operations Executive Committee, and the Agency's irregular expenditure tally of R11 079 000. That the Zuma administration allocated a minimum of R72 million to the NYDA for the hosting of a 9 day ANC Youth League event at the end of 2010, entitled the World Festival of Youth and Students, was not only a brazen abuse of power and conflation of party and state, but a reckless misuse of funds that should have been channeled into initiatives that would truly improve the position of the country's youth.

Section 12: Service Delivery

36. Improving government performance

Promise: "When this administration came into office last year, we undertook to work harder to build a strong developmental state. We said it would be a state that responds to the needs and aspirations of the people, and which performs better and faster. This year, 2010, shall be a year of action. The defining feature of this administration will be that it knows where people live, understands their needs and responds faster. Government must work faster, harder and smarter. We will expect the Executive and the Public Service to comply with this vision. We are building a performance-oriented state, by improving planning as well as performance monitoring and evaluation." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: The establishment of the Ministry of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation appears to have been rooted in a desire to deflect criticism of poor performance and escape political confrontation. For example, much-needed state resources have been pumped at an alarming rate into government-appointed reviews that fall under this Ministry's control. However, these reviews, such as the Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Review, generally promise much but deliver little- and are essentially devoid of any real value to the improvement of government's performance and its ability to deliver.

37. Sanitation

Promise: "The challenges we still need to address include an inability by some municipalities to roll out infrastructure, and to operate, maintain and rehabilitate water and sanitation infrastructure."(Address at the official sod-turning ceremony of the Nsezi Water Treatment Plant, November 2009)

Reality: The rate at which access to sanitation has been improved is far below that promised by the ANC in their 2006 election manifesto. In the manifesto, the party committed to eradicating the bucket system by 2007, and ensuring that all communities had access to clean water and "decent" sanitation by 2010. According to the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), urban access to improved sanitation was at 66% in 2010, while in rural areas access to improved sanitation was at 49%.

38. Improving South Africa's roads

Promise: "On transport, we will maintain and expand our road network." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: According to a report released by the South African Automobile Association, as reported on October 27, 2010[xii], South Africa's road network is deteriorating at a fast pace. The Free State is reported to be the province with the worst roads, followed closely by the North West and Limpopo. The only province that seems to have improved its road conditions is the Western Cape. At an Eastern Cape Indaba last year, Minister of Transport Sibusiso Ndebele attributed the poor road conditions to insufficient funds for road maintenance and a serious shortage of professional skills.

39. Housing

Promise: "As part of social infrastructure development we will provide suitably located and affordable housing and decent human settlements. We will proceed from the understanding that human settlement is not just about building houses." (ANC 2009 Election Manifesto)

Reality: In response to a DA parliamentary question in December 2010, Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale revealed that R927 million had been spent by government on repairing or rebuilding sub-standard government houses in the 2010/11 financial year. Included in this figure is the cost of destroying and rebuilding 1 144 houses in six provinces, half of them in Mpumalanga.

40. Promise to Struisbaai community

Promise: During his visit to Struisbaai in July 2010, President Zuma promised fisherman Sias Mathinus's family two wheelchairs, a car and assistance with house renovations. He also announced that he had "adopted" the local primary school and committed to helping the school with its sports facilities.

Reality: By November 2010, it was reported that there had been no follow through on any of the promises made by President Zuma[xiii].

41. Promise to the people of Muyexe village

Promise: During a visit to Muyexe village in Limpopo just prior to his June 2009 State of the Nation address, President Zuma promised residents that he would ensure that government supplied basic services and resources to the area, including shelter, clean drinking water for each household, improved health conditions and access to electricity.

Reality: Almost two years later, in December 2010, it was reported that only a few of the commitments made by President Zuma had been upheld. The village remains without electricity and easy access to clean drinking water[xiv].

42. Establishment of independent system operator

Promise: "We will establish an independent system operator, separate from Eskom Holdings." (State of the Nation, 11 February 2010)

Reality: By February 2011, no detailed discussion documents, government policy or draft legislation were available to the public regarding the implementation of an ISO.

43. Independent Power Producers

Promise: "To ensure reliable power supply, we have established an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Energy, to develop a 20-year integrated resource plan. Among other things, this will look at the participation of independent power producers, and protecting the poor from rising electricity prices." (State of the Nation, 11 February 2010)

Reality: It is currently impossible for independent power producers to operate as there is no legal basis for their existence. The Department of Energy has promised to draw up a new regulatory framework that would allow for the functioning of independent power producers; yet this has been repeatedly delayed and will likely now only be completed much later than initially expected. Mr Ompi Aphane, the deputy director-general of electricity, nuclear and clean energy, said that the new regulatory framework would be completed by the end of January. Reports have however started to suggest that the process would only be completed after the local government elections. This would only allow independent power producers access to the grid by the end of 2011- almost 2 years after President Zuma's announcement in the 2010 State of the Nation Address.

Section 13: International Relations

44. Promoting democracy, peace and stability in Africa

Promise: "We remain fully committed to the African agenda, including the strengthening of the African Union and the promotion of democracy, peace and stability in Africa. The ANC has strong party-to-party relations with former liberation movements in the SADC region and other parts of the continent. We will continue to enhance these relations in order to contribute towards deepening progressive political thought in the continent and globally. " (Statement of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress on the occasion of the 99th Anniversary of the ANC, January 2011)

Reality: To the detriment of the pursuit of democracy in Africa, the ANC has allowed its links to various liberation movements, most notably Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF, to dominate its foreign policy agenda. In addition, the South African government- which purports to have a foreign policy based on human rights and the promotion of democratic principles- has refused to speak out on a number of key issues concerning other African countries. These include gross human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, political repression in Swaziland and President Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to respect the will of the people in Cote d'Ivoire following the recent national election. 

45. Defending democracy

Promise: "The ANC government will... [s]pare no energy in our efforts to find urgent, democratic and lasting solutions to the situation in Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Western Sahara, Somalia and other countries." (ANC 2009 Election Manifesto)

Reality: In November 2010, the Democratic Alliance asked President Zuma during an oral question session whether, in light of the release of Myanmar democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, his government would recognise the ostensible government of Myanmar given that the last elections in that country were denounced internationally as a sham. President Zuma replied that it was not the government's business to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries. Given the history of the ANC, and the President's repeated public commitments to the promotion of democracy in other countries, this statement is simply astounding.

14. Crime and Corruption

46. Commitment to tackling corruption

Promise: "We have repeatedly stated our commitment to fight corruption in the public service. Working together with all South Africans, we will intensify the fight against crime and corruption. We will build cohesive, caring and sustainable communities." (State of the Nation Address, 3 June 2009)

Reality: The 2010 State of the Public Service Report, produced by the Public Service Commission (PSC) raised a number of concerns about the Zuma administration's progress in tackling corruption in the public service. Former PSC Chairman Dr Ralph Mgijima stated that he was "appalled" by the level of poor compliance in evaluating senior government officials- despite these officials being in charge of an annual estimated R250-billion of taxpayers' money- and that the proposed Protection Information Bill would "pose challenges" to the government's anti-corruption efforts.[xv]

47. Anti-corruption efforts

Promise: In a letter written by the President in August 2010, he also concluded that:"All right thinking and properly informed people know that it is the ANC democratic government that has made it fashionable to fight corruption, and even to talk about fighting corruption. We have a big arsenal of instruments to fight corruption within the State, and these are performing their functions very effectively and the positive results of these are there for all who are willing to see them to see." (ANC Today, Vol. 10 No. 30, 13-19 August 2010)

Reality: Despite establishing a series of anti-corruption initiatives, including setting up the Anti-corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee under Minister Collins Chabane in November 2009, on the issue of corruption the Zuma administration has been all talk, and little action. For example, its has been more than a year since the inter-ministerial committee was established and Minister Chabane has repeatedly failed to provide details of the anti-corruption strategic report that it is supposed to be being drafted for Cabinet. The failure of this administration to develop a culture of accountability in all spheres of government has not only undermined attempts to effectively tackle corruption, but has also negatively impacted public perceptions about levels of corruption in public institutions. According to the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer[xvi], for example, only 26% of South African respondents believe that corruption will decrease within the next three years, 7% feel it will remain the same, and an overwhelming 67% believe it will increase.

48. Tackling Corruption

Promise: "Fighting crime and fighting the causes of crime will be a priority of the ANC government in the next five years and there is a need to overhaul the criminal justice system to ensure that the levels of crime are drastically reduced. Corruption must be stamped out." (ANC 2009 Election Manifesto)

Reality: Survey results released in December 2010, which were compiled by Topline Research Solutions on behalf of Transparency International, indicate that, firstly, 62% of South Africans say level of corruption has increased over the past 12 months. Only 15% say corruption decreased. Secondly, poll respondents in only seven other countries (Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon and Pakistan) rated their police service more corrupt than South African respondents- South Africans scored the police service as 4.4 out of 5, where 5 is highly corrupt, and 1 is not at all corrupt. Lastly, more than half of South Africans (56%) believe that the ANC government's actions in the fight against corruption are either ineffective or make no positive effect.

49. Tender procedures

Promise: "We continue our efforts to eradicate corruption and fraud in procurement and tender processes, and in applications for drivers' licences, social grants and identity documents, among others." (State of the Nation Address, 11 February 2010)

Reality: The activities of the ANC's front company, Chancellor House, have raised serious questions about its abuse of power and conflation of party and state. Two notable scandals involving Chancellor House include the Hitachi Power Africa incident- where a contract to supply boilers to the Medupi power station was awarded to a company in which the ANC had a 25% share- and Chancellor House's purchase of a major Swazi coal mine, which was in turn reportedly set to supply coal to several power plants, including Medupi.

50. Tackling Corruption

Promise:

Interviewer: "You signed off the special investigation unit looking into leases, looking into tenders. Is this clampdown on corruption a major priority for you right now?"

Jacob Zuma: "A year after the administration cabinet came into office, I am satisfied that we are tackling it, as we said we would." (Interview with the Sunday Times, September 2010)

Reality: In September 2010, in response to a DA parliamentary question, the President stated that he would not extend the terms of the Donen Commission - appointed to investigate the role of South African individuals and companies in the Iraqi Oil-for-Food scandal - on the most spurious grounds. The alleged involvement of top ANC officials, including the President, in this scandal means that the truth about yet another instance of power abuse and gross misconduct by the ANC government will, in all likelihood, be hidden indefinitely from public scrutiny.

It is unbelievable that the forensic unit of the SAPS in Port Elizabeth can be broken into. It is of great concern that hundreds of weapons and dockets have possibly been stolen. There needs to be a full investigation into the reasons for this security fiasco and those responsible must be fully disciplined.

When criminals become so brazen that police start becoming the victims of crime, then safety and security has surely reached an all-time low. If vital forensic evidence and weapons have been stolen, this is going to severely compromise the bringing to trial of many criminals. This is a tragedy of mammoth proportions.

It should also be noted that statistics indicate that stolen fire arms are used at least seven times to commit crimes before being recovered.

This incident must serve as a wake-up call to the SAPS to ensure that places that house weapons, dockets and vital evidence are properly secured. No stone must be left unturned to bring these culprits to book and to recover the stolen items.

The Democratic Alliance has learnt with trepidation that the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape has decided to terminate the services of all temporary Grade 12 educators on   31 October 2010.

This decision is surprising because it has always been the practice that temporary teachers are appointed and paid on a term-to-term basis: from the first day of the month of the new term to the last day of the month of that term.

This inhumane and authoritarian decision to terminate contracts before the end of the term goes against best practices for quality teaching and learning. This is a managerial decision of the worst kind, taken without due consideration for the financial and personal circumstances of the educators involved.

The Democratic Alliance is fully aware of the current financial crisis in which the Department of Education finds itself. We are also not oblivious of the fact that cost saving measures must be implemented in order to generate potential savings that will minimise the projected over expenditure of R1, 9 billion. The earlier termination of services of temporary educators is definitely not an option for implementation, as this decision will have far-reaching implications for the department.

