With the elections around the corner, the African National Congress (ANC) has given many opportunities for the Democratic Alliance (DA) to prove itself worthy of a black vote. But the DA missed all these opportunities. This has been proven by Bills that parliament has debated. There are three bills in particular I would like to highlight starting with the most recent one. Oil Mining Bill On Wednesday, parliament debated and passed changes to our Petroleum laws, giving the government or state over 20% stake in new gas and oil production and exploration opportunities in the country. The bill also empowers a minister to identify which resources must be produced domestically instead of being extracted oversees as raw materials. And this is what the ANC calls strategic nationalization as opposed to total nationalization which the majority of this country, most especially blacks would approve of. But the ANC is not saying we want 100% ownership, but only 20% of our country’s resources too little for me but too big for the DA I guess. The DA rejects this saying it will allow the ANC to manipulate the deals for its own benefits. That it will result in “corruption” and chase away investors. Concerns maybe valid to some extent but the DA ignores certain issues. No Voter, especially a black voter wants foreign investors to come to our country to own 100% of our resources. The DA here again gave the ANC credibility when its says the DA existence is to protect monopoly capitals. Gender Equity Bill Under this bill,a new legislation which would enforce Gender transformation was debated and passed by parliament. The legislation would force government and companies to fill a minimum of 50% of women in all senior and top management position The DA opposed this bill saying “its bad for the economy” even going to say “there aren’t enough skilled women”. Here they sound exactly like corporate RSA when it justifies their lack of Gender and Race Transformation. A World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report for 2013 noted that South African women earned up to 33% less than their male counterparts for the same work. Facts are, only 44% women are employed in corporate South Africa. Only 19% of them are top managers and only 9% of top managers are black women. Why is that when over half of University Graduates are women and more than half of graduates in general are black ? Despite the Bills goals to transform and balance these, the DA says its bad for the economy. I guess even in Helen Zille’s Cabinet, there weren’t enough qualified, skilled women like her to be part of it that is why she makes up 1% of women (ok, let me say woman) in her 99% male cabinet. The women in DA were “bad for Helen’s cabinet”. It must feel empowering to be women in DA. Employment Equity Bill This bill introduced amendments to the Broad Based Black Empowerment bill. It introduced among others penalties for employers who fail to implement black economic empowerment in their workplace. And “Fronting” was trending word in the debates, that companies do not want to transform rather they rent-a-black to make it seem they are transforming. The bill sought to stop that. This was the most controversial of all Bills the DA has over the years opposed. The DA parliamentary caucus first voted in favour of the bill, then Helen said ” Oh we’re sorry, we don’t support the Bill, we made a mistake, we will vote against it when it comes back to parliament” which they did. Remember her tale of a “Plane crash”. Again, here the DA said the penalties are bad for the economy arguing that Business should not be penalised but should be given incentives to transform. So even if Business fronts and fails to transform, according to the DA government must take Billions in monies and say “Hey business, here is money, please transform”. Kind of like that parent that gives money upfront to her child to do her chores. The ANC through its ministers in government gave the DA a chance to present itself as an alternative to it. Yet the DA missed these chances and voted against these bills which the Black Majority vote ANC because off. The DA continues to side with business not the people in each and every bill debated in parliament. They want our natural resources to be 100% own by investors which are in most cases, white and foreign. They reject Gender and Race transformation arguing that they aren’t enough ” skilled women or blacks” and argument made by corporates when they lamely justify their failure to transform. And when government says we must force business to transform and punish corruption in the private sector with penalties, the DA advocates for incentives, that government must plea to business to transform with money. I will certainly not vote DA. Affirmative Action, Black Empowerment,Women empowerment, state ownership of our resources are all opposed by the DA. One of my friends said “Vote DA and give them a chance” I laughed We don’t vote political parties because they have not been in government and they need a “chance”. Our government is not a merry-go-round where parties are waiting for their turn to govern. We will vote for political parties based on their policies that will move South Africa forward not because “they also need a chance”. Follow @Esethu_u on Twitter, Troll Blocker ** Visit the dedicated News24 page for all the latest updates regarding the upcoming elections.**
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 11:54:02 +0000
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