Admin
17 Jul, 2020
Complaints of alleged racism, nepotism and corruption at the NPA, Bantu Holomisa writes to Shamila Batohi
Advocate Shamila Batohi National Director of Public Prosecutions Private Bag X752 Pretoria 0001 Dear Advocate Batohi Being sent from pillar to post: serious staff frustrations within the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa in the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, and Western Cape offices in particular 1. I was recently approached by a group of concerned prosecutors who work mainly in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape offices of the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa (NPA), though I understand the frustrations they brought to my attention prevail in other provinces. They have petitioned my assistance in their plight to be heard as their frustrations are festering into resentment and anger. 2. I read with interest your comments during your “listening tour/staff engagement” at the start of this year and in particular the results of a staff survey where you listed, lack of promotion, no career growth, high staff vacancies, low staff morale, and budgetary constraints as some of the complaints that staff had registered. The complaints now on my desk echo this list to a great extent. 3. From my reading of the group of concerned prosecutors’ complaints, the aforementioned matters are particularly true for prosecutors who work in rural South Africa and who depend on greater resources to get about and do their jobs. 4. However, the group of concerned prosecutors have additional complaints to those already mentioned and have made allegations of nepotism and racism. The persistence of claims of racism in the NPA over the years is worrying and clearly the solution has not yet been found. 5. I have been made to understand that the NPA has appointed a person to investigate the allegations of racism and nepotism within the organisation, but that this investigator is either too busy to attend to new complaints and/or refuses to accept such. I am interested to know what this investigator’s scope of operation is and whether it is true that some complaints are not being accepted and/or attended to and if so, why. 6. Amongst the worst of the claims made by the group of concerned prosecutors are that there are several people in senior positions within the NPA’s provincial structures who have been tainted by allegations of corruption and, whilst complaints have been lodged against them, nothing has seemingly been done to address those complaints. 7. I also refer you to your memo dated 13 December 2019, but signed on 6 January 2020, wherein the group of concerned prosecutors’ appeals for intervention was shot down, as their union had not yet been recognised by the Public Sector Coordinating Bargaining Council to represent employees in the public service. Even though this might be technically and legally correct, I find it disconcerting that you would rely on a pure technicality to, for all intents and purposes, seemingly ignore what might be serious problems within your organisation. 8. I believe what frustrates this group of concerned prosecutors the most is their feeling that their emails and letters to you, as well as meetings with you, have been for naught. They feel that they have not been properly heard nor have any of their complaints been addressed, for whatever reason, and that they are now being victimised by NPA middle management for speaking out. 9. I have also noted that your office had, in the media in late January 2020, indicated that you would be looking into the concerned prosecutors’ complaints, but judging from their contact with me, you have not yet done so. 10. I would be grateful if you would take me into your confidence regarding your views on the matters I have raised above, the plans you have made and actions you have taken to address the complaints on your desk and the progress, if any, that you have made thus far. 11. I hope to hear from you soon. Yours sincerely Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP UDM President
Admin
13 Jul, 2020
Is our healthcare system actually ready for President Ramaphosa’s coronavirus storm?
We listened attentively to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent announcements regarding stricter regulations governing our lives in the face of the exponential increase of Coronavirus infections in South Africa. The United Democratic Movement Youth Vanguard (UDMYV) has noted that the President couched this decision as being necessary to relieve the pressure on our healthcare system. An immediate ban on alcohol was also imposed, because of misbehaving citizens who land in hospital due to alcohol related injuries and this takes up much-needed bed space. What we do not understand is that Health Minister Zweli Mkhize was super confident that our healthcare system was ready to deal with an enemy that has felled first world countries’ healthcare systems. Now the President, in so many words, admitted that our healthcare system is in fact under severe pressure and is not ready, as there is, for instance, still a serious shortage of more than 12,000 health workers. We hear of hospitals that have no water, staff who receive substandard personal protective equipment, bulk Covid-19 infections of hospital staff and how fear and anxiety are causing panic among them. To make matters worse, we understand that analysis of the coronavirus’ genome sequence found a mutation, which makes the virus more infectious than the original strain; we better hope and pray this mutation does not happen in South Africa. The mysterious National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) and Cabinet are making and breaking as they please and never unpack their decisions satisfactorily. We therefore call on Parliament, as the oversight arm of the state that holds the executive to account, to investigate our healthcare system’s state of readiness. Who was speaking the truth when? Something is severely wrong here. Lastly, the UDMYV feels strongly that the NCCC must go back to the drawing board and eliminate some inequalities in their regulations. If children are forced to go back to school and risk coronavirus infection, Parliament must, with immediate effect, suspend its hybrid model of sitting, and all Members of Parliament must go back to their benches to work. We do not understand why it is different strokes for different folks. Where we do agree with the President is that we must unite in making sure that we win the fight against the coronavirus, it is indeed in our hands (quite literally) and no one will help us, except us. Let us spread the message to wear masks and wash hands and hold each other accountable, we need to be responsible not just for ourselves, but also for others; especially the frontline healthcare workers who daily put their lives on the line to take care of ours. Issued by: Mr Yongama Zigebe UDM Youth Vanguard
