The ACDP – On the Spot
The 2024 national and provincial elections take place in just under three weeks, on May 29. Talk of the Town reporter Sibulele Mtongana interviewed representatives of five parties regarding their election manifestos. This is an edited transcription of her interview with Lance Grootboom, provincial leader of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP).
What is the definition of a ‘tender-preneur economy’?
We have noticed that the current tendering system is only benefiting certain individuals … aligned to certain politicians.
So the big problem is small businesses never get into the mainstream economy.
They struggle, but the big businesses that have been there all the time that [are] feeding some of the political parties get those contracts.
What about the person on the ground [who] is maybe a builder, an engineer, or he has a small business but he can’t get [tenders] because he is not connected to some individuals. So we have been saying, let’s focus on small businesses.
The ACDP states it will make greater use of equipment manufacturers to oversee maintenance duties at power stations. What do you mean by that?
[The current government] has destroyed something that worked. In 2002, Eskom was the best run utility in the world … but once we appointed people who … could not do the job, we chased away all the competent
engineers. That is what happened and what we have now is a collapse.
The ACDP is saying renewable energy is important – we need it – but we know it is not sufficient to run plants like Continental, Volkswagen and Mercedes.
High energy users can’t [rely on] renewable energy because it is not stable.
Coal is a reliable form of energy that can support high energy users.
We are saying we have to fix our coal plants: we need to get qualified people – those who were laid off – those engineers must come back and mentor competent people who are willing to get our plants [running properly] because load-shedding is going to kill jobs.
Please elaborate on your statement regarding “repealing the basic education laws amendment bill”.
That’s the Bela bill. We have objected against the Bela bill. There are some good [things] in the Bela bill but then there’s some bad. For example, we have been against the minister making regulations on what curriculum is to be followed. The ACDP is about parental responsibility – about [protecting] the family unit. It is the family that decides what children should learn, not the government, so we are saying we can’t give that amount of power to the minister.
The ACDP’s states it will provide age appropriate sex education. At what age?
Number one, the ACDP stands for family values, we believe in parental responsibility. We look at whether parents are involved in the decision making when it comes to their children’s education. When [considering] sex education that is age appropriate, you need to have parents involved. You cannot teach a minor child about sex.
How will having smaller classes and teaching in mother tongue languages decrease school dropout rates?
The government made the decision that small schools of between 150 and 200 [pupils] must be closed down. There are a number of them in the country.
The problem is you already have overcrowded schools. Schools in the suburbs are overcrowded. Our government schools are sitting with almost 100 [pupils in a classroom] in the Eastern Cape.
Culture is formed through our languages and we have 11 languages.
It is important that parents make the decision regarding which languages their children are taught in to ensure they excel.
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