Honourable Speaker, and Honourable Members
South Africans and, in particular, the poorest of the poor (whose livelihood by right) depend on social grants, must now place their hopes on the Constitutional Court to defend their rights and restore their dignity. The Constitutional Court must force our embarrassed government to pay the beneficiaries and to do so on time.
Under normal circumstances, this matter should have been occasioned by an investigation of a judicial commission of inquiry. However, knowing who has to effect such an inquiry, we may as well forget about it. Hence, all hope is pinned on the Constitutional Court.
The United Democratic Movement hopes that the Constitutional Court will issue a judgement that will restore the rule of law instead of a rule by law, wherein the powers of the accounting officers will be respected and the political interference by the executive authorities will become a thing of the past.
The unscrupulous manipulation by politicians and the reported interference by the advisors of the President and the Minister of Social Development, undermining the role of appointed officials, is a clear demonstration of an irreparably corrupt government.
The political directives that are interfering with the procurement processes are in fact corrupt transactions.
It is the same Minister who, when her colleagues drove cars to a funeral of a late senior commander of uMkhonto we Sizwe in Willowvale, flew in a helicopter accompanied by the beneficiaries of the Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) contract.
“Who hired this helicopter?” I asked myself, as I was present at the funeral and saw at the spectacular landing.
We want answers.
I thank you
