Speech by Pierre Uys, MPL, ANC Chief Whip, in the debate on Premier Helen Zille's State of the Province Address, Western Cape Provincial Legislature, February 22 2011:

Speaker,

Upfront the ANC thanks President Jacob Zuma for his firm leadership with real plans on job creation and funding for businesses to reduce poverty.

The provincial address by the premier on the other hand is not reflecting on the state of our province at all. It is rather a document filled with empty promises - without a proper assessment of the province to address the challenges and finding solutions.

Over the last two years, we heard so much about the so called dashboards and how it will be made accessible on the Internet. Now it is nowhere to be found and the premier is very quiet on this matter.

It was also during the last two years we were told that red tape will be cut by 20% in the next five years... Nothing happened. Just to hear this year provincial government must first establish if and where blockages occur and whether this provincial government has the power to remove them - it is very late starting this process! Further mention was made that new planning legislation will shorten waiting time.

Speaker, although legislation may contribute to this end, the real cutting of red tape in planning is how the MEC exercises his powers and functions. Legislative change is not a silver bullet to remove red tape, but tight management and effective decision making. This bureaucratic bungling must be a source of great frustration to the premier.

But then Speaker, overregulation had become the goal in the City of Cape Town - also known as the By-law City! Who can forget the cost incurred and frustration with the failed implementation of the flawed liquor by-law?

After more almost two years in power, this DA government is still without policy or direction. It only came up with a few priorities and many promises. No real plan exists to take this province forward.

Any reference to the coffee table booklet we received here last Friday should be carefully considered, as it is not a roadmap, but a costly family album of mostly cabinet members. Nothing more.

It needs more than unpacking. It needs explanation and accounting.

This address lacked substance. It needs real core matter. But, like at the other occasions, it was an exercise in politicking and promising. Nothing more than mere code and sooth saying. Nice words, but will it ever get to where the rubber meets the tar? My opinion is: Never.

It wasn't a provincial address; it was a party conference scene setter. The premier is right when she in public stated that electionitis has beset her party. We saw the evidence here on Friday and surely today.

The latest out-brake is the swart gevaar scare tactic to instil fear ahead of the elections alleging a million coloured workers in the Western Cape will loose their jobs. It is one of the untruths that will be spread.

It is easy to talk about poverty. It is very difficult to truly connect to poor people and really understand the indignity they suffer.

This is why the DA is trying to impress people with publicity stunts. To too many it is just a party of the rich for the rich. It is trying to grow in less affluent areas by using the national government funding and programmes to make noises it hopes will bring it political gains.

But, does it really understand and empathize with the poor, oppressed and marginalized in an effective manner, or is it merely sympathizing with a bleeding liberal heart on the sleeve?

Since the provincial address, the ANC and I have monitored reactions very closely. One thing stood out: The DA has once again missed the boat on really reaching out and touching poor people. It just cannot connect to the plight of the poor!

In fact, the main message that came across was that of concern for big business first. The haves. The rich and famous.

Poor people get a mention, but must take a back seat to the interest of the money spinners, tourists and those immigrants welcomed with open arms under the banner of big business development. Small business support in fact is reduced by this government! Like the reduction of advice and Red Door offices.

In a recent letter the DA leader said a party should not be judged by what it says, but by what it does. I think this rule must now be applied to the DA.

We will closely scrutinize the budget to see how this sudden interest in the poor will be translated into action. Will the money follow the speech?

And, I do not refer to merely shifting national allocations around. Let's see how fundamental redirection of the budget takes place to address the needs of the majority of people in this province, the poorer citizens.

I will not hold my breath for too long, as we saw in municipalities controlled by the DA that the capital budget is not proportionally expended for infrastructure development in needy areas. Not even proportional to the number of residents in relation to a fair slice of the available cake.

There also was a silence on how government will focus on monitoring and support to the many municipalities with challenges and limited revenue.

During the past months we saw how the DA in government in the Western Cape lurched from one scandal to the next crisis. From Makhaza to Hangberg. From being a trigger-happy government that shoots people with rubber bullets around every corner to shooting little children with pellet guns at a dumpsite in Bellville South who tries to salvage recyclable material.

You may ask the Bellville man and his son who reported it to the ANC.

What about the four people who each lost an eye in Hout Bay where the police by instruction of this DA government acted against its own citizens.

It cuts water supplies to people who cannot pay. Whereas this DA leader claims this is not true - people are only put on a drip system! By restricting water flow to dwellings in many cases, no water actually reaches the taps beyond the meters!!!