In a memorandum issued by the acting Head of the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape, Mr. Ronald Swartz, dated 9 September 2010, it is stated that in the light of the current financial constraints in the department, and also in consideration of the curriculum needs in the schools, the department has approved the extension of the services of the current temporary educators as follows:

The Democratic Alliance wants to know what and how do you tell an educator who has have worked tirelessly throughout the year that he/she will not be receiving a salary for November and December 2010. 

This is significantly obvious to all and sundry that discrimination is being openly practiced in determining the extension dates of temporary educators teaching different grades.

The Democratic Alliance firmly believes that these inhumane and bad managerial decisions must be recalled unreservedly as it has the potential to elicit an educator revolt, which can ultimately result in further digression of our dysfunctional schools. Other ways must be found to bring about savings and the premature termination of educators’ services should definitely not be one of the cost saving measures.     

Editors:  A copy of the memorandum by the acting HOD of the Department of Education is attached to this e-mail.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

For further information, please contact Edmund van Vuuren on 072 184 7840

The cash boost of R42 million injected into the Nelson Mandela Metro to save it from a cash crisis was due to persistence and intervention by the Democratic Alliance at provincial and municipal level.

The bulk of the payment – which is reported to be the biggest ever received by the Metro in a single day – was a R32 million-payment from the Department of Public Works.

As a result of the DA’s commitment to service delivery this money can now be used to improve services to our Metro communities.

A motion to the Provincial Legislature brought by myself earlier this year was the catalyst that saw outstanding monies owed to municipalities receive attention.

Although the motion was defeated on a technicality it was clear that the outstanding monies be paid as required by the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act).

Persistent questioning at Metro-level by Councillor Leon de Villiers and his committee and further pressure from the DA in the Legislature resulted in this payment to solve the cash crisis.

While this is only the beginning of the monies owed to the Metro, the DA will ensure that all outstanding debts owing to the Metro and other municipalities are paid in due course.

The DA will at provincial level be monitoring that the funds are spent on bettering the lives by supplying much needed services like clinics, sanitation and infrastructural maintenance to all communities as the funds become available.

For further information, please contact Dacre Haddon, MPL on 079 694 3788

The number of contact crimes -- such as murder and attempted murder -- although frighteningly high, have stabilised at an astronomical level. On the one hand I am relieved but on the other disappointed that we are still living in a very violent society. 

In total contrast to this, crimes against property have shown an upward drift in certain categories.  The real shocker is the high increase in robberies at non-residential premises, which are up almost 50% (from 851 to 1 273).   Burglary at non-residential premises is also up by about three percent.

This means businesses continue to undergo high costs to protect their premises.  An added cost to business is the increase in truck highjackings from 30 to 57.

The high rate of burglaries at residential premises remains almost constant at 28 384 compared with 28 572 the previous year.  This means that 78 homes are broken in to every day in this province.  Robbery at residential premises which increased 128% last year continues to rise.  This means four households everyday are confronted by robbers.

Crimes against property, particularly when your home is invaded, strikes fear into the heart of our communities.  Until there is a major downward shift in these kinds of crimes, people will not feel safe and secure even in their own homes.

Of ongoing concern is the increase of stock theft of 11%.  This impacts on the viability of the agricultural sector which is a large employer in the province.

The fact that the crimes of driving under the influence of alcohol and drug-related crime are slightly up is a reflection of good police work in nailing drunken drivers and the SAPS must be commended for this.

However, we are never going to get the drug situation under control unless we re-establish the narcotics bureau which is a specialised unit for dealing with drugs.

During the Soccer World Cup the police engaged in a number of successful strategies which created a climate of real security.  These strategies need to be applied round the clock if we are to bring the crime rate down.  This together with a return of specialised units, an increase in the number of detectives and improved visibility patrolling will create the society in which we will all feel safe.

 For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 082 775 3444.

The latest strike and pay demands are going to put huge strain on the national fiscus that is already operating under severe constraints as a result of falling tax revenues.  It is therefore unlikely that there a going to be large bail-outs for provinces and municipalities.

The financial crisis that the province finds itself in also appears to be cascading down to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality.  The Eastern Cape provincial Departments of Education and Health are projected to overspend by R3 billion in the current financial year.

It is in the public interest that one understands the full extent of the cash flow problem being experienced by the Metro. Public representative who are accountable for the Metro’s well-being should not be kept in the dark. What needs to the clarified is whether or not there is unbudgeted expenditure taking place or whether the problem lies with a lack of revenue collection.  The extent to which both these factors are impacting on the cash flow of the Metro needs to be spelled out.

I therefore tabled a question to the MEC for Finance, Mcebisi Jonas, (attached) to clarify the situation.  The MEC is obliged in terms of section 71 of the Municipal Finance Management Act to table regular reports in the legislature on the state of municipal finances.  This is simply not occurring.

What is totally unacceptable is outstanding millions due to the municipality from the provincial departments.  It was reported that the Departments of Health, Education and Public Works owe R53,3 million and that R190 million was owed by the Department of Human Settlements, and R31,6 million by the Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs.

When a municipality experiences cash flow problems they tend to go slow on the payments for service providers.  It has a crippling effect on businesses and results in job losses.  This is clearly an unacceptable state of affairs.  The MEC for Finance needs to thoroughly assess the situation and determine whether or not eventual intervention is necessary or not.

For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 082 775 3444.

A total of 3 800 members of the SAPS in the Eastern Cape are experiencing delays in receiving payment for extra duties performed during the Soccer World Cup.  It is anticipated that the matter will be finalised on 10 September 2010.

This was revealed in response to a question for written reply to me by the MEC for Safety, Liaison and Transport, Ghishma Barry.

It is understandable that members of the SAPS in the Eastern Cape are frustrated that they haven’t received their payments and it is essential that this matter is finalised as quickly as possible.

We need a highly motivated service if we are to combat crime.  When members experience problems with their benefits it impacts on their overall performance and the community ends up the loser.

For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 082 775 3444.

Weekend driving on Eastern Cape roads is a free for all as provincial traffic cops refuse to work any longer due to non-payment of overtime.

This news was conveyed to a Legislature Transport Portfolio oversight meeting at the Provincial Traffic offices in Port Elizabeth yesterday (subs:  Thurs, 2 Sept).

Furthermore, a legislature question regarding when overtime payments will be done, asked by myself in July to the MEC for Transport, Ghishma Barry, remains unanswered.

The outstanding overtime owed to some officers goes back as far as December 2009.

The lack of visible policing on our roads over weekends will put the lives of all motorists in extra danger.  Weekends will now be a field-day for drunk drivers, speedsters and lawbreakers to flout traffic laws.

All motorists are entitled to be protected with safety while using our roads and their safety must not be at risk due to the non-attendance of traffic officers.

The MEC must be squarely to blame for accidents committed on weekends when traffic policing could have avoided such incidents.

I will be raising this issue as a matter of urgency with the Transport Portfolio Committee at its meeting on Wednesday (subs: 8 Sept) asking for urgent intervention to pay these officers so that weekend policing can resume on our provincial roads.

Editors:  The legislature question paper mentioned above, is attached.  See question 252.

For more information contact Dacre Haddon on 079 694 3788

DISGRUNTLED Zwide residents, who have received houses under the Silvertown Limba housing project, have been forced to move back into shacks or to live in incomplete houses after the rectification of their homes came to a grinding halt.

Angry residents said yesterday they received a notice that their houses were to be rectified after it was established that there were many structural faults.

Community spokesman Kenny Mavata said the rectification started on April 28.

He said workers arrived and, among other things, knocked down walls and removed plastering, ceilings and toilets. Some houses had to be completely demolished.

“When the builders got here, everyone was excited at the prospect of having their houses fixed, but that soon turned into a nightmare.”

Mavata said the houses were left in a worse state than before the start of the rectification process.

Mabel Maphutse, 75, said she had put up a shack in her backyard when the rectification began.

“They removed my toilet and part of my roof and now I am left with the incomplete structure. I have to brave the elements in my shack. At night I risk my life by walking to a neighbour to use the toilet.”

Bella Matoshi and her six children live in a shack right next to her half-built house.

“It’s sickening that seven people have to share a single room while my house, which can accommodate all of us comfortably, is crumbling and without a roof.

“If you ask me they did more wrong than right,” said Matoshi.

Gladys Voyi’s house had to be demolished. Builders started to rebuild the house, but never finished the job.

“It makes me angry to think that they demolished a house that I could have been staying in. If I had known they were not planning to complete the job, I would never have moved out.

“I want the government to restore my human dignity by rebuilding my house.”

ANC ward 27 councillor Mpumelelo Seti said residents were not forthcoming with the whole truth.

He said the rectification process stopped when residents decided they wanted tiled instead of zinc roofs upon rectification. He said the residents had not wanted the rectification to proceed when the roof issue arose.

“We have a policy on rectification that stipulates that we cannot just deviate from the way a house was originally built. In other words, if you had a zinc roof you must get a zinc roof.

“Between the municipality and the province we decided to deviate from this policy. This was done at the end of July and one must remember that any decision must be formally sanctioned and that it can take time,” said Seti.

He added that some residents had realised the consequences of them insisting on having tiled roofs.

“We will try to resolve the matter as speedily as possible, as it will be in the best interests of all the involved parties,” said Seti.

DA councillor Andrew Gibbon said he would take up the matter with the housing and land committee.

“It is sad that residents have to be treated in such a deplorable manner,” he said.

Issued by:    Annette Lovemore (MP), DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs

Subject:        DA lays charge against Ndlambe Municipal Manager and Director of Infrastructural Services

Date:              31 August 2010

DA Shadow Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Annette Lovemore (MP) laid a criminal charge against the Ndlambe Municipal Manager, Advocate Rolly Dumezweni and the Director of Infrastructural Services, Xolani Masiza on Monday, 30 August 2010. The charge was laid at the Port Alfred police station, and was in terms of sections 151(1)(i) and (j) of the the National Water Act 36 of 1998.

For the past five years the sewage treatment works in Port Alfred has been dysfunctional, resulting in untreated or partially treated sewage discharging into the Kowie River.

Despite repeated calls by local residents and DA councillors, little has been done to rectify the situation. The works have been fenced, but the essential aerators are still not operating. No screen is in place to remove solids at the inlet to the works.

Sections 151(1)(i) and (j) of the National Water Act read as follows :

"No person may—

(i) unlawfully and intentionally or negligently commit any act or omission which pollutes or is likely to pollute a water resource;

(j) unlawfully and intentionally or negligently commit any act or omission which detrimentally affects or is likely to affect a water resource;"

The continuous neglect by officials of their duty to prevent pollution of the Kowie river is not only criminal, but is also ethically unacceptable in that it affects opportunity in the town, based, particularly, on tourism and recreation. In addition, there is no doubt that the situation constitutes a health hazard, or potential health hazard.

In March this year, Lovemore asked the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs various questions related to the Port Alfred sewage treatment works. A copy of the questions and responses is attached in this e-mail.

Interestingly, the Minister has stated that the Port Alfred works may not discharge into the river, but must irrigate the effluent - this has not been done for years.

The Department of Water Affairs does not monitor the effect of the discharge on the river simply because there should be no such discharge. The Minister also states that: "...in 2009 my Department was informed of functionality problems at Ndlambe Municipality. Following this knowledge, my Department engaged the Municipality through bilateral meetings to discuss the problems."

She also adds that the staff complement at the works does not comply with minimum standards.

It is the DA’s view that the officials responsible for controlling the sewage treatment works are fully aware that legal compliance is not being achieved, and that they are therefore responsible, through neglecting to address the situation, of causing pollution to the river. They have been provided ample opportunity to correct the problem.

The DA does not lay criminal charges as a matter of course. This is a measure of last resort. The town of Port Alfred has suffered the loss of opportunity through the serious lack of service delivery for too long, and we will now use all legal measures at our disposal to hold officials accountable for their failings.

Annette Lovemore (MP)

Cell: 083 463 5334

E-mail: alovemore@parliament.gov.za

The Auditor-General report on Eastern Cape fleet management procurement shows gross irregularities in the tender deal.  An investigation was requested by a joint resolution of all parties in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature.

