Beware of dodgey ANC vote cons

It would appear the 2014 election machinery has already been set in motion. The Saturday Dispatch reported on allegations that a government funded programme was being used as a campaign tool by an ANC councillor.

Workers, who form part of the extended public works programme (EPWP) in Ngqamakhwe, were allegedly told at a meeting to get ANC membership cards. The meeting had been called to discuss work schedules. It was further alleged that workers were told not to assume the jobs were theirs since there were ANC members without work.

The implicated ANC councillor admitted asking workers to join the ANC!

These are early days for electioneering and such claims are bound to emerge as political campaigns intensify. However, allegiance to a specific party should never be a prerequisite for any job – irrespective of how low level the job might be.

In a country where 4.6 million people are unemployed and 2.3 million are discouraged job seekers, people are desperate to put food on the table. However, there will also be those preying on the desperate for their own selfish gain.

In Buffalo City Metro, another ‘jobs disgrace’ has befallen another ANC councillor. The circumstances, however, are different, with the councillor and two others accused of selling council jobs such as those as grass cutters and cleaners. To secure one of these jobs, job seekers are allegedly asked to pay between R500 and R1 500. A case of theft under false pretences has since been opened against the ANC councillor and the couple.

Political leaders should be cautioned against using deception to grow their party’s voter base, and communities need to stand up against these dishonest politicians and see that they are adequately dealt with.

Archbishop Tutu: Gay people loved by God, SA must fully accept and embrace all

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu yesterday said he does not support a homophobic God. “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I’d say sorry. I mean, I’d much rather go to that other place,” he told reporters in Cape Town. 

“We have to build a society that is accepting and it is not a free society until every single person knows they are acknowledged and accepted for who they are.” 

He was speaking at the launch of the United Nations “Free & Equal” global campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality in Cape Town. The campaign aims to raise awareness about homophobic violence and discrimination.

Tutu said many people felt they could not be comfortable in their skin because of potential ridicule. He was aware that many religious leaders promoted the idea that it was a sin to be anything but heterosexual. “There is deep anguish for many of us that they can imagine that God would create someone and put them there and say ‘I hate you. I hate you for who I made you to be’.” 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the campaign’s success would be measured by how many countries chose to decriminalise LGBT preferences and the measures they put in place to offer protection to individuals.

South Africa, the Schizophrenic Republic

At the recent (June 2013) Alan Paton Literary Awards ceremony, eminent Constitutional Court Justice, Edwin Cameron, eloquently described the duality of South Africa today:

We are now nearly twenty years into our constitutional democracy. Much has been achieved -perhaps more than those of us who tend to worry realise.

Almost all violent crime is down. Compared with 1994 the murder rate has halved. The government's housing programme has put many millions of South Africans in their own homes. In 1994, just more than half of households had electricity; now 85% do. In 1994, just more than a third of six-year old children were in school; now 85% are.

The average black family income has increased by about a third. And, through the system of social grants totalling about R120-bn every year, the very poorest in our country are afforded some elements of a dignified material existence and some access to a measure of social power.

Most importantly, these material gains have been achieved in a functioning democracy.

Our polity is boisterous, rowdy, sometimes cacophonous and often angry. That much is to be expected. But after more than two decades, we have more freedom, more debate, more robust and direct engagement with each other -and certainly more social justice than 20 years ago.

But after listing these not inconsiderable achievements, the learned Judge goes on to note that "all is not well". In this regards he cites the evidence: a political debate that is "divisive to the point of annihilation"; the prevalence of a "race rhetoric that often substitutes for performance". Gross inequality, largely racially structured persists two decades on and in other areas, everything from schooling to basic services evinces an "institutional decay and infrastructural disintegration that have reached dismaying proportions."

Unsurprisingly, last year saw the highest number of service-delivery protests, and nearly nine out of ten of them were violent. More and more municipalities and national departments fail to meet the basic auditing requirements.

He concludes this list of lamentable failures and shortcomings with this warning:

Not unconnected with the accounting chaos, the tide of corruption washes higher and higher. It threatens to engulf us. The shameless looting of our public assets by many politicians and government officials is a direct threat to our democracy and all we hope to achieve in it.