Admin
13 Jul, 2020
DBSA’s strange treatment of the allegations of corruption regarding the Poseidon water project and its funding
Mr Patrick K Dlamini Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Development Bank of Southern Africa PO Box 1234 Halfway House 1685 Dear Mr Dlamini Development Bank of Southern Africa’s strange treatment of the allegations of corruption regarding the Poseidon water project and its funding 1. I respond to your letter of 10 July 2020, which the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) Company Secretary, Ms Bathobile Sowazi, sent at 22:57 on a Friday. Looking back at other emails, after hours correspondence seems to be the norm at the DBSA and one can but speculate as to the reasons why. 2. In all your letters to me regarding the Poseidon water project you sound defensive and blustering regarding the DBSA’s handling of this funding deal. Why would you cover your wickets with such excessive vigour and choose to cast aspersions on my bona fides? 3. You stated that I have “…publicly disclosed confidential information and documents belonging to the DBSA’s clients…”, what I interpret this to mean is that the information at my disposal is true and accurate. You are, in fact, right to be worried that the DBSA’s credibility might be undermined, as it, and/or some of its leadership, are seemingly engaged in activities they do not want exposed. 4. It is interesting that you decided to pre-empt President Ramaphosa’s response to my request for an investigation of the Poseidon deal. Now that you have positioned yourself as the president of this country, will you please tell the nation how the following people, as per your below document, are involved in the Poseidon transaction and how they directly and/or indirectly benefit from this deal. 5. This list of politically exposed persons (PEPs) in Poseidon’s group structure is a veritable Who’s Who of directors of public owned entities. It raises questions about the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the DBSA’s due diligence processes in terms of corporate governance as defined in the Companies Act, No. 71 of 2008 and its 2011 amendment, the Public Finance Management Act, No. 1 of 1999 and the fourth revision of the King Report on Corporate Governance. 6. Item number 4 of the above document (in the picture), refers to the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) directors who were identified as PEPs in this deal by virtue of being board members of a state-owned entity. Who exactly are these PIC board members your document refers to i.e. the board members at the time of the submission of the application or those at the time of its approval? Either way it would be helpful if you could explain their involvement in this private, for-profit matter and whether the DBSA condones this kind of association. 7. It is confounding that your very own document states that Dr Renosi Mokate is a PEP by virtue of her being a trustee of the Harith Holdings Employee Trust and the board chairperson of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), yet she made a bare denial of any connection to Poseidon in her submission to the court in her defamation case against me and the United Democratic Movement. So, the questions the public and/or a judge might ask you are: Who added her name to this document, and why? Also, from where did you obtain this information? 8. Ultimately you are to be thanked for confirming the veracity of the above information. We will however ask those individuals (including the GEPF chairperson) who ran to court, to explain why their names appear on a DBSA document pertaining to the Crede Power and Infrastructure Investments/Poseidon funding application. 9. Our letter to the President is clear in terms of what we want to be investigated. Part of that would be that you seemingly misled the DBSA’s board by allegedly recommending that this project be funded despite the above information being at your disposal. Worse still is that some of these PEPs have been fingered in the Commission of inquiry into allegations of impropriety regarding the Public Investment Corporation. Why are you promoting and protecting these people? 10. You have placed on record that “On or about June 2019 the DBSA received an application from Crede Power and Infrastructure Investments…”. Mr Jabu Moleketi left as DBSA Chairperson in December 2018. What these two facts mean is that the Crede Power and Infrastructure Investments/Poseidon funding application was submitted to the DBSA within six months of his having left the DBSA, which I understand is in contravention of the DBSA’s twelve month “cooling off” period for directors who have left the Bank. The public might ask you whether these facts were disclosed to the Board when it considered and approved the funding application? 