POLITICS

Zille's seven lies in her SOPA - Marius Fransman

ANC WCape leader says people of province are gatvol with the Premier's antics

Zille's day of our lies, lies and more lies! A response to the SOPA 2014

Zille has turned the Western Cape State of the Province Address into a soap opera worthy of being called 'Day of our Lies'. On Friday in her address she affirmed what we have come to expect of her over the past five years of DA government in the province; when she can't sell her politics of deception, lies and media-spin, she resorts to the politics of deflection aka it wasn't me. This abdication of responsibility and accountability is untenable. The people of the Western Cape are gatvol (fed-up) of her antics and deserve better.

Her first lie is that 'support for small enterprises in the Western Cape and attempts to cut red tape to boost investment and employment is part of the province's "good story" to tell'. What is good about closing down the entire SMME support structure in the province, leaving thousands of SMME's out on a limb, hung out to dry on a Winde day?

Her second lie is 'the national government's obstructive attitude to the Western Cape's attempts to implement policies and projects...' On the contrary it is Zille's DA government that has been obstructing delivery and failed to implement the policies and projects for which national government has provided the funding. The examples are endless but include housing, land restitution, SMME support and agriculture. Equally so is her stubborn refusal to work with all the national safety and security agencies and legitimate community structures in an integrated manner to fight crime, snubbing the SAPS, NPA and various intelligence and investigative agencies with her go it alone approach.

The third lie is the Western Cape story. Yes, it is really a good story to tell for the few mainly white privileged. Just think of Zille's pale male Cabinet; and her policy of  fit for purpose  which in reality means "wit for purpose " in which she replaced capable black managers with white  managers in her administration; all the young wasps (white and so preppie school) that she brought into managerial jobs; her coterie of white advisors that have made their home in her administration, the legion of white contractors and rent-a-black white fronts, and established white business that have had a field day with Zille's good story.

Her fourth lie is her "story of real, sustainable jobs being created through investment, because there is confidence in the future." The Western Cape in fact is the only province that lost jobs, 37 000 jobs to be exact in 2013. Even the 40 000 EPWP opportunities that she claimed, it turns out cannot be substantiated. Just ask zig Zak Mbhele who has been unable to give a straight answer on the matter after many days of enquiry.

Her fifth lie is that the DA's policies in the only province not controlled by the African National Congress (ANC) were better than the ruling party's. Unless of course she was referring to her policy of WE-EE aka white exclusive economic empowerment, white job reservation and promotion, and white business support. Maybe she was referring to her DA government's policy of closing historically disadvantaged black (coloured and African)  schools without consulting the communities or her policy of supporting white farmers that continue to pay their farmworkers slave wages and   perpetuate the dop (tot) system. Is she perhaps talking of the DA government's policy or more correctly policy flip-flop on BEE, land reform and restitution? Maybe she is talking about her government's policy of gender empowerment by closing down empowerment projects such as women in construction and then attempting to resurrect it again. Is she perhaps talking about the DA's policy of replacing capable black security companies guarding state property with white security management companies? Speak to black business all over the Western Cape and one hears an endless litany of laments of their struggle to survive amidst the DA's rapacious programme of white exclusive economic empowerment.

Her sixth lie is when she said: "Five years ago I stood in front of this parliament and undertook to do my best to be a premier for all people," Well, we have already demonstrated that she probably meant 'a premier for all white people'; she gave bicycle lanes for Milnerton, Table View and Rondebosch; MyCiti BRT first class bus transport and infrastructure for Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Camps Bay and now Hout Bay. St James, Glencairn and Clovelly got new bulk sewerage infrastructure and road resurfacing but Heideveld has to be content with a fresh coat of paint for their slum flats and Khayelitsha porta potties.

Lie number seven: "I also outlined some of the enormous challenges we faced as a newly elected government and what our plans were to tackle these." All evidence points to the fact that Zille's government was either clueless or entirely obstinate in its efforts to prioritise the preservation of mainly white privilege. Take the five top challenges the Western Cape faces: Crime, drugs, unemployment, poverty, and housing backlogs.

Where is the evidence that the DA government has tackled crime? Yes, it has waged a war on community policing forums, shut down legal advice centres, cut funding to NGOs such as Nicro and Saartjie Baartman and even put stop to one of the best community participation policing models in the world-Bambanani. Under Zille's watch the relationship between the province and South African Police Services (SAPS) has been at its lowest ebb since the dawn of democracy. They have instead funded gang leaders to replace legitimate community leaders as the local representives of our communities, including Mr Saliem John - a leader of the 28's prison gang who was recently found guilty for numerous counts of murder and gang related activities.

When the MEC of Community Safety is regularly seen cavorting with drug-lords and gang-leaders whilst they continue to commit crimes, what hope is there for tackling drugs? When the grand plan to tackle crime and drugs relies on deranged clairvoyants for evidence what faith can we have in these miscreants posing as the guardians of community safety?

As for the DA's much trumpeted youth wage subsidy, well if the truth be told that was just a fancy scheme to put more profit into the hands of established business. No surprises about that - just standard fare for the DA.

As for poverty the facts are quite simple. If you keep taking away from the historically disadvantaged and perpetuate a system of maintaining or advancing the interests of the mainly white privileged class as Zille's DA has systematically done, there is no way  that you are going to eradicate poverty-not in a million years. Even national governments' leading poverty eradication programme, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) is in a shambles here and being messed up by the Western Cape Government; one day when zig Zach Mbhele gets his EPWP statistics right, we can discuss that again.

Housing has probably been Zille's biggest nightmare-it's the only explanation for her calling those migrating from the Eastern Cape to the Western Cape refugees in the land of their birth. Now, don't get me wrong-urban migration is a global phenomenon but it clearly wasn't a problem when the "Vaalies" trekked in huge numbers to the West Coast. However, when the hordes came from Humansdorp and Umtata: Haibo! That was too much to countenance. Zille's lies have been nowhere as manifest as it has been in housing delivery. In 2009 she made big promises on housing delivery and human settlement solutions. She and her DA government have failed dismally. Suffice to say that despite her promises, for 4 out of the last 5 years they have failed to meet their targets for building houses and serviced sites. The trends indicate that Zille's government will achieve less than half the 120 000 serviced sites over 5 years that they originally promised in 2009. A similar dismal trend exists for her housing (top structure) targets.

Five years of taking people for a fool, is about to come to an abrupt end. Perhaps she has taken too seriously to the ancient Roman dictum (with apologies): 'To the rulers of the province then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the province and no one else may meddle with this privilege.'

All we can say is someone may soon have enough time to watch her favourite soapie: Like sand through an hour glass, these are the days of Zille's lies.

Statement issued by Marius Fransman, ANC Western Cape leader, February 28 2014

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