DA MPL Veliswa Mvenya (front) with members of the Eastern Cape Portfolio Committee for Social Development during a study tour to Tanzania.

MPL Veliswa Mvenya, who also handles the Social Development-portfolio for the DA in Bhisho returned from a study-tour to Tanzania recently where it turned out the South Africans taught their hosts a thing or two.

“There weren’t anything much we could learn from them. South Africa is the best compared to Tanzania in terms of fighting poverty. Tanzania is still very poor, with no infrastructure and no proper oversight.

“We were a multiparty-group and went there to learn best practices on how to monitor NGO’s and social development projects, as well as what kind of projects they run and how parliament oversees the departments,” she said.

“The only good thing about them is that they a HIV/Aids-council that falls under government and it is well run and funded by government and international donors like the USA. Another positive thing is that they have a women’s bank helping businesses to start,” she said.

Eastern Cape Legislature Leader Bobby Stevenson

The impact that the Democratic Alliance MPLs in the legislature are having in holding the government accountable for their actions is clearly evident in this issue of the Bhisho Brief. The caucus in the Eastern Cape continues to be a force for change, thus making a difference to improve governance and service delivery.

Legislature Leader Bobby Stevenson is offering some practical suggestions to government, which he has entitled “Agenda for Accountability”.

This follows after Premier Noxolo Kiviet failed to spell in her recent State of the Province Address how accountability of her Cabinet and civil servants is going to be rigidly enforced. “Without accountability we do not get value for money. This means that money is wasted on maladministration, corruption and general inefficiencies”, said Stevenson.

: DA MPL John Cupido with Finance and Economic Development MEC Mcebisi Jonas

The insistence of answers from government has lead to an official forensic investigation being launched against a government top dog.

MPL John Cupido exposed the dodgy appointment of the Eastern Cape Gambling and Betting Board’s chief executive Mabutho Zwane by submitting questions for written reply to Finance and Economic Development MEC Mcibisi Jonas recently.  In turn the facts were relayed to the public through an exclusive exposé in the Daily Dispatch.

DA provincial education spokesperson Edmund van Vuuren and his wife Charmaine with the leader of the party, Helen Zille.

The DA’s month-long national education campaign came to a close in Port Elizabeth last weekend with a public rally attended by party leader Helen Zille.

Provincial MPL and spokesperson on education, Edmund van Vuuren, was cheered when he pointed out some of the weakest points in the Eastern Cape Department of Education.