To many, the culture of high minded civic aspiration that characterised our struggle for racial justice and our transition to democracy seems distinctly frayed, if not in tatters.

What are we to make of these essentially two South Africas? In truth, we live in both of them and there is enough evidence to point to our country either becoming a fast tracked success story of the future or a failing state, remembered for the big things it got right two decades ago, but for the many things which have gone wrong since then. Perhaps the truth lies in both directions, a sort of "schizophrenic republic" (as James Baldwin dubbed the USA) with islands of success and achievement afloat in a sea of sleaze and dysfunctionality.

If you go back to the list enumerated by Justice Cameron, you will see that many, although certainly not all, of our post -1994 achievements have happened in arenas outside the ambit of the state or government. Although the government has in fact delivered many services and entitlements to the poorest and most marginalised, it has failed in other key areas of state performance, from providing certainty to the investor community and so creating conditions for sustainable growth and employment, to achieving good and balanced labour relations and basic, never mind good, maths and science education to the next generation.

It is easy, but in my opinion, wrong to see in this state-failure the failure of our country.

Extract from speech by Tony Leon, 23 July.

Employment is the key to reducing inequality

18 years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa is still a country of insiders and outsiders. The insiders have access to jobs, income, skills and assets, but the excluded live in poverty, without skills and without jobs.

According to a study conducted by the South African Institute of Race Relations, for every R7.70 a white South African receives in income an African South African receives R1. This gives a ratio of 7.7 to 1. To arrive at these figures the total income of all people in the particular racial group was divided by the total number of people in that racial group.

However, data obtained from Statistics South Africa on average monthly earnings shows that the ratio of white to African earnings of the bottom 5% of earners is 3.4 to 1, for median earners 4.2 to 1, and for the top 5% of earners 2.7 to 1.

In other words, when only employed people in each racial group are taken into account, the discrepancy is far smaller than when everyone, including the unemployed, is combined.

Incomes include earnings, grants, investment income, and other revenue from the Government. Earnings refer mainly to wages and salaries of employees.

The above ratios show that when the degree of inequality between income and earnings distributions is compared, the biggest inequality in South Africa is between the employed and the unemployed and that income inequality is heavily the result of high African unemployment. If you take into account that half of all working-age white people are employed compared to only one out of four African people, it stands to reason that if we want to combat inequality we need to focus on fuller employment.

It is only by generating much more employment – and fixing a flawed education system that leaves many Africans with few marketable skills – that the country will be able to reduce inequality.

This data further illustrates the ANC’s inability to create an environment where more can be employed – In fact the unemployment rate has increased dramatically since Jacob Zuma took office.

The DA has a plan to break down the barriers that keep so many locked out of opportunity. We plan to generate a dynamic economy that includes everyone. Our plan paves the way for a very different future: one of innovation, entrepreneurship, investment and growth.

The DA’s Growth and Jobs plan outlines how the DA will reduce poverty and create jobs by putting South Africa on a high-growth path. Our plan outlines how the DA will break down the barriers to opportunity by allowing an open and inclusive economy to develop in which each person has the skills and the resources to become a productive member of a dynamic, integrated and forward-looking society.

The document below outlines how we will build this new society of opportunity. http://www.da.org.za/docs/13004/DA%20Plan%20for%20Growth%20and%20Jobs.pdf

Helen Zille - the King and I

Taken from SA Today - DA Leader Helen Zille's newsletter. 

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, is widely regarded as a leader whose unshakeable integrity “broke the mould” of the conventional politician. His greatest contribution to humankind was the abolition of slavery in the United States. When his advisers warned him that this decision could cost him the Presidency, he famously replied: “I would rather be right than be President.”

People who have this one-dimensional understanding of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, should watch the 2012 Oscar winning movie, “Lincoln”.  Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’ insightful biography (Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln) it tells the story of how Lincoln managed to achieve what many thought impossible - majority support in the House of Representatives for  the 13^thConstitutional Amendment that abolished slavery.  Abe Lincoln’s political genius was his ability, in the real world, to achieve outcomes he deeply believed in. His story teaches us that the line between principle and pragmatism is often blurred, and even more so between pragmatism and expedience.