As a result of persistent probing by the Democratic Alliance at a preliminary joint portfolio committee meeting of Transport and Finance with the Auditor-General, it was revealed that the outcome of the awarding of the tender would have been different if the correct scoring procedure had been followed.

The Department of Transport needs to give an explanation why they assured the joint committee that the process had all been correctly followed when there were glaring irregularities.

1. The preferred bidder exceeded the affordability by R438 million and was appointed despite a lower bid by another bidder.

2. Neither of the two final bidders actually qualified to tender as a result of guarantee bond problems.  The bond of the one bidder was valid for 107 days contrary to the 180 days required by the Request for Proposal (RFP). The bond of the other bidder was conditional, which was also not in accordance with the RFP.

3. The report revealed “inconsistencies in scoring” with more points being awarded above the maximum permissible allowed.

4. The Transaction Advisor did not properly question the SBEC (Special Bid Evaluation) and SBAC (Special Bid Adjudication Committee) point allocations.

5. None of the bid committees did their job excellently to produce fruitful results.

While the irregularities appear to be simple oversights, the question must be asked why this was overlooked by the responsible officials in the Department of Transport.  

The DA this morning asked for an investigation surrounding the conduct of the Transaction Advisor.  The committee has also decided to interrogate the MEC and all officials involved, to ascertain whether there was any criminality or negligence and whether monies should be paid back.  The whole process will be re-investigated.

The DA will also continue campaigning for the transparency of tenders as is done in the Western Cape to stop future irregularities from happening again.

Editors:  The AG report is available on request.  E-mail cgreyling@ecleg.gov.za

For further information, please contact Dacre Haddon, MPL on 0796943788

R3 billion is the budgetary shortfall that is projected for Health and Education in the current financial year “if nothing is done”.  This was the response of the MEC for Finance, Mcibisi Jonas, to a follow-up question of mine during the oral questioning time in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature yesterday (subs:  wed: 25 Aug).

The follow-up question related to “whether any expenditure patterns emerged in any department which are a cause for concern –if so, what are the relevant details”.

The projected budgetary shortfall of R3 billion relates to cost of employment pressures for the carry-through costs in the area of occupation specific dispensation and conditions of improvement of service for public servants.

This revelation comes as no surprise to the Democratic Alliance as we took the historic step of voting against the whole provincial budget for 2010/2011 because we had no faith in the figures that we placed before us.  They simply weren’t credible.

If one adds the R2 billion that has to be top-sliced from future provincial budgets to pay for last years’ debt (2009/2010), the magnitude of the financial crisis impacting on the province is horrific.

What needs to be done:

1.  The vacancy for the HOD of the Provincial treasury needs to be filled as a matter of urgency.  It is vacant since December last year and was re-advertised last week. 
2. Provincial Treasury needs to provide the tough leadership so that sound financial management is restored to this province.  We need a Treasury with political and administrative clout.
3. National Treasury must clarify to what extent they will assist the Eastern Cape.
4. A real belt-tightening exercise needs to be engaged in so only core business is focussed on.
5. There needs to be reform of the tender process as it’s been estimated that more than 20% of our capital and goods and services budget (R13 billion) is lost through poor administration, over-pricing, poor workmanship and outright corruption.
6. The oversight work of Scopa and the Portfolio Committee of Finance needs to be beefed up to turn the situation around.  The problem is political and not simply administrative.

For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 082 775 3444.

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the decision of the Eastern Cape Legislature that an ex-gratia payment totalling R881 440 to returning members of the provincial House of Traditional Leaders not be approved.  We also support the recommendation that the money which was set aside for this payment be re-directed to other priorities of the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs.

The practices and customs of traditional leadership play a huge role and must be encouraged, because of their contribution to building the fabric of this country.

However, there is no legal or legislative basis to pay current members ex gratia “gratuities”. The intention of cabinet to want to pay non-returning members this sum was to cover future living costs.  To still want to pay members who in fact returned for another term in the House of Traditional Leaders is unacceptable.   All the members who were intended to be paid returned for a new legislative term, bar one who is deceased.

It is disturbing that this amount was not provided for in the department’s budget

Due to the ever challenging financial constraints experienced by the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs this R881 million must be used for more urgent service delivery needs to the population of this province.

For further information, please contact Dacre Haddon, MPL on 0796943788

While the Democratic Alliance welcomes proposed new changes in the Social Assistance Amendment Bill to expedite welfare in the Eastern Cape, we are concerned that lack of capacity in the department will scupper the new plans.

As the debating of this Bill affects the lives of thousands of grant beneficiaries in this province, the DA will ask that it be referred back to Parliament for thorough investigation into the capacity of the department before supporting this legislation.

Once a thorough plan to address capacity constraints has been put in place, the DA will then support the Bill.

It is well known that inefficiency, lack of capacity, long grant queue lines and non-payment of grants cause anxiety and heartache to beneficiary recipients.

The problems of over-expenditure of R2,8 million by the Department of Health in the last 2009/10 financial year and the current chaos in this department to fulfil its mandate further adds to the distress of beneficiaries.

While new aspects of the Bill include allowing applicants and beneficiaries to appeal against social welfare grant decisions and increasing the number of welfare offices, this must be coupled with a staff capacity that can carry out this function efficiently.

The plea by the public to have independent tribunal committees filled by members of the local community to reconsider appeal cases for welfare grants is a welcome addition to involve the broader public in decision making that affects their lives.

In order to access greater opportunity for grant recipients, the DA will propose that a full skills audit be done in the department to verify and populate the department to allow for greater efficiency.

Furthermore, the DA believes that the creation of two social welfare training colleges with students funded by a massive bursary drive will attract much needed staff to complement the chronic staff shortages in this department.

In addition, the creation of one-stop welfare centres that would allow for a holistic service of  grant payment, counselling, medical facilities, restrooms and the like would go a long way to making the grant process more pleasant and efficient.

For further information contact Dacre Haddon on 079 694 3788.

It is understandable that members of the SAPS in the Eastern Cape are fed-up that they haven’t received their payments for extra duties performed during the Soccer World Cup.  It’s now six weeks since the World Cup and the delay in payment is creating a sour note over what was a very successful event.  Frustrated civil servants are unhappy civil servants.

I have today tabled a parliamentary question to find out what the reasons for the delay are, when they will be paid and how many members are involved.  We need to find out what the blockage is and who is responsible so they can be held to account.

It is essential that we have a highly motivated police service if we are to combat crime.  When members experience problems with their benefits it impacts on their overall performance and the community ends up the loser. 

For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 082 775 3444.

To view current DA statements go to www.dabhisho.org.za

Speed freaks and reckless drivers are getting away with breaking the rules of the road because the Department of Transport does not have the capacity to collect on the traffic fines it issues.

For the province to have collected less than fifty percent of all issued fines during the last three years shows a problem by the authorities to pursue traffic fine offenders.

This non-performance sends a message to road users that fining and follow up is not a deterrent to motorists.

In response to a parliamentary question I asked the MEC for transport, it was revealed that out of the total of more R18, 6 million traffic fines issued in the province during the 2008/09 financial year, only R 8, 1 million was collected by the Department of Transport.

The department was unable to supply concrete information of how many fines were issued in the 2009/10 financial year “due to some of the traffic offenders requesting to pay admission of guilt under the principal of deferred payment”.

It was further revealed that of the R9, 7 million in fines issued in Buffalo City from April-June this year, only R 1,575 million had been collected thus far.

The rate in the Nelson Mandela Metro is equally woeful with only R6, 4 million of R 19,8 million collected in the same period.   

The Department of Transport has a legal obligation in terms of the Public Finance Management ACT (PMFA) to collect revenues owed to the department.

The lack of collection of fines puts pressure on the department budget and service delivery like more traffic education, patrols and the like are compromised due to lack of funding.   Furthermore, the persistent non-collection of fines compromises the lives of all road users in the province and places extra financial costs on the province when increased vehicle accidents are caused by on-going lawlessness on our roads.

What is needed is a strategy to improve revenue collection:

A streamlined system of fine payment, incentives for motorists to pay fines on time and privatisation of some of the processes will go some way to improving fine revenue collection in the province.

The sooner the Administrative Adjudication Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) where motorists have points deducted for traffic offences leading to suspension of their licence is implemented, the better.

I have written to MEC Ghishma Barry asking her what plans are in place to improve fine collection in the province and when the implementation of AARTO will take place so as to reduce deaths and injuries on our provincial roads as soon as possible.

(A copy of the written reply from the MEC is available on request.)

For more information contact Dacre Haddon on 079 694 3788

The Democratic Alliance declined to speak at yesterday’s National Women’s Day event in East London after an agreement to provide transport to our supporters was reneged on.  We will not be the window dressing to provide a veneer of respectability for what amounted to be an ANC-rally at taxpayer’s expense.

The ANC continues to play under-handed tricks to stop any opposition parties from participating in national holidays and to see and listen to the President of the country. Once again public funds have been blatantly abused by the ANC to promote itself.

It was reported in the media today (subs:  10 August) that members of political parties other than the ANC were intimidated and heckled at the Buffalo City Stadium to such an extent that the President became visibly upset and even threatened to leave.

Unfortunately it is clear that there was a well-orchestrated plan to make it as hard as possible for supporters of other parties to attend the event.  Despite an agreement in the Women’s Caucus in the Eastern Cape Legislature while organising this event, it is obvious that the opposition was merely being strung along.

The DA decided not to attend the event after it emerged that the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture had made available only seven taxis to transport supporters of the DA, Cope and UDM in Buffalo city to the venue, while 100 65-seater buses were given to the ANC.  The Department made available three taxis for opposition party supporters coming from the Nelson Mandela Metro while a request for a 65-seater bus for opposition parties coming from Alfred Nzo District Municipality was refused by the department.  In total, the department made a total of 156 65-seater buses available to the ANC.

It is obvious that a concerted effort was made to keep opposition party supporters away from the stadium despite the fact many of our supporters were keen to go.

This latest incident follows only months after the DA lodged a complaint with the Chief Whip of the ANC in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature in relation to the Freedom Day celebrations in Port Elizabeth in April, where the podium contained ANC regalia.  It had been agreed that where a government-funded platform is made use of, national public holidays should be seen as an opportunity to engage in nation building and not in party political rallying.

South Africa has a volatile political climate and where leaders of all political parties appear on a stage together it sends out an important message that people can work together for the common good of all South Africans.

The Democratic Alliance agrees with the comments of Cope Women’s Movement deputy chairperson, Prudence Madonsela that the ANC needs to educate its members to accept opposition.

The opposition parties will not back down and take the bullying tactics of the ruling party when it comes to wasting public funds to promote the agenda of the ANC.  South Africa is a Democracy and we will insist that democratic principles are upheld.

For further information, please contact Veliswa Mvenya, MPL on 0824187916

To view current DA statements go to www.dabhisho.org.za

The Democratic Alliance will be writing to the MEC of Housing and Local Government today to request that an independent investigation take place into the goings on at the Buffalo City Municipality.  The Mayor cannot, after all, investigate herself.

If we get no reaction from the MEC within a reasonable amount of time, the matter will be referred to the Public Protector for further action.

This comes in view of the latest spy tape scandal to hit the city in the Dr Zitha issue.  At Thursday's Council meeting I specifically asked who had instructed the official in Dr Zitha’s office to write a report and I was boo’d by the ANC and told to sit down.  The report is authored by one Mr Ciyo who has, conveniently, now also left the Municipality.

The citizens and ratepayers of Buffalo City have had enough of the fallout which has resulted from the faction fight in the ANC.  The ruling party is treating the ratepayers of this city with contempt and they have only their own selfish interests at heart.  Through all this there is no service delivery, the rubbish piles up in our streets and suburbs and one cannot get the basics done.

How can anyone be expected to believe what is taking place within the corridors of the ANC run executive Mayors office when, by all appearances, people are being very liberal with the truth?

The truth must be revealed and those implicated must be sent packing.  The continued infighting must come to an end.  The whole Municipality has been destabilised and the staff are demoralised.  Municipal Managers come and go through a seemingly never ending revolving door.

