In this issue:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
TOP STORY: DA LAUNCHES NEW SPORTS POLICY, 'THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE'
ANC CADRE DEPLOYMENT IN THE WESTERN CAPE TO COST THE TAXPAYER MILLIONS
EASTERN CAPE BABY DEATHS COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED
DA REJECTS DECISION TO BRUSH TRAVELGATE SCANDAL UNDER THE CARPET
DID YOU KNOW?
EYE ON CRIME
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"But if we look below the bubbling surface, we will see the real hope,
indeed far more than a possibility, that over the next five years,
South Africa's constitutionalists will win the struggle for our
country's soul. More and more people understand what we mean when we
talk about constitutionalism, and the need for institutions to limit
the power of the ruling party. This new awareness, which has permeated
the consciousness of our society's opinion makers on all fronts,
provides fertile ground for the next crucial step in the evolution of
our democracy."
Helen Zille comments on South Africa's prospects post the 2009
election in her weekly online newsletter, Sa Today.
http://www.da.org.za/?p=571
DA LAUNCHES NEW SPORTS POLICY, 'THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE'
The Democratic Alliance last Thursday launched a new sports policy
entitled 'The Pursuit of Excellence', which advocates the creation of
a South African Sports Academy which, on the back of a series of poor
performances such as at the Olympics and failure to qualify for the
next African Cup of Nations, would be designed to bring talent to
where it would be nurtured and honed.
"Our policy advocates for the establishment of the academy, a centre
of sporting excellence, designed to identify, recruit and train a new
generation of athletes and coaches, with the express purpose of
improving South Africa's performance in international sports; and to
redress the imbalance between the amount we spend on hosting
international competitions and that dedicated to the development of
our sporting talent," said party sport and recreation spokesperson,
Donald Lee.
He said the DA understood the potential role that sport could play in
our democracy and the defining role it played in shaping and
influencing our identity, both as individuals and as a country.
"We also understand the role that sport has to play in more practical
terms - as a means to enrich and fulfil the day-to-day lives of our
people, to uplift and empower and, in the case of those with the
ability and talent to achieve success at the highest level, as a
diverse profession with the potential to open up a myriad
possibilities."
"At the heart of the policy is the principle of excellence, which
should define every element of the Academy's structure and purpose,
and the practical creation of opportunities for those people who do
not have the means to fulfil their sporting potential on their own,"
Lee said.
He said the policy was designed to overcome the factors which were
undermining South Africa's ability to compete credibly at
international levels.
" Firstly, sport has become politicised and its administration subject
to sustained interference and, secondly, following from this, a
relentless drive for transformation and an ever-increasing hostility
towards the pursuit of excellence has damaged our sporting
institutions and resulted in a failure to produce a new and diverse
generation of sports professionals able to compete on the world
stage."
The Academy would be housed at a national centre of excellence, would
be funded primarily by the state and, as building and maintenance of
infrastructure was the responsibility of municipalities, the current
backlogs would have to be overcome and an amount should be ring-fenced
as a separate and appropriate allocation that must be spent on
sporting infrastructure.
Lee explained that the Academy would be tasked with developing a
national programme of action across as many sporting codes as
possible; identifying and recruiting South Africa's sporting potential
and pursuing a programme of excellence in developing that talent and
thus placing South Africa on a par with the super-powers of world
sport.
He said the Academy would operate independent of the state, but would
report to Parliament on its finances and, ultimately, fall under the
department of sport and recreation. It would form a partnership with
leading sporting schools, across a range of sporting codes and
establish a bursary scheme.
"Local and international coaching staff would be recruited, which
would comprise the best expertise in any particular area, and its
programmes would be benchmarked against international best practice."
"The Academy would boast the best facilities and equipment and would
offer both fulltime and part time training programmes," he said.
Lee added that, in order for the model to be successfully adopted, the
willing participation of schools and private sporting bodies was
required. In addition, it would require a change in attitude on the
part of government and a belief that excellence should be championed,
promoted and supported, not just financially but individually, down to
the very athletes themselves and the institutions that managed them.
"A South African Sports Academy must embody that attitude; it cannot
be tainted by compromise or half-measure and, for that to happen,
there needs to be a collective commitment to strive towards being the
best, in everything we do."
"If we do that," he concluded, "there is no record South Africa cannot
break; no medal we cannot win; and no competition we cannot dominate.
Our potential is all around us; harnessing it is our greatest
challenge."
Read the full policy, click here >>
http://www.da.org.za/wp-content/uploads/sports_policy.pdf
ANC CADRE DEPLOYMENT IN THE WESTERN CAPE TO COST THE TAXPAYER MILLIONS
The DA has pledged to block a recruitment drive by the Western Cape
ANC government to fill vacant posts in the department of the premier,
an attempt by the ANC to pack the department with new staff loyal to
the ANC before 2009's election.
It was reported in the media that the department of the Western Cape
premier had launched into an extraordinary recruitment drive to fill
its vacant posts and several weekend newspapers carried advertisements
for about 85 vacant public service positions, with annual salaries of
up to half a million rand.
DA federal council chairman James Selfe said last Wednesday that the
ANC was trying to rule from the grave by packing the provincial
administration - particularly senior positions - with ANC cadres
sympathetic to the party's agenda, just months before it ceases to
govern.
This was a deliberate move to entrench ANC control over the
administration of the province in case it lost the province to the DA
or a coalition government in next year's provincial elections.
"With only six months to go before the next general election, this
represents a blatant attempt on the part of the ANC to load the
provincial administration with staff members loyal to the incumbent
party, at a massive cost to the taxpayer," Selfe said in a statement
on Tuesday.
