Summary extract of Speech by Jack Bloom MPL in debate on the budget of the Premier's Office in the Gauteng Legislature on 25 July 2014

GAUTENG PREMIER MUST ACT WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR AGAINST CORRUPTION CANCER

Madam Speaker, the Honourable Premier has inherited this first budget of his administration.

He is going to be submitting a revised Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan, and it is on this basis that we are supporting the budget for the Premier's Office.

We hope that he can deliver on his promises to bring real change to Gauteng.

He has a refreshing openness and an absence of the arrogance of some of his predecessors.

But we are concerned at the high spending on communications, which includes R22 million on "profiling the work of government", R 6.3 million on Gauteng TV, R6 million on "introduction of new government", and R2.5 million on two State of the Province addresses.

This is R36.5 million in total, much of which is to be spent on advertising.

I hope that this does not include huge billboards in the yellow and green colours of the ruling party.

Every government needs a communication budget, but this should be primarily to inform about services available and not propaganda about what has supposedly been achieved.

If people don't experience good services in their day to day life then no amount of slick advertising will convince them otherwise.

I think the Honourable Premier understands this, which is why he has done unannounced visits to police stations.

It is therefore a great puzzle why his Health MEC, in a most kragdadig style, is issuing instructions to hospitals that I can't visit without the permission of her office.

I trust that he will act to enforce access rights to MPLs to exercise the oversight that is needed to ensure real accountability in this province.

I spoke earlier about the 3C's that so often characterise ANC rule - Cronyism, Cadre deployment and Corruption.

These three Cs act together like another C, the C of a cancer that spreads throughout an organism.

The ANC's own self-analysis has pointed to how deeply rooted this is.

In January 2007, then-ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said: "Almost every project is conceived because it offers certain people a chance to make money."

In June 2010 you yourself said: "corruption within the party's leadership is a cancer that must urgently be ‘rooted out' before it totally destroys the party".

You also said that business people laid complaints with you almost every day about ANC leaders demanding bribes before awarding a tender.

So, in your own analysis, corruption is endemic in the ruling party and in Gauteng.

You have inherited an anti-corruption unit in your Premier's Office, but take it from me, it's quite ineffectual.

You need tip-top professionals with forensic skills. Initially, you may have to outsource it to an auditing firm, as Premier Helen Zille did in the Western Cape.

But most of all, you need political will. You will need to act without fear or favour even if the corruption fan hits a senior political figure who may be your political ally.

Sooner or later, you will face a "Mmemezi Moment".

You will recall our free-spending former MEC who bought a R10 000 painting at McDonalds, and also his groceries with a government credit card.

It took 50 days of scandal once he was definitively exposed for him to resign as MEC, and then he was still allowed to serve as an MPL in this Legislature.

I hope you succeed in facing the corruption cancer in Gauteng.

I hope we don't have more disciplinary actions against senior officials that end in multi-million golden farewells rather than criminal charges.

We need lifestyle audits of officials in key positions and tender processes need to be opened up.

Officials at every level need to disclose their interests. We should bring this in urgently, as is done in the Western Cape.

Finally, Mr Premier, we need you to succeed in facilitating the creation of jobs on a massive scale in our province.

According to Stats SA, 34% of young people between the ages of 15 and 34 years old are unemployed in our province.

It's a terrible tragedy that one in three young people do not have jobs.

I don't want to be a fear-monger, but there is an anger out there that can be exploited dangerously by demagogues.

We've had a taste of it in the besieging of this Legislature, a travesty that has to be utterly condemned.

The empty seats here on my left need to be filled with representatives who articulate real policy options to advance the poorest of the poor.

The debate needs to take place here, not in the streets and not with the anarchy that the Honourable Deputy Speaker has rightly condemned.

This is not the apartheid era where civil disobedience was justified against unjust laws.

We have a fine constitution to which we have all pledged loyalty.

Mr Honourable Premier, the task falls to you to deliver on the real change that you have promised.

You will have the support of the Official Opposition for what you do right.

But we would be failing in our duty if we do not point out when you do wrong.

Issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Member, Gauteng Legislature, July 25 2014

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