The delegation was later rejigged to accommodate their protests by legislature speaker Fikile Xasa.

DA MPL Bobby Stevenson complained the ANC had made a “manipulative and indecent attempt to engineer a particular outcome for a rotten piece of legislation”.

This was vehemently denied by legislature media liaison officer Bulelwa Ganyaza.

Public hearings on the secrecy bill are to be held today in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and the OR Tambo and Joe Gqabi regions. Eastern Cape MPLS were supposed to accompany the ad hoc committee of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to the different areas.

Stevenson said the move was a “huge deviation” from normal procedures, where all official delegations that embarked on public hearings were supposed to be of a multiparty nature. “This undemocratic move betrays the ruling party’s paranoia that the public at large is vehemently opposed to these bills. Why else would they engage in this underhand charade to try and whitewash the proceedings.”

Stevenson said a dangerous precedent for the legislature had been set as it undermined democracy. “These public hearings are of critical importance to the future of our constitutional democracy,” he said.

“The secrecy bill is a danger to freedom of information in South Africa. This bill criminalises the possession and disclosure of classified documents even when they reveal wrongdoing.”

Max Mhlathi of the UDM said the party should not have been excluded from the delegation. “We were not even told at the time that the NCOP would come here to conduct public hearings.”

COPE also condemned the decision to exclude opposition party members. “The explanation given to us by the speaker was that they had decided to send only committee chairpersons but obviously all chairpersons belong to the ANC,” said MPL Mbulelo Ntenjwa. “It was a blatant decision to exclude opposition parties.”

But after a number of inquiries and letters of complaint, opposition parties were included in the delegation.

The only portfolio committee chaired by an opposition party member is the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) which is chaired by the UDM’S Mhlathi.

The public hearings will be held at Nangoza Jebe Hall in Port Elizabeth; OR Tambo Hall in Mthatha and the town hall in Barkly East. They all start at 9am. — abongilem@dispatch.co.za

Herlu Smith has now joined the Office of the Premier (OTP) as Chief State Law Adviser, a position previously held by Zoleka Fanana in an acting capacity. The position was left vacant in 2009 by Advocate Perry Beningfield.

Opposition parties have described his move as a great loss while legislature speaker Fikile Xasa described Smith as a “source of inspiration and wisdom to many”.

He said Smith had played a significant role in the legislature since becoming a staff member in 1994. “Many who have worked with him can attest that his leadership, diligence, legal knowledge and his passion for constitutional democracy has helped to build a thriving and credible legislature,” he said.

Smith started working as the Head of Committees in 1994 and later became the institution’s senior legal adviser. He told the Daily Dispatch that the reason behind his departure from the legislature was to “possibly serve the province as a whole”.

He now heads the shared legal services unit at the OTP.

Bobby Stevenson of the Democratic Alliance said Smith’s departure was a great loss to the legislature.

“He has played a critical and a dedicated role in ensuring that the legislature operates in an efficient manner,” he said.

The UDM’S Jackson Bici said Smith would leave a lasting legacy. “He has had a wonderful contribution to the institution. Herlu was very patient, and he worked well with members.”

COPE’S Mbulelo Ntenjwa praised Smith’s efficiency and his fairness when dealing with political parties. “He was really resourceful, even at the time when I was the speaker of council in Mnquma Municipality. We’d call him for his legal opinion on our council. When I joined the legislature, I discovered he was apolitical – always willing to help any member regardless of the political party they belonged to.

“He wanted to ensure the functionality of the legislature.” — abongilem@dispatch.co.za

Subsequent to my letter I was contacted by the Speaker who informed me that I would be contacted by the Chief Whip with regard to the inclusion of opposition members.

This has now occurred and I have been informed that members of the opposition will be part of the official delegation of the provincial legislature which joins that of the NCOP.

I will be joining the delegation tomorrow in the Nelson Mandela Metropole.

The fact remains that if the DA had not raised the issue, the opposition would have been excluded from these very important hearings. This once more highlights the value of having a vigorous opposition to safeguard democratic values.

This is a huge deviation from the normal procedure where all official delegations that embark on public hearings are of a multi-party nature. This undemocratic move portrays the ruling party’s fears and paranoia that the public at large is vehemently opposed to these bills. Why else would they engage in this underhand ANC parade to try and white-wash the proceedings and rig the outcome.

