Did NDZ mislead the nation or Parliament?

18 May 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is astounded that the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, was unable or unwilling to answer our written Parliamentary question regarding the public submissions her Department received and relied on to make changes to the Government’s Draft Framework for the Risk-Adjusted Strategy to bring different sectors of the economy back to work.

In her reply, the Minister told the DA that the information “is not readily available in the Department”.

We find the fact that the Minister claims to not have ready access to the requested information dubious at best. South Africans were assured that the easement of the lockdown from Level 5 to Level 4 was an informed decision. We were assured that every decision made in during the lockdown would be made on the basis of public participation and scientific research. Was South Africans’ faith placed in the Government misguided?

Surely Minister Dlamini-Zuma’s claims that her Department received 2000 submissions in support of prolonging the controversial ban on cigarettes – should be readily available. Were these comments not the last nail in the coffin of lifting the ban, as she then claimed? Did the Minister lie when she made these proclamations on national television? Or is she lying now?

The information requested should have been on the Minister’s fingertips. It should be sitting on the tip of her tongue. It should be her guiding light when making difficult decisions that not only influence South Africans’ quality of life during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also their very survival. It should not be gathering dust in the background and ignored while the Minister plays Monopoly with people’s very existence.

In fact, it does not seem that the Minister regards public participation at all. Was anything the public said taken into account at all, or did the Minister simply utilized the opinions she found convenient and ignored the rest?

The same could be asked about scientific research. Are the scientists still driving decision-making, or have the facts become an inconvenient truth?

The one thing very apparent about the Minister and quite a few of her colleagues are that they seem bloated on their newfound power and enjoy playing god over people’s lives, trying to control every aspect of it.

It should have been the easiest thing in the world for the Minister to produce the requested information. It is after all this information that was used to for the entire Risk-Adjusted Strategy.

Issued by Dean Macpherson, DA Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry, 18 May 2020