BCM Municipality has been mired in two special investigations costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of rands already.  First there was the investigation into the Waste Tender Scandal and then the investigation into the grass cutting scandal.  On top of that the Mayor has been entangled in controversy regarding the alleged abuse of an official credit card.

Now ratepayers have to pay for another investigation which will take who knows how long.  The Democratic Alliance is no longer prepared to put up with cloak and dagger tactics that is the order of the day.  The citizens of this city need to know the truth and those who are guilty of manipulating tenders etc – right the way up to the Mayor’s office – must be dismissed immediately without fear or favour.

There is a Municipal election coming up early next year and the ANC has clearly shown the citizens of this city that they cannot deliver effective services to its citizens.  The only way to change the status quo is at the polls next year.  If the citizens of our city vote the ANC back into power, one can only assume that they are happy with the lacklustre performance that is currently the order of the day.

For further information contact Annette Rademeyer on 083 321 5509

The Portfolio Committee on Local Government and Traditional Affairs yesterday (subs:  Thurs 29 July) overruled a decision by the ANC-led provincial executive to stop a payment of more than R880 000 to members of the House of Traditional Leaders.

The committee was informed yesterday that a resolution was passed by the executive on        21 April 2010 that an ex-gratia payment totalling R881440 .63 would be made to members of the House of traditional Leaders whose term had expired but whom had been re-elected back to the House.

This was done despite there being no such provision in the Public Service Bearers Act and the Commission of Public Office Bearers.

This incident is not much different from the recent purchasing of luxury cars for the Traditional Leaders in the province by the same department.  Ex gratia payments and smart cars have nothing to do with the government’s mandate of service delivery.

The money, which ranges in amount from between R15 000 to a whopping R148 000 for a total of 19 members was expected to be paid into their bank accounts today (subs:  Fri: 30 July). 

However, the committee instructed the Department of Local Government to stop the payment immediately.

This incident is again proof of the co-operation between the different parties within the Legislature to do ensure effective oversight to prevent the misappropriation of public funds.

Editors:  supporting documents are attached to this e-mail.

For further information, please contact VELISWA MVENYA MPL on 082 4187 916

Of the R1.3 billion that was allocated for infrastructure to the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape, only R492 million will be available for new projects in the current financial year.  This shocking revelation was made during a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Education in Bhisho this week.

This budget, which had been set aside for the building of new schools, repairs and refurbishments and the eradication of mud structures has been depleted by R808 million. The amount of R808 million will be used to pay for commitments to infrastructure in the last financial year, as well as for accruals resulting from the non-payment of contractors in the 2009/10 financial year.

The cut in the infrastructure budget will have a huge effect in providing much needed schools to our communities. The eradication of mud structures will remain a pipe dream. Schools like Booysens Park Secondary in Port Elizabeth are still not sure whether their school will be repaired, although promises were made that work on the school will start towards the end of October of this financial year.

This department is in direct opposition to the Constitution by denying our learners access to education by not providing conducive conditions for teaching and learning to take place.

The Democratic Alliance firmly believes that education is the foundation for opportunities and children should not be denied these opportunities because of the circumstances of their birth.

This state of affairs seems all too much like a repeat of last year, when all infrastructure activities in schools in the Eastern Cape had come to a halt due to a lack of funds.

This state of affairs will have a major impact on the outcomes of education in the Eastern Cape and the dismal year-end results in the province will continue because of the horrendous conditions under which our learners must prepare for the final examinations.

The image displayed by the department in this province impacts negatively on economic development and economic decisions:  major investors are not interested in doing business with a place that is backward and under-developed.

The current situation means that the backlogs that this province has been facing for the past 15 years will continue.  According to the annual report of the Eastern Cape Department of Education for 2007/08, of the 5 885 public ordinary schools in the province, 20% did not have electricity, 19% did not have water and 9% did not have access the sanitation.  A total of 1 461 schools were still built of clay or still had to accommodate learners in some kind of mud structure.

The Democratic Alliance is making an urgent appeal is made the MEC and HOD for Education to arrange a meeting with Treasury and ensure necessary funding.

Many schools still lack the facilities and resources that make effective teaching easier.

The DA believes a core minimum of resources should be a given for each school:

• A safe and secure environment;
• A satisfactory classroom;
• Electricity;
• Running water;
• Access to a flush toilet;
• A telephone;
• Access to sports facilities; and
• Enough teachers.

For further information, please contact Edmund van Vuuren, MPL on 072 184 7840

NELSON Mandela Bay’s public health committee is to conduct site inspections of all the refuse transfer sites in the metro following angry criticism of the situation at the Kragga Kama site, with Heinrich Muller (DA) warning yesterday that the refuse site was “in a shocking state and a time bomb waiting to explode”.

The committee was informed in a report that the site had been established in the 1980s and was the busiest in the metro, receiving about 1500 tons of waste a month with over 300 vehicles accessing it at weekends.

The report said a development plan had been completed three years ago that would create up to eight container bays – there are only two at present – and environmental authorisation had been obtained.

The rezoning application had been lodged with housing and land at the end of 2008 but this had been delayed as a resulted of “numerous objections” that could take two more years to process.

A search for an alternative site had proved fruitless.

The report said the situation was exacerbated by the fact that while security was provided from 7.30am to 5.30pm all week, there were numerous vagrants living in the bush adjoining the site who encouraged residents to dump their waste outside the site after hours.

As an interim measure tenders will now be called for “to ensure the structural integrity of the raised ramp” and build two more “temporary” bays.

The use of CCTV cameras was also being investigated to assist in identifying those responsible for illegal dumping.

“The alternative will be to close the site, which will mean that all current users will have to travel further to other sites to dispose of the excess waste. This will inevitably lead to an increase in the illegal dumping of waste.”

Speaking during the debate, Muller warned that the situation at the site was “an accident waiting to happen”. Recently, he said, a woman with children in her car had nearly reversed over the slope. If an accident happened, he said, there could be “serious consequences from a legal perspective”.

DA Bhisho MPL Dacre Haddon said last night the Occupational Health and Safety Act provided that every employer “shall conduct his undertaking in such a manner as to ensure as far as possible that persons other than those in his employment who may be directly affected by his activities are not exposed to hazards to their health or safety”.

He said the metro council was “clearly in breach of this clause”.

The disbandment in 2006 of the Specialised Units of the SAPS in South Africa runs contrary to both common sense and international best practises.

The following units were disbanded:

• The family violence, child abuse and sexual offences unit
• The Narcotics bureau
• The Scorpions
• And units such as the vehicle theft and anti hijacking unit as well as the serious and violent crimes unit.

Findings by the Institute for Security Studies illustrate that the disbanding of specialised units has had a severely negative impact on the fight against crime.

The DA is opposed to the disbanding of these units and has long been calling for the re-instatement of these units as they are an essential element in the fight against crime.

This is particularly so of the child protection, family violence and sexual offences unit.  Studies confirm the disasterous effects the disbandment of these units have had on South Africa especially in assisting victims using specialised skills and detective work.

Real evidence of the disastrous impact of disbanding these units in the Eastern Cape is found in the 2007/8 annual report of the SAPS.

In an overview of family violence and sexual offences cases for the year 2006/7 – 1160 cases were finalised and went to court.  In 2007/8 only 728 were finalised.

Although there has been a U-turn in regard to the re-establishment of the FCS units, the details are not yet clear.

There is also an urgent need to re-instate the narcotics bureau.  Drug related crimes have soared 87% from 62 689 in 2003/4 when the narcotics bureau was shut down to 117 172 in 2009.

The closure of the crime combatting unit or public policing unit, was shown to be a failure during the 2008 xenophobic violence when the military had to be brought in because the SAPS no longer was able to cope.

The Democratic Alliance also believes that where we are in power we need to establish specialised units that are relevant to that area of authority.

In the city of Cape Town where the DA is the governing party, a specialised unit of the metro police called the Copperheads was established.  This resulted in the city of Cape Town’s losses being brought down from R22 million to R500 000 in a year.

Metal theft continues to be a problem throughout the country and unless the right strategies are in place, this matter will not be resolved.

The disbanding of the scorpions has also been disasterous for South Africa.  The Scorpions concluded over a five year period, an average of 233 cases per year.

A total of 639 scorpions cases were transferred to the hawks on 1 July 2009 but by the end of December last year only 38 had been finalised.  If we really want to put an end to corruption in this country, we need to bring back the scorpions.

The decision to disband specialised units formed part of the ANC’s attempt to centralised all departments under the national commissioner, even though every study at the time, as well as international best practise mandated the expansion not dismantling of these units.

Look what’s happened to the former national commissioner now.  The ANC has put it’s own agenda ahead of the agenda of all South Africans.  If we want to bring crime down, we need to take the ANC down in the next Municipal election.

Our message to the ANC is very clear – bring back law and order, bring back the specialised units.

Where has Alan been for the past several months?   I live in Port Elizabeth and can only say if the stadium will cost us R18 million a year, it would be a miracle.

Both the City Council and the Mandela Bay Development Agency have been quoted in local Avusa stable newspapers, The Herald and the Weekend Post, giving us the sour news that the stadium - at present - is set to cost us R6 million a MONTH to maintain, i.e. R72 million a year.     Recent articles have also thrown the ratepayers into gloom with news that there is also an enormous debt to be paid off, with a figure of R260 million cited.    Central government announced, incidentally, at least twelve months ago, that it had no further financial responsibility towards local stadiums.  

In one of the poorest provinces, where we know that at least 84 000 families are still without proper homes, where poor schools are severely compromised by being under-subsidised, where school feeding budgets 'disappear' in a puff of corruption, where health care scandals are legion, where unemployment figures are some of the highest in the country, this is bad news indeed.  

So yes, we are left holding the Fifa baby.   But how are we to care for the real "babies" who need food, shelter and education if our rising rates and taxes are poured into the bottomless pit of the World Cup Stadium, Nelson Mandela Bay?

Letter by Bernice Wright

Port Elizabeth

A huge opportunity to commit fraud at vehicle and driver test stations has been created by the Eastern Cape Department of Transport because it has failed to ensure that inspectors who oversee these processes have the relevant refresher-training as required by the law.

In a letter from the inspectorate section from the Department of Transport it is stated that inspectors employed to check up on operations at vehicle and driver testing stations are no longer legally compliant to fulfil these duties.  The apparent reason for this is that they have not undergone routine annual refresher courses as mandated by the Road Traffic Management Corporation Act.  It is alleged that officers last underwent refresher courses as far back as 1999 thus making them legally non-complaint to oversee vehicle testing procedures.

While these inspectors refuse to work, fruitless and wasteful expenditure is being incurred while they continue to receive salaries.

Furthermore, in response to a written parliamentary question asked by myself to the MEC for Transport, Ghishma Barry, on 27 May this year regarding whether there is any unit investigating fraud and corruption in the province I was informed that there is no such unit doing this work.

Is the MEC aware of what is going on in her department?

How can a letter be received from the inspectorate directorate saying they are not legal to work yet in answer to my parliamentary question there is according to the MEC no unit that deals with fraud and corruption oversight?

As part of the DA’s Agenda for Accountability I will be continually raising this issue at the next meeting of the portfolio committee for transport and request that site visits be done to sort out the problem by ensuring that the Inspectors involved receive their refresher training and other tools of trade to be able to satisfactorily carry on with these vital duties to our province. 

This situation places the lives of road users in extreme danger.  I only need remind you of the horror-accident at De Doorns recently in which at least 28 residents from the Eastern Cape were killed because the bus they were travelling in was un-roadworthy. We cannot claim to have the interests of our citizens at heart when basics like vehicle testing and the legitimacy of driver’s licences are questionable.

***  Editors:  Supporting documentation is available on request.

For more information contact Dacre Haddon on 079 694 3788

The Democratic Alliance will be tabling a motion to the Provincial legislature asking for a forensic audit into the affairs of the Ikwezi (Jansenville) amidst allegations of gross mismanagement and corruption.

The DA will also be requesting the MEC for Local Government, Sicelo Gqobana, to invoke Section 139 of the Constitution, allowing the province to intervene into the affairs of a municipality.

