DA@work Issue 12 Jan 2009

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=90 style=" border-bottom: 1px solid #3366CC;" BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Tulbagh Info Information</B></div> <div> DA@work Issue 12 Jan 2009</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=390 style=" border-left: 1px solid #3366CC;" BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="120" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER BGCOLOR=#0099CC HEIGHT= 15 WIDTH="116"><div> <A HREF="da.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Democratic Alliance Party"><U>Back to DA</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B> <A NAME="top_story_da_delivers_while_anc_falls"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></FONT><B>Top Story</B>:<B> DA delivers while ANC falls short on promises </B></div> <div> Unlike the ANC, the Democratic Alliance was a party with a proven track record of delivery said Helen Zille in a speech delivered in Bela Bela, Limpopo on Sunday.</div> <div> “The DA's vision for South Africa is very different from the ANC's, it is of an open, opportunity society where every person is given a fair chance to make a success of their life.”</div> <div> “In such a society government is entrusted to create ever-expanding opportunities for all, not ever-diminishing opportunities for the well-connected few.” </div> <div> Zille said the results of this policy were evident in all the areas where the DA was in government.</div> <div> She cited economic growth in Cape Town as an example, saying that, as it had promised in its election manifesto, the city's gross geographic product (GGP) had increased by over 12% from R116.6 billion in 2005 - when the ANC governed - to R130.77bn in 2007, under DA rule, and unemployment had declined from 20.7% in 2005 to 17.9% in 2007.</div> <div> She also said that the party had delivered on promises of efficiency and safety.</div> <div> “Within a year of taking over the city, we cut debt by nearly R1bn, which allowed us to extend the capital available for service delivery by 15%.”</div> <div> “We have put the money to good use: for example, we have begun supplying electricity to informal settlements.”</div> <div> “We have tripled the investment in infrastructure that benefits the public, especially the poor, and supports the economy from an average of R1bn per year between 2002 and 2006 to R3.1 bn in 2008.”</div> <div> “Crime in the CBD has gone down by 90% in the last five years and Capetonians now feel safer: 3 500 residents have moved back into inner city apartments,” Zille said.</div> <div> She said that this record of delivery was seen countrywide in DA governed municipalities, and that the party's national election manifesto, which would be launched next month, was based on a package of carefully costed and mutually reinforcing policies that gave practical expression to the party's vision of an open, opportunity society for all.</div> <div> “Our track record in government shows that we can put our manifesto into action, and that we will put it into action- we can deliver on our promises, and we will deliver on them,” she said.</div> <div> In contrast to the DA, the ANC made big promises before every election and then failed to deliver.</div> <div> In response to the release of the ANC's election manifesto on Saturday, Zille said that the African National Congress election manifesto was long on promises and short on credibility.</div> <div> "Jacob Zuma's address today was no different. As always, it was long on promises, but short on credibility.</div> <div> "Every one of Zuma's utterances is contradicted by the experience in reality," said Zille of the manifesto launched in the Eastern Cape.</div> <div> She said Zuma's promise to fight corruption would not happen.</div> <div> "This comes from a man who faces a charge of 783 counts of alleged corruption totalling R4,2-million.</div> <div> "If Zuma was serious about the fight against corruption, he would step down as the president of the ANC until his name was cleared in court," she added.</div> <div> She said that Zuma's promise to use state-owned enterprises to create a better life for all people would also not happen.</div> <div> "Fifteen years after ANC rule, these institutions are unable to deliver on their basic mandates.</div> <div> "The continuing threat of rolling blackouts by Eskom is just one example of how inefficient these institutions have become," she said. </div> <div> Zille also said her party had welcomed 70 ANC members to its Namagkale branch in Limpopo. </div> <div> <A HREF="#top_story_da_delivers_while_anc_falls" TITLE="DAwork Issue 12 Jan 2009"><U>Back to top</U></A></div> <div> <B>DA welcomes investigation of `blue light bullies'</B> </div> <div> The Democratic Alliance's Dianne Kohler-Barnard last week welcomed the probe into the South African Police Service's (SAPS) Protection and Security Services , saying the VIP Protection Unit had become a law unto itself.</div> <div> The investigation is the result of yet another event involving the unit; in the past few years it has gained a reputation for harassing drivers with their speeding motorcades and blue lights.</div> <div> Last Saturday a Johannesburg driver was allegedly assaulted on a freeway by members of President Kgalema Motlanthe's protection unit after the man's car got too close to the president's cavalcade.