These thoughts came to mind as the DA faced a storm over one of our newest members, Thembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, who joined the DA last week.  We welcome criticism, because it is one of the factors that ensure we are never tempted to erase the fine line between pragmatism and principle. In politics, pragmatism must also have a high price (because principle always does). This helps us walk the tightrope.

When King Dalindyebo took us all by surprise by publicly announcing that he would join the DA, we had two choices:  to publicly accept him, or publicly reject him.  Responding “below the radar” was never an option because the King had spoken openly about his intentions, and issued a public invitation to us to come to Bumbane Great Place, to sign him up. 

Athol Trollip, the DA’s Eastern Cape leader, and I had an in-depth conversation about the King’s announcement/invitation. We decided that Athol would go to Bumbane and give the King a chance to re-consider his decision once he was fully aware of the implications of joining the DA.  In a private meeting with the King, Athol unpacked the DA’s commitment to constitutionalism; to a market economy; and to the principles of accountability. Athol explained that if the Appeal Court upholds the King’s criminal conviction, he will lose his DA membership. Athol was unambiguous about our opposition to the unconstitutional clauses in the Traditional Courts Bill and our commitment to equal rights for all.  After a two-hour discussion, the King was more enthusiastic to join than ever. So he did.  And we welcomed him.  After all, we reckoned, no-one else who joins the DA as an ordinary member is subject to an ideology test or a “due diligence” investigation.  That hurdle only comes if you wish to become a DA public representative.  There is a huge difference.

As I read the critics’ comments, I wondered how we were going to achieve two contradictory imperatives simultaneously:  remaining ideologically pure, while growing quickly enough to win elections in time to save SA’s democracy. Getting this balance right is not easy.

Politics involves converting opponents to support your cause, not creating impenetrable barriers to entry.  If we were determined to subject every new supporter to an ideological litmus test, we would still be the 1.7% party we were in 1994.  In every election we seek votes from people who have never voted for us before, and who have often vehemently opposed us. There is nothing cynical or opportunistic about this. Our core mandate is to win more votes in order to win elections, so that we can implement our policies, to better serve all South Africans. 

Of course there is a risk in growing at our current rapid rate.  If we become too broad a church we could end up like the ANC - focused exclusively on holding together warring factions, divided on values, principles and policies. Indeed, we have been there before. When we grew too quickly after the merger with the NNP, the party had to split to find its centre again.  But, despite the difficulties of rapid growth, we have succeeded in championing the values of the “open, opportunity society for all” and widening the circle of its supporters.  And we must keep making this circle bigger.

If we are serious about women’s rights, for example, it makes more sense to convert the King than to bar him.

That is politics in the real world.  There is even a word for it: “Realpolitik”.

Time will tell whether we were right or wrong.  There are many calculated risks in politics.  We did our calculations carefully, not merely in terms of votes, but in terms of our “conversion” model.  We were prepared to give the King the benefit of the doubt, and open the door in deep rural South Africa to advancing the values and principles of the ”open, opportunity society for all.”  Now that the door is open, we will walk through it.

Department of Justice not doing enough to combat Hate Crimes

The following comments were delivered by DA Parliamentary Leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, in Thokoza today. She was joined by DA Shadow Minister of Health, Patricia Kopane MP, DA Shadow Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Helen Lamoela MP, and DA Women’s Network Chairperson, Denise Robinson MP. The delegation embarked on a commemorative walk of remembrance to pay respects to the family of Duduzile Zozo, who was murdered in what is believed to be a Hate Crime.

I have come to Thokoza today to show my solidarity with the family, loved ones and friends of Duduzile Zozo. Most importantly, I want to listen today to your concerns and reflections.

Duduzile died in circumstances of unimaginable horror. We understand that she was raped and murdered in a hate crime because she was a lesbian.

On behalf of my party, the Democratic Alliance, I offer Duduzile’s mother, Thuziwe, and Father, Mqondo, and loved ones our deepest condolences and prayers.

Today we bow our heads, and stand shoulder to shoulder with this community. Your sorrow is our sorrow, and your pain is our pain. These criminals may have extinguished a precious life, but they have not dimmed the light of Duduzile’s spirit.

It is hard for us all to understand how people can commit such despicable acts. The reality is that our society is badly broken. Every person has a right to love whoever they want to love regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

It is clear that we need to intensify the safety of South Africa's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community - and the protection of their constitutional right to dignity and equality.

