DA to challenge ANC in court on food parcels
Party slates handouts at election rallies as ‘abuse of state resources for party-political gain’
LEGAL papers have been served on ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman and national CEO of the South African Social Security Agency Virginia Petersen to stop distributing food parcels funded by taxpayers at ANC election rallies.
Democratic Alliance federal executive chairman James Selfe said yesterday the DA would take Fransman, who is also deputy minister of international cooperation, and Petersen to court because of “the grotesque and continued abuse of state resources for party-political gain”.
The party also intends interdicting the Department of Social Development (under which the agency falls) “in perpetuity” from handing out food parcels, blankets and other items at ANC rallies.
The interdict will be sought against Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini and acting director-general of social development Wiseman Magasela.
The cases will be brought before the High Court in Cape Town, sitting as an Electoral Court.
Petersen will have to defend herself in both her professional and her personal capacity. She previously had a controversial career in the provincial admin- istration of the Western Cape, when it was governed by the ANC under Ebrahim Rasool.
The DA has extensive footage of a recent ANC event in Atlantis, on the West Coast, where food parcels were distributed.
According to Selfe, the event was hosted by the Department of Social Development, the National Development Agency and the SA Social Security Agency.
The speakers were Fransman, Petersen, Deputy Social Development Minister Bongi Ntuli, Deputy Human Settlements Minister and ANC Western Cape politician Zou Kota and two proportional ANC city councillors.
The two elected councillors for the area, both of whom represent the DA, were not on the programme. Neither was provincial MEC for social development Albert Fritz of the DA.
The event consisted of two parts: the first was entitled “political briefing” and the second the “main event”. Food parcels were handed out and Petersen was the programme director.
This happened despite a letter the DA received on Thursday from the Department of Social Development, signed on behalf of both the department and SA Social Security Agency by Magasela in his capacity as acting director-general.
It was in response to legal papers the DA served on Dlamini to deal with the issue of food parcels handed out at ANC election events.
In his reply, Magasela went on the offensive, stating that “it is contemptuous of the poor for [the DA] to suggest that the distribution of food parcels to them, or an increase in the budget allocation for such food parcels, constitutes an abuse”.
Then, however, the letter became less strident, to the extent that Selfe believed it was evasive: “There has not been any intentional alignment of poverty relief interventions by the Department of Social Development and/or SA Social Security Agency with the election campaigns of any specific political party.”
Magasela then gave two undertakings:
They “will not act unlawfully in relation to the distribution of food parcels”; and
They “will continue to fulfil their respective mandates and obligations in accordance with and within the framework of the law”.
Selfe said these undertakings were not being honoured and the legal action was essential to prevent further abuse.
Fransman said yesterday he was unaware of the DA’s legal action against him.
“I did not arrange Wednesday’s programme, but as a politician, I am free to go wherever I want. To the DA I say: ‘Cowboys don’t cry.’ They should stop misleading the voters of the Western Cape and focus on the core issues,” he said.
“They should ask themselves why poverty in Atlantis is so dire, why NGOs and community advice offices are not supported, and why their DA councillors are queuing to join the ANC.
“We are also aware of blue food parcels doing the rounds, an issue we will tackle when the time is opportune.”