11. Your artless attempt to threaten me with “the law” where it pertains to whistleblowing, begs the question: “Is it not nice and convenient that the DBSA decision-makers, in the Poseidon water project deal, can hide behind this country’s laws?” This might exactly be the reason why there was no other way of exposing the alleged corruption in the way that we have. 12. The DBSA’s refusal of my Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 request, because of technicalities, is utter drivel. You and Ms Kim Sanderson (DBSA Deputy Information Officer) who wrote to me, know exactly to which deal I was referring and what information I had asked for. Such seemingly spiteful delaying tactics could be interpreted as the DBSA playing for time to “cook the books”. If I were in your boots, I would be preparing to explain this mess in court. 13. Your 10 July 2020 letter smacks of a panicked response to being confronted by facts that are not to your and your colleagues’ liking, least of all to the liking of the PEPs involved in Poseidon. 14. I walk away from all your correspondence, thus far, with a very repulsive taste in my mouth and the perturbing feeling that you are not acting in the best interest of the people of this country. Yours sincerely Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP UDM President Copied to: Minister of Finance, Mr Tito Mboweni DBSA Chairperson, Mr Enoch Godongwana DBSA Company Secretary, Ms Bathobile Sowazi DBSA Deputy Information Officer, Ms Kim Sanderson Mabuza Attorneys, Attorney Eric Mabuza
Admin
09 Jul, 2020
Call on the IEC to host a meeting for political parties to debate South Africa’s democratic ideals, electoral reform and the impact of Covid-19 on elections
Mr Glen Mashinini Chair of the Electoral Commission Private Bag X112 Centurion 0046 Dear Mr Mashinini Call on the IEC to host a meeting for political parties to debate South Africa’s democratic ideals, electoral reform and the impact of Covid-19 on elections 1. The United Democratic Movement (UDM) has had in-depth internal discussions around two critical matters that have already impacted on, and will still impact, the way that South Africa practices democracy and runs elections. One is of course the Constitutional Court’s judgment that the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 (‘the Electoral Act’) is unconstitutional in so far as it requires candidates to contest national and provincial elections only as members of political parties and, the other, the impact that Covid-19 is having, and will have, on future elections. 2. We have also noted the opinions of some political parties on electoral reform, as well as that of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), expressed in the media. 3. One such item is the notion of combining national, provincial and local government elections, especially given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the IEC’s preparations for the 2021 Local Government Elections and what an election would look like – in a little more than a year from now – with the uncertainty around our continued journey with the Coronavirus. Combining our elections will require constitutional changes and the practicality of somehow altering the five-year election cycles to achieve synchronicity, and the impact it will have on democracy, must be carefully considered. 4. The UDM has long been of the view that changes to our electoral system is indeed needed and the opportunity has presented itself, no matter how it was precipitated, to have earnest debate around public representatives’ accountability to the electorate and whether South Africa’s purely proportional system is the right tool to ensure that. 5. But to our minds, the most important change necessary is the need to have voters directly elect their president of the country, as is the case in many established democracies across the globe. The UDM believes that South Africa’s president should be directly elected by her people, and be held accountable to them, instead of the around 3,000 delegates at a party congress choosing a party president to be foisted onto an entire nation. 6. It is necessary to have a structured debate around these issues and it is imperative that we, as political parties, must formally engage as primary stakeholders of the IEC and South Africa’s democratic processes. 7. Given the complexities of the matters on the table, we must start the debate now in order to (if there is consensus that changes to our electoral systems are necessary and will achieve greater democracy) amend the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the Municipal Electoral Act 27 of 2000 and the attending regulations. 8. The UDM therefore calls on the Electoral Commission to urgently host a formal debate, maybe in a virtual hybrid format, where political parties can officially table their policies on the matter of electoral reform so that we can chart the way forward. Time is of the essence. Yours sincerely Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP UDM President Copied to the leaders of all political parties and the people of South Africa
Admin
06 Jul, 2020
UDM calls for referendum on the death penalty
Considering the calls from various sectors of our society for the death penalty to be reintroduced, especially in terms of gender-based violence (GBV), femicide, as well as child abuse and murder, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) reiterates its longstanding call that the government must allow for the voice of the people to be heard; it is time to have a referendum on the death penalty. The existing punishments for the guilty, are not a deterrent. Protection orders have become mere pieces of paper and ink and the perpetrators do not take them seriously, and the police fail to enforce them. The UDM calls upon the government of the day to take GBV seriously and to stop paying lip service as it makes no difference to the lives of those who live with daily abuse. Governmental leaders cannot take decisions alone behind closed doors, excluding the people who face these disastrous situations in our society. Let the people speak. Issued by: Mr Bongani Msomi UDM Secretary General
Admin
01 Jul, 2020
Capturing of the administration of NSFAS
Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane The Public Protector South Africa Private Bag X677 Pretoria 0001 Dear Advocate Mkhwebane COMPLAINT: CAPTURING OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NATIONAL STUDENT FINANCIAL AID SCHEME – ALLEGED NEPOTISM AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS, STAFF VICTIMISATION AND PURGE, CORRUPTION AND MALADMINISTRATION As you might be aware, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was placed under administration by former Minister of Higher Education and Training Naledi Pandor after its failure to pay out bursaries had led to student protests. I have been approached by concerned NSFAS employees for assistance, and the seriousness of the allegations that are being made lead me to think that this process has been “captured”. There are allegations of nepotism, victimisation and purging of staff, racism, corruption, general maladministration, mismanagement by Dr Randall Carolissen (NSFAS Administrator) in particular, as well as a general collapse of corporate governance at NSFAS. Worst of all is the allegation that the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande (who is supposed to oversee this process and is the custodian of good governance) is aware of some of these issues and are seemingly ignoring them and worse still, is involved in nepotism with the appointment of those loyal to him to key NSFAS (and other) positions. I hereby lodge a complaint in terms of Section 6(1) (A) of the Public Protector Act, 1994 and request you to investigate these allegations. To assist you at this point in time, please find attached to this email: 1. Annexure A (98KB) – a document that details various allegations of poor performance, unscrupulous procurement, compromised internal auditing, failures of NSFAS’s IT system, maladministration, racism and compromised oversight. 2. Annexure B (85KB) – a list of key questions regarding allegations against Dr Carolissen in terms of his role in various matters, such as nepotism and maladministration (amongst others, how much of the cumulative irregular expenditure of R7.5 billion NSFAS declared in the 2018/19 financial year was spent under his watch?). 3. Annexure C – a list of staffers and former staffers who have allegedly been victimised, targeted and or purged by Dr Carolissen (not posted due to sensitivity of the information). 4. Annexure D1 and D2 – list of persons allegedly appointed by virtue of their links to Dr Carolissen and other key players. (not posted due to sensitivity of the information) 5. Annexures E and F – allegations around a list of key persons appointed at NSFAS, and other bodies, by virtue of their personal links to Minister Nzimande. (not posted due to sensitivity of the information) I have further and more detailed information in my possession, which I am more than willing to share should you decide to investigate, as it is of paramount importance (at this stage) to protect the identities of the whistle-blowers to avoid further victimisation. I am at your disposal and look forward to engaging with you. Yours faithfully Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP President of the United Democratic Movement
Admin
01 Jul, 2020
Donald Trump’s so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace plan is a recipe for disaster
The long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is well documented, but United States President Donald Trump’s “peace plan” might put peace between Israel and the Palestinians even further out of reach. It is an extreme pity that former President Nelson Mandela’s efforts to end their struggle was left to peter out. However, history has taught us that, whenever the United States attempts to solve problems in the region it always appears to be that they support one faction or country against another, instead of following an inclusive approach. The United Democratic Movement believes that a deeply conceited United States is abusing its influence and power, to “give us an idea of what the world should look like according to Trump” (and therefore America). This style of diplomacy will surely not bring lasting peace to the region. South Africa, as a member of the United Nations Security Council, has a responsibility to oppose any act that might escalate an already untenable situation to full-blown war. We also call on the United States and her president to act soberly and to not abuse their might as their current pro-Israel stance is not conducive to finding a solution that will work for both sides.
Admin
30 Jun, 2020
Loss of used Covid-19 test kits near Mdantsane is proof of an uncaring ANC government
Health MEC Sindiswa Gomba and the entire Eastern Cape African National Congress (ANC) leadership simply do not care about the lives of the poor and its nauseating. The only time they pretend to care for the people they claim to represent is when they need their votes, thereafter the people are left to their own devices. The fact that, yesterday, hundreds of used Covid-19 test kits were found lying in the veld near Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape, is shocking beyond belief. Anything could have happened if not for an informed Good Samaritan who noticed the used test kits scattered next to the N2 highway. What if this is not the only place were these kits were lost? What if children pick them up and play with them? Besides that, if what reports say are true, they represent at least 500 people who are awaiting their Covid-19 test results, but they will have to be redone as these kits have now been environmentally compromised. Worse still, who is to say that all the kits that were indeed found, comprises the entire load that was seemingly on route to Port Elizabeth? How exactly did the kits get inside the veld? They surely would have been lying shattered on the tarmac if this was indeed an honest mistake. UDEMWO calls on the Eastern Cape Health Department to immediately launch an investigation into how those test kits were lost in the first instance and more importantly, put measures in place to prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again. Issued by: Ms Thandi Nontenja UDEMWO Secretary General
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