Legislature Leader Bobby Stevenson (middle) does a celebratory dance at a Women’s Day gathering organised by the DA. With him is DA Gauteng MPL Patricia Mokgohlwa

The Democratic Alliance believes that there are a number of action steps that can be taken immediately to improve the administration of our failing Health and Education Departments which have received bad audit reports (adverse opinions or disclaimers) since inception.

1. The MEC for every department should sign a performance agreement with the Premier. This is something the President has stated that he has done with the National Cabinet.

MPL Dacre Haddon addresses a branch committee meeting of Ward 39 in Port Elizabeth

The following article appeared in the Weekend Post recently, and speaks for itself regarding the impact that the DA is having in the lives of ordinary people in the province:

AFTER threatening the Eastern Cape Housing Department with legal action, a Bay grandmother’s 10-year housing nightmare will soon be over.

After almost a decade, Regina Windvoël’s officially approved, government-sponsored RDP house has yet to be completed after a contractor abandoned the project with only the foundation laid. Windvoël still lives in a shack on the property.

An opposition that continues to ask probing questions has left the ruling ANC feeling “uncomfortable”. This emerged when Local Government portfolio committee member Veliswa Mvenya and other members of opposition parties asked questions about the controversial purchase of five farms by the OR Tambo Municipality.

According to the Saturday Dispatch opposition parties claimed that they were gagged from asking critical questions about the

R45million which was spent to buy the farms in Kokstad.

DA MPL and provincial spokesperson on education, Edmund van Vuuren and Nelson Mandela Metro councillor Jeremy Davis has a word with the principal of Khumbulani High School in Port Elizabeth which was razed in a fire o 2 August. The efforts of DA helped in finding suitable alternative accommodation and classrooms for the learners of the school.

This is an extract from a speech delivered by DA Leader Helen Zille at the Suid Afrikaanse Onderwyser Unie Principals Symposium in Port Elizabeth this week. In it, Zille proposes that the Labour Relations Act be amended to limit the rights of teachers to strike.

What most determines a child’s success in the classroom is not their background, their financial circumstances, the curriculum or the resources of the school (although these things all play a role).

The crucial variable is the quality of the teaching.

You do not need to be an education policy expert to know this.   Many of us in this room probably attended poor schools.  I am one of them.

DA MPL John Cupido and Legal Advisor Sicelo Nzuzo, at a public hearing in Queenstown recently on the proposed merger of the Eastern Cape Tourism Board and the provincial Parks Board.

Good news for the Port Elizabeth Opera House is that R21 million has been budgeted by the Department of Arts and Culture (DSRAC) for renovations. This emerged from a written legislature question by Sport, Recreation, Art and Culture portfolio committee member John Cupido. According to the DSRAC MEC, Xoliswa Tom, the decision for the funding was made against the background that the Opera House is a Heritage site and the second oldest theatre in the country. She added that the department transferred R2 million to the Opera House in the 2008/09 financial year for upgrading and lighting of the stage.

Pine Pienaar, DA provincial spokesperson on Health.

The Department of Health has indicated that it is gradually making up the shortfall of ambulances in the Eastern Cape.

In reply to a legislature question by DA MPL Pine Pienaar, the MEC for Health said the province required 450 ambulances to deliver an effective emergency medical service. There are currently 257 ambulances in the fleet of the department. According to MEC Phumulo Masualle an additional 100 ambulances would be purchased in the current financial year and the remaining 93 in the next financial year.

Legislature Leader Bobby Stevenson spent his 67 minutes on Madiba Day on 18 July at the Ikhaya Macnamee Old Age Home in Ward in Port Elizabeth, where they handed out blankets and refreshments. With Stevenson is Robert Mose, Metro councillor Bobby Cekisani, Lulama Stout and Phila Qalinge.

The Soccer World Cup has come and the Soccer World Cup has gone.  The legacy that remains behind is not just the excellent infrastructure that we can all be proud of, but the great hope it has given all South Africans is that we can deliver service excellence.  Often many people get into a state of despair and depression and don’t believe this country can be turned around.  The service excellence that occurred during the World Cup showed that with the right inspiration and commitment we can deliver a world class event.  This has made all of us extremely proud to be South African.

This illustrates that things can be different.  One only has to look to Cape Town and the Western Cape to see how service delivery is making a difference.  More and more people return from the Western Cape saying “we can see it, we can feel it”.

Bethelsdorp DA ward co-ordinator, Elizabeth Williams-Tshazibane (right) points out cracks in her house which have worsened over the years. With her is left, DA Councillor ward 34, AB Meyer, and provincial spokesman on housing, MPL Dacre Haddon, taking a closer look at the damage.

Housing provincial spokesman and portfolio committee member Dacre Haddon has found the same problems wherever he goes:  shoddy work and dodgy deals.

Recent on-site visits have compelled Haddon to call in the help of Local Government MEC Sicelo Gqobana at the Rent-to-Buy housing scheme in Bethelsdorp Extention 32, while in Jansenville the exposure of irregularities concerning a RDP housing project was so alarming that the DA has decided to compile a formal statement to be handed over to the Minister of Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale.

“The houses in Bethelsdorp are a hazard to the people living there,” Haddon said. The Rent-to-Buy project, instituted the 1990’s, was built on clay soil and the houses are now collapsing.  As a result the residents have to endure lack of privacy because of holes in walls and endure whatever the temperaments of the weather in the Windy City.

Getting around...When the Bhisho MPLs are not addressing queries by citizens of the Eastern Cape or attending to legislature business, they are also tasked with other pressing issues. On this photo MPL Veliswa Mvenya (left) is chairing a breakaway session at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s International Parliamentary Conference on Climate Change, which was held in London from 12-16 July. Mvenya’s topic was “gender and climate change”.

The recent election of the new Deputy Speaker in the Provincial Legislature, Bulelwa Tunyiswa-Gqoboka, had everything to do with the factional politics in the tri-partite alliance and nothing to do with the performance of the previous deputy speaker, Neo Moerane, says MPL and DA Caucus Chairperson Veliswa Mvenya.

Barely a year after her election, Moerane was forced to resign.  This is a sign of the ongoing tensions in the tri-partite alliance which is retarding service delivery in this province.   This also manifested itself on 28 June at an election for a Speaker and Mayor in the Mnquma Municipality (Butterworth).  There were three candidates for the election, two ANC and one DA (Zama Bomela).  After the first round the SACP aligned candidate fell out and the DA candidate lost by a mere five votes in a council of over 60 councillors of which only two are DA councillors.

Always busy...if it’s roads or healthcare, MPL Pine Pienaar will make the call.

An issue of major concern has emerged lately following the provincialisation of a number of small-town hospitals.

“It took the Eastern Cape Department of Health only three months to plunge the well-serviced and functional Dordrecht Hospital in a financial crisis,” Pienaar said recently  The Democratic Alliance learned with concern that since the facility became state-funded, no payments had been made to the hospital. The staff had not received their salaries and medical supplies had been running low.  Similar problems emerged at the Kirkwood- and Kareedouw hospitals.