Writing in their weekly newsletter the FF Plus saidd today:
During his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) or ‘mini budget’ last week Wednesday, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, painted a sombre picture of South Africa’s economy and fiscus.
In many respects, debt was merely moved around, like in the case of e-toll where SANRAL’s outstanding debt was transferred to the national and Gauteng provincial government.
Wouter Wessels, FF Plus MP, said that government’s debt is still out of control and currently stands at R4,75 trillion. The financing costs are exorbitant and put a lot of pressure on the fiscus.
Although there is a tax windfall of R83 billion, the budget deficit and government debt continue to climb. At present, the financing costs of the debt amounts to R307,7 billion.
The FF Plus’s national chairperson and Gauteng MPL, Adv Anton Alberts, warned that Gauteng’s battle against e-toll is still far from over.
As one of the first crusaders against the controversial e-toll system, the FF Plus noted the transfer of SANRAL’s e-toll debt burden to the national and Gauteng provincial governments. The Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, must however formally abolish the system.
In the MTBPS, Minister Godongwana did nothing but transfer the poison cup of the costs of developing the e-toll system and upgrading the Gauteng highway from SANRAL to the national and Gauteng taxpayers.
How the debt will be financed remains an open question.
Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus, filed a criminal complaint against Julius Malema, leader of the EFF, last week Thursday at the Cape Town Central Police Station for the inflammatory statements Malema recently made at an EFF conference in Cape Town.
On the video footage of his speech, one can clearly hear Malema inciting people to murder a person who allegedly assaulted EFF members during a protest at Brackenfell High School.
Based on the video footage, he told EFF supporters, among other things,
“You must never be scared to kill. The revolution demands that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of the revolution.”
This is blatant incitement to violence and murder.
The reply by the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, to a parliamentary question by Dr Groenewald confirms that robberies at police stations are a great source of illegal firearms in the hands of criminals.
According to the Minister’s reply, 13 robberies took place at police stations from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2021, during which 78 firearms and 982 rounds of ammunition were stolen.
Apart from the fact that these robberies clearly demonstrate that criminals no longer fear the police, it is alarming that not a single one of the 24 criminals arrested in connection with the robberies have been successfully prosecuted thus far. It points to poor police work.
In his reply, the Minister also stated that no robberies transpired at police stations in the 2021/2022 financial year.
And yet the Hotazel Police Station was robbed of three R5 assault rifles, eight 9 mm pistols and two 12-gauge shotguns on 31 July 2021.
Kobus Hoffman, FF Plus MPL in Gauteng, also brought to light that in 2019, police members executed a raid on a firearms dealer in Pