Insults and statistics were flung around like missiles during the rapid fire debate at the Western Cape provincial Sitting of the House yesterday (4 September). These concerned the South African police service’s response to gang violence and the efficacy of the parole board.
At the end of the sitting, however, the province tabled a Power Bill which, in a nutshell, seeks to give it autonomy from national government in certain sectors, to make decisions where it believes the national government is failing.
The meeting devolved into farcical chaos multiple times when members shouted and interrupted one another with comments that the Speaker dismissed as “frivolous”.
Khalid Sayed, of the African National Congress, interrupted Premier Alan Winde during his address, asking if it was “parliamentary to compare human beings who are being butchered to cats?”.
He was referring to Winde’s comment about parolees who are released from prison, back into society without being tracked.
”You know, at home my wife’s got a tracker on my cat,” he said.
Winde, in his address, criticised police and the parole board, arguing in favour of giving more policing powers to the City and the province. While there was consensus in the House that the police were under-resourced and over-burdened, opposition parties were quick to point out that crime is rooted in economic instability. The DA-led province was accused of not acknowledging its own failures in economic reform.
Safety strategy slammed
Several members also questioned the province’s safety strategy calling it “an expensive failure”. ANC shadow MEC for Health Rachel Windvogel said: “Millions of rands were poured into this safety plan, but the murders have increased.”
She called for the Premier to be jailed for “wasting taxpayers’ money”.
GOOD Party member Brett Herron also criticised the safety plan, which he said “has prioritised policing over prevention. This means this government has deprioritised investing in the environmental and socio-economic conditions that are conducive to violent crime.”
MEC for Police Oversight and Community Safety Anroux Marais also called for the devolution of policing powers to the province, which mirrors the same motion in the DA-led City. The motion was met with mixed reaction, the ACDP supporting it while the ANC accused the DA of using the House to push its own agenda through.
“While we welcome the debate we have repeatedly called for it, but were ignored. Only now that it serves the DA’s purposes does it happen,” Windvogel said.
The province’s Constitutional Court case opposing the national government’s National Health Insurance (NHI) Act also came under fire. On Wednesday 3 September the DA issued a statement on its website saying the Western Cape Government challenged the validity of the NHI Act to defend the constitutional right to proper health care of every resident of the Western Cape. Sayed made a motion without notice, strongly condemning Winde and urging him to withdraw the case, saying it was a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Galil Brinkhuis of Al Jama-ah said: “There is nothing unconstitutional about the NHI. We want to know how the province is paying for the lawsuit? Or, is it taking the money from education?”
Powers Bill
MEC for Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism Ivan Meyer also tabled a motion for the Powers Bill.
“The Premier and cabinet have taken a decision and we will now table an executive bill.”
He said the Powers Bill would deal with “issues of trade, issues of the harbour, the issues of exports, issues of public transport and the issue of safety and security”.
The Bill is exactly as its names suggests, seeking to give the province the autonomy to make decisions where it believes national government is falling very short. Despite much criticism of national government for the lack of public participation on NHI, the Power Bill was tabled at the sitting without any.
The Bill itself states: “No prior consultation with the public has occurred in the development of the Bill. Public participation will be conducted and the due process will be followed.”
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