Déjà vu today and yesterday

Last month the Orwellian 1984-style stand-off between the ANC and First National Bank (FNB) was most telling.  Let me start off by saying that FNB should be congratulated for having the guts to have produced a number of television adverts where young South Africans expressed themselves freely. They spoke about their vision of South Africa, education, crime, corruption and even the death penalty. They were expressing what millions of other South Africans echo.  At no stage was a particular party named or referred to.

Immediately the ANC freaked out. They were visibly threatened. ANC spokesperson, Keith Khoza described the bank’s commercials as an “attack on the president, his ministers and the government as a whole.” Ironically, these commercials called on South Africans to unite for a better future.

It was obvious to me that the ANC objections were reminiscent of the apartheid government’s approach to any dissent. The apartheid government of old consistently labelled a different opinion to theirs as “treasonous.”  This is exactly how the ANC reacted. They even used exactly the same language and wording.

Instead of taking note and acting on what the school children were saying in the FNB adverts, the ANC lamented at the use by FNB of children in their marketing.  In 1976, the government of the day also didn’t listen to the voices of children. Look where it got them.

Space precludes me from getting into the now-famous “secrecy bill.” It has become the symbol of what the ANC government wants to do when it comes to information, access to it and the management thereof. The parallels between what we’re seeing today and what happened in the dark days of the National Party (NP) are not only striking, but scary too.

During the terrible NP days, the then Minister of Information, Connie Mulder had to answer some particularly probing and embarrassing questions posed by the opposition about the funding by government of a new newspaper at the time. The Citizen “infogate” eventually created such a scandal and embarrassed for the then Prime-Minister BJ Vorster that he was eventually forced to resign.  I can’t help getting a feeling of déjà vu when I read about how The New Age is being funded and its cosy relationship with the government.

Just like the days of old, as the governments’ arrogance grows so does it’s paranoia. It wants to control the electronic media, print media and even what companies, such as FNB say. For example, it’s a fact that the SABC is the ANC’s very own de facto television service.

At the closing of the ANC’s conference in Manguang in December, Blade Nzimandle said in the usual paranoid tone that there was a “creeping counter–revolutionary threat to the deepening and consolidating of our democracy.”

This language should serve as a warning to us, just as they served as a warning in the old days, such language displays paranoia. There is nothing more dangerous for its citizens than when their government is one that is paranoid.  It is our duty to be vigilant as attempts by government to totally control information will lead it to become a danger to its citizens, just as it was in the past.

Cancer does not have to be a death sentence

The 4^th February marked World Cancer Day. The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) used the day to focus on dispelling myths and misconceptions about cancer.

World Cancer Day takes place annually and is an opportunity when everyone, locally and internationally, can unite together in the fight against the global cancer epidemic. Cancer kills more people that TB, AIDS and Malaria combined. It’s a chance for CANSA to raise awareness and improve general knowledge around cancer by dismissing some misconceptions about the disease.

More than 30% of cancers can be prevented. With this in mind it is important to make people aware of the risk factors and methods to reduce the risk of cancer. It is time to change preconceived ideas of what cancer is and who is affected by it as there is much ignorance and fear as a result.

Let me immediately squash the biggest myth of them all; that that cancer is a death sentence. It is not. The truth is that most cancers can now be treated and even prevented. Obviously early detection is the key. The biggest myths I’ve come across include:

There is nothing I can do to prevent cancer: At least 30-40% of cancers are preventable. Potential cancer risks can be reduced by avoiding cancer causing agents and by adopting a healthy balanced lifestyle. Many cancers can be prevented if one avoids tobacco, eats a healthy diet, exercises regularly, protects oneself from excessive sun exposure, limits or avoids drinking alcohol, and goes for recommended screenings regularly.

Cancer is always fatal: Although cancer is a serious disease that may cause death, ongoing new breakthroughs in prevention, early detection and more specific treatment regimens are promoting more effective control measures and help to make cancer a more manageable disease.

Cancer is a disease of white people only: Cancer occurs among people of all races, creeds, ages, genders, rich and poor; it knows no boundaries. Thousands of cancer survivors from all walks of life can attest to this.

There is no link between cancer and the eating of meat and animal fat, therefore cancer patients can eat meat freely: In 2011 a review of several studies by prominent scientists, the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that cancer patients should eat very little or no red meat, which includes beef, mutton, pork, as all these meats are high in iron content which is highly absorbable and is a requirement for cancer cell growth. Certain amino acids in proteins further stimulate the growth of cancers. Red meat is considered a risk factor for colorectal, prostate, breast, uterus, kidney and other cancers.

Each one of us needs to take responsibility in preventing cancer. Let’s all take personal responsibility.

Home Affairs continues to ignore Public Protector

The Department of Home Affairs continues to ignore the recommendations and suggested remedial action outlined by the Public Protector in her report on maladministration and abuse of power in the Department. This will lead to yet another costly court battle for the Department which has already seen its legal costs double over the last two financial years.

The Public Protector’s investigation stemmed from a complaint from a Dutch family which has been living in South Africa since 1996 and has had continuous problems with Home Affairs’ immigration service.

The family has been waiting for residence and work permits since March 2003. The lack of permits has resulted in court action against Mr van Hillegondsberg and a hefty fine for his son.

The Public Protector’s investigation found undue delays on the application for permits by the family which was deemed to be both an abuse of power and maladministration.

The Public Protector instructed remedial action to be taken on this matter by 24 May 2012. A parliamentary reply has revealed that this was only responded to in June 2012.

The instruction from the Public Protector was that a remedy be provided to the complainant; charges laid as well as the fines imposed against the complainant and his family should be withdrawn. Instead, the Department has failed to provide permits to the family and charges have not been withdrawn but suspended.

The family intends to take this matter to court.

It is cases like these that are costing the Department ridiculous amounts of money on legal fees. The Department spent R46.3 million on legal costs in 2011/2012. These costs are largely attributable to the fact that the Department’s immigration services are poorly managed and that they continuously fail to comply with court orders.

The new Home Affairs Minister, Naledi Pandor, must do what her predecessor Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma failed to do. Instead of wasting more of the public’s money, she should simply follow legislation and process this straight-forward application.

Fact: Ward 58 has turned its back on the ANC again

So the dust has settled after the by-election held in ward 58 which covers Fordsburg, Mayfair and surrounds.  It was a tough but also exhilarating and even educational campaign.

The fact is that a “traditionally” held ANC community has again, for the second consecutive time expressed its disgust at the ANC’s continued mismanagement, maladministration and corruption.  The ANC has shown it simply can’t deliver.  No need to take my word for it; simply look at the constant and continuous degradation of the ward under the ANC’s watch!

Facts are facts; previous DA Cllr Waya did more in 1 year despite the ANC’s intimidation, than the 10 years under the watch of the ANC Cllr Pahad.  Fact.

During the by-election campaign I was given a moment of light relief by the local Johannesburg joker Keith Peacock.  I thank Mr Peacock for his letter to the media.  In it he praised the DA and myself in particular by explaining our important media targets. We take communication to the people of Joburg very seriously and thus set targets to ensure that Joburgers are informed and kept abreast of issues.  Unlike the ANC, who have no such targets, we are not interested in gagging or ignoring the important media.

Peacock made me smile as he demonstrated that he and his Party, the ANC, will gladly outright lie at every turn.  The reality is that Zaytoon Waya did indeed live in the ward.  The newly elected councillor, Osman Cassiem is so committed to the ward that he is presently preparing to physically move into the ward.  No ANC councillor has ever done that. Fact.

Peacock then quite correctly talks about business plans, capital projects and the City’s integrated Development Plan.  Indeed these plans were prepared under the tenure of the ANC councillor.  What he doesn’t talk about is the fact that previous Cllr Pahad did nothing to ensure that these plans become reality.  Previous Cllr Waya put these plans into action.  Cllr Cassiem will continue with this action.  Fact.

Peacock makes the statement that I am the DA deployed Member of Parliament for this Constituency.  This is true.  So who is the ANC MP for the constituency?  My guess is that Peacock and most local ANC members don’t know.  The reality is that I’m in the constituency every week with the communities. The ANC is not.  Fact.

Put all these facts together and I’m surprised that the ANC is surprised that they lost this ward!

My prediction is that the ANC will lose it next time too.  I say this because over the next four years the community will see the results of our relentless councillor in changing the face of this ward for the better.

The additional reason that I predict that we’ll win this ward is because the ANC does not understand democracy.   Sore looser ANC candidate Cajee tweeted that the local ANC branch will hold Osman Cassiem accountable “every step of the way”. 

Cajee and his cronies simply don’t understand that Cassiem and all public representatives, irrespective of what tier of government they may serve on, are accountable to people on the ground. To them is who Cassiem will be accountable to and not ANC structures.  This is the way it constitutionally is and that is the way it will be.  Fact.

Now if only we could get the Mayor and his ANC colleagues to understand this Joburg would be a much better place.

The ANC does not and will not understand this and so more and more communicates and more and more wards will turn their backs on the ANC as they seek DA councillors who energetically make concrete positive changes.

Home Affairs wastes R46 million on court cases

In a reply to a DA parliamentary question, the Department of Home Affairs revealed that it has spent R46.3 million on legal costs in 2011/2012. This is more than double the R21.3 million spent in the previous financial year.

