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09 Mar, 2016
Racial Tension and conflict at South African Universities
Address by Mr UDM Chief Whip Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, MP in the National Assembly Madame Speaker and Honourable Members, The racial strife the #AfrikaansMustFall campaign has caused and other critical issues raised by the #FeesMustFall Movement should rouse us from our deep Rainbow Nation slumber! It is clear that the majority citizens clench pent up frustrations about an economic system that marginalises them and their languages more than two decades since we attained freedom. Kenyan Author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o once shared his insight into the role of language in the historical consciousness and development of nations with these words, and I quote: “It is this aspect of language, as a collective memory-bank of a given people, which has made nations and peoples to take up arms to prevent total annihilation or assimilation of their languages, because it is tantamount to annihilating that people’s collective memory-bank of past achievements and failures which form the basis of their common identity. It is like uprooting that community from history.” End quote. The ongoing racial conflict at our universities over the use of languages can, to some extent, be viewed in this context. It is an attempt by each party to, whether rightly or wrongly, act in manner that seeks to protect and ward off an affront to its “common identity”. With our liberal Constitution, which protects all our rights, this needs not be so. It is the Constitutional right of Afrikaans students to be taught in Afrikaans – and we must respect that! Similarly, it is the Constitutional right of indigenous language speakers to be taught in the language of their choice – and that too must be respected! And no one should foist Afrikaans on our people! The nub of the problem, however, is that, two years later, we have failed to elevate the status and the use of languages of diminished use, in line with Section 6 (2) of the Constitution. We have to develop our languages into academic languages that grant their speakers equal access to power and influence. Speaker, We reject racism with the contempt it deserves. As we do so, we should remember that many students face discrimination at our tertiary institutions on a daily basis. They also have to put up with an alienating institutional culture that makes it difficult for them to acclimatise and to compete with their white counterparts. We have to compel our institutions to build an inclusive institutional culture that integrates students from diverse backgrounds in a manner that follows broad principles of representativity, receptivity and fairness. However, more broadly, the unrest at our universities is a microcosm of South Africa’s larger socio-economic problems, such as the slow pace of economic transformation, high levels of poverty and inequality among the majority citizens, which require urgent attention. We therefore cannot remain impassive in the face of their anguished cries for help! We have to roll-up our sleeves and get involved. But before we do so, our students have to commit to a disciplined, structured and nonviolent struggle that forwards their cause. History warns us against the disastrous consequences of allowing emotions to overwhelm our ability to reason. Fellow South Africans, Whatever our differences, we are all stitched together by our shared history and common destiny. We are therefore all duty-bound to help build a South Africa in which we all look forward to the sunrise of our tomorrow. I thank you.
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08 Mar, 2016
Isilimela Road in Port St Johns and the Mthatha High Court
Statement by Mr Mncedisi Filtane (MP) in the National Assembly Responding to the much published potential loss of the public monies, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) member of the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Public Works, Mr. Mncedisi Filtane, fielded this question to the Department: “What is that the department if doing about a much publicised potential loss surrounding the stalled road construction of the Isilimela Road in Port St Johns and whose contract value is R200 million?” The department made a commitment in the Portfolio Committee meeting, that it will investigate the matter, working with the Provincial Department of Public Works and thereafter, present a report to the committee soon. The United Democratic Movement welcomes this speedy response and commitment. We hope the investigation will ensure that the much needed road is constructed with speed and that public monies are not wasted. We further welcome a commitment made the by Minister of Public Works with regard to the Mthatha high court infrastructural upgrade. During 2015, this matter was raised with the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services. Amongst issues raised was the infrastructural decay of the high court. Today, the Minister of Public Works, pronounced that the Mthatha high court will be attended to, from the 1st of April 2016 and a progress report will be presented to the Portfolio Committee at the end of the first quarter of the year, which is the end of June. We also welcome this commitment and looking forward to the upgrading of the Mthatha High Court so that it can provide qualitative services to the people.
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08 Mar, 2016
Bantu Holomisa writes to SABC about ANC hijacking of Imvuselelo
Honourable Minister F Muthambi, The Chairperson of the SABC Board, The Provincial Manager of Umhlobo Wenene ANC HIJACKING OF THE SABC – UMHLOBO WENENE IMVUSELELO PROGRAMME The above matter has reference. I am an ardent follower of the Imvuselelo Programme broadcasted by SABC by Umhlobo Wenene Radio Station. Every Sunday evening, I invest time to listen to this spiritually building programme since the time of the late Reverend Lufafa from the then Radio Transkei. When it was integrated into the programmes of Umhlobo Wenene, I continued following it. In the past the programme was purely religious in every aspect. Today, the African National Congress (ANC) Government has hijacked the programme with Members of the Executive Council and Mayors using public money. It has been captured by an unethical ruling party and turned it to be its campaigning platform. After the elections of 2014 it raised eyebrows when this programme went to Bhisho to wash the premier’s feet, even though it was known that he was under investigation, because an amount of R200 000 from monies earmarked for former President Mandela’s funeral ended up in his personal account. Every time the programme airs, you find these Executive Members at centre stage of the church and are given a podium to campaign for their political party. I attended one of these services in Mthatha and it was most repulsive to see the ANC Women’s League Members wearing their uniforms. I was told that when this programme was recently broadcasted from Sterkspruit and Mancam Village in Mqanduli that one would not be amiss to think that it was an ANC gathering. ANC flags and other campaign material were paraded during what is supposed to be a religious gathering for all citizens irrespective of their political affiliation. If you were to listen to the recording of the service in Mancam, the MEC of Social Development made no bones of praising her party and bringing service delivery to the people. She went on praising the role of ANC stalwarts. You tell me if that is not political campaigning. Writing this letter, I also consulted some party leaders who informed me that the same abuse is true of a religious programme on Radio Lesedi called Mafulong a Matala. I fail to understand why the SABC, as the public broadcaster, would allow itself to be used for political gain by a ruling party. If public funds are used for the benefit of the public, the SABC should extend participation to all political parties represented in the area where the programme is held to air views on a specific issue affecting all citizens. It would be important that the SABC goes back to basics and run this programme using its own budget. Programmes like Imvuselelo should not be funded through provincial and/or local fiscus as such will come with conditions that will undermine the independence of the SABC. After all this money they are using is to bring services to the poor, such as roads, water and electricity and not to brainwash them with ANC propaganda. If the SABC charges the Guptas for the breakfast show on SABC TV2 from monies they receive from SEOs, such as Eskom, Transnet, etc. they certainly could afford this expense. SABC should refuse to be used as a mobilising vehicle of the ruling party using the platforms created to develop citizens spiritually. It is a public broadcaster and should be above party politics, at best it should create a separate programme for all political parties to use the public space equally. Should the SABC not stop this blatant bias in Imvuselelo, we shall be forced to instruct our members to attend these services in full party regalia, carrying party material, and insist that they on, the spot, be given a platform – as they do for the ANC – to address any topic they choose. I am sure other political parties would also welcome this opportunity, especially since talk-shows have been suspended by the SABC. Whilst you are pondering our demands in the meantime, could you please forward the schedule of these programmes so that we can tell our members to attend these services. I will always support Imvuselelo in the form that it was originally intended. I however outright reject the fact that the ANC has hijacked religious programmes for their own nefarious objectives. Our message is clear; the ANC must be stopped from hijacking SABC religious programmes. I hope this will be attended to urgently Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP UDM President Copied to: Secretary of the South African Council of Churches Party Political Leaders
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20 Mar, 2016
Motion of No Confidence in the President
Address by Mr BH Holomisa MP in Parliament Hon Speaker and Hon Members The South African electoral system does not enable the electorate to directly elect a President of the country. Contrary, South Africans vote for a political party which in turn appoints a President. It is therefore a duty of the ruling party to ensure that its candidate serves the nation with distinction and in accordance with the oath of office as prescribed in the Constitution. If, as is the case now, their candidate is messing up with the country, the ruling party has a duty to the nation, to act decisively in the interest of the country and its people. It is common cause that, President Zuma is not only a liability to his party and its allies but to the entire nation. He is a monumental embarrassing failure. At the centre of all government related scandals that are daily reported, is the President. In some instances they involve his family and friends. All these are at the expense of our country. If the ruling party is to be true to its credentials, then it must say, both in words and actions, the country comes first and therefore no internal politics should supersede the national interests. The current war between the South African Revenue Services (SARS) and the Finance Minister in which once again the President is at the centre, is taking the country to the dustbin of history. Parliament should be seized with this matter and it should seek clarity from the Constitutional Court, as to whether the Hawks and SARS are acting procedurally, and consistent with their legal powers. Once such is determined, then all the necessary processes must be allowed to unfold without any political interference. The state and its institutions must never be used to fight and settle internal party politics and the rule of law must always prevail. I thank you
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29 Feb, 2016
The impact of SA’s drought on the agricultural economy
Address by Mr ML Filtane, MP in Parliament Honourable Speaker and members Although agricultural sector’s relative contribution to the gross domestic product of the country is small and still declining, it nevertheless plays an important role in the creation of wealth and safety nets in South Africa, specifically in the rural areas. Drought has severely affected the country’s agricultural productivity capacity and thus affecting negatively our Gross Domestic Product. It affects both crop and livestock farming devastatingly. The loss of maize exports and the move to import more, results in the widening of the trade deficit. Agriculture export made up about 11 percent of South Africa’s total annual exports, surely this year, 2016, agricultural export revenue is likely to drop. One sector within the agricultural economy that is normally forgotten when considering the effects of drought, is the emerging, small and informal agricultural sector. As a result of this omission, when drought relief programmes are planned and implemented, this group of farmers is left outside. Mandla Nkomo, Operations Director at TechnoServe, which assists emerging farmers, had this to say: the drought’s impact on its clients was devastating. This is so because amongst others, these farmers depend on regulated irrigation and in times like these, water allocation is controlled and cut back. Many of the emerging farmers have been hard hit such that they had to write off their entire crop. The emerging and informal farmers, are also vulnerable because they have no insurance, savings or anything like that, so during drought, they take the knock full on with no resources to reboot themselves. In this regard, a combination of interventions has to be pulled together in assisting the emerging and informal farmers. They are very important in providing basic food security, fighting poverty and we need to make graduate into commercial farmers. Amongst others, UDM propose the following, to be done to mitigate devastating effects of drought in particular on emerging and informal farmers: Agricultural training including planning for drought as well as using the indigenous methods of responding to drought. Government and the industry should move away from reactive methods towards more proactive approach towards drought and other natural disasters. Capacitation of emerging and informal farmers so that they can grow into commercial farmers and consistently contribute to economic growth and employment creation in a sustainable and bigger scale. Whilst these farmers are unable to afford the insurance rates, government should consider subsidising them. Further, government should educate these farmers on how they should develop drought plans and the drought mitigation and coping strategies. Once they have these tools in place, the insurance premiums will be affordable and government can pull-out his subsidy. All of this must be accompanied by a realistic, reasonable and requisite rural infrastructure development programme to support rural development. Thank you
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24 Feb, 2016
Consideration of report of PC on Public Works on Expropriation Bill – Address by Mr ML Filtane, MP in Parliament
Honourable Speaker and members Chapter 2, section 9 and subsection 3 of the Constitution provides, “The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race…”. Most relevant to the debate this afternoon is section 25 of the constitution. Subsection 7 provides, “A person or community dispossessed of property after 19 June 1913 as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices is entitled, to the extent provided by an Act of Parliament, either to restitution of that property or to equitable redress”. I may as well, and of importance, refer to subsection 8 which provides, “No provision of this section may impede the state from taking legislative and other measures to achieve land, water and related reforms, in order to redress the results of past racial discrimination, provided that any departure from provisions of this section is in accordance with the provisions of section 36(1)”. The balance of the bill currently debated, seems to lean more towards the provisions of section 25 (7) to an extent that it may, by default, border on not satisfying the provisions of section 9 (3) read together with section 25 (8). This being the case, we argue that the bill requires to be balanced such that it does not exclude such people whose property was dispossessed before the set date. This may be contrary to the provisions of section 9 (2). In any event, as it may be, a substantial amount of property was dispossessed before 19th of June 1913 and the bill will exclude such. . It should be remembered though, that the dispossession of properly was already moving towards the 3rd century of its existence. Many wars of resistance were fought to resist this cruelty. It is our submission that for our eye to be able to serve justice and achieve the objectives of this bill, it must be stretched to the point of beginning. By accepting the bill as it is, government would unintentionally and unavoidably exclude all ownership of unregistered rights prior 1913 and also permanently protect the registered ownership rights prior 1913 from this bill. One would never be able to expropriate the latter properties. This consequence is diametrically opposed to the very purpose of this bill, which is to address land reform needs and speed socio-economic transformation. The second important matter, is that there has been no report confirming the state’s financial viability to be able to buy out the intended expropriates, in accordance with Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA). One only needs to look at the extremely slow pace of current Land Restitution process under the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development. So passing the bill will be tantamount to an exercise in futility. Thirdly, whereas the state would have authority to immediately take possession of property in the case of Urgent Expropriation, on the other hand, an expropriatee under normal circumstances, who may have an urgent need to vacate the property, and thus avoid further maintenance expenses, has to give the state a notice of no less than 20 days to vacate the property. This treatment of an expropriatee is out of balance with that of government faced with similar circumstances. This is a form of unjust treatment by government. Our Bill of Rights is against this imbalance. Accordingly, the UDM does not support the Bill in its current form and suggests that it be reconsidered to, take care of the issues raised above. In fact, the issue of land should be high in the agenda of the Economic Transformation Indaba we proposed during the debate on SONA. Thank you
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22 Feb, 2016
UDM condemns service disruptions by ANC in Ingquza Hill Municipality
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) condemns the disruption of public services due to internal strife amongst the African National Congress members in the Ingquza Hill Municipality. Most affected areas include ward 21 eMcobothini, ward 20 Hombe, and ward 16 Nkunzimbini. It is reported that this problem started three weeks ago when community members affiliated to the ruling party were not pleased with the Ward Councillors that are deployed in the affected areas. This has led to the angry members to take to the streets, blocking the streets with big stones leading to pupils not going to school, burning tyres and in some schools teachers were forced out of classes by these members. Today, many shops in town were forced by the protesting community members to close down. This only means that businesses and owners who have nothing to do with the turmoil within the ANC are also negatively affected. We will not tolerate the abuse of innocent people by the ruling party and its members. Their in-fights must not affect the ordinary person in the street. As the UDM, we condemn this action that has led to many disruptions in Ingquza and calling upon the ANC leadership in that area to intervene and solve whatever problems they are faced with. People have a right to free movement. Statement issued by: Mr Bongani Msomi UDM Secretary General
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18 Feb, 2016
SONA Debate: UDM comments on the reply by the President
The United Democratic Movement welcomes the comment made by the President in response to our call for an All-Inclusive National Economic Transformation Indaba. Notwithstanding his fears, we remain convinced that South Africans from all political and socio-economic persuasions are prepared to do everything possible for the growth and development of our economy. As South Africans did with the political transition, decided to embrace each other irrespective of different ideological positions and a painful experience, surely there is a possibility that they can find each other on the economic ground. The fact that captains of industry are not only prepared but ready to engage with labour movements, all parties confirmed the need for something drastic to be done in the economic front, should be a positive indicator. In any event, South Africa has been able to find each other on the National Development Plan. Indeed and as we have proposed, the process towards the Indaba should be preceded by a National Summit which shall agree on the national framework that will guide the Indaba and reduce areas of disagreement. Such will address his fears. However, the fact the President elected not to consider the following, has appalled UDM. 1. Whilst the President has re-iterated government’s commitment to fight corruption, we thought that he would specifically provide leadership on the questionable transactions taking place in the Public Investment Corporation, where pension monies of the poor working people are flowing into the back pockets of the cronies of the ruling elite. These include the deals done to benefit amongst others, the consortiums called Kilimanjaro Sakhumnotho and a not-for-profit organisations, “Global Fund for Christ”. These include provided funds of many of the ex-mine workers who have been marching between the Union Buildings and Parliament with no answer. 2. This also includes the crisis in the Construction Education and Training Authority, where corruption whistle blowers are reported to SACP leaders for reprimand. The levies paid by poor workers are being abused just under the nose of the Minister of Higher Education and Training who is an SACP chief. 3. The abuse of public funds through the so-called ‘War on Leaks Project’ launched by the President in Port Elizabeth, where only those young people associated with the ruling party gets jobs. Effectively, this projects funds campaign activities of the ruling party’s volunteers. We thought that the President would condemn the usage of public money by government leaders of the ruling party assisted by government officials. We also thought that the President would take the nation into his confidence and explain why after such painful experience the country has gone through due to his actions, he remains in office. This is so important given the fact that some of these actions have compromised the national legislature and members of the cabinet. In this regard, UDM shall continue to make a call for the revolutionary consciousness of Mr Zuma to prevail and for him to vacate the Office of the President with dignity. Statement issued by: Mr Bantu Holomisa, MP UDM President
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