DA's corruptive actions must be investigated
Corruptive actions by the DA in the Western Cape provincial government must be investigated immediately to assess what support and funding is given to DA electioneering structures in the Western Cape.
ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman on the eve of national Workers' Day tomorrow says the DA must come clean on abusing taxpayer money and civil servants to court DA support through a setup front to lobby farmworkers.
This is part of the DA's new so-called "farmworker plan". Unsuccessful DA candidates in the last election are now paraded as so-called "independent farmworkers". Instead they are DA members with a political agenda.
The ANC also challenges the DA to put its money where its mouth is and give real support to farm workers, instead of running a campaign to con the public. Government support and funding is given to DA party hacks to oppose farmworkers and organic farmworker unions under the guise of a so-called independent forum for farmworkers. The DA thinks it can deceive and trick the public and all farmworkers alike.
The truth is: This DA's paraded and self-appointed chair of its bogus forum is Rita Andreas, which is also hailed as a former Western Cape Farmworker of the Year (2009). In the last general municipal elections (2011) she lost in Drakenstein Ward 31 consisting of a majority of farm labourers to the ANC's Jerome McHelm. Andreas was recently also given a platform to speak at the Bien Donné Agri Cape show week to promote the DA-run forum, which is held on a government experimental farm, supported by government agencies and is government sponsored!
Since she could not get enough farmworker votes in that ward, Andreas has been working fulltime in the office of the Drakenstein deputy mayor. She clearly is no longer a farmworker!
In the contested De Doorns area the farmers have already indicated who their preferred candidate is to head the DA'S farmworker forum. He is Wilfred Frolick who in the last local government election also was the DA candidate in a Breede Valley Ward 4 consisting of a majority of farmworkers, but lost to the ANC's Pat Marran.
ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman says: "The DA continues to deceive and betray farmworkers in favour of the farmers and owners as it protects the interests of mainly white farmers. The DA ignored the pleas and plight of farmworkers in the run up to the labourers' uprising and is doing so again at its detriment. The latest attempt to deceive the people of the province will also not go unchallenged!
"The DA must be warned that its arrogance, governance of the privileged for the privileged only, stubbornness and insensitivity to the plight of the African and coloured poor may again render the Cape ungovernable."
The ANC outright rejects the DA's 12 point plan. The ANC calls ahead of Workers' Day on all farmworkers to reject the DA's bogus forums and deceitful tactics. The ANC again challenges the DA to do the right things.
These are: The DA must publicly call on all its farm owner supporters, members, friends and families to ensure that every single worker is paid nothing less than the minimum wage; place a moratorium on all illegal and unfair evictions to boot people off farms; publicly call on farm-owners to stop massive deductions on already low wages for things like rent, food and transport; openly support the ban on the apartheid era Tot System (of cheap alcohol remuneration) that is perpetuated; support the National Government policies to return their forefather land to the workers; to offer public land to farmworkers and small scale farmers; and not allow fronting by mainly whites at DA controlled municipalities and the Western Cape provincial government to supply services and provide goods or products like seedlings, but instead use taxpayer money to buy these from farmworkers and small scale entrants to the industry.
"The DA must now include these things into a real plan for farmworkers to grow, become entrepreneurs, farmers and land owners themselves. If the DA cannot do this immediately, it is not honest or serious to unconditionally assist farmworkers. Then it continues to be mainly a party for whites' looking after the interest of whites and the rich," Fransman says.
Statement issued by Marius Fransman, ANC Western Cape chairperson, April 30 2013
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