The Africa National Congress has accused the Democratic Alliance
of wanting to preserve Apartheid, in relation to the Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill.
The DA said the bill aims to empower provincial and local
governments to address issues where the national government has failed to
deliver services to residents. Some of those functions include policing, rail,
energy and trade.
The ANC in the Western Cape, alongside its alliances, comprising
of South African Communist Party (SACP), Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU), and the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO), held a
media briefing on Friday, 26 January 2024, regarding their stance on the bill.
PHOTO - Muhammad Khalid Sayed: ANC with its alliance partners
Leading the briefing, ANC Provincial Deputy Secretary
Ayanda Bans, claims the Bill is, what she calls, a farce and the public
hearings a ruse.
‘’The DA is forcing public hearings despite three legal
opinions from advocates appointed by the DA in the Legislature, advising them
in no uncertain terms that their proposed Powers Bill:
• Does not have the legislative competence or
constitutional authority to develop, propose and enact this Bill. • Provides no
constitutional premises upon which its legislative authority is predicated. The
Bill is therefore illegitimate and invalid. • The Bill itself does not disclose
the legal basis for its own existence, and • The subject-matter of the Powers
Bill is not in the legislative competence of the Province.
Over and above the legal advice, the fundamental basis for
rejecting the Powers Bill is the reality that at the heart of the Powers Bill
is the building of an apartheid Zionist Western Cape by the DA-Capexit
alliance. Such an envisaged apartheid Zionist Western Cape’s basic tenets will
include key amongst other things; divide the national population and creation
of enclaves of privilege and misery for the people of the Western Cape,
resuscitation of the discriminatory apartheid system along racial lines,
deepening of inequality and indignity of poverty.’’
Bans says the alliance parties rejects the bill, as the
socio-economic issues in the province is already struggling.
‘’If the sprawling squatter camps, homelessness in the Cape
flats, escalating crime, extortions, corruption, school underperformance,
continued un-placement of learners in schools, overcrowding in schools and
deteriorating public health facilities, unemployment and poverty are not
evidence of the of the neo-liberal DA’s incompetence, the farce concocted by
the DA Capexit alliance constitutive of the right wing Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG),
ACDP, and Freedom Front Plus is the perilous future.’’
‘’Yet, with almost 14 years of uninterrupted governance in
the Western Cape and an average of R2,5 trillion to work with over said period,
yet the Gini coefficient in Western Cape remains at 0.62. Presently, the
Western Cape is characterised by asset and income inequality and spatial
segregation that perpetuates the tale of two cities. The 16 per cent White
demographic enjoys the lion’s share of the Western Cape’s R654 billion Gross
Domestic Product. And, after 14 years of electoral dominance and armed with an
annual fiscal budget of R303,36 billion, managed respectively by the Western
Cape government and the City of Cape Town in particular, there comes a claim
that National government is unwilling to provide services to the people of the
Western Cape. We are therefore, convinced as the ANC headed alliance that the
colonial apartheid imagination is ever present in the political DNA of the of
the DA,’’ she added.
Bans highlighted that millions are spent on sectors such as
healthcare, education, and infrastructure, but little to no progress were made
‘’Further, the farce that this Powers Bill is about service
delivery fools no one. This ruse is about capturing the GDP after the DA
already control the Western Cape fiscus. If it was about service delivery we
were not going to experience violent crimes that are geographically and
racially concentrated whilst about R1 billion was mis-spent rather than to combat crime; we were not going
to have a housing waiting list exceeding 600, 000 and an irregular expenditure
of an astronomical R171 million and under expenditure of unconditional grants
exceeding R215 million for the 2022/2023 financial year; we were not going to
have the current challenges of shortage of beds, personnel in public health
centres and more than a decade delays on the rebuilding of GF Jooste hospital;
and we were not going to witness a total of R1.6 billion that could have been
used to build brick and mortar schools being wasted on temporary solutions like
maintenance, with R21 222 million which was meant which was meant for school
nutrition, maths, science and technology teaching, and to assist learners with
profound intellectual disabilities being returned to National Treasury.’’
PHOTO - Mitchum George:
ANC Provincial Deputy Secretary Ayanda Bans
COSATU Provincial Secretary, Malvern De Bruyn, described
the bill as a silly publicity stunt.
‘’Elections are approaching. The bill is unconstitutional and
I do not think it will pass any court. COSATU is saying NO to the bill.’’
Benson Ngqentsu, SACP Provincial Secretary, says the public
hearing is a farce.
‘’We are not going to allow the DA-led government to do as
they wish. In respect to the people, we ought to lead by example. The purpose
is to reject the bill. We fought for this democracy.’’
Pat Murran, a member of the Western Cape ad-hoc committee,
described the bill as unconstitutional
‘’The DA is failing in terms of the powers. They cannot
even tackle issues that are currently on their plate. They do not care about other
areas in the country. To them, it is always about the Western Cape.’’
ANC Western Cape leader, Cameron Dugmore, says he wrote to
the COGTA minister, as well as NCOP, to probe the bill.
‘’I wrote to the minister of COGTA Nkadimeng and requested
an investigation. There is no provision made by the DA where it will be
allocated. She responded and indicated that she will consult with her
department. We also wrote to the NCOP for a dispute to be declared and we want
this to be declared unconstitutional. This underlines the seriousness of the
bill. This bill will never see the light of day.’’
Benson Ngqentsu, SACP Provincial Secretary, says if the
bill is not stopped, the Western Cape will be ungovernable
‘’As the alliance, if this Bill is not legally stopped, we
will once again be called upon to tender the DA Capexit nexus in the Western
Cape ungovernable to prevent the reincarnation of the modern-day apartheid
system’’
Other political parties in the Western Cape also raised
their voices about the bill - Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) Western Cape
chairperson Unathi Ntame said they denounce the bill and warn against its
weaponisation against the spirit of unity upon which the South African Constitution
was built.
The GOOD party’s Peter de Villiers described the bill as
‘’embarrasing’’, saying The Bill is a government-sponsored manifesto for the DA
and what De Villers says, unashamedly unconstitutional.
Public hearings into the DA's Provincial Powers Bill will be held across the province the entire week. It kicked
off in Worcester on Monday.
Done By: Mitchum George
PHOTO - WCDoH&W: Outgoing CEO of Groote Schuur Hospital, Dr. Bhavna Patel
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