Call to Action:
Greg Krumbock MP, Shadow Minister of Tourism, will be tweeting regular updates and pictures from the front line on Twitter. Greg will be visiting six provinces, attending thirteen games, and will be participating in as many FIFA Fan Fests and Public Viewing Areas (PVA's) as possible. Follow Greg at: www.twitter.com/FrontLineGreg
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Quote of the Week
"The show of unity we have witnessed in the build up to the World Cup is encouraging to all of us who believe that South Africa has the potential to become one nation, with one prosperous future. "
Helen Zille in her recent SA Today newsletter.
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Last Week's Highlights
Top Story: The DA’s court challenge against the discontinuation of the Zuma prosecution
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) case regarding the discontinuation of the prosecution of Jacob Zuma on corruption charges was heard in the North Gauteng High Court last week.
James Selfe, Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Executive stated that the DA’s case was not about whether Jacob Zuma was innocent or guilty of the charges, but whether Mr. Mpshe, National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) decision to discontinue the prosecution, was correct.
Selfe said that the DA was contesting the action in the best interest of equality before the law and asked that the Court declare this decision to be inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid.
He said that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) devoted immeasurable preparation and public resources to the case against Mr. Zuma, and had been described by some, as the best prepared in South African legal history. However, the case was stopped by the then acting NDPP, Mokotedi Mpshe and the public had the right to know why, said Selfe. The DA believed that this decision was irrational and arbitrary and ultimately illegal and has asked the court to review the decision and set it aside.
Aspects that were also debated involved the standing of the DA and the fact that as a political party, the DA’s responsibility was to act in the public interest, said Selfe. It is our duty to ensure that the Constitution is upheld and that all are equal before the law and that no individual person should be favoured because of the special position that they hold, he said.
This application was initially brought in April 2009, said Selfe. However, proceedings had been unnecessarily delayed by the opposing parties, resulting in these preliminary matters only now being dealt with by the Court, he added.
Selfe criticised the NPA, saying that it was an organ of state which should be neutral in this matter. It should let the court decide whether its decision was correct or not. Instead it is resisting the release of the so-called reduced record – those documents which Mr. Mpshe used to arrive at the decision to discontinue the prosecution – with great vigour, he said.
Selfe concluded that the NPA was advancing every conceivable argument to block a simple and legitimate request. In doing so, its attitude appeared to be bordering on partisanship and lead us to the inescapable conclusion that the NDPP’s decision was indeed arbitrary and irrational and/or it simply has something to hide.
Read more here >>>and here
World Cup tickets: DA calls on Finance Minister to bring Gauteng MEC into line
Tim Harris MP, DA Member of the Select Committee on Finance called on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, to urgently bring Gauteng MEC for Local Government Kgaogelo Lekgoro, into line with his directive on municipal purchases of World Cup tickets.
Harris said that despite a National Treasury circular to municipalities making it clear that spending municipal funds on tickets constituted irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure in terms of legislation, the MEC had issued his own circular to Gauteng municipalities with instructions on how to circumvent the Finance Minister’s instruction that municipalities should not buy World Cup tickets.
Harris criticised Lekgoro’s justification that attendance at games could be deemed a “marketing strategy for purposes of promoting the work of the municipality… that all Gauteng chosen representatives attend the opening and closing matches… and that travel to other provinces has to be justified on the partnership building basis.” (A copy of MEC Lekgoro’s memo was available from the DA Media Centre.)
Harris stated that a letter by Minister Gordhan, confirmed that purchases of tickets would constitute financial misconduct and irregular expenditure in terms of the Public Finance Management Act as well as certain provisions in the Code of Conduct for Public Servants.
Harris reiterated that if municipalities spent state funds on tickets, it will be a slap in the face of the many thousands of South Africans who had not been able to get World Cup tickets, or who could afford them. He concluded that it will also be an insult to every South African who is told that Gauteng municipalities did not have the funds to deliver them basic services.
Read more here >>>
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IN OTHER NEWS
More than 100 mines operating without water licences
Gareth Morgan MP, DA Shadow Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, said that a recent Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question revealed that 125 mines in South Africa were operating without a valid water licence.
Morgan questioned how the mines were allowed to begin operating if they did not have permission from the start to use water and discharge it thereafter back into water courses. Morgan stated that the situation around water use licences for mines was rotten and required improved interventions by government before mines began operating.
Morgan added that the figure of 125 mines operating without valid water licences was in fact higher than the figure of 104 mines in the same situation, provided in the reply to a similar parliamentary question last year. The increase in numbers was most likely as a result of new mines coming into operation over this period, he said.
Morgan continued saying that the greatest number of mines operating without water licences was in Mpumalanga where 54 mines used and discharged water without the necessary authorisations. Gauteng had 28 mines in a similar situation, KZN and Limpopo had 12 each, and North West province had 10, said Morgan.
Morgan called on the Minister of Water and Environmental to denying licences after application, to at least some mines that could not show that they could operate in ways that would do least harm to the environment.
Read more here >>>
DA notes Gama guilty verdict
Manie van Dyk MP, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises welcomed the recent guilty verdict brought against suspended Transnet Freight Rail Chief Executive, Siyabonga Gama. Van Dyk said that the charges involved the irregular award of an R18 million tender to a company owned by Minister of Communications, Siphiwe Nyanda.
Van Dyk said that the DA hoped that the ruling by a Transnet internal disciplinary committee would encourage other parastatals to clean up their act and take decisive action against corruption and widespread mismanagement.
Gama was suspended in September 2009 pending the outcome of the disciplinary process, which now found him guilty on all charges related to the case, including one relating to an ‘irretrievable breakdown in relationship with Transnet’, said van Dyk.
Van Dyk stated that the DA hoped that the ruling would illustrate for the ANC, that using patronage to make appointments to top posts in key state-owned enterprises (SOEs), would only lead to further collusion and corruption.
He concluded that the DA would be writing to Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan, to ask her how she planned to ensure the right people were appointed to the rights posts.
DA @ WORK
Comments by Sonny
Jobs for cronies must go!!
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