The allegations are raised in a petition from the community dated 25 February 2010 and received by a staff member of the MEC’s office.  Despite undertakings by the MEC that he would visit Jansenville, he has failed to do so.  (subs:  A copy of the petition is attached to this e-mail)

The petition contains allegations of bribery, misuse of a council credit card, awarding tenders to friends, the reallocation of funds and  the non enforcement of bylaws.

Bad management of the Municipality, failure to properly collect revenues, maladministration and nepotism are further serious allegations contained in this petition. 

What is more, having visited the town on 10 June 2010, I saw horrors pertaining to housing delivery. 

Below is a list of some of the issues established before and during a public meeting as revealed by the residents:

• People who do not qualify for RDP houses as they are business owners and or home owners have received RDP houses from the department.
• The building of RDP houses on a plot that is registered in a person, different to the RDP house applicant’s name.
• The building of RDP houses on a plot where there is already a house.
• Allocation of RDP houses to government officials.
• Transfer of RDP houses from one owner to another without the initial owner being consulted or informed.
• RDP houses which were denied by the Provincial Department of Housing were built regardless of being denied.
• RDP houses were built on incorrect properties.
• RDP houses built on existing business properties.
• RDP houses are being rented out for accommodation and businesses purposes.

Furthermore the DA would like to enquire what criteria were used when determining who qualifies for a RDP house for this specific project.  It seems that standard legislation did not apply to this project.

It has also come to light that some of these beneficiaries rent out their RDP houses for R500 to R800 a month.  The question whether these beneficiaries are in actual need of these houses also needs to be investigated.

According to the records this project started in 1996 as a mud house project of 75 houses and has evolved into a RDP project.  Some of the residents who have applied for a house in 1996 are still waiting to hear from the department whether they have been approved.

The DA will request an investigation to the above mentioned discrepancies by the Minister of Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale.

The residents of Jansenville are suffering poor service delivery in Jansenville.

Is it fair that the people of Jansenville have to suffer the indignity of shocking services because of malice and bad management from their council officials?  Once again, the people and the community suffer as they do not get access to their Constitutional rights of service delivery.

The lack of urgent intervention and decisive action by the MEC is disappointing.

The residents of Jansenville have lost confidence in their ANC council and are fed up with the on-going poor service delivery in this municipality.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT DACRE HADDON ON 079 694 3788

The Democratic Alliance has learned with horror that four motorists lost their lives allegedly as result of large potholes in the road.

The incident occurred on the R56 between Matatiele and Cedarville.  What makes this all the more shocking is the fact that it is alleged by members of the community that numerous massive potholes on the R56 had been cleared to be filled, but this was never done.

This is a cross-border road and is used by numerous taxis on a daily basis.  We do not want to witness a tragedy.

What is of concern here is firstly the disrepair of our roads and secondly the fact that there is apparently no commitment from the side of the Department of Roads to ensure that contractors do indeed deliver proper work.

I have written to the MEC for Roads and Public Works, Pemmy Majodina,  this morning, to request her urgent intervention to ensure that the R56 death-trap be rectified immediately, before more lives are lost unnecessarily.

We cannot allow contractors to take the government and the citizens of the province for the ride.   The contractor who is allegedly responsible for this shocking work must be brought to book if negligence on his side is indeed proven.

It is time that the ruling party and government departments make the political decision to act against corrupt contractors who are undermining effective service delivery.

For further information, please contact Pine Pienaar, MPL on 082 446 1888

For the latest media releases by the DA in Bhisho, visit www.dabhisho.org.za

All indications are that crime took a beating in the host city Nelson Mandela Metro during the duration of the Soccer World Cup.  This can be related to “saturation policing” and the massive deterrent of the special court that operated after hours.  In short, criminals knew they were being watched and they also knew they would be nailed and jailed within days of committing an offence.

I have today submitted a question to the MEC for Safety and Liaison, Ghishma Barry, requesting details in crime trends in the host city and other parts of the province over the period of the world Cup. 

The police must come clean with the public and give us the figures.  Withholding crime statistics and only releasing them up to 18 months after the event is unacceptable.  All South Africans want to celebrate a downward trend in crime and I am calling for the figures to be made public.

 Our province must capitalise on the successes of the World Cup and it is imperative that good news be made public.  This will assist in marketing the Eastern Cape to the world.

 The Democratic Alliance would like to thank all public officials that put in extra hours to make this World Cup a success.  We also congratulate the private sector for their role.

This same energy and commitment that made the World Cup a success in our province needs to be taken forward into other areas of service delivery.

For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 082 775 3444.

To view current DA statements go to www.dabhisho.org.za

The siren is sounding loud and clear. We need to bring back competent school inspectors and subject advisors into the classrooms. The unacceptable outcomes obtained in the national midyear exams by the Eastern Cape Grade 3, 6 and 9 pupils is an indictment of the ineptitude of the Provincial Department of Education.

The Democratic Alliance is horrified, although not surprised, by the low pass percentages obtained, as reflected in the printed media today (subs: Tues, 6 July). These results can only be ascribed to the poor adherence by the educators concerned as to the set outcomes to be achieved, as well as to the lack of assistance by departmental officials in terms of management, supply of learner-teacher support material and the overcrowding of classes.

Currently there are 140 schools per subject advisor in the Eastern Cape, resulting in the majority of schools not being serviced. No Provincial Mathematics Subject Advisor has as yet been appointed, impacting negatively on the management of this most critical subject, as reflected by the 28.5% pass of all learners who wrote mathematics in the Libode, Lusikisiki, Maluti, Mbizana, Mount Fletcher, Mount Frere and Qumbu districts.

Advisory services are also grossly neglected in that many of the existing subject advisors are ill equipped to give the necessary guidance to educators. In other instances subject advisors with the necessary skills and subject content are barred by certain groups of educators from entering their classrooms, attributing to these dismal results. The lack of action by the education department to act decisively against those educators refusing subject advisors into their classrooms is also contributing to the lack of knowledge being shared.

The DA firmly believes that should the department act more assertively against educators coming to school unprepared and underprepared, they might just be able to turn the tide around so that education becomes the foundation for opportunities for all of our learners.

 There is no quick-fix for our existing educational problems. It is time that the National Government realises that the rot exists from ground level up to the highest echelons in the Department of Education.

 Answers must be demanded from the department when one considers the fact that public funds had been earmarked to improve learner performance.  We do not see any value for money.  Answers and action is needed now, to avoid repeat embarrassment for the Eastern Cape at the end of the year.

 The DA is of the opinion that it is now time that the National Government prioritise education by ensuring that every school is equipped in terms of material and manpower, and that competent officials are appointed to ensure that education takes its rightful place in society.

 For further information, please contact Edmund van Vuuren, MPL on 072 184 7840

It has taken the Eastern Cape Department of Health only three months to plunge the well-serviced and functional Dordrecht Hospital in a financial crisis.  The Democratic Alliance has learned with concern that since the facility became state-funded, no payments have been made to the hospital. The staff has not been paid and medical supplies are running low.

This state of affairs was revealed by the DA structure of Dordrecht, who requested me to act on their behalf. 

Despite many challenges, this hospital has rendered impeccable service in this area and has a sound track record as far as service delivery is concerned.  Unfortunately, this level of service delivery is now under threat due to increasing financial constraints. 

Upon advice and insistence from the Department of Health during May this year the hospital opted for provincialisation.  It is now almost two months down the line and it seems like the processing thereof has come to a complete standstill. 

 Hospital staff is not yet registered on the Persal-system, resulting in salaries not being paid. (subs: Persal is the computerised Human Resources system for government)  Medicines are running low and the food will last another two weeks.   There is no money to run this hospital as efficiently and effectively as in the past because the subsidy has not been paid for the last three months now.

I have written to the MEC to appeal directly to him to please look into this situation and to intervene.    I trust that the concern is mutual. The community of Dordrecht and hospital staff deserves better.

 For further information, please contact Pine Pienaar, MPL on 082 446 1888

For the latest media releases by the DA in Bhisho, visit www.dabhisho.org.za

The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape will be holding the MEC for Local Government to account for the situation regarding the possible re awarding of the Automated Metre Reading contract (AMR) in the Nelson Mandela Metro.

In terms of chapter 11 sections 110-120 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) it is stated in section 112 (2) that the regulatory framework for municipal supply chain must be fair, equitable ,transparent, equitable competitive and cost effective.

The investigation by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) into the matter clearly shows that there is doubt in this regard.

Furthermore, it is serious that the MEC for Local Government has elected not to make the contents of the report public, which he is compelled to do by law.

Of major concern, as reported in the media, is the interference by the acting municipal manager of the Metro informing Unique Mbane that the Metro wished to honour the existing contract contrary to legal opinion and doubt as to whether the procurement could be completed by the original March 2011 deadline. 

The actions of the municipal manager in this regard go contrary to section 118 of the MFMA, which states that no one may interfere with the supply management system of a municipality.

With an appalling track record by the Metro of entering into ill considered contracts in the past with serious financial consequences, it is essential that every major contract be thoroughly investigated prior to its award.

The DA will be submitting oral questions for public answer in the Legislature in this matter and will be applying constant pressure on the MEC until satisfactory answers and action is undertaken by the MEC and his department in this regard.

Furthermore, the DA will be putting in a private members motion to the Legislature later in the year to reform the tender and procurement process to ensure that citizens get fair value and services and not (as is so often the case) have tender procurement awards given to ANC  loyalists and party hacks.

For more information contact Dacre Haddon on 079 694 3788

Elderly women have been forced to do the job of providing proper toilets for their households themselves while the Eastern Cape government claims it is blissfully unaware of the shocking lack of accountability over a tender for long-hoped for services for the community of  Ward 6 in Ntsizwa in Mount Ayliff in rural Transkei.

Instead of constructed toilets there are empty trenches.  The approximately 100 households of Ward 6 have been waiting for decades for proper ablution while the powers-that-be look the other way.

This is once again a prime example of the ruling party’s inability to ensure accountability and to do proper monitoring.

In June I asked a question for oral reply in the Eastern Cape Legislature about the status of the work on the toilets for Ward 6 in Ntsizwa, but the answer from the MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Gqobana, was so unsatisfactory that I decided to visit the area myself.  

According to the MEC, “the matter has been dealt with by the Alfred Nzo District Municipality and the sanitation project has been completed”.  This is not the case.  What I found was a situation that made me want to cry.

It is alleged by community members that the contractor is not paying his sub-contractors, who in turn are starving and without accommodation.  It is also alleged that the contractor employs new people, because those sub-contractors who do not get their money, simply leave.  A sub-contractor told me that he had been in Ntsizwa since January and had last been paid in February.  He wants to go home to Mqanduli, but no-one can lend him the money – they are all too poor.

While the MEC is under the impression that the matter has been resolved, sub-contractors allege that they have dug the trenches for the new toilets, but they have not been paid.   The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that material is now being dropped next to the road and people having to fetch it themselves if they want their toilets to be built.  Women are complaining that the concrete slabs are too heavy for them.

Where is the dignity that the ANC was heckling about in the Western Cape, when these rural Transkei women have to do such work themselves?  Where is the service delivery?

The DA calls on MEC Gqobana for urgent intervention not only in sorting out the mess in Ntsizwa, but also for an investigation into the claims by the Alfred Nzo District Municipality that the matter had been resolved, when it clearly has not.

The DA will not rest and will continue to point out theses discrepancies between what the provincial government says and what really goes on within our communities.  The voters cannot be fooled by empty promises by the ruling party forever.

** Editors: a photograph has been attached to this e-mail of Veliswa Mvenya, DA provincial spokesperson for Local Government in Ward 6, Ntsizwa, where slabs for toilets have been dumped on the side of the road.

For further information, please contact Veliswa Mvenya, MPL on 0824187916

To view current DA statements go to www.dabhisho.org.za

The Department of Water Affairs released the 2010 Blue Drop report on 19 April. The report details South African drinking water quality management performance, and is intended to portray the ability of municipalities to supply water of an acceptable standard for domestic use on a sustainable basis. It paints a bleak picture of the situation in the Eastern Cape.