Selfe said many of the advertised positions needed to be filled, but
some of the more senior positions - especially those with a political
dimension - should either remain vacant for the time being or be
filled on a short-term basis only.
"Some countries have politically neutral public services, but the ANC
government has, as a matter of deliberate policy, ensured that South
Africa is not one of them.
"The ANC's policy of cadre re-deployment ensures that its members can
move seamlessly from political to administrative and sometimes even to
quasi-judicial positions, thus providing the leadership of the ANC
with total control over all the levers of power," Selfe said.
EASTERN CAPE BABY DEATHS COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED
The surge in child mortality figures in the Ukhahlamba area in the
Eastern Cape at the beginning of 2008 was due to poor health
standards, the Democratic Alliance said last Thursday.
DA spokesperson on Health Mike Waters said a report by the task team
investigating the deaths showed that the high mortality rate was not
due to contaminated water as earlier suggested.
"These documents paint a grim and depressing picture of health
services in this part of the Eastern Cape. It is clear that no
particular disease outbreak led to the spike in baby deaths in the
district earlier in 2008, but rather that the health service available
was simply hopelessly defective," he said.
The report, released to the DA by the health department, also
attributed the deaths to high levels of poverty in the area.
The DA has been calling for the release of the report following an
investigation by the task team into the deaths of 140 babies in the
Ukhahlamba area early in 2008.
"The DA has been trying for four months to obtain these reports, and
we welcome the fact that the new Minister of Health, Barbara Hogan,
seems to have brought a new spirit of openness and accountability to
the department," Waters said.
He said the health department should see to it that all weaknesses
highlighted in the report were addressed.
"It is notable that many of the problems did not arise because of
inadequate funding, but were simply a question of poor management,"
Waters said.
DA REJECTS DECISION TO BRUSH TRAVELGATE SCANDAL UNDER THE CARPET
The Democratic Alliance last week condemned parliament's decision to
scrap millions of rands of Travelgate debt allegedly owed by MPs.
Speaking last Tuesday, DA chief whip Ian Davidson questioned the
manner in which this controversial decision was taken by parliament
the previous week, at a time when all eyes were on Thabo Mbeki
stepping down as president and mass resignations from his cabinet.
"While the nation was understandably immersed in the tumult
surrounding the resignation of former president Thabo Mbeki and his
cabinet ministers - parliament, under the stewardship of the
then-speaker Baleka Mbete, took the opportunity to announce quietly
that a decision had been taken to abandon the debt owed the
legislature," Davidson said.
The decision was taken by the parliamentary oversight and authority
committee. Davidson said Parliament had decided to spend R200 000 to
'buy back' from liquidators of the Travelgate agency, Bathong Travel,
a claim worth more than R3,2 million to prevent any proceedings
against the MPs.
The decision effectively meant parliament would not recover the debt
from MPs and would not pursue MPs on behalf of the liquidators,
Davidson said.
"The decision is effectively a double blow to the South African
taxpayer. Not only is this massive misuse of public money being
brushed under the carpet, but the South African public must also foot
the bill for Parliament's convenient political solution", Davidson
said.
"Not only was parliament, and therefore the public, defrauded by
certain miscreant MPs, but now the legislature plans to buy back their
debt from the liquidators charged with recovering it," said Davidson.
The DA said Parliament's decision was politically expedient.
"It is, in fact, neither sensible nor ethically or morally acceptable
for Parliament to go down a road which would essentially exonerate the
fraud of those MPs who are guilty of criminal misconduct, at the
expense of the very taxpayers whom their actions allegedly defrauded,"
Davidson said.
In a statement on Sunday, Davidson called on the new speaker of
Parliament, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, to rise to the challenge of her
new office by compelling those MPs guilty of defrauding Parliament in
the so-called Travelgate scandal to repay the money that they owe the
legislature.
"Where necessary, we call on the Speaker to initiate full criminal
proceedings against guilty MPs where there is sufficient evidence to
do so. Parliament, in terms of its own internal disciplinary process,
must ensure that MPs who have been involved in the Travelgate saga and
owe money pay it back."
DID YOU KNOW?
The National Prosecuting Authority released its 2007/2008 annual
report last week, which has revealed how badly the political war over
the Scorpions has affected the war on crime.
• The number of new cases handled by the Scorpions dropped by 70% from
2007 to 2008 as it clearly focused its attention on finalising
existing cases.
• The number of investigations finalised dropped by 33% - a direct
result of operational staff capacity issues.
• The threat to close the Scorpions prompted an exodus of skilled and
experienced people - as of March 2008, there was a 29% vacancy rate in
the Scorpions – including 45% for advocates and 80% for prosecutors.
• The NPA also faces broader capacity issues, such as:
• The fact that the Auditor-General was unable to certify the
financial statements of both the NPA and the Criminal Assets Recovery
Account;
• The 27.4% overall vacancy rate for the NPA;
• The 21.1% vacancy rate for prosecutors and 27.7% vacancy rate
specifically for advocates;
• The 9.5% drop in the number of cases finalised;
• The 12.6% increase in cases on the outstanding court roll;
• The 10% increase in backlog cases; and
• The 19% decline in convictions by the Specialised Commercial Crime
Unit, which deals with complex commercial crime.
EYE ON CRIME
CLIMB AGAINST CRIME
http://www.eyeoncrime.co.za/?q=node/446
CRIME LEVELS ARE VERY HIGH….SAYS MINISTER
http://www.eyeoncrime.co.za/?q=node/445
SAFETY AND SECURITY- PRESS FOR CHANGE
http://www.eyeoncrime.co.za/?q=node/444
WE CHALLENGE YOU…
http://www.eyeoncrime.co.za/?q=node/443
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment