Minister Peters' ultimatum to Emirates begs question of SAA protectionism

The DA is concerned at reports today revealing that the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, is summoning a United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister to attend an urgent bilateral meeting in South Africa, over the future landing rights of Emirates Airlines in South Africa. Emirates is a critical international travel carrier for inbound and outbound South African leisure and business travel. The review comes after Emirates Airline received an ultimatum on Friday, that the South African government may block the landing of all of its flights in South Africa, after the department issued and then retracted a new landing slot for Emirates, which is itself very problematic. I will today write to the Minister of Transport to implore her that if she presses ahead with her ultimatum to Emirates, and if she holds a meeting with a minister of the UAE government, she does so by way of an open meeting subject to public scrutiny. Something is amiss with the rationale for this drastic action by Minister Peters. When South African Airways reported an operating loss of R991m for the financial year 2012/2013 in January, the airline cited “the weakened rand and said increasing levels of competition and Middle Eastern carriers characterized the period.” If Minister Peters is pressuring a foreign Middle Eastern carrier out of the South African market in protection of South African Airways, the DA will call for the Minister to resign immediately. This strange and urgent action by Minister Peters defies logic, and begs the question of what she intends to achieve by this review of Emirates landing rights in South Africa.

Parliament is in chaos because “big man” Zuma is being protected

The chaotic events in Parliament last night mark a distinctive low milestone for the ANC. We are seeing the ANC’s disintegration before our very eyes. Clearly the ANC and its leadership know this. Why else would Minister for Small Business, Lindiwe Zulu act like a playground bully and physically go after another Member of Parliament by threatening him and calling him out of the chamber. She is nothing more than a big bad bully who was expressing her frustration as she sees the ANC losing control in every way. The ANC is losing control of the economy. It is losing its fight against unemployment as unemployment and job creation continues to be low with little foreseeable prospect of growth. It is losing its fight against education as our children receive sub-standard schooling. It’s pillaging of the state is out of control and the ANC is frustrated that it cannot hide this. In almost every aspect the ANC is simply losing it. And it knows this. It also lost in the last elections which means there are now less ANC MPs in Parliament. In turn the Opposition has grown dramatically. Things are now not so easy for the ANC to steam-roll items through Parliament. To make it worse for the ANC, the DA is not a subservient, deferential opposition that the ANC would prefer. This role is being played quite nicely by the NFP (as we saw in Parliament last night), thank you very much! As the ANC loses its way and its humanness, or Ubuntu, (not even a call of concern was received from Speaker, Baleka Mbete to any of the opposition parties enquiring about the MPs that were injured last night) so it implements more dictatorial and draconian measures to deal with matters. Opposition Members had their microphones muted yesterday so their opinions would not be heard or recorded. As the drama unfolded, the Parliamentary Television channel was disconnected later on in the evening. These are all clear signs of a governing party (one which likes to describe itself as a “ruling” party) unable to confront the fact that it is losing its grip in every way. Parliament is sovereign and cannot be invaded as an institution. Unbelievably as members were being physically manhandled and assaulted, the presiding officer at the time, Cedric Frolick looked on with a smile. We are in the midst of a constitutional crises all because of one “big” man, Zuma, who has ANC Members of Parliament protecting him and him alone. For the ANC the people of South Africa do not feature. For the ANC they are not important; unless their vote is needed every few years. I watched the Speaker’s media conference today with disbelief as Mbete explained the importance of parliamentary rules. Of course only certain rules are respected. Others are ignored; like the one demanding that the President account to Parliament at least once a quarter. Conveniently, that rule is sidelined. Only last week the Deputy President told Parliament that Zuma will not appear before it until he feels safe to do so, as if he has a choice. The President’s appearance in Parliament is not conditional, it is Constitutional. And no, Deputy President Ramaphoza it is not a “two way street” as he told Parliament. For someone who helped craft our Constitution, it is disappointing that he doesn’t realize that actually it is a “one way street”. The President must account to Parliament, he has no choice in the matter! What led to the chaos in Parliament however started right at the beginning of the session when the Speaker, who had clearly received her instructions from Luthuli House, tried to manipulate (and frankly manufacture) rules to suit the ANC agenda. The Opposition would not have it and demanded that the rules as they stand be respected. Why did the ANC want to manipulate the rules? To protect Zuma and the highway robbery that we know as Nkandlagate. This is really what this is all about. Something we have seen over and over in history, in Africa in particular where one “big boss” man is protected and the rest of the citizenry is ignored and disregarded. The difference this time round is that the Official Opposition is not being coopted. It will not take that easy and comfortable path that we have seen in so many other instances and which the NFP took up so eagerly this year. We will stand up to the “big man” Zuma. The DA will not back off. It will not be intimidated. It will not be coopted. It will do what is right for South Africa and its future. For the ANC this is their biggest frustration.