As a young woman and leader in public life, I am not prepared to stand by while innocent girls and women face such brutality.

The government is still not doing enough to end violence against women and children.

South Africa has the world’s highest rate of rape, and the most violent. One in three South African women may be raped in their lifetimes. The rape of one woman or child is an attack on us all.

In a society in which women are overwhelmingly the victims of rape, our leaders should be addressing how to free girls and women from systemic male abuse and dominance.

We must ask some tough questions.

Although established over six months ago, the National Council Against Gender-Based Violence based within the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities has done very little to undertake its mandate, despite a R20 million budget.

And the "Corrective Rape" Task Team, established by the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster to conduct an audit of legislation pertaining to hate crimes in South Africa, has been mostly silent since its creation in 2011.

The DA will submit parliamentary questions to the Department of Justice to query the progress of this task team.

And we will request that the National Council Against Gender-Based Violence be summoned to Parliament to brief us on the progress made on its plans and programmes to curb violence against women and children in South Africa.

It is estimated that as many as 10 lesbian women are raped or gang-raped every week in South African and that victims of ‘corrective’ rape are less likely to report their victimisation to the police due to some of the stigmas still surrounding homosexuality.

There is an urgent need for educational programmes and awareness campaigns to address the attitudes and prejudices which give rise to these crimes.

There is also a need to provide on-going support to individuals and communities affected by them.

It is clear from the events which we are mourning today that not enough has been done to stop crimes of hate and sexual violence. In this regard, I will arrange discussions with the relevant rights groups to discuss how Parliament can use its power as the legislative authority to support the fight against sexual violence and hate crimes.

But above all today, we understand that a mother has lost her daughter – and there is no greater pain than that. We cannot bring Duduzile back, but we will not let her death be in vain.

For our part, we will do everything in our powers to ensure that the evil of rape is stamped out in South Africa.

Petrol price increases and reducing the costs of transportation

It is very concerning to notice the continuous increase of petrol prices since the beginning of last year with a further increase as announced by the Central Energy Fund.

The fact of the matter is that these price increases will affect the price of goods across the country. South Africans, already struggling with rapidly rising living costs, will be forced to pay higher taxi fares, and increased transportation costs will push up the cost of food over time.

Government must step up and help to ease the burden. Over the last ten years, the fuel price has, on average, increased by 11% per year. This is far above the official inflation rate which has hovered around 6%.

There are two key ways in which Government can smooth out the impact of fuel price increases over time; and to potentially lower the price of fuel.  
• A comprehensive review of all levies and taxes placed on the price of fuel to determine which ones, in which quantity, continue to be justified in the light of the substantial impact they have on the economy.
 • The Central Energy Fund must re-examine the formula it uses to calculate the basic fuel price. Currently, the formula is overly-sensitive to short term fluctuations in the price of oil and the rand/dollar exchange rate. The Department of Energy has already conceded that such a review is necessary, but hasn’t initiated the process.

I believe that, given the significant economic pressure on our people, this formula must be reviewed as a matter of utmost urgency. The Minister of Energy Affairs must consider these submissions. It is important that Government understand just how damaging fuel price hikes are to South Africans and to our economy. I believe that Government should consider these reviews in order to contain the increase in the cost of living, to help South Africans maintain and improve their standard of living.
 
In light of the significant fuel price hike, the City of Cape Town has urged all motorists to consider their transport and mobility habits and see where these can be changed to minimise the impact of the increase. The implementation of the MyCiti Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) service throughout the city now becomes more crucial than ever before in order to serve the public transport needs of travellers.

Sadly, in Buffalo City the BRT rollout has stalled and hasn’t gone much further than the initial planning phase. Budgets continue to roll over every year and this lack of delivery is contributing to increased transport costs for residents and added congestions to the road system as public transport is not a viable alternative to many.

People should be encouraged to investigate all of the public transport options close to their homes, and start taking the train or buses wherever possible – for commuting to work and school, or visit friends and family. 
 
Let’s do all that we can to grow a public transport culture, not just  in Cape Town but in the rest of South Africa as well. It’s in the best interest of your pocket and the environment!