Politics.za

Just in case you thought it was all sweetness and light within the DA it’s refreshing to know that even they resort to a bit of intra-party bickering.

It’s official. Western Cape MEC for Local Government Richard Diyanti has notified Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille thay he intends to reorganise the Cape Town council into an executive committee type system. This system would make the mayor largely ceremonial and place most of the power in a 10 person committee which would comprise of the DA (4 seats), the ANC (4 seats) and the ID (2 seats) although the linked article mentions it might be DA:4/5 ANC:4 ID:1 ACDP:1(?), with the smaller parties (ACDP who may or may not get a seat, FF+, AMP) shut out.

Prior to their election victory the DA claimed preference for the executive committee model when it seemed possible the ID would join them in a coalition. When the ID decided to back the ANC in the mayoral vote the DA were basically left with no choice but to stay with the executive mayoral system or face defeat.

Diyanti justifies the move saying that an executive committee would be more ‘stable’ and the executive committee would be more ‘inclusive’. Which begs the question. So when is Tony Leon (or Joe Seremans considering the ANC’s distate for Leon) getting his ‘inclusive’ cabinet position? Sure the ANC received 69% of the national vote but with the DA that would be an even more inclusive 80%! If Diyanti was so worried about stability he might want to recommend that floor crossing be scrapped as it’s probably the single greatest cause of upheaval in local councils (usually in the ANC’s favour though).

Here’s a telling quote from the ANC’s Max Ozinsky:

The recent local government election did not produce a clear winner and at the moment only half of the voters are represented in the mayoral committee, leaving the other half outside.

Will someone please call a whaaaaambulance? Perhaps someone should remind Max that the ANC were the ones who introduced the executive mayoral committee system in the first place and during their time in power excluded the DA from it. He also doesn’t mention that every single other council in the Western Cape uses the executive mayoral system currently. Max also somehow implies that the ANC is somehow totally shut out of the political process which is not true as while they are not on the mayoral committee they still have 88 votes on the council and also does not consider such facts that the budget that was passed in May was largely drawn up by the previous ANC committee and that the new city manager appointed by the DA, Achmat Ebrahim, was a member of the ANC’s management team.

Business Day had an opinion piece yesterday that called such a move as smelling of ANC desperation. The guys at Commentary say it show’s the disrespect the ANC shows towards the democratic process. DA Mal, who comments on the Commentary thread, seems suprisingly upbeat and indicates he believes this will probably be killed in the courts and should it go through the ANC will suffer in subsequent provincial and local elections.

Now what about the ID? Well give them credit they have been consistent from even before the elections that they preferred an executive committee system and obviously they stand to gain if this change goes through. However if you consider the beatdown the ID took when it sided with the ANC during the council mayoral vote and the near revolt amongst it’s members they will have to be be very careful not to fuel further uprising if they are seen as helping the ANC in this. If the reforms do indeed go through I wouls assume that the ID would be siding more with the DA than the ANC, especially after the DA successfully picked up the council seat in Tafelsig after the ID councillor (Sheval Arendse who then ran under the DA) resigned from the ID in protest of their support of the ANC’s mayoral candidate.

Finally I’d like to mention that as of a month ago in the Eastern Cape, three of the largest municipalities were so rife with infighting in the ANC that they have yet to actually appoint mayors. And yet I have yet to hear of the Eastern Cape provincial government intervening there despite the complete chaos and shambles those councils are in when compared to Cape Town.

Proving that he believed in equal opportunity bribing the DA has admitted to receiving R500 000 from murdered businessman (and probable fraudster) Brett Kebble. That amount is a mere fraction of the R25 million the ANC received but it does illustrate how no one in SA politics is immune from dirty money.

This again illustrates the need for revised political party funding laws in SA . Almost all political parties however are reluctant to do so. The ANC does not want to suddenly ask the kinds of questions it has to answer about Kebble and the DA and other small parties doesn’t want to open it’s donor books for fear that it’s donors will be discriminated against in some way by the ANC.

The only loser here is the voting public.

The DA is starting a 10 day campaign today to draw attention to the Oilgate scandal, which saw BEE company Imvume donate R11 million of the R15 million it was given to buy oil condensate to the ANC prior to the 2004 elections (the donation also bankrupted the company and caused PetroSA, who would have bought the condensate, to pay twice for the same product from it’s suppliers).

To date there has been no inquiry, no resignations and no consequences over what seems to be some highly irregular goings on. Each day the DA is going to release a new statement pertaining to a certain aspect of the scandal and they’re kicking it off today with a statement over the lack of a commission of enquiry.

• The Promotion of Access to Information Act
• The ANC
• The Minerals and Energy portfolio committee
• SCOPA and the Auditor-General
• The Public Protector
• The Director-General in the Presidency
• The National Prosecuting Authority
• The Deputy President
• Other

Murdered controversial mining magnate Brett Kebble is reported to have paid R25 million to the ANC and various other ANC bodies, including nearly a R1 million to his close pals in the ANC Youth League, through his network of companies. Considering the recent rumblings in the ANC about limiting members business interests and coming down tough on corruption and graft you would expect them to be quickly coming clean about these allegations should they turn out to be true? Unfortunately due to South Africa’s limited political party funding laws I’m not sure whether much can come of this. Even the DA, who are calling on the ANC to come clean in this situation, have been reluctant to open their own donation books to outsiders.

Seems like I’m not the only one who was worried about the lack of publicly acknowledged leadership waiting in the wings of the ANC and the almost monopoly Jacob Zuma has on the phrase “presidential contender”. DA leader Tony Leon voices the same concerns in this weeks edition of his weekly newsletter claiming that Mbeki and the ANC are looking more and more like deer caught in headlights, as they seem almost paralysed to do anything with Mbeki becoming a lame duck president.

Leon calls on Mbeki to stand up to Zuma’s supporters and do “something dramatic” to “save his Presidency”, with Leon implying that that Mbeki needs to identify a succession candidate (or candidates) sooner rather than later.

The Sunday Times has an interesting article on Ranette Taljaard, the one time DA MP and rapidly rising star of SA politics. She tries to be diplomatic but her opinions on various topics come through clearly. Here she is on Tony Leon:

She refuses to put Leon in a bad light, she says. But since leaving Parliament, she has been “absolutely delighted to reclaim my intellectual independence. That, to me, was the biggest sacrifice.”

On South Africa’s proportional parliamentary system with it’s pseudo constituencies.

Ask any MP how easy it is to parachute into an area that didn’t elect you and where there may be four other MPs from four other political parities doing exactly what you’re doing in an alleged constituency. It’s farcical, I’m sorry. It’s a farcical system.

Ranette is now director of the Helen Suzman Foundation.

And speaking of now gone political rising stars, where the hell is Roelf Meyer?

Is this Tony Leon’s best week ever so far in politics? First Thabo Mbeki says he’s judged Tony all wrong all these years and now the ANC is considering reviewing floor crossing! It’s drinks all round on Tony at DA headquarters this week!

I had originally thought Tony Leon was a racist to the bone; I would later discover that he is a democrat to the bone

Believe it or not that’s President Thabo Mbeki uttering those words. What’s next? A cross country road trip together? Friendship bracelets?

Hey hey hey! Goood byyyeeeee!!!