Call to Action:
Helen Zille has a busy and exciting programme over the course of the World Cup. Follow her tweets on www.twitter.com/HelenZille or her posts on Facebook at www.facebook.com/helenzille.
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Quote of the Week
"We already know that sport is the great unifier of our nation. We must now consciously apply that knowledge in order to build great national teams, in every sports code. We must begin at entry level: extending opportunity, rewarding effort, celebrating excellence. If we try to take short-cuts and avoid the long, disciplined slog, we cannot be world beaters. Cutting corners will miss most of the available talent, and in many sports codes, result in imposed quotas at the very top level, under the guise of "transformation". This is actually an excuse to avoid the challenges of real transformation. "
Helen Zille in her recent SA Today newsletter, “Proving the World Cup naysayers wrong” .
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Last Week's Highlights
Top Story: On the eve of Youth Day, the ANCYL forced to acknowledge hate speech
In October last year, the Democratic Alliance (DA) laid a complaint of hate speech with the Equality Court as a result of Mr. Meeko’s public statements that Professor Jansen, “is equally a criminal like this racist young students at that university. We agree with the president of the ANC shoot and kill a criminal and that is what we must do comrades” and that Professor Jansen, “must be removed, and not only him, as well as the university council...they must leave the University of the Free State. We must tell him that we have removed far more bigger people in this country than him. This is not a threat, it is going to happen.”
Dr Wilmot James MP, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training said that the court’s decision last week saw Mr. Meeko compelled to publicly acknowledge that utterances made by him, concerning the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State, Professor Jonathan Jansen, were wrong and could have been interpreted as hate speech.
James stated that it was the DA’s efforts to take the case to the equality court, which forced the outcome for the ANC Youth League official to admit that hate speech had no space in South African society.
James welcomed the courts decision, saying it was of the utmost importance for citizens to not make reckless and irresponsible accusations. He added that creating anxiety by threat of imminent danger was the core definition of hate speech which must not be tolerated in a democratic society like ours, he said.
James criticised Mr. Meeko’s poor grasp of the principles of a constitutional democracy, but did acknowledge some appreciation for his anger at the lack of change in our country for the very poor, homeless and millions of unemployed South Africans.
Neither nationalisation nor land grabs are a solution to poverty, said James. In a recent speech to the DA Parliamentary Caucus, Dr Mamphela Ramphele instead proposed an asset-building approach to poverty. James reiterated her call saying that the youth should get the best education they can, so as to be able to navigate through the modern world with knowledge, insight and understanding. It will bring freedom and richness in spirit and opportunity, said James.
James called for 16 June commemorated annually as Youth Day, as the right moment to recommit to Madiba’s call for quality, excellence and service.
Read more here and here
ANC’s ethics review avoidance tactics an act of blatant political defiance
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called the ANC attempts to impede parliament’s ability to rewrite the rules of conduct for public representatives, as a blatant act of political defiance by the ruling party.
Athol Trollip MP, DA Parliamentary Leader said that the report in the Sunday Independent was an acute lack of political will to act on the recommendations made by the Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela, in her DA-requested investigation into President Jacob Zuma’s failure to disclose his financial interests. He added that it also raised serious questions about the party’s determination to conflate party and state and its belief that its leaders remained above the law.
Trollip said that the recommendations put forward in Adv Madonsela’s report, available from the DA on request, concerned glaring anomalies in the Executive Members’ Ethics Act and the Executive Ethics Code. Her report highlighted that, along with President Jacob Zuma, almost 40% of the cabinet failed to disclose their financial interests within the stipulated 60 day period and were, therefore, also in contravention of the Act.
Trollip criticised the ANC, stating that the fact that almost half of its members, and the President himself, had been implicated in breaching the Ethics Code placed the highest decision making body in the land in a compromised position.
Trollip said the reports that the ethics review process had been further delayed by the decision of the ANC Chief Whip, to wait until a mandate had been issued by the ANC’s National General Council (NGC) is characteristic of the ruling party’s tendency to blur the line between party and state.
Trollip confirmed that in addition to submitting parliamentary questions to obtain further information about those members of the executive who were found to be in contravention of the Executive Ethics Code, the DA would be writing to the Secretary of Cabinet to determine whether action had been taken on recommendations made by the Public Protector regarding the administration of the Register of Members’ Interests.
Read more here >>>
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IN OTHER NEWS
Why has ministerial review of SOEs been scrapped?
Dion George MP, Shadow Minister of Finance raised serious concerns over reports that the long awaited review of state owned enterprises (SOEs) was being shelved.
George criticised the ANC government, stating that it had no interest in plugging the gaping hole left in the Treasury by a fundamentally flawed financial model. George said that leakage from the Treasury resulting from poorly managed parastatals ran into hundreds of billions in the form of bailouts, loans and guarantees.
Although Ms Hogan criticised the DA’s alternative budget for highlighting this fact, there is no doubt that state guarantees to the parastatals to keep them afloat prevented in many instances even the most basic services to the poorest communities, said George.
George said that the inconsistency in the ANC government’s statements and actions on economic policy and good governance was a serious threat to positive sentiment about our economy and negatively influenced our growth prospects.
George called for certainty and stability which included a clear commitment from government that the state owned enterprises would not continue to be the cash-cows that funded its unsustainable cadre deployment programme to the detriment of all South Africans.
Read more here >>>
Department of Health dragging its heels
A recent reply to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question showed that the Department of Health would not enlist the assistance of the private sector in training medical specialists.
Mike Waters MP, DA Shadow Minister of Health said that given the critical shortage of medical professionals, an action plan that included the private sector was the only viable solution to the problem.
Waters expressed concern for Aaron Motsoaledi, the Minister of Health’s statement that the Department of Health was of the view that the training of specialists should be conducted in public facilities. He added that the move greatly limited the number of specialists the country could produce each year.
Waters said that he would be requesting a meeting with the Minister of Health to discuss these issues and propose the enlistment of the private sector in training which would go a long way to addressing this problem so that South Africans could have access to a quality health system.
Helen Zille
