DA pats itself on back at federal congress

THE DA used its federal congress to celebrate its successful decade-long legal battle for the reinstatement of charges against former president Jacob Zuma, describing it as a demonstration of the party’s commitment to rooting out corruption.

The party is in Tshwane and is set to elect a new leadership today.

Leader Mmusi Maimane said Zuma – who was on Friday in the dock in the Durban High Court for 16 charges relating to corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering – would have to be forced to answer to his alleged crimes.

Maimane said various lawsuits by the official Opposition had helped secure freedom and ensure accountability within the state.

“Ten years ago, we said we would not rest until Jacob Zuma was held accountable for his crimes. For 10 years, we battled against him in every court and we won. On Friday his trial started. That is your victory. It is not over yet, but it has begun,” Maimane told delegates.

The party is pursuing another court action in a bid to force Zuma to pay the R15.3 million legal bill incurred by the state in his fight against the reinstatement of the “spy tapes” case.

Maimane slammed the ANC and the EFF for advancing racial politics, calling on delegates to reject those who labelled the DA a white apartheid party and those who dismissed him as a puppet.

“I will never be black enough for them because they don’t want black people to think for themselves. They want black people to remain trapped in the politics of race because this is what keeps the ANC in power.

“They are afraid of the new generation of black South Africans who think differently and want to choose their own futures.”

Maimane was today set to be re-elected uncontested for the second term as leader and one of his major tasks would be to head the DA’S campaign to wrest control of Gauteng from the ANC in next year’s general election.

Yesterday, the party resolved on an array of ambitious policy resolution on jobs, education, the economy and land, which it said it would implement should it be in government.

The party has decided on the introduction of R150 a month jobseekers’ allowance for unemployed young people aged 18-34 and to reward companies with B-BEE points and corporate tax cuts should they increase their staff components.

The party is to reject the amendment of section 25 of the constitution in a bid to protect property rights of individuals.

The ANC, the EFF and other political parties have thrown their weight behind the recently adopted parliamentary motion to expropriate land without compensation to help advance land reform.

The move, which has pitted the EFF against the DA, was also adopted as a resolution by the ANC at its national elective conference in December. The DA has instead agreed to “not allow land reform to be used as a divisive and racially charged lightning conductor to pull public attention from the failures of government by actively correcting the untruths meant to achieve this end”.

The party has committed itself to develop and implement land reform policies that extend property ownership, attract investment, create jobs in the form of win-win partnerships and help heal the divisions of the past.

It almost reached a deadlock on a minimum wage, as a large number of delegates objected to a proposed job seekers exemption certificate in terms of which job seekers would have to agree to be employed and paid below the R3 500 national minimum wage for two years. While the proposal was eventually passed as a policy resolution, some delegates complained it was aimed at doing away with the national minimum wage through the back door.

Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga and Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip are the main contenders for the post of federal executive chairperson.