</div> <div> Shots were apparently fired at the man's car and the protection team allegedly confiscated equipment belonging to an SABC news team near the Benoni Atlas offramp. </div> <div> In Mpumalanga, a VIP officer had been named as a suspect in the attempted murder of a football club owner; another in KwaZulu-Natal faced charges for eight counts of attempted murder, after he shot at another vehicle while on his way to collect the province's Social Development MEC, and caused a head-on collision. </div> <div> Kohler Barnard said that the Divisional Commander of the unit, Mzondeki `Sean' Tshabalala, had himself apparently escaped any punishment after reportedly being responsible for causing a serious road accident in August last year, while allegedly under the influence of alcohol.</div> <div> "Saturday's incident was not an isolated case but rather one of many showing callous disregard for the interests of the public from a unit of the SA Police Service which costs taxpayers some R312-million a year to operate."</div> <div> Numerous criminal charges have been laid against members of the unit (<A HREF="mhtml:mid://00000024/#DYK" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mhtml:mid://00000024/#DYK"><B><U>see DID YOU KNOW</U></B></A>) and Kohler-Barnard stated that VIP officers were getting away with their criminal actions without any proper disciplinary measures being taken against them.</div> <div> "Data on the criminal actions of the unit released by the minister of safety and security illustrate how a rudderless police service has lost all ability to hold police units to account, and underscores the importance of Monday's decision by the Independent Complaints Directorate to conduct a full investigation into the unit.</div> <div> "Officers committing serious criminal offences must be removed from the SAPS without delay, and the DA reiterates its call for the introduction of a new code of conduct for the VIP unit, to assist in holding its officers to rigorous standards," said Kohler-Barnard. </div> <div> <A HREF="#top_story_da_delivers_while_anc_falls" TITLE="DAwork Issue 12 Jan 2009"><U>Back to top</U></A></div> <div> <B>Govt orders teachers to inflate matric results</B> </div> <div> The Democratic Alliance last week wrote to Education Minister Naledi Pandor asking for an independent inquiry into allegations that matric results had been inflated. </div> <div> The party had been approached by two people who claimed that some matric marks were deliberately raised said DA deputy education spokesperson Desiree van der Walt last Tuesday.</div> <div> Higher marks were purportedly awarded on the instructions of education officials.</div> <div> One of the persons, identified only as a DA councillor and a former teacher, alleged that colleagues who were marking maths and science papers were told to push up the marks of weaker matric candidates.</div> <div> The unnamed former teacher said colleagues had complained about having been told to increase the marks of weaker candidates so that, for example, 20% be boosted to 30%, which was a pass.</div> <div> The other complainant, a teacher involved in marking history papers, also alleged that the department had instructed teachers that no pupil may get zero out of 30 for an essay.</div> <div> The teacher further alleged that they were instructed that if pupils were able to produce just one fact, they had to be given nine out of 30, almost a pass. The marks in every one of that teacher's papers were later allegedly raised by the chief moderator. </div> <div> "This only adds to the widely expressed concerns about the window-dressing of this year's matric exam results," Van der Walt said.</div> <div> She said that a random sample of matric papers - particularly maths, science, mathematical literacy and history - would establish whether the answers given had warranted the marks received.</div> <div> “this would then have to be followed up by a investigation into who specifically was involved in issuing these instructions,” Van der Walt concluded. </div> <div> <A HREF="#top_story_da_delivers_while_anc_falls" TITLE="DAwork Issue 12 Jan 2009"><U>Back to top</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Suzman's legacy must be honoured</B> </div> <bR> <div> Parliament's Marks Building, long the home of opposition parties within the parliamentary complex in Cape Town, should be renamed the Helen Suzman Building, the Democratic Alliance proposed last Tuesday. </div> <bR> <div> This would be a fitting way to honour Suzman's legacy, DA leader Helen Zille told journalists at a media briefing held in the party's Helen Suzman Caucus Room in the building.</div> <bR> <div> “It would be an appropriate way to commemorate publicly her contribution towards building a non-racial society based on constitutional democracy", she said.</div> <bR> <div> Suzman died on New Year's Day at the age of 91.</div> <bR> <div> Zille said she had written to the Speaker of Parliament, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, asking her to place the proposal to commemorate Suzman on the agenda of the next meeting of the Parliamentary Oversight Authority.</div> <bR> <div> The DA would also like to see Suzman's portrait - taken down in Parliament in 1994, and now hanging in the party's caucus room - rehung in a prominent position within the complex.</div> <bR> <div> Zille said the proposal to rename the Marks Building was supported by Suzman's family.</div> <bR> <div> She added that Suzman was someone who belonged to the nation and not any particular political party.</div> <bR> <div> "We think we owe it to her to do something to honour her legacy," she said.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#top_story_da_delivers_while_anc_falls" TITLE="DAwork Issue 12 Jan 2009"><U>Back to top</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>