Mr Gay South Africa farewell address

Looking back at the past year, I will fondly remember it as one of the busiest but also the best years of my life so far. Many events have been memorable, every time I get a positive message from someone struggling with their sexuality on social networks my heart beams with pride, and when it’s not so positive it’s allowed me to facilitate help for them. These individuals are who I’ll remember most.

I had decided to enter the competition after working with LGBTI teens at a local high school. South African LGBTI youth are in desperate need of a positive role model. Too many young people resort to suicide and substance abuse because they believe that being homosexual is a social death sentence. The youth needed suitable role-models to look up to, who they can be proud of, and who can help them come to terms with their sexual orientation without fear. I felt that I could be that person - someone the youth could look up to and admire. I thought that if they could see that I could be a successful self-confident person, while being out and proud, they could realise that they could also be. I sincerely hope that I have achieved this goal this year.

Thank you all for the amazing support shown throughout the year!

Lance

Buffalo City named most unequal in world

Buffalo City and Johannesburg are the most unequal cities in the world – and Cape Town is NOT the most unequal city in the world or in South Africa.

 

A United Nations-Habitat survey of 109 countries in all regions of the world found in 2011 that East London and Johannesburg share an incomebased Gini coefficient measure of 0.75 compared to 0.67 in Cape Town. A measure of 0.4 is considered the international alert line.

Census figures: where the discrepancies lie

Concerns have been raised about the results of the 2011 census, due to the notable
discrepancies. According to Rob Dorrington of the Centre for Actuarial Research at the
University of Cape Town and a member of an expert evaluation team of the Statistics Council,
the population growth revealed by the census results was inconsistent with fertility, mortality,
and survival estimates [The Sunday Independent 4 November 2012].

The 2011 census recorded almost 1.2 million (2.3%) more people than had been projected in
the 2011 mid-year population estimates. Male and female numbers were 673 755 (2.7%) and
510 048 (2%) higher than previously estimated. Both the census results and the mid-year
population estimates are published by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

In proportional terms, the biggest difference between the two reports was in the 80+ age
category. The census registered 232 432 more over 80s than had previously estimated, a
62.1% increase.

However, some age groups were overestimated in the previous projections. Most notably,
there were 723 805 (13.6%) fewer 10-14 year-olds in the census than had been previously
estimated.

Of the 1.2 million additional people counted in the census, 794 662 were African (an increase
of 2%), 135 611 were coloured (an increase of 3%), 12 063 were Indian (an increase of 0.9%),
and 21 013 were white (an increase of 0.5%).

The statistician-general, Pali Lehohla, said that the high outcome of the census was based on
a ‘statistical, well established sampling procedure’ [Business Report 5 November 2012].

No matter what the excuses are... the fact is that we still seem to have questionable figures, which make it difficult for government to plan efficiently going forward. 

Gay day in the USA

Tuesday night was not a good night for homophobes.

Americans in Maryland, Maine and Washington State voted to extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples, marking the first time that gay marriage rights have ever been approved by voters in a referendum. Over the past several years, voters in 32 states have passed ballot box initiatives to deny marriage rights to same-sex couples.

In Maine's case, a referendum three years ago had annulled a same-sex marriage law that had been passed by the state legislature, once again stripping gays of the right to marry. Now the electorate has seen the light and corrected this little oversight.

Also of note: Minnesota voters said no to a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Phew!
In all four cases, pro-gay forces won by a margin of about 4 percent.
But the good gay news doesn't stop there. Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin (pictured) has become the first openly gay(at the time of being elected) US senator!

“Tammy Baldwin’s victory showed what a majority of Americans already know: that candidates should be judged on their qualifications for the job and not their sexual orientation,” said Herndon Graddick, president of the gay rights organization GLAAD.

Add to that the re-election of the first sitting President to support gay marriage and you know there were a lot of angry haters. Take that Mitt! 

South Africa has lost confidence in President Jacob Zuma

The South African people are bearing witness to the emergence of a government and a country different to that envisaged by President Nelson Mandela and those who fought to liberate South Africa from oppression and ushered in a new democratic order in 1994.

The Marikana tragedy; the appalling ‘Nkandlagate’ scandal; the failure by the government to deliver textbooks and workbooks to school children in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape; the downgrading of South Africa’s credit rating by two major ratings agencies; the mounting disrespect for our Constitution and judiciary; the growing number of our citizens who must face the indignity of unemployment; and the uncontrollable and rising tide of corruption in the public service – all of these collectively point to the reality that ours is a country which lacks decisive leadership and vision.

In response to this mounting crisis of leadership, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Lindiwe Mazibuko, mandated by the ACDP, AZAPO, COPE, DA, FF+, IFP, UCDP and UDM, will this afternoon table a motion of no-confidence in Jacob Zuma as President of the Republic of South Africa.

President Zuma no longer has the confidence of our political parties to serve as president on the grounds that under his leadership:
•    The justice system has been weakened and politicised;
•    corruption in the public service has spiralled out of control;
•    unemployment levels continue to increase;
•    the economy is weakening; and
•    the right of access to quality education has been violated.
Section 102(2) of the Constitution states: ‘…if the National Assembly, by a vote supported by a majority of its members, passes a motion of no confidence in the President, the President and the other members of Cabinet and any Deputy Ministers must resign.’

Following the 2009 election, the National Assembly elected President Zuma into office, and it is through Parliament that the president is held accountable to the South African people for the execution of his responsibilities. The National Assembly has the power and the duty to force the President’s resignation if he fails to maintain the confidence of the citizens of our country.

It is therefore appropriate that the future of the President be discussed and debated in Parliament in an open and transparent manner by the MPs who elected him.

Parliament must demonstrate to the people of our country that it cares about who leads us, and that it is not willing to sit back and let one man destroy the freedom and prosperity that was fought for and promised them. 

BCM Mayor guilty of Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure

Jacob Zuma has rightfully received much criticism for calling on CEO's and other executives to freeze their salary increases and not take bonuses, at the same time as he is spending a reported R240mil of taxpayer’s money on upgrades to his private home!

It seems that this hypocritical political attitude is also present in Buffalo City Metro, where the Mayor and three councillors spent R253,844.00 on business class airfare to attend a function in Germany. If you break the cost down, the airfare was R63,461.00 each, more than three times more than the economy class rate of R17,842! An additional R63,000.00 was spent on a week’s hotel accommodation. It is my opinion that the council did not even need to be represented and provided no value to the delegation as the Province, ELIDZ, and the ECDC had already sent people to represent our area. I called on this issue to be investigated by the Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure Committee in a full sitting of council, however was overruled by the governing party councillors.

Madam Mayor, how can you possibly claim to the citizens of Buffalo City that the council cannot afford to fix our roads, water and electricity networks, if you yourself are spending such large amounts on needless luxuries? I won’t even go into the details of the costs of renting the luxury Mercedes-Benz SUV you are chauffeured around town in. Just because the mayoral handbook makes allowances for these luxuries, it does not mean that it is ethically correct to take full advantage of them.

It is time that politicians in Buffalo City wake up and start tightening their own belts. before they once again claim that we cannot afford to fill potholes or keep the city clean. Service delivery might also be improved if our jet-setting mayor spent more time in her office and not overseas.

Voters remember – you get the government you vote for.

Census results wake-up call for Eastern Cape

The critical state of the Eastern Cape has been highlighted in the Census 2011 results by Statistics South Africa.  The official rate of unemployment for the Eastern Cape is now an alarming 37.4% and the expanded unemployment rate is 51.2%, which is the highest in the country.

This heart rendering figure must be a wake-up call to the Eastern Cape government that it cannot afford to waste one cent on activities that are not geared to improving service delivery and job creation.  

The fact that we have the highest amount of out-migration is a direct result of a lack of opportunities that people have in this province. 

The Eastern Cape recorded the highest net migration of all the provinces namely a loss of 278 000 people since 2001.  The next closest was Limpopo with a loss of 152 000 people. 

Other statistics also indicate the extent of the poor quality of life that people in the Eastern Cape experience.

We have the highest number of households with no access to piped water of 374 000, the highest number of households (295 000) that rely on rivers and streams for their main source of water, the highest number of households – one out of eight - who have no toilets (214 000) and the highest number of households (22 000) that rely on animal dung as an energy source for cooking.  This shows the lack of human dignity that people in the Eastern Cape still experience.

The Eastern Cape needs to be re-engineered.  We can no longer afford a bloated bureaucracy that does not give value for money when it comes to service delivery.   The fact that the Eastern Cape only achieved an average of 51% of its service delivery targets in 2011/12 says it all.