Congratulations are, however, due to the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, King Williams Town, East London (Umzonyana) and Peddie for having achieved more than 95% in the assessment, and thus having been awarded Blue Drop certificates. Peddie achieved the award in 2009, and has done particularly well to maintain its high standards; the small town certainly shows what CAN be achieved with limited resources.

3% of water supply systems in the Eastern Cape are considered excellent, 4% very good, 20% good, 18% reasonable, 20% require improvement and 35% require significant improvement and need urgent attention.

The full categorisation of Eastern Cape supply systems is as follows :

Excellent Drinking Water Quality Management (score of >95%) : Nelson Mandela Bay, King Williams Town, East London (Umzonyana), Peddie

Very Good Drinking Water Quality Managemernt (score of 80 to <95%) :

Sandile, Debe, Binfield, Masincedane, Darbie

Good Drinking Water Quality Management (score of 60 to <80%) : Cintsa East, Haga Haga, Morgan's Bay, Kotana, Mendu, Cwebe, Dwesa, Qolorha, Alice, Seymour, Hogsback, Rooikrantz, Glenmore, Upper-Mnyameni, Kei Bridge, Cofimvaba, Machubeni, Queenstown, Ugie, Patensie, Hankey, Loerie, Thornhill, Jeffreys Bay

Reasonable (Satisfactory) Drinking Water Quality Management (score of 50 to <60%) : Kei Mouth, Butterworth, Fort Beaufort, Cathcart, Stutterheim, Kei Road, Bedford, Adelaide, Qwaninga, Steytlerville, Willowmore, Indwe, Sterkspruit, Aliwal North, Maclear : Aucamp, Maclear : Mooiriver, Barkly East, Lady Grey, Rhodes, Humansdorp, St Francis Bay/Cape St Francis, Oyster Bay

Improvement Required in Drinking Water Quality Management (score of 33.3 to <50%) : Idutywa, Willowvale, Elliotdale, Ngqamakhwe, Toleni, Graaff Reinet, Aberdeen, Nieu Bethesda, Tsomo, Cradock, Dordrecht, Molteno, Sterkstroom, Burgersdorp, Oviston/Venterstad, Grahamstown, Alexandria, Bathurst, Albany Coast Water Board, Cannon Rocks/Boknes, Port Alfred, Seafield/Kleinemonde, Kirkwood, Enon/Bersheba, Ceasar Dam

Significant Improvement Required in Drinking Water Quality Management (score of 0 to <33.3%) : Matatiele, Mount Ayliff, Mt Frere, Maluti, Alfred Nzo rural schemes, Amathole District Municipality rural schemes, Somerset East, Cacadu District Municipality rural schemes, Middelburg, Sakhisizwe (Elliot), Jansenville, Klipplaat, Waterford, Coldstream, Storms River, Nomphumolelo Village, Blikkiesdorp, Koemansbos, Woodlands, Clarkson, Kareedow, Joubertina, Krakeel, Louterwater, Alicedale, Riebeeck East, Libode, Corona, Ngqeleni, Mthatha, Mhlahlane villages, Coffee Bay, Qumbu, Tsolo, Sidwadweni villages, Lusikisiki, Port St Johns, Mdlankala villages, Tombo villages, Ntabankulu, Bizana, Nomlacu, Mqanduli

The Eastern Cape has a severely immuno-compromised population. We simply cannot afford to be supplying substandard water to our communities. The water being supplied by some of our authorities is of such poor quality that even people who are ordinarily well could, and likely will, become ill.

Only a healthy population is fully able to pursue opportunities and craft meaningful lives and futures. Substandard water cannot be allowed to inhibit personal development. Municipalities must make this issue a priority in their planning and, more importantly, in their implementation of service delivery responsibilities.

Sincerely

ANNETTE LOVEMORE

ANNETTE LOVEMORE MP

DA Shadow Deputy Minister : Water and Environmental Affairs P O Box 15, Cape Town 8000 Phone : 021 403-3933 Fax : 086 556 7412 Cell : 083 463

5334 E-Mail : alovemore@parliament.gov.za

Dear editor

The Soccer World Cup is truly a great experience for South Africa.  It has lifted our spirits as a nation and given us a new sense of national pride. It has helped to unite our nation around a common focus and given us a new sense of identity.  It has helped to connect friends and family at home and abroad and connect people from all walks of life in South Africa.

Who cannot not be moved by seeing the rainbow nation cheering and united behind one common goal, our national team, Bafana Bafana and wanting to showcase South Africa to the world. This is truly a great moment in our nation’s history.

Some cynics might remark that this amounts to bread and circus politics as it deflects our attention away from the pressing problems that our country faces.  Whilst one can never ignore those problems, one needs to utilise the lessons of the World Cup to deal with them.

If one goes to a game, one cannot but be impressed with the state of the stadiums and the efficiency of all the arrangements.  What mustn’t be lost to South Africa are the lessons that we have learnt that have contributed to making this tournament a success.  The same energy and commitment and spirit needs to run through every aspect of service delivery in this country.

If we display the same passion and zeal as we do for Bafana Bafana and the World Cup generally, then that same energy can be harnessed into making this country a world class success.  Many people remark – why is it that we can put on a world class event but not provide world class service in other areas?  It boils down to one word – commitment.

We all need to have the commitment to making a difference.  In that way we will leave South Africa with a lasting legacy – the spirit of the Soccer World Cup inspiring every aspect of our nation’s work.

What a great joy it will be if in the months to come we can continue to echo the words “I can feel it, it’s still here”.

Bobby Stevenson

DA Leader in the Legislature

Bhisho

The news that 28 boys died in the last month at circumcision schools in the former Transkei area is shocking, but not surprising.

As authorities announce that they have during so-called ‘rescue operations’ arrested five initiation surgeons, found that carelessness, illegal circumcisions, alcohol and drugs and circumcisions carried out by boys younger than 12 are contributing to the crisis, we find that this all sound frightfully familiar. The reason? We have heard all of this before, year after year.

Rescue operations are not the answer to this crisis. I believe the Department of Health's role here is not merely to police the existing practices, but to rather promote correct traditional and safe practices.

Boys who would like to become men, must have the freedom to choose between medical and traditional circumcision. If they choose traditional circumcision, they must want to - and have the means to - go to a properly run tradition initiation school under the supervision of adult traditional leaders following safe practices.

I believe the community and families must take pride and responsibility for these practices to ensure that high standards are maintained. A 2008 report by the Bhisho portfolio committee on health found that the reasons for circumcision deaths were the fact that:

* The traditional surgeons were not qualified to perform circumcision;

* Some circumcision processes were conducted recklessly;

* There was a lack of knowledge and experience about the initiation custom;

* Initiates were assaulted at initiation schools;

* The custom was sometimes performed without the consent of the parents;

* Young men who were circumcised in recent years acted as traditional nurses, often without the relevant experience;

* Young males who act as traditional nurses fail to report anomalies, infections and other related problems regarding initiates to parents, often resulting in unnecessary complications that might otherwise be prevented;

* Most initiates undergo the circumcision ritual without prior thorough medical examination;

* Some of the initiation schools were illegal;

* The relevant health officials did not visit the areas regularly to either monitor health-related aspects of the circumcision practice or conduct awareness campaigns and educational workshops on hygiene around the practice; and

* There are no health facilities in the area to support the practice of the ritual within communities.

If we know all of this (and we have accepted these finding in the Legislature), why are we not acting to prevent this? Because the Department of Health is failing to put words into practice. While it is the Department's role to communicate the correct information about circumcision to boys and their families, it is also the Department's duty to communicate risk behaviour and promote safe social practices. This is not happening.

I am therefore calling on the Department of Health to sit down with the Department of educations, traditional leaders and communities in rural and urban areas take hands and work out an integrated strategy to prevent each and every one of the findings listed above. Before this did not happen, deaths will continue year after year.

Pine Pienaar

DA Eastern Cape Provincial Spokesperson for Health

0824461888

IRREGULARITIES regarding two RDP housing projects in the Ikwezi Municipality has left numerous families out on the street or forced them to live in unfavourable circumstances in which they have to share a house with up to three families.

The Democratic Alliance will send a request to the Minister of Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale to launch an investigation into irregularities regarding a RDP housing project which began in Jansenville in 2008.

Issues regarding the project were brought under the attention of the DA branch manager, Johnny Lewis who has also requested that the issue be taken up in Parliament.

The 350 RDP house project which is being operated by the ANC run Ikwezi Local Municipality (which forms part of the Cacadu District Municipality) has revealed numerous problems as furious residents are still waiting for their houses.

The housing issue in Jansenville has also been exposed and discussed at length in a recent episode of the SABC2 news programme, Fokus.

Some of the issues which will be included in the investigation:

• The building of RDP houses for people who do not seem to qualify for them.
• The criteria used in awarding RDP houses.
• The building of a RDP house on a plot that is registered in someone else’s name.
• The building of RDP houses on a plot where there is already a house.
• Allocation of RDP houses to government officials and business owners.
• Transfer of RDP houses from one owner to another without the initial owner being informed of the transfer.
• RDP houses which were denied by the Provincial Department of Housing are still being built.
• Houses are being built on the wrong sites.
• Houses built on existing business sites.
• Houses rented out as businesses.

It has also come to light that some of these beneficiaries rent out their RDP houses for R600 to R800 a month.  The question whether these beneficiaries are in actual need of these houses also needs to be investigated.

Jansenville is however not the only area where a RDP project run by the ANC has failed.  It has come to the DA’s attention that more than 100 of the RDP houses in the Dansandi area in Klipplaat have been vacant for more than three years.  How is this possible, if there are people who are in dire need of homes?

“Housing in Jansenville is extremely poorly managed by local and provincial government. It is absolutely unacceptable that two houses are built on one property as this amongst other things causes property right problems. The question is however, why is it being done?  Other people are reaping the benefits while the rightful owners of the houses are left in the dark.  The way this situation is being dealt with by the Ikwezi Municipality, is a great cause for concern,” DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans and constituency leader, MP Donald Smiles said.

The DA has on numerous occasions requested meetings with the Ikwezi municipality regarding the housing and other issue but to no avail.

It seems the Ikwezi Council does not have the criteria to allocate houses to the people as no control is being exercised over who is awarded a RDP house and as no follow-up work is done once the houses are awarded to applicants.

“Because of the lack of building inspectors, these things are happening like cancer across the province, huge vacancies in the department exist and if they appoint equipped and an adequate amount of people like quantity surveyors and inspectors, these problems will be solved,” MPL Dacre Haddon.

DA Shadow Minister of Human Settlements, MP Butch Steyn; DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans constituency leader, MP Donald Smiles and MPL Dacre Haddon (Housing Portfolio) will be attending the event and will be available for comment.

For more information please contact,

Jeanine du Plessis
Provincial Media Officer
041-582-1770
082-512-5631
jeanine@daec.co.za

The price index issued yesterday (subs:  Mon, 14 June) by the Eastern Cape Provincial Treasury for the procurement of goods is welcome, but this is only one step on the road to rooting out tender corruption.

The goods and services and capital budget of this province exceeds R13 billion.  If 20% of this is lost to over pricing, corruption and poor workmanship this means the province could be losing up to R2.6 billion per year.  This amount exceeds the budgets of a number of departments.

Last year this province overspent by R2.8 billion and a number of departments, especially Health and Education, cannot provide satisfactory services.  In a cash strapped province such as ours, tough action needs to be taken to root out tender corruption.

Although it will now be increasingly more difficult to charge the province R20 for ballpoint pens, R26 for a loaf of bread and R100 for a pocket of potatoes, there are a number of other steps that need to be taken to root out the rot and evil of corruption that is strangling service delivery in this province.  These are:

1. A price index for major items such as clinics, classrooms and roads needs to be issued.
2. One needs to root out the middleman who is simply acting as a channel for government tenders without adding any value – in other words they are simply charging the province a connection commission.
3. A thorough forensic audit needs to be done of last minute calls for services which conveniently by-pass any tender system.  This allows for connected insiders to benefit.
4. Fourthly, legislation needs to be introduced to ban civil servants trading with the province.  The Director General of Education was recently quoted as saying that 90% of senior managers in the Education Department are trading with the province.
5. Tough action needs to be taken against Senior Managers who fail to declare their interests.  Last year only 58% of Senior Managers in the province declared their interests on time.