These soaring costs are likely attributable to the fact that the Department’s immigration services are a complete disaster and they continuously fail to comply with court orders. The reply indicates that the legal costs were compounded by missing documents, lack of capacity and administrative errors.

An efficient and effective department should not be spending this amount of money on legal costs resulting from their own administrative failures.

Significant savings on legal fees could be had if the Department actually spent more money on staff to deal with applications. It currently employs only nine permanent residence adjudicators who had to deal with 73 499 applications last year.

It is the responsibility of Director-General (DG) Mkuseli Apleni to ensure that the immigration service runs smoothly. Massive backlogs in applications remain, however, and there are currently three contempt of court lawsuits against the department.

As the DA has pointed out previously, the current DG has presided over R800 million in irregular expenditure in three years and now we can add the doubling of legal costs to his list of failures. He has continuously violated the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) over the last three years and is wasting public funds on his department’s inefficiency.

Surely Mister Apleni is not performing the core functions of his office.

I have written to the new Minister of Home Affairs, Naledi Pandor, to ask that she institutes disciplinary proceedings against Director General Apleni for his failure to comply with the PFMA. The Minister should, however, also consider Mr Apleni’s role in immigration applications and the bloating legal costs of the Department.

This Department is failing in a core service area. Minister Pandor must take steps to ensure that she gets the appropriate administrative leadership in place to deliver on her Department’s mandate.

ANC desperate for ward 58 and break the law if they have to

If replies to questions asked of ANC Joburg ward 58 by-election candidate, Muhammed Cajee is anything to go by, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think that he was a Democratic Alliance plant to sabotage the ANC’s election campaign to ensure that the ANC loses this election.

Allow me to explain what I mean: I am basing everything I say on what Mr Cajee has said to a local community paper where, by Cajee’s own unambiguous admission, the ward is in serious decay thanks to ANC complacency. In typical ANC–style, Mr Cajee displays his prejudiced and racist stance when he says that he believes “that it is strategically wrong for the Indian and Coloured communities to marginalise” themselves. This is shocking and shows clearly that he is a person interested in only certain people in the ward whilst ignoring others. The DA candidate Osman Cassiem, on the other hand, works with all people and is not prejudiced.

Cajee says that we “should rather be speaking out against corruption and the lack of service deliver from within the ANC”. How amazing that Cajee in the same breathe admits that the ANC is corrupt and that their service delivery is lacking and then also invites voters to join those very people causing this! The facts are that where the DA governs no corruption and lack of delivery exists.  

In response as to whether belonging to the ANC would make a difference in governing the ward; Muhammed Cajee responds “absolutely” but fails to explain how it would be different now after 10 years of ANC mismanagement and non-service delivery. He brags at how he has met certain Joburg ANC political leaders “to discuss the issues that we need to deal with in the ward” should he be elected. Why haven’t they been around before and why are they waiting only until the election takes place? Is he saying that when the DA wins the ward those same members of the Mayor Committee won’t be resolving issues? Not only would this be a slap in the face to the good residents of the ward, it would be illegal and unconstitutional. Naturally, we would fight this and we would win.

Cajee admits that residents in Mayfair for example “are struggling with congestion, illegal businesses, and the flouting of by-laws and residents in Fordsburg are dealing with grime, dumping, littering and congestion”. All this is thanks to the ANC who has historically controlled these areas and have sat on their hands. Now “suddenly” Cajee believes things will change. What a joke! Exactly what has he been doing in the meantime? Previous ward Cllr Zaytoon Waja was able to make a great difference in the ward by what she did under her guardianship. DA candidate Osman Cassiem has himself been resolving issues in the area and he isn’t even a councillor yet! He was involved in operations against illegal businesses in the area whilst the ANC was present objecting to us insisting on by-laws being respected. 

Throughout his replies Cajee keeps on talking about “lobbying” and “building relationships” with politicians and officials to resolve matters in the ward. Cajee shows his lack of understanding on how legislation pertaining to local government operates. He implies that it is only in having “connections” with certain people within the Municipality that things will get done. This confirms the ANC’s shocking mentality that only through “connections” will things get done. The fact that the City has no choice legally but to do their job to resolve the issues in the ward escapes Cajee.

I had to read it twice over when I read that Cajee would “bring diverse interest groups together to put solutions on the table for upgrading parks; dealing with vagrancy; illegal trading and congestion; crime and grime; dumping; homelessness and unemployment, and so on”. What rubbish! This is the usual ANC style of not actually tackling these issues. No one needs to get together! Meetings are not needed. Stakeholders and interest groups do not need to meet. The City needs to do its job. Finished and klaar! This is what the community wants! A committed councillor that will ensure that officials come into the ward to resolve issues is what’s needed. The community doesn’t need a councillor who doesn’t actually deal with issues but instead brings “diverse interest groups together” achieving nothing.

