13th February 2024, City Hall Cape Town
His Excellency President Ramaphosa
Deputy President Paul Mashatile
Speaker of the National Assembly
Chaiperson of the NCOP
Honourable Members
Esteemed guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It needs to be said that the speech delivered by President Ramaphosa last week places beyond doubt the fact that South Africa is a better place than it was in 1994.
The work done by successive ANC governments, working with our people, have seen massive improvements in the quality of life of the vast majority of our people.
At the same time President Ramaphosa was honest about challenges and problems that we face as a nation.
Maar Ons almal weet Speaker, as die kar begin spoet optel , dan blaf die honde baie ! Siyayazi Somlomo, ukuba izinja zikhonkotha imoto ehambayo!
It is to be expected that there will be many barking dogs in this debate today. These DA speakers won’t tell uMr President that
- less than 3% of Agricultural land in Western Cape is owned by black South Africans ( Coloured , African and White);
- white South Africans own 70% of urban land ( 18% of population ), Coloured people only 10% while constituting 48% , Africans a mere 3% while constituting 38%;
- When u buy R100 electricity in Cape Town from Eskom you get 42 units, when u buy for R100 from DA City, you only get 22 units. Surcharge unlawfully on NERSA rate; and that
- Only 50% of Cape Town residents have access to internet at home, compared to 77% nationally.
Honourable Speaker,
Workers in our province are amongst the 6 million workers in our country who have benefitted from the Minimum Wage.
This has helped many domestic and farmworkers in the Western Cape.
Yet, the DA actively oppose the minimum wage.
Let me quote from the 2019 DA manifesto on page 12. It calls for and I quote, “allowing potential employees to opt out of the sectoral minimum wage (which would have a new minimum of no less than an old age grant)”.
Ons mense moet besef
Die DA wil‘n minimum loon van R2000 betaal terwyl die ANC , gee minimum loon van tussen R4100 en R4600.
It’s simple – the DA does not like black people. Icacile leyo into. They don’t like coloured people. The don’t like Palestinians. A senior DA leader even intimidated a staff member who wore a keffiyah.
Speaker, thousands of workers in our province are part of the 550 000 workers nationally who have worker ownership of companies.
Yet there are members of this house who do not support these national initiatives.
These gains are due to national legislation and political will.
The harsh reality is that we have a DA government in this province which opposes each and every piece of transformative legislation passed in this house.
They do this deliberately to defend the privileges of those who benefited most from Apartheid and Colonialism.
Kom ons praat die waarheid vandag .
Kufuneka sithethe inyaniso apha ePalamente:
- ‘n stemvir die DA is n stem teen die minimum loon;
- A vote for the DA is a vote against employment equity whose regulations say that regional demographics must be taken into account– this will benefit African, Coloured, Indian, disabled and women workers;
- A vote for the DA is a vote against the National Health Insurance for all; and
- A vote for the DA is a vote against the Expropriation Bill which will ensure, once law, that land will be distributed to those who work it.
This will happen in terms of the Constitution.
The DA are panicking. DA supreme Leader Helen Zille is not happy with the matric. She does not believe the matric can appeal to the voters.
Balwa bodwa ngaPhakathi kwi – DA kakhulu!
Hulle baklei nou hard onder mekaar in die
Zille is kwaad vir die matriek. Now she wants Jardine .
So now they are trying to come up with a Bill which wants devolution of powers, they are pushing for federalism and, with their right wing allies such as the Freedom Front Plus, they want a separate Cape Republic.
The DA is very worried about losing votes to the Freedom Front Plus, and so, after rejecting a private members from FF Plus in the legislature, introduced a “committee bill” without any consultation with the committee. The bill submitted contained no memorandum.
Do honourable members of this house know that John Steenhuizen, the DA’s second in command, actually promised Cape Exit a referendum on Cape Independence, so desperate is he for votes?
The Constitution of the Republic does not create a federal state.
It provides for a unitary state with clear powers and functions to provinces and municipalities. Soze sivume ukubuyela kwi-Bantustans apha Mzantsi.
Soze!
Nooit!
As the ANC in the province, we believe that the people of our province will always be part of a united South Africa. Christia , Muslim , Jew , Hindu . Coloured African and White.
In fact, Speaker, this DA provincial government undermines the constitutional imperative of cooperative governance.
In so doing they are actually denying the majority of residents in our province the benefits of working with the National Government.
Speaker I don’t want to waste too much time on the Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill. The Provincial Legislature’s own legal advisors have said unequivocally that the bill is unconstitutional.
The Bill has been rejected by over 80% of those attending the hearings.
It will never become law.
The DA is trying to claim that we want to disrupt the hearings and make the province ungovernable.
I want to put it on record, before this esteemed house, that the ANC has never disrupted any of the public hearings and we have never called for ungovernability of the Western Cape.
The DA wants more powers, but I want to draw this house’s attention to one of the powers that the province already has.
Basic Education.