I will be introducing a private members bill later on this year to outlaw provincial public servants doing business with the province.

For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 0827753444

To view current DA statements go to www.dabhisho.org.za

The reinstatement of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit must be done without delay. In a response to a reply for the MEC for Safety and Liaison, Ghishma Barry, as to when the unit will be reinstated, she said “although no specific date has been given, this matter is receiving priority”.  She further said 27 units will be established, at each of the 27 clusters in the province, consisting of 272 members.

The Democratic Alliance has campaigned for a number of years for the re-instatement of these units and will continue to pursue this matter. Children and women are extremely vulnerable members of our society and the state has a duty to ensure that they are adequately protected.

The decision to disband the FCS units which formed part of the ANC’s attempts to centralise all departments of the police service under the national commissioner – even though every study at the time as well as the international best practice mandated the expansion, not the dismantling, of specialised units of this nature – was nonsensical.

The ANC, as it does with all its policies, puts its own agenda ahead of the agenda of all South Africans.

Nonetheless, the ANC’s U-turn on this matter is welcomed and Police Minister Nathi Mthetwa’s comments regarding the possible reintroduction of specialised units need to be acted upon.

The disbanding in 2006 of the specialised units in South Africa runs contrary to both commonsense and international best practice. This is particularly so when it comes to the specialised Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit. Studies confirm the disastrous effects the disbanding of these units have had on crime in South Africa, particularly in terms of assisting victims in using specialised skills and detective work. The Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (Rapcan) has found that the policy objectives to prioritise combating crime against women and children simply cannot be realised as a result of the dismantling of FCS unit. Similarly, a study by the Institute for Security Studies on the impact of the re-structuring of the FCS units confirms that the quality of service provided has weakened and that SA is now out of step with developments in comparable countries.

Real evidence of the disastrous impact of disbanding these units in our province is on page 54 of the 2007/2008 annual report of the SAPS for the Eastern Cape.

In an overview of family violence and sexual offences cases for the year 2006/7 it reveals that 1160 cases were finalised and went to court. In 2007/8 only 728 cases were finalised. That is for persons younger than 18. For persons older than 18 in 2006/7, 1249 cases went to court, and in 2007/8 only 875 cases went to court.

This misguided policy by the ANC of disbanding specialised units has done tremendous damage.

Four children are murdered in South Africa every day and child murders are up 31 percent since the FCS units were disbanded in 2006. Prior to this decision, child murders in South Africa were decreasing. In 2007/2008, 1410 cases of child murder were reported – 20.4percent more than in the previous year.

A report compiled by Solidarity Helping Hand said there were in the region of 60 child rapes reported in the country daily. It further states that 88 percent of child rapes were never reported.

Furthermore, 43 percent of Childline South Africa’s cases involve sexually abused children. Children are also frequently misused as prostitutes – in Johannesburg alone it is estimated that there are 10000 child prostitutes.

These statistics are indeed horrifying, and a nation cannot stand back when children are subject to such maltreatment.

For further information, please contact Bobby Stevenson, MPL on 082 775 3444.

To view current DA statements go to www.dabhisho.org.za

THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will hit the hard- pressed consumer with a 22% hike in the electricity tariff from July 1 – up from the 18% originally announced – and an 11% increase in property rates instead of the 9% that was initially mooted.

The water tariff will rise by 12% as opposed to 11% and sanitation and refuse by 11% and not 10% as was initially announced.

This will potentially lead to an increase in the number of people defaulting on their accounts, resulting in the municipality’s failing to meet its collection target of 98%.

The increases, announced at yesterday’s joint meeting of the Mayoral and Budget and Treasury committees, have been condemned by DA caucus leader Leon de Villiers, who said “our current dysfunctional administration is milking the cash cow to death”.

And PE Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Kevin Hustler warned that the “higher-than-expected proposed tariff increases, particularly for electricity, rates and water, would be a major blow to industry and consumers” and could cause some businesses to close their doors.

The budget makes provision for operating costs of R5.65-billion, the major expenditure items being employee costs (30.42%), bulk electricity and water purchases (27.23%), general expenses (11.26%), grants and subsidies paid (10.25%) and maintenance (8.67%).

The major sources of funding are service charges (52.6%), property rates (15.1%) and grants and subsidies from national and provincial government (22.21%).

In a report to the committees, chief financial officer Kevin Jacoby said a provision of R49-million had been set aside to cover potential bad debts. He said provision had been made for adequate funding for maintenance backlogs.

With regard to the capital budget, Jacoby said this had been fixed at R2.2-billion and an additional R470-million would be raised in external loan financing.

As far as employee costs were concerned, Jacoby said the budget was 15.9% higher than the last financial year, with R25-million provided to ensure the implementation of the new wage curve agreed to by the SA Local Government Bargaining Council. An amount of R19- million was also included to cover nine months’ back pay in terms of the agreement.

He said the metro was closely monitoring certain issues that could have a significant financial impact on future budgets. These included:

Maintenance backlogs and the adequacy of budgetary provisions.

Staffing needs and the effect on the personnel budget.

Unfunded mandates such as housing, primary healthcare and libraries.

Maintenance of the current collection rate.

Reviewing and enhancing the level of the Capital Replacement Reserve – he warned this could move into negative territory in the near future.

Financial implications associated with raising external loan financing.

Responding to the budget, which the DA voted against, De Villiers said that instead of addressing inefficiencies within the administration, acting municipal manager Elias Ntoba “merely looks to ratepayers for more funds”.

He said the poor productivity levels of the traffic department were an example of this, where the budget made provision for R59-million to be collected when this should be R590-million if Mandela Bay achieved what other metros did.

“Nowhere in this budget is there any evidence of what (Ntoba) has done in an attempt to increase revenue, reduce costs and improve productivity and efficiency ... We have created a culture where we do not address the cause of our ills and we merely look for more money to solve our problems.”

Patrick Cull - The Herald

The Rhodes Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) held a picket last week Friday in a motion to have VAT scrapped on all textbooks.

This national campaign ran during the course of last week in 17 universities across the country in support of Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament, Dion George’s proposal for zero VAT on textbooks.

According to the campaign’s briefing sheet, all books are subject to the 14% rate of value added tax (VAT) under the current South African legislation.

“South Africa lags behind the rest of the world in our tax policy on books. In numerous countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Philippines and Australia, no tax is charged on books at all.

Comparative research has also shown quite clearly that reducing the cost of books, by reducing VAT charged on them, has a powerful effect on the purchase of books and readership,” the briefing read.

The DA believes that taxing books is a tax on learning, knowledge and literacy. In efforts to prioritise  measures to promote literacy and education, they believe that zerorating on books would be a cost-effective measure to contribute towards this.

DA Constituency Operations Manager, Francois  Greyling said that the initiative is looking at creating awareness of this issue as well as gathering support from the public.

He said if books were zero-rated, a library making a purchase order of 3 000 new books could purchase roughly 400 additional books which would have a positive knockon effect for those South Africans relying on libraries as a source of knowledge.

“We are fighting for it to be passed as a Bill in Parliament, not only for students but the average man on the street and disadvantaged communities,” he added.

He said that this campaign runs together with another ongoing programme to declare education as an essential service, which would prevent teachers from striking.

“To look at a student’s perspective, money is an issue and textbooks change every year, so this may seem like a small thing but every bit helps,” said Rhodes DASO branch leader, Frederik Kirsten in referring to the importance of the campaign.

“We are also trying to get pressure off the students so they can focus on more important things,” he added. He said  that there has been a positive response from the students for this initiative with many signing the petition to show their support.

Rhodes student, Chipo Chakungu said that she signed the petition as books are so  expensive and she finds it even more difficult to buy books as she is not South African.

Another student,  Sandile Dube liked the idea of the campaign as cheaper books would mean saving more money.

Prudence Mini - Grocott's Mail

The past budget year currently under review, can in many respects, be classified as “Annus Horribilis” for the Minister.  He came into the hot-seat with the cloud of the Mercedes Benz “donation” hanging gloomily over his head and an inherited Ministry suffering the effects of poor management brought about by under capacity, skills migration, incompetence and under-investment.

In welcoming him to his position, I must say that we expected more of him, knowing his no nonsense approach in his previous role in Kwazulu-Natal. His Deputy was well also placed to give him the necessary support and continuity. We also offered our full co-operation in order to open up the previously closed communication style of his predecessor. We were pleased that the Honorable Minister agreed initially to make himself contactable at all times. Unfortunately this proved not always to be the case. 

Our first test appeared to have been ignored. In an effort to raise the alarm bells as to what was happening in the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), for months we wrote numerous letters and delivered documents to the Minister, which were completely ignored.

Despite assurances given in this house some six months after the matter became public in June 2009, nothing has transpired and the embattled RTMC which limps along despairingly, dogged with allegations of corruption, mismanagement and the fruitless and wasteful expenditure of public monies. It is no wonder that it does not even merit a mention in the department’s Strategic Plan.

Speaker, this is not the only dilemma facing our Minister. Despite the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) positive contributions towards the budget debate over many years, the Department is still faced with massive under-funding and a number of dysfunctional state-owned entities.

The RTMC aside, it is common cause that the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is technically insolvent and even with the “no fault” system being proposed, the demands on the fund and the public institutions that will be supporting it cannot be sustained at the current high level of accidents and fatalities on our roads.

The fact that millions of rands have been spent by the very same RTMC in conducting so-called Stakeholder Workshops on road safety in each of the nine Provinces without as much as involving the Portfolio Committees or at the very least, reporting back to it on any of it’s outcomes, is indicative of how dismissive they are in finding solutions to this very serious problem.

Yet an ever mounting number of deaths and injuries occur daily on our roads without any serious fresh and innovative ideas to counter what appears to be a failing Arrive Alive Campaign.  My deputy, the Honorable De Freitas, will discuss some further thoughts on this matter later in the debate but, the bottom line is that we cannot continue losing valuable lives like we are on our roads.

The time has come for all of us to put our heads together to find a solution as to how to save lives. To this end the DA would support any initiative for a Road Safety Indaba early in the financial year to firmly establish how funds should be redirected or re-appropriated towards a safer road environment in our country.

The RTMC and RAF are not the only clouds hanging over the Minister’s head.  He also has the failed rollout of Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) to contend with.  This Act was passed in 1999 with a view to introducing a de-merit system.  To date this still has not happened and one does not have to look too deeply to find out why.  The controversial e-NATIS system is run by a Steering Committee and both National and Provinces claim ownership of its use.  This database should have been long handed over to the Department of Transport and yet it seems to be held in ransom by the contractors, Face Technologies, who gladly hold onto it in the knowledge that it pays them handsomely for its maintenance and upkeep. Meanwhile, whilst no formal technology transfer is taking place, extension after extension of its contract is taking place. 

The over expenditure on this contract is well recorded and required the intervention of National Treasury to recoup its losses through the introduction of a transaction fee of R30 (Now R36) on every vehicle licensing process with a view to these monies once collected by the RTMC going back to Treasury – yet much of this taxpayers money is illegally being used by RTMC to supplement its grant funding – something Speaker is horribly wrong here and no doubt will require further interrogation and explanation to SCOPA.

Let me now dwell on some other areas of concern which need urgent intervention:

• The Cross Border Road Traffic Agency (CBRTA) is dysfunctional.  It has had seven CEOs since 1998. At this critical time of the FIFA World Cup its services are being sought out to no avail.
• The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) has had allegations of mismanagement and corruption circulating around it for a number of years and have not been adequately addressed, despite a so-called forensic audit.
• The supposedly self funding entities like Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA), Air Traffic Navigations Services (ATNS) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) all have balance sheet deficits arising from capital expenditure necessary to meet airport construction, expansion, renovating and recapitalization for the purpose of International safety requirements all of which they cannot afford or recover from tariff increases alone.
• The Independent Ports Regulator (IPR) faces a similar dilemma and has insufficient funding to fulfill its mandate.
• The same can be said of the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR).

All of the self funding entities applied for tariff increases to their respective regulating authorities and were declined and the question now arises as to from where and how will their deficits be funded?

Turning to the other entities:–

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) claims to have insufficient funds to meet the safety requirements of it rolling stock, signaling and perways.  The ironic thing is that Transnet from who it concessions its line usage, charges them R300 million per annum yet PRASA expends millions upgrading and maintaining infrastructure used equally by them.  Speaker, this does not sound right to me and is a typical case of Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Freight services in any case should somewhere along the line be under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transport if we can ever claim to provide SA with a seamless and integrated transport system and one could equally say this for air and port entities under this same stable.  The DA has, for many years, lobbied for this integration and will continue to do so – it makes total sense and I trust that the Minister will do something about it.

Chair, whilst on the topic of entities, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) is the only entity that we engaged, who for some reason or another claim to not need any more funds despite maintenance backlogs confirmed by your Department of R156 billion for both National and Provincial roads. Yet it is busy borrowing money on the open market.

Despite this, SANRAL is doing a good job in keeping our national roads in reasonable condition albeit at a cost to the motorist.  Yes, I agree there is no such thing as a free road but for how much longer can we carry on tolling and tolling every time a section of roads reaches the end of its lifespan or needs reconstruction?

We as the DA like what you and your department are saying about a dedicated road fund, after all this has been part of our policy proposal to your Ministry for a number of years now – the time has come to consolidate all fund streams into this fund– call it a Central Asset Management Fund

The public and road users out there don’t know the difference of a pothole or bad road surface occurring in the National, Provincial or Municipal networks and yet they all contribute to road taxes through the general fuel levy or tollgates.

Nobody is better placed than SANRAL to do the necessary audit of road conditions, determine the methodology of spending priority and contract out the necessary work to the three spheres of government.  This, Minister, is the only way forward. Engineering skills at Provincial and Local Government level just do not exist and collectively SANRAL with their high skills base and experience will be able to optimize both the scarce human and financial capital required to keep our roads safe and pothole free.

On the whole aspect of the department’s entities, Minister, many of them require new board appointments and many of them need talking to, as clearly their roles appear to be more about collecting the cheque at the end of the month and rubber stamping management reports as opposed to contributing to the objectives of the entity and ensuring good governance.

I say this in the knowledge of what I have reported to you in my speech today – too many of your entities are becoming financial burdens on your department.  We rely entirely on you to keep a tight reign on these boards and their chairpersons who report directly to you.  Very few of the chairpersons or board members attend their entities presentations to the Portfolio Committee on budgets and their annual reports which is a worrying trend.  Furthermore the Departmental representation on these Board has little or no chance to intervene or to promote your Department’s policy in the capacity of ex officio of these Boards.

Finally Speaker, let me end by discussing my last items of your “Annus Horribilis”. 

The first is the continued under-funding (unless SCOPA agrees to appropriate more funds) of the bus subsidies.

I am aware of National Treasury directives in this regard but Sir, is it not time to rethink this whole funding model?  We cannot continue having shortfalls year after year and no provision for budgetary increase.

The DA is of the belief that the subsidising of public transport is essential and happens throughout most countries of the world but many of these countries have looked at subsidising the commuter as opposed to the operator as a way of ensuring optimum and fairest use of the available resource.

Whether our communities rely on rail, busses, BRT’s or taxis we must encourage their use across all the modes to ensure a more safe and efficient home to work place journey.

For this to happen your Department must investigate some of the best practices worldwide to come up with the right model fully inclusive of the taxi industry.

Well Minister it’s tough at the top and as the DA we don’t want to see you having another “Annus Horribilis” so we appeal to you to open up your communication lines with us in order that collectively we can get transport back on track. It would be remiss of me not to thank your Deputy and your officials for the supportive role they play in dealing with urgent matters arising during the year.

The 2010/11 budget in light of current demands on it is therefore totally inadequate and from all accounts other than a few adjustments and veriments here and there, the DA proposes that the budget will have to stand over for further scrutiny and appropriation for additional funds in the mid year adjustments in September when a better picture of priorities and expenditure patterns would have emerged.

MP, shadow minister of transport, Stuart Farrow

Transport Budget speech

Eastern Cape hospitals and primary health care clinics across the province are in dire need of the most essential drugs.   I requested that the National Council of Provinces take note in a motion of the critical drug shortages in our hospitals and clinics and that the Minister of Health investigates the situation in this province.

The ruling party is in complete denial with regard to this situation and shot the motion down.  The ANC’s objection to the motion is a clear indication that they do not care about delivering quality health care to those who need it most.

Primary health care at our clinics is absolutely essential, especially for our TB and HIV/AIDS patients.  In many clinics there is a complete lack of the TB drugs, especially 60/30 drugs for children.  Without drugs we are breeding MDR and XDR TB strains.  The children cannot be treated effectively and if continuing with the initial phase drugs for children will cause permanent liver damage.

A further concern is the fact that there is very little or no Pentax available for the first basic immunisation for babies or small children.  This will affect our status adversely with the World Health Organisation according to a set code.

In some clinics there is no medication for diabetic treatment.  Although the clinic staff is being educated on the treatment of Rift Valley Fever patients and their isolation, no equipment or clothing is being made available to primary health care staff.  The local clinics do not have the facilities to stabilise and isolate patients.  No emergency measures are taken to protect our staff at clinics.

It is a disgrace that the ruling party is turning their backs on their responsibilities, clearly not accountable and not caring about the sick in the Eastern Cape.

ELZA VAN LINGEN, MP

DA NCOP

082 557 4206

In a motion today I am to request that the National Council of Provinces as the arm of parliament to address provincial issues urgently debates the current budgets allocated to hospitals in the Eastern Cape in order to save South Africa from a worldwide embarrassment.

Firstly, it appears that the hospitals were allocated an average of between 25 and 30 % for Goods and Services and about 70% for staff salaries and wages.

Secondly, the allocated amount for the Goods and Services account will not last longer than three months.  The red lights are flashing.

Thirdly, the budgets for Staff covered the warm posts and a 70% budget allocation is moving backwards on ”delivery of quality medical care to the people”.  It is difficult enough to find the staff to fill the positions and when the budget - the red lights area flashing seriously.

Fourthly, when hospital managers do not have the sole control of their budget allocations and various departmental officials can move funds around in total contravention with national policy for delegation of financial powers, hospital managers cannot be held accountable for the services they are rendering, nor be held responsible for the finances of the hospitals.  The red lights are on all the time.

No proper financial planning can take place, nor can for instance: food, medicine or medical supply orders to be placed with this system if one does not know what funding will be available for the year. 

In the case of one of the hospitals in my constituency, where they carefully planned their cash flow last year, 25% of their budget was retained by themselves for the last quarter of the financial year. However the departmental “fingers in the till” for other projects where there was over expenditure, stripped this hospital from a right to careful and diligent financial planning and management to deliver a quality health service and thereby causing the new financial year to start with a deficit of outstanding accounts at the year end.

We fear a shortage of medical supplies and food in our Eastern Cape hospitals by the end of June.  If this is not debated and addressed immediately, the Eastern Cape will have a FIFA World Cup scandal of note.

The sirens are screaming!

ELZA VAN LINGEN, MP

DA NCOP                                                                              

082 557 4206

THEUNS EKSTEEN

DA CAUCUS LEADER

CAMDEBOO MUNICIPALITY

072 373 0654

The Democratic Alliance tabled a motion yesterday requesting the Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to investigate the dire financial situation of the Eastern Cape Department of Health (ECDoH) and for his department to commit to the promise to assist with the debt of R1,6 bn to prevent a complete collapse of the ECDoH.

A certain amount of this vast debt load can be attributed to over expenditure over many years and rolling over debt from one year to another.  The Minister in reply to a question last year clearly stated that this practice was not allowed.

The ECDoH has also fallen behind in previous financial years with Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD) and Human Resource Translation of Posts (HRTOP) payments to medical professionals.  Some of these date back to even before 1994.

The image of the ECDoH is almost synonym with poor management, poor payment to staff and poor financial management etc.   We need to turn this department around and we need the Minister to intervene.  One can only do so with sufficient resources and in this case financial support and sound management are required for an effective turnaround process.

A number of these professionals have taken the Eastern Cape Department of Health (ECDoH) to court and it was ruled that these payments be made within a certain period.  However, the ECDoH has fallen so far behind with these payments that the Minister of Health was approached.  One also has to take into cno9sideration that these payments were not budgeted for.

The National Department of Health promised to take over the responsibility of the R1.6 bn debt on behalf of the ECDoH, but it now has to happen immediately.  The total health budget for this year amounts to R13.34 bn.  But the unbudgeted items were for instance accruals of R994 m, an overdraft of R468 m, OSD payments of R169 m, HRTOP payments of R380 m as well as a Fleet Africa contract for vehicles for an additional R150m.

From my previous motions, statements in the last ten days and urgent requests from the Eastern Cape DA spokesperson for Health Pine Pienaar, on the small operational budget allocations of only 25% of the actual hospital budgets for goods and services, the only 70% allocation for salaries required for currently employed staff, the complete breakdown of ambulance services, the lack of drugs in hospitals and clinics and now the OSD and HRTOP payments, it is clear that the EcDoH cannot operate without additional funding.

The Minister of Health will have to step in and find the necessary funding to give the newly appointed SG for Health Dr Siva Pillay the required funding to get the department back on track and break the cycle of debt.

I have written a letter to the Minister today requesting his commitment to the promises made to the ECDoH for the required funding.

ELZA VAN LINGEN, MP

DA NCOP

082 557 4206

The future of thousands of learners in the Eastern Cape is uncertain due to the unconstitutional action of the Department of Education.  The latest bulletin advertising principal’s posts in the Eastern Cape has been declared a closed bulletin by the department.  This means that only educators in the Eastern Cape qualify to apply for these posts. 

The Democratic Alliance believes that it is contradictory to our constitution. By declaring the bulletin closed, educators across the country are robbed of the opportunity to exercise their constitutionally enshrined right to a job for which they qualify. 

Many of our educators from the Eastern Cape are currently teaching in other provinces for various reasons. They are now blocked from coming back home.

We also believe that by limiting applications a situation is created whereby it is not necessarily the best candidate who is appointed to the post.  This bulletin should be declared an open bulletin, thereby granting school governing bodies the opportunity to select possible candidates from a wider spectrum of qualified applicants. This will help ensure that the ultimate appointee would be fit for purpose and the best candidate to fill the position.

It is the view of the DA that opportunities should be created for all learners to have access to the best school principals.

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As part of the DA’s Agenda for Accountability we will be taking up the issue by questioning the MEC for Education, Mahlubandile Qwase, during the next sitting of the Legislature.

WITH no end in sight to the crippling drought, Nelson Mandela Bay residents can expect a massive increase in punitive water tariffs.

This will apply to consumers who use more than 15 kilolitres a month.

Introducing an urgent motion at yesterday’s budget and treasury committee meeting, DA caucus leader Leon de Villiers said he had received notification on Monday evening that the municipality was poised to introduce a much higher punitive tariff.

He said the letter, dated May 11, said the decision followed a meeting of the water management committee on May 5 that had accepted the need for a “considerable” increase in the light of the ongoing drought that has already seen the metro declared a disaster area.

Budget and treasury officials told De Villiers that details of the planned increase would be made available at next week’s joint meeting of budget and treasury and the mayoral committee.

As the metro continues to experience the ravages of what water and sanitation director Barry Martin has described as “a green drought” – because there has been rain in the city but little in the catchment area – a briefing on the Emergency Drought Implementation Plan has been arranged for tomorrow.

The combined capacity of the city’s dams currently stands at 35.05%. The Kouga dams is 34.3% full, Churchill 10.6%, Impofu 43.8%, Loerie 46.7% and Groendal 39.6%.

The Bay has been declared a drought disaster area, allowing the city to apply for R1.6-billion in emergency funding to tackle the crisis.

Planned emergency measures include a desalination plant that will cost R750-million and fast-tracking of the Nooitgedacht Dam low-level scheme that will cost R650-million.

Patrick Cull - The Herald