Cajee tells us that “the ward doesn’t have a single safe and accessible park with decent facilities” and then refers to similar facilities in other wards in excellent conditions namely, Zoo Lake and Delta Park. What he doesn’t tell voters is that the reason why those two parks are top-notch is because of committed, dedicated and hardworking DA councillors who make sure these parks and the rest of their wards remain in these conditions!

Cajee then insults the residents of ward 58 by naming one of his targets to “upgrade at least one park in this ward to be safe and accessible”. The DA plans to deal with all parks!

The people of ward 58 will simply not vote for the ANC candidate as he provides no solutions and is doing nothing presently. Instead of talking about dealing with local schools and education, which falls under provincial powers and have nothing to do with local government, he should have started actually dealing with the many issues in the ward. He simply hasn’t.

However, what the ANC has done in the meantime is destroy, steal and take down our posters erected on street poles. The ANC have placed their posters over DA posters and even taken our own poster string to erect ANC posters. Of course all this is illegal as it goes against the Electoral Act. Just as importantly is that this is also a clear demonstration of the modus operandi of the ANC. They disregard the law and simply do as they like, like erecting posters on trees. Why then would anyone want to logically vote ANC? No me!        

Yours Sincerely,

Manny de Freitas MP

Shadow Minister of Home Affairs

Member of Parliament for Johannesburg South

Facts and actions are what counts, not ANC propaganda

In the last few weeks I have been intimately involved in the ward 58 by-election in Joburg that is to be held on the 7^th of November 2012.  This ward falls within my constituency.  I nearly fell off my chair when I read that the ANC by-election candidate Muhammad Cajee said he is standing as a candidate because his party is in government and therefore he can get more done as the ANC has access to the City purse strings.

The fact is that DA wards are better run, maintained and serviced than ANC wards seem to escape Cajee.  His criticism of the state of the ward leaves me even more open-mouthed!  Cajee bases his criticism on the fact that the previous ward councillor was a DA councillor.  Here are the facts; the ANC has held the area for over 10 years.  During that period, the ward saw consistent gradual degeneration.

In the 2011 local government elections the people of the area demonstrated their disgust in not being served, the ANC’s empty promises simply weren’t believed again and voters gave their valuable vote to the Democratic Alliance.  The facts are that in the just over 1 year that the elected DA councillor Zaytoon Waja did more for her people than the entire time that the ANC held the ward.

In those few months Cllr Waja was able to resolve ablution facilities at the Transnet Hostels despite Transnet being a national competence, something the ANC could never do.  Road markings that hadn’t been painted once under ANC control were done, parks were refurbished and there were town planning and by-law enforcement clampdowns, to mention just a few issues.

The ANC and other parties can try to dispute this but facts are facts.  People have seen for themselves the difference that this courageous woman did, often in the face of ANC adversity and disruption.  The reality is that Cajee clearly misunderstands democracy and the functioning thereof.  The City budget is not owned by the ANC.  It is owned by the ratepayers irrespective of what party is in power.

It is the energy and commitment of the councillor representing the people of the ward that matters, not the connections, cadre deployees that it has in the City.  The facts are that despite the DA not being in the power, it is DA wards that are better served: Fact.

The reality is that, thanks to ANC corruption, mal-administration and cadre deployment, the City is bankrupt.  The billing system continues to be a disaster going back to previous Mayor Amos Masando’s time.  Corruption is rife in various City departments.  Recently the DA uncovered allegations of massive corruption within the City of Joburg’s Regiments Capital Fund involving billions.

Joburg’s corruption practices go all the way to the top.  At the beginning of October the respected Mail and Guardian newspaper reported the Mayor’s wife’s’ conflict of interest in City contracts.

The bottom-line is that the DA’s candidate Osman Cassiem is a humble man who has already demonstrated not only commitment but service in the ward.  Already he is dealing with service delivery issues and is achieving results.  His courage amazes me; Cassiem, in conjunction with DA councillors, was active in getting a number of City departments together in raiding numbers of illegal businesses, operating in the area.  Generally these businesses do not meet by-law standards.

Facts and history do not lie.  Action and not wards is what counts.  All these have been shown and Osman Cassiem is showing everyone that he has the commitment and dedication that Zaytoon Waja had.  That’s a fact.

Yours Sincerely,

Manny de Freitas MP

Shadow Minister of Home Affairs

Member of Parliament for Johannesburg South