You may ask the lady of Somerset West who cared for two elderly patients in sweltering heat and who was left without a single drop of water for more than a day. This travesty was reported to the ANC!

This is factually in breach of the Constitution and the Rule of Law or the guarantee of a life line of basic services and access to people!!

We have come to know the DA as a party that shouts Rule of Law, but have little regard for our democratic Constitution and the Rule of Law.

This was publicly demonstrated in the Makhaza case where human dignity was denied by the DA, it was seen in the unconstitutional interference by the DA to disband the Overberg District Municipal council and even in the unconstitutional and illegal termination of employment in the Social Transformation Project. All of these court cases and appeals prove the point and has vast monetary implications for the tax payers.

In most cases the DA acted almost exclusively against poorer people. But, unlike the ANC who is the champion for the poor and worker rights, the DA does not care about poor and ordinary people - at all!

This is why the ANC says the DA is a party of double standards. It has one for criticising the ANC and one for papering over the DA cracks.

The DA complains bitterly about migrants from certain areas, but is silent on migrants from Europe and other provinces that are perceived to support it!

The double standards DA preaches about efficient and cost saving expenditure, but the multi million Rand upgrading of this building was never discussed with this parliament. Only after parliament requested to be informed, was this done.

I was at the Rules Committee when the senior management officials of parliament were more surprised than others on how they will fit into plans made by government on their behalf! When I questioned this, I was told the provision was made in the budget. I wish to reiterate: neither plans nor the conflation of the legislative and executive space was ever reflected in any budget. A mere entry of a figure does not translate into blank permission to proceed without consultation and needs assessment.

The DA complains about the excessive use of consultants, yet the DA in government does just that. I asked the premier a question and she came back with figures amounting to more than six hundred and eighty million rand. Her figures! Excluding engineering and laboratory services! Why the last figures are hidden from scrutiny, is beyond believe.

It was hours before she started to play down, question and even negate her own figures. Here she had an opportunity to put it into perspective... The ANC wants to know why certain figures are now said to be wrong. Did she mislead parliament by submitting those so-called wrong figures in the first place, if they are now placed under suspicion by the very same source that provided it? Does this mean we cannot trust anything from that source?

In the same vein of playing with figures, on the DA's watch the Cape Town Stadium and the MyCity bus project overshot its budgets by thousands of millions of tax payer Rand. No proper or satisfactory reasons were given for this thus far. Yet, the DA postulates to be interested in why this happened. This is done while all know the DA leader's role in it has been questioned by her city coalition and it had full control of the process while the construction took place!

The DA burns money on certain high profile projects like these I mentioned, yet here in the provincial government it cuts the money life line to NGO's serving the poor and reduces support to poorer small business. Does these actions match the words we heard here of the DA professing to care for the poor?

It indeed punishes the poor! This is the real DA!!

To gender equality it pays lip service. Instead it invents a skewed ideology of the concept FIT-FOR-PURPOSE in order to justify why no women from its ranks was found to be good enough to be appointed by the premier in her cabinet. She later had to import the ID leader with a cabinet and mayoral remuneration carrot just to get some female representation!

The DA's onslaught on our democracy and the democratic space of others like the free media continues. It shamefully blacklisted a journalist for exposing the shooting by DA MP Pieter van Dalen because it could not shut her up! This is bad news for media freedom.

The DA's liberals have a lot to say about our constitutional freedom of expression. But also wants to control all media. It actually thinks it can hire and fire journalists.

If it is not interfering with the work of journalists, it merely uses tax payers money to buy airtime and publicity to advance the image of the DA leader.

And the DA goes further to reduce democratic space by disallowing the involvement of civil society in the province.

But, most notably, it has also reduced the democratic space and accountability here in this legislature. Just last Thursday it has again attacked the official opposition by cutting the ANC representation on most committees by half. This is a deliberate attempt driven by the party leadership itself.

And the saga continues.

As far as micro managing goes, this DA administration even wants to regulate an indigenous event like the Tweede Nuwejaar cultural festivities to celebrate the end of slavery by instructing the minstrels where and when to march, and not giving any financial assistance so far. Yet, it burns good money on a dream to substitute it with a Rio Carnival instead!

The DA is quick to speak about cadre deployment. But what happens under its rule? The DG and the Heads of Department of Transport and Public Works, Education and Housing and Local Government were replaced! Along with a number of other party faithful in key positions. It is clear the DA preaches against something, but in practice indulges in the same.

These are but a few of the highlights of the past year, which proves we are in for a rough ride and the upcoming year will be no better.

Issued by the ANC Western Cape, February 22 2011

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