Speech by Bantu Holomisa, MP and President of the United Democratic Movement at a UDM Volunteers’ Training Workshop at the OR Tambo Hall in Khayelitsha
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UDM National Leadership
Provincial Leadership of the UDM
Public Representatives of the Party
Members of the UDM
Ladies and gentlemen
We are meeting here after the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by the President of the Republic.
As well as in the middle of the SONA debate, where all the parties represented in Parliament expressed their views on the state of the nation.
Many issues of national importance were raised.
Including those of the Western Cape.
Yet, as always, national and provincial leaders played the blame game.
This is nothing new.
It is convenient to place the blame on someone else, whilst no one addressed the biggest problem in the province… the poorest of the poor who live on the Cape Flats.
However, the so-called Cape Flats were started in the mid-1970s and ever since then, non-white people have been living in less than desirable living conditions in this area.
A big chunk of that during the Apartheid years. But for 30 years of that in the new democracy.
Much has been said about what has been dubbed the “refugee” situation in the Western Cape i.e. black South Africans looking for a better economic dispensation in this province.
Especially those from the Eastern Cape.
It has been a favourite game of national government to overlook the Western Cape precisely because it hasn’t been under ANC-rule for quite some time.
Money earmarked for schools and housing have not been spent for the benefit of the people in the Western Cape, because of this fact.
It’s just plain petty, the national government is treating the Western Cape as if we are living in a federal republic, they forget that this is a unitary state and some duties have a national competency which they have a legal and constitutional obligation to fulfil.
Safety and security seem to be another tug of war, this whilst tourism generates a massive revenue for the province and the national fiscus.
Despite Cape Town being consistently ranked as one of the safest cities in the country, the people living on the Cape Flats live in fear of their lives due to the rule of drugs and gangs.
Spatial development and town planning, especially in Cape Town needs a lot of attention as well.
The issuing of taxi-permits by the provincial government and municipalities has become a bone of contention and causes conflict and sometimes raises the ugly head of racism-politics.
I have first-hand experience of this aspect of the taxi industry in the Western Cape, as far back as1992, as I have mediated in the conflict before.
The latest was when former Transport Minister Mbalula and the provincial government failed dismally to solve the problem. Zwelinzima Vavi and I were roped in to mediate in the conflict between CATA and CODETA.
It was the longest conflict between these taxi bodies, on the one hand, and the provincial government’s intransigence, on the other.
Thank you to both parties for their willingness to meet and come to a peaceful resolution.
I was happy when both organisations attended a prayer meeting (Imvuselelo) last year to pledge their continued support to the peaceful cause.
It was an honour to serve the people of the Western Cape and I hope the channels of communication stay open between the taxi industry and the government.
Ladies and gentlemen, President Ramaphosa vividly sketched the image of Tintswalo – a child born at the dawn of freedom – in his state of the nation address.
What he did not mention is Tintswalo’s parents and/or grandparents who worked for the government, or who were mine workers and who worked in the private sector, who were swindled out of their pensions and Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) monies.
These parents’ and grandparents’ government pensions and UIF monies were invested with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
Those monies were invested with the PIC were used to create instant BEE millionaires and billionaires, associated with the ruling party.
This was through listed and unlisted company loans, some of which were never paid back and some of which were written off.
Sitting among you today are ex-government employees, military veterans and former mine workers who are struggling to access the benefits they worked very hard for.
Instead, their pension monies which is supposedly invested with the PIC, were used, without their permission, to bail out state-owned enterprises and to create a ruling elite.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is of the opinion that a distinctly separate fund for such activities should be created, one for the funding of new businesses and enterprises.
One that is separate from the funds of people’s pensions and UIF monies so that those monies are kept safe and available for its intended purposes.
Afterall those pension fund monies are in any event not reaching the Tintswalos of this world, but only the ruling elite.
The UDM believes that it is time for the citizens of this province to converge under one roof, in order to hash out the needs of this province, to balance rural and urban prerogatives.
High on the agenda should be the availability of land to be developed for housing with recreational, health, and educational facilities.
There should be focus on job creation and safety and security for all, irrespective of race.
Emerging farmers need to be onboarded and catered for and the host of problems I have discussed, needs to be addressed holistically at such a provincial indaba.
I thank you.