It’s impossible to be silent about the unimaginable descent of the state of education in the Western Cape to the point where their matric pass rate for 2023 was below the national average for the first time. In 2004, under the ANC government, the Western Cape Pass Rate for Grade 12 was 14.3% above the national pass rate.
20 years later the graphs crossed for the first time and the Western Cape Pass Rate was now 1.4% below the national pass rate.
While the rest of the country has been working hard, and equitably, to improve, the Western Cape is frankly letting its population down, and, effectively, going backwards.
Not only have 4 provinces now overtaken the Western Cape at the top of the log but, criminally, it sits as the bottom province in respect of the percentage of Bachelor passes coming from no-fee schools.
Top province in this regard is Limpopo, with 85% of Bachelor passes coming from no-fee schools. The Western Cape, by stark contrast, is the bottom province, with a mere 26% of its Bachelor passes coming from no-fee schools. That’s almost 60% below the lead province.
Strangely the DA tries to boast about having the top Maths Pass Rate, for example, but ignore the fact that only 25 % of their learners take it as a subject.
This DA is crushing the hopes of our new Tintswalo’s – Shamera’s, Cindy’s, Bongani’s and Jonathan’s .
This data underscores the conscious neglect of the needy in the Western Cape. Subject choices , lack of safety , insufficient maths and science teachers .
The DA did not spend over R1 billion in national funds on education infrastructure.
Speaker, this is a huge crisis. A crisis that is now affecting the very future of our country.
Mr President,
I believe that the time has come to consider invoking section 100 (1) which states that when a province cannot or does not fulfill an executive obligation in terms of the Constitution or National legislation the national executive may intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure fulfilment of that obligation…
Years of neglect by the DA MEC’s for Education . This is criminal racist neglect of the black child .
We cannot go on like this.
Cadre Deployment
Speaker the DA is celebrating the outcome of Concourt regarding “cadre deployment “
Those celebrating this ruling are the biggest hypocrites you will ever find.
In 2022 we provided concrete evidence during SONA where the DA instructs local councils who to appoint. Hon Schreiber, you remember the letters of MEC Bredell?
This particular DA deployment, like all the others, was racist.
The intention was to block the appointment at the George Municipality, of the most qualified candidate who happened to be black. Coloured and Black DA councillors wanted to support the best candidate. Maar die baas het gepraat!
When, in 2020, we discovered this racist “cadre deployment” we wrote to the DA and requested all records, minutes, correspondence from 2009 to 2020. They did not even respond to our request. We then hand delivered the letter to the acting DA leader Tertius Simmers. Still no response. Four years later.
Let me also clarify that a cadre is a capable public servant who has the ability to advance the transformation project and the National Democratic Revolution from within the state.
It is also about bringing about diversity in the public and private sector.
The DA does not deploy “cadres”. They don’t have any.
The DA does “baantjiesvir boeties”. In other words they continue what the Broederbond started.
Appointing friends. And they do it to block equity and resist diversity.
We need to make it clear that the ANC will never abandon cadre deployment.
As Cde Minister Mantashe said, when the ANC took over in 1994, every single DG was white.
All over the world, deployment of those who support the ruling parties’ policies and meet the qualifications, takes place .
We support the resolution of the ANC’s National Executive to review, but not abandon cadre deployment.
This is part of the renewal of our movement.
I want to challenge Hon Schreiber who will speak later today “Will you promise this house that you will provide all minutes, correspondence and other information about all DA “cadre deployment” in the Western Cape from 2009 to date”?
Cde President, we are grateful for the work that your Ministers are doing in our province. And Mr President, your work on attracting investment to our country is bearing fruit.
A Belgian company, Lotus, who were present at one of the Presidential Investment Summits, have invested hundreds of millions of rands in a factory in Wolseley, located in the Witzenberg Municipality. They have now built a state of the art second factory and employ 750 people.
As you are aware, Minister Patel intervened in Ashton to save the local factory from closing down, which would have affected not only the workers and farm nets , but the entire Langeberg.
Investment opportunities are there in Touwsrivier and other parts of the Boland, West Coast, our harbours, Overberg, the Karoo, the Southern Cape and here in the City.
We request ongoing and intensified national investment in the Western Cape. Not only to create much needed jobs but to change the skewed economic ownership patterns here.
Time does not allow me to speak about the DA perpetuation of Apartheid Spatial Planning, the shocking levels of service delivery in the communities where the DA runs municipalities, and also the progress and also continuing challenges which face the fishing industry, small scale fishers and our coastal communities.
We would like to bring these to your attention.
We salute you cde President.
The people of our province support you.
We wish you strength as you lead our organisation and country on the path of renewal.
Help us to liberate the Western Cape from those who serve only the beneficiaries of Apartheid Colonialism.
Asibesabi!
Siyabafuna!
Die party van Apartheid, die DA, julle dae is getel in die Wes-Kaap.
Kubo Maqabane !
Masiye ku Moses Mabhida !
Tussen die mense !
Umntu emtwini !
I thank you