The DA's leader in the Provincial Legislature, Bobby Stevenson, said to that the Party will continue to fight for improved service delivery at all levels of government so that this province can become a place of rising opportunity for all; a place where employment is rising and where people can continue to make the Eastern Cape their home with confidence.  

The people of this province have the power to bring about this change and this power lies in their vote and not in service delivery protests.

Unsecured credit rises by a third

According to the National Credit Regulator (NCR), total outstanding debt owed by consumers to their creditors as at June 2012 was R1.36 trillion. This is made up of money owed by consumers in the form of mortgages, secured credit, credit facilities, unsecured credit, and short-term credit.

Of 19.6 million credit active consumers, 53% were in good standing while 47% had impaired credit records. An impaired credit record refers to consumer accounts that were in arrears by three or more months, accounts that had an adverse listing, or that reflected a judgement or administrative order.

Unsecured credit represents almost 10% of total outstanding consumer credit. It increased by 31.5% from 2011. Both the minister of trade and industry, Rob Davies, and the minister of finance, Pravin Gordhan, have expressed concern over the growth of unsecured credit. Mr Davies said that ‘while unsecured credit comprised different components, some is outright preying on the vulnerability of low-income groups’.  

Government needs to look at more ways to safeguard vulnerable low-income groups from unscrupulous money lenders as the end result can be financially devastating to these already financially stressed low income groups. 

Urgent intervention required from provincial government following the damage and collapse of Eastern Cape roads

Loss of life and infrastructure destruction by flooding, has hit our province hard during the past weeks. Millions of rands in damages were caused to the province’s road infrastructure.

DA representatives in the provincial legislature have written to the Chairperson of Roads & Public Works portfolio committee to request an urgent meeting for the department officials to brief the committee about the short and long term plan to normalize the situation.

DA members of the provincial legislature have also written to Premier Noxolo Kiviet offering the DA’s full support at Provincial and National level to lobby funds for the reconstruction of our devastated roads network. Provincial Leader, Athol Trollip, will also introduce a member’s statement later on this week in Parliament on this matter. Municipalities and the province do not have sufficient resources to fix these roads alone. National intervention is critical.

Our roads network is the lifeblood of our economy and reconstruction needs to begin as a matter of urgency. Our Province’s already high unemployment rate will be affected negatively by this recent disaster. Speed is therefore critical in reconstructing our Province’s roads so our economy does not suffer more damage.

The DA would like to express its condolences to all families and friends who have lost their loved ones during the recent devastating floods. The DA would also like to thank all NGO’s, public representatives, department officials and all other individuals who played a role in assisting our affected citizens.

I hope that politicians will react swiftly like the citizens of our province who assisted each other; so that we are not faced with a situation such as in the past where there were floods a few years ago and we are still to this day waiting for a budget to repair the infrastructure damage that occurred to our roads.

We need leadership now!

LGBTI Policy in SA

I was asked last week about South African LGBTI policy by a Dutch college. This got me thinking - we have constitutional protections for sexual orientation but there is no specific LGBTI policy.

Chapter 2, Section 9 (Bill of Rights) of our Constitution reads: the right to equality before the law and freedom from discrimination. Prohibited grounds of discrimination include race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

Based on this clause in the constitution, laws have had to made or altered to be sensitive to those rights e.g. two years after the Constitution was passed in 1996 the Constitutional Court ruled that the law which prohibited homosexual conduct between consenting adults in private, violated the Constitution.

In 1998, Parliament passed the Employment Equity Act. The law protects South Africans from unfair labour discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, among many other categories. In 2000, similar protections were extended to public accommodations and services with the approval of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.

In December 2005, the Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prevent people of the same gender from marrying when it was permitted to people of opposite gender, and gave the South African Parliament one year to allow same-sex unions. In November 2006, Parliament voted 230:41 for a bill allowing same-sex civil marriage, as well as civil unions for unmarried opposite-sex and same-sex couples. However, civil servants and clergy can refuse to solemnize same-sex unions.

In summary, there is no one specific LGBTI policy as freedom from discrimination and equality before the law is grouped in one large group as listed in the extract from the Constitution above.  Interestingly though, polices relating to others on the list e.g. gender exist, however LGBTI-specific policy has been left in the cold. More than a year ago the Department of Justice set up the (failed) “Gender and Sexual Orientation based Violence Task Team” which was tasked with developing a "legislative intervention plan", this however has never materialised.

This poses an interesting question: should South Africa have a LGBTI-specfic policy, and if so what should it include?