This action sets a dangerous precedent for the legislature as it totally undermines our conventional democratic practice and the multiparty nature of our constitutional democracy.

These public hearings are of critical importance to the future of our constitutional democracy. The secrecy bill is a danger to freedom of information in South Africa. This bill criminalises the possession and disclosure of classified documents even when they reveal wrong doing such as corruption. There is not public interest defence.

The action by the legislature highlights a manipulative and indecent attempt to engineer a particular outcome for a rotten piece of legislation. The smoke and mirrors politics that the ANC is engaged in by creating the illusion of bona fide public hearings will not fool South Africa. The Eastern Cape legislature’s attempt is now exposed.

I have written to the Speaker and the Secretary of the legislature, expressing my outrage at the subversion of normal democratic practices which this institution has always adhered to. I have requested that this item be placed on the next multi-party rules committee agenda so those responsible can be held accountable.

Supporting documents:

Letter to the Speaker Protection of State info bill

Top of the agenda needs to be the issue of job creation and how we can make this a winning province which is competitive with the others.

Secondly, this lekgotla needs to come up with solutions to the current education crisis in the Eastern Cape as we are condemning millions of learners to a system that does not prepare them adequately for the job market.

Thirdly, this lekgotla needs to deal firmly with the issue of corruption in this province and what decisive steps will be taken to outlaw cadre redeployment, civil servants doing business with the state and tenderpreneurs who are ripping this province off.

The fortunes of the Eastern Cape will rise and fall, depending on the calibre of leadership that this province exercises. The Executive Council needs to ensure that accountability is practised and not simply preached at all levels of government.

“THE department is not dealing with movie stars that will come back by popular demand,” Eastern Cape education MEC Stone Sizani said in 2001, as he faced public pressure to take back the sharp-shooting head of his department, Modidima Mannya, who had resigned in a huff.

Mr Sizani was wrong. Mr Mannya returned to the department as superintendent-general 10 years later, early last year.

The Eastern Cape education department is receiving assistance from Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in getting the basics right.

This is not the first national intervention — the provincial department has been under the watch of Pretoria for most of its life.

On his return, Mr Mannya would have found things as bad as they were when he left in 2001.

But his return to the Eastern Cape has not been that of a movie star. He quickly fell out of favour with a teachers’ union for not extending the contracts of 2100 part-time teachers.

That upset teachers affiliated to the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), which went on a go-slow as pupils returned for a new school year this month. The province is the worst performer in matric results, where only one in two pupils passes their finals. The union has demanded Mr Mannya quit as he did in 2001.

Since its formation in 1994, the province’s education department has languished compared with other provinces. It has suffered years of stop-start political leadership, as MECs were replaced for various reasons.

The ANC has appointed a range of MECs since 1994 to turn the troubled department around — from a gymslip-wearing Nosimo Balindlela in 1994, to seasoned provincial politicians like Mr Sizani — but this has produced poor education results and bad financial management.

The department often overspends and, together with the province’s health department, this often results in overexpenditure of the overall provincial budget.

The province is also home to ghost teachers — some of them creations of crooked administrators who intercept the money meant to fund new teaching posts.

Democratic Alliance leader in the Eastern Cape legislature, Bobby Stevenson, says the department has had 10 administrative heads since 2000. In one instance, where politics got in the way of strategic vision, the ANC lured United Democratic Movement MP Philip Qokweni during the floor-crossing a decade ago. In a classic case of cadre deployment, he emerged in the Eastern Cape as head of department. He left after a short stint, leaving the department on its path to nowhere.

Mr Stevenson says the turnover at the top is a disgrace and is one of the factors that has “condemned children to a perpetual cycle of poverty because of inferior education”. Changing MECs and department heads created an “illusion” of change at the top, while things stayed bad on the ground.

Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi yesterday held a crisis meeting with Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet to resolve tension between teachers and the government over Mr Mannya’s role. Mr Mannya became unpopular with the teachers following his measures to cut costs, which included letting go 2100 temporary teachers whose contracts were due to expire next month.

However, it was announced yesterday that a third of the teachers would be absorbed in other funded posts available in the department.

mkokelis@bdfm.co.za

• The province lost R400 million that could have been rolled over that wasn’t rolled over due to incapacity to spend.

• The shifts from Capital and goods and services to cover over expenditure on personnel (costs COE).

• The R27.5 million additional transfers to political parties.

