DA focuses on accountability

Acomposite road surface that uses recycled plastic, is cheaper and is more durable was one of the many out-of-the-box ideas rubbished in the provincial legislature according to the DA’s Frontier constituency leader and MPL Jane Cowley.

This was one of the examples Cowley cited at a reportback to DA members, observers and the media in Grahamstown this week. The shadow MEC for Environmental Affairs and Tourism, she also serves on Education and Finance portfolio committees.

The portfolio committees approve the annual budgets for the relevant departments every year, so from time to time they go out in groups and visit different sites across the province, in order to monitor progress and pose questions to the officials from their respective department. Much of Cowley’s reportback at the Graham Hotel on Monday evening was on her oversight role in these areas.

Officials must justify overor under-expenditure and explain how budgets are being spent. They have to also explain any challenges or lack of progress encountered by the portfolio committee members. Members then report their findings and recommendations back to the House, where the reports are adopted.

Last week Cowley was part of the Education oversight committee that visited schools in the Oliver Tambo district.

“One school there is a mud structure which has been on the priority list for a new building since 2008,” Cowley said. “Officials could not explain why this was the case. This is a serious finding which will be reported back to the legislature.”

Cowley’s second responsibility is that of driving constituency issues in the legislature and it was on this topic that she revealed the details of a project in Riebeeck East in which much had been invested, but which had failed at the starting blocks.

A block-making project was initiated in Riebeeck East in 2013 by the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Cowley said. The co-operative comprising seven people had been correctly registered and sand, cement and stone were delivered to the site. Equipment purchased for the project by DRDAR had also been delivered.

“Makana Municipality committed to supplying water and electricity for the project but this never materialised,” Cowley said.

There were three ways to highlight such issues in the Legislature: one could write a question for written response to the MEC of the relevant department, and he or she was obliged to respond within three working weeks.

One could also write questions for oral response: “This takes place in the Legislature from time to time during a plenary session and the MEC responds in the House.”

The third way of highlighting an issue (if a response was not necessary but to drive home a point) was to use it in a speech during a plenary session.

The third function of provincial leadership of the DA was to assist in developing policy that clearly distinguished them from the ANC. “The fact that we have been governing in the Western Cape for some time and have been able to put our policies into practise and fine-tune them, is advantageous,” Cowley said.

“However, these continuously require the input of the voters.”

The DA had spent a lot of time speaking to people on the ground about the challenges they faced in terms of trying to find work. “Their inputs will inform the way the DA structures policy around job creation and economic development.”

The leadership’s fourth responsibility was that of offering voters innovative alternatives.

“The ANC seems unable to think out of the box and unable to adapt to new challenges, whereas the DA spends time researching best practice from across the globe that can be adapted to benefit South Africa,” Cowley said. “For example, a plastic composite road has been manufactured and is in use in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, as well as in parts of India.

“The plastic composiite road is cheaper to produce per kilometre, very durable and best of all, uses plastic waste which our municipalities seem unable to dispose of. With our history of poor road maintenance by the ANC government, which has resulted in a drop off in tourism and has had a very negative effect on the economy, this innovation would be worth investigating, at the very least.

“However, when my colleague Honourable Vicky Knoetze put a motion to this effect to the House, the ANC rubbished the idea of investigating the matter further. The reasons their member gave for objecting to the motion were so weak as to be an embarrassment to the ANC.”

Constituency Chairperson, Mlindi Nhanha, then opened the floor for questions. The most pressing was one from Makana Councillor Xolani Madyo who wanted to know what steps the DA had taken at provincial level regarding the dire financial situation in Makana Municipality.

Cowley said she had written a letter to the MEC of COGTA (Co-operative government and Traditional Affairs), the FIkile Xasa, but he had not responded. She sent a second letter and was now writing questions for written response which the MEC would be obliged to answer within three working weeks.

“Thereafter, if there is no response, we will approach Kevin Mileham MP, the Shadow Minister of COGTA at the National Assembly, to escalate the matter to the highest level,” Cowley said.

District municipality councillor Les Reynolds raised the issue of the Sarah Baartman District Municipality (which includes Makana and Ndlambe municiplaities) being declared a drought disaster area. Despite them pushing for this, they had had no feedback from provincial level as to what drought relief measures would be put in place.

Jane Cowley committed to working with her colleague Vicky Knoetze, who represents Dr Beyers Naude constituency, (which also forms part of the district municipality) to try to establish a) what form of drought relief would be provided, and b) what the time frames would be in terms of introducing the drought relief measures.