To pass this adjustments bill is like saying to a turkey or a sheep – you must look forward to Christmas. You are going to get a lot of attention and lots of people are going to be very grateful and happy but in the end, you are going to get eaten.

The DA is not prepared to simply endorse a historical pattern that continues to repeat itself year in and year out.

THE LOST R500 MILLION

Provincial Treasury requested a roll over of R1,416 billion from National Treasury. Only the roll over request of R894 million was approved. This means that R522 million that could have been rolled over was not rolled over.

Of this amount R400 million was for infrastructure but it was not rolled over because of our poor spending levels.

The bulk then of the roll overs, is conditional money that couldn’t be spent in the previous financial year – that in itself, is a tragedy but what is a double tragedy, is the fact that we now not even allowed to roll over money because of poor spending levels in this province.

SHIFTS FROM CAPITAL GOODS AND SERVICES TO PERSONNEL

When one interogates the shifts within the provincial finances that are contained in this adjustment budget, one sees that capital payments are reduced by R320 million and goods and services by R258 million which makes up the bulk of the additional R928 million which has been allocated to cover additional personnel costs in this budget.

While personnel costs continue to escalate, expenditure on goods and services as well as capital continues to decline. We cannot support this trend.

R27.5 MILLION BONANZA TO POLITICAL PARTIES

The third reason why the DA is opposed to this adjustment appropriation bill is the additional amount of R27.5 million which is to be transferred to political parties.

The DA does not object to transfers to political parties – this is an accepted principle in this house and we are a recipient of those monies. We will continue to claim our share otherwise it will simply be re-distributed amongst other political parties.

The real issue is the additional payment of R27.5 million this year when we have already received an allocation at the beginning of the year.

If this amount was R3 or R4 million which was designated to improve our constituency offices, we would not be objecting. But the scale of this additional amount which is not in line with our province’s priorities.

When I raised this item in our finance committee, none of the officials wanted to answer it and I can understand why – because a political decision was taken to provide this additional allocation.

The conclusion that one draws is this huge additional amount has suddenly been made available to political parties because of the ANC centenary celebrations. We all know that the governing party will get 70% of this money.

The DA believes that we have our priorities wrong. We should be spending what funds we have on service delivery, fixing our roads, fixing our schools, fixing our hospitals.

The DA believes that this money should be surrended back to the Provincial Revenue Fund where it can be used for service delivery.

This is also not just the view of the DA but also the budget and oversight committee has made a recommendation that this money be surrendered back to the provincial treasury. This was done so, prior to the knowledge that this money would be given to political parties and that is contained in the next item’s report.

I have outlined the three key reasons why the DA cannot support this adjustment budget. We are not prepared to continue to say yes, yes, yes every year when the same patterns repeat themselves.

The finance committee has also reached the end of its tether when it comes to the expenditure patterns that we are experiencing in this province.

The committee as a whole cannot express its displeasure in the same manner as I do as they have to do so within the limitations of being members of the ruling party.

Let me conclude with these words :

Genoeg is genoeg. Kwanele, Kwanele

In short it is doing things right but the question which I, and members of the portfolio committee have is – Is the Department doing the right things?

To my mind the Department lacks an overall vision and passion as to how it can effectively oversight the SAPS and make a greater impact on bringing down crime levels in this Province. This department must not be seen as some fringe department but can actually play a major role in service delivery in this Province.

I wish to draw members attention to the national planning commission whose document points out that high crime levels have slowed down South Africa’s economic growth rate.

One therefore cannot isolate the impact of crime on job creation and employment. This Department needs to take itself more seriously and the Province needs to take this Department more seriously as does the SAPS.

The committee’s annual report refers to the poor relations between the Department and Provincial SAPS and, as a result, the Department is not holding regular meetings with the Senior Management of SAPS for purpose of oversight. The report also points out that the Department does not have a clear plan to monitor the implementation of it’s oversight recommendations of the SAPS.

One clearly cannot have a situation where the Department does not receive the full co-operation of the SAPS. Or that there is a sweetheart relationship to the detriment of vigorous oversight. The committee is extremely concerned with regard to the impact that the Department is making and recommended that the Department must conduct an impact assessment of it’s activities and programmes to ensure that they bring some form of change.

The Department needs to move from an outputs based culture to a performance monitoring culture when it comes to the SAPS.

In the latest S A Crime Quarterly an article by David Bruce suscintly deals with this matter. The Department needs, in fact, to be monitoring the following key issues :

• Does the SAPS in fact reduce crime, disorder, fear and promote public safety.

• What is their effectiveness in bringing offenders to justice.

• How promptly do they respond to emergency calls.

• Do they communicate with and serve members of the public in a professional manner?

• Are they responsive to vulnerable groups?

• Do they co-operate with other agencies including the Department of Safety and Liaison in order to enhance broader crime prevention activities?

• Do they follow professional standards in recording and reporting information on crime?

What this Department should be able to answer is – who is doing crime, why are they doing crime and how can that crime be prevented in a sustainable way?

If we know the answers to those questions one can then have much more effective policing in this Province. We can’t be tough on crime without being tough on the causes of crime in this Province. We therefore need to know what are the causes of crime in this Province in general and specifically in different regions.

We are now in the period of 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children.

The rate of reported sexual crimes in the Eastern Cape and the latest victims of crime survey highlight the vulnerability of women and children in our Province.

According to the SAPS, Eastern Cape Crime statistics, 20 sexual offences were reported per day at police stations during the 2010 / 2011 year – all in all a total of 9380, which was a 2.2% increase over the previous year.

I wish to raise a number of questions in this regard.

1. In terms of the Sexual Offences Act, does the Department monitor whether the SAPS ensures compulsory HIV testing for perpetrators of sexual offences?

2. Does the Department monitor whether rape victims are informed verbally and in writing of medical treatment that needs to be taken within 72 hours in terms of the Act? Research has shown that this is very poor.

3. Does the Department monitor the waiting time for rape victims when reporting rape at police stations?

4. Does the Department monitor how members of the SAPS receive training in terms of the sexual offences act and national instruction?

5. Does the Department monitor whether members of the SAPS receive training in the forensic and medical management of rape survivors?

6. Does the Department monitor whether the SAPS receives training with regard to the social context of rape and rape trauma? Research indicates that the training, even to members of the Child protection, family violence and sexual offences units is poor.

What has the Department done to monitor the Department of Social development’s child protection register which is supposed to list people unsuitable to work with children as a result of previous convictions of child abuse?

Three months ago there was only one name in the register and now it contains twenty two names. If this Department had a broader vision of improving safety in the Province, they would be onto these kinds of issues and ensure that people that are unfit to work with children’s names are listed in this Register from this Province but there are only 22 from the whole country.

Honourable Speaker, the Democratic Alliance is calling for this Department to adopt a broader vision, a fresh outlook and to fight crime in this Province with greater passion and to hold the SAPS more accountable without fear or favour.

Although the Provincial Revenue Fund also has sufficient funds to cover the unauthorised expenditure contained in this Bill for 2007/8 through to 2009/10, this Bill must not be seen as a cure for the Province’s financial ill discipline.

Rather this Bill must be seen as the outcome of such problems. It is a reflection on the poor state of control when it comes to Provincial finances.

Although we welcome the fact that only R1.1 out of the reported R1.9 billion is recommended for funding in terms of the Bill before us today, it still remains far too high. What it means is that funds are paid out where there is no budget for those funds. The big culprits in this finance bill are Health at R183 million and Education at R862 million. This is largely as a result of over expenditure on personnel mainly due to under budgeting for occupational specific dispensation adjustments in the budget.

This Province needs to adopt a tough stand. We can’t simply pay out money for personnel costs when the money is not there and then come to SCOPA and expect us to authorise those payments and then expect everyone to simply approve this Bill in the house.

This method of dealing with unauthorised expenditure, is becoming all too common. The question I would like to ask the MEC – Is all unauthorised expenditure reported to the Executive Authority in this Province as it should be? Are there proper monitoring and controls in place to ensure that this reporting takes place and when it does, what action is taken immediately to deal with the situation?

What is not included in this report is the R874 million that was paid out in the 2009/10 year by the Health Department for the HROPT payments (Human resources operational task team). The investigation into this has not yet been finalised.

In June this house passed a recommendation that the office of the Premier and the Provincial Treasury must ensure that the investigation is finalised as soon as possible. How far are we in this investigation and when will it be finalised? The payment of R874 million in backpay without the funds being present to do so, is a very very serious matter.

The other question I would like to ask the MEC is that in the SCOPA recommendations, which the house agreed to, disciplinary action needs to be taken against officials in the following departments – Health, Education, Agriculture, Local Government and Sports Arts and Culture for unauthorised expenditure. What progress has been made with this recommendation for disciplinary action? Sifuna iimpendulo.

MEC’s must prepare themselves for answers because my colleagues and I will be taking this matter up when we have a chance to question you under departmental votes.

Unauthorised expenditure is sometimes inevitable but in most cases it can be avoided if we apply sound financial management. MEC we cannot allow the situation to continue where money is paid out for personnel costs when that money is simply not there.

This Province ends up engaging in smoke and mirrors accounting. Where we overspend on personnel, and underspend on capital. The books might balance but service delivery becomes imbalanced. Strong leadership is needed in this Province to turn the situation around. That’s why we are here. Leaders must lead.

iinkokheli mazi kokhele. The Democratic Alliance supports this Bill.

• The province lost R400 million that could have been rolled over that wasn’t rolled over due to incapacity to spend.

• The shifts from Capital and goods and services to cover over expenditure on personnel (costs COE)

• The R27.5 million additional transfers to political parties

To pass this adjustments bill is like saying to a turkey or a sheep – you must look forward to Christmas. You are going to get a lot of attention and lots of people are going to be very grateful and happy but in the end, you are going to get eaten.

My party is not prepared to simply endorse a historical pattern that continues to repeat itself year in and year out.

THE LOST R500 MILLION

Provincial Treasury requested a roll over of R1,416 billion from National Treasury. The only roll over request of R894 million were approved. This means that R522 million that could have been rolled over was not rolled over.

Of this amount R400 million was for infrastructure but it was not rolled over because of our poor spending levels.

The bulk then of the roll overs, is conditional money that couldn’t be spent in the previous financial year – that in itself, is a tragedy but what is a double tragedy, is the fact that we now not even allowed to roll over money because of poor spending levels in this Province.

SHIFTS FROM CAPITAL GOODS AND SERVICES TO PERSONNEL

When one interogates the shifts within the Provincial Finances that are contained in this adjustment budget, one sees that capital payments are reduced by R320 million and goods and services by R258 million which makes up the bulk of the additional R928 million which has been allocated to cover additional personnel costs in this budget.

While personnel costs continue to escalate, expenditure on goods and services as well as capital continues to decline. We cannot support this trend.

R27.5 MILLION BONANZA TO POLITICAL PARTIES

The third reason why the Democratic Alliance is opposed to this adjustment appropriation bill is the additional amount of R27.5 million which is to be transferred to political parties.

The Democratic Alliance does not object to transfers to political parties – this is an accepted principle in this house and we are a recipient of those moneys. We will continue to claim our share otherwise it will simply be re-distributed amongst other political parties.

The real issue is the additional payment of R27.5 million this year when we have already received an allocation at the beginning of the year.

If this amount was R3 or R4 million which was designated to improve our constituency offices, we would not be objecting. But the scale of this additional amount which is not in line with our Province’s priorities.

When I raised this item in our finance committee, none of the officials wanted to answer it and I can understand why – because a political decision was taken to provide this additional allocation.

The conclusion that one draws is this huge additional amount has suddenly been made available to political parties because of the ANC centenary celebrations. We all know that the governing party will get 70% of this money.

The Democratic Alliance believes that we have our priorities wrong. We should be spending what funds we have on service delivery, fixing our roads, fixing our schools, fixing our hospitals.

The Democratic Alliance believes that this money should be surrended back to the Provincial Revenue Fund where it can be used for service delivery.

This is also not just the view of the Democratic Alliance but also the budget and oversight committee has made a recommendation that this money be surrendered back to the provincial treasury. This was done so, prior to the knowledge that this money would be given to political parties and that is contained in the next item’s report.

I have outlined the three key reasons why the Democractic Alliance cannot support this adjustment budget. We are not prepared to continue to say yes, yes, yes every year when the same patterns repeat themselves.

As you will note from the committee recomendations on this adjustments budget, that the finance committee has also reached the end of it’s tether when it comes to the expenditure patterns that we are experiencing in this Province.

The committee as a whole cannot express it’s displeasure in the same manner as I do as they have to do so within the limitations of being members of the ruling party.

Let me conclude with these words :

Genoeg is genoeg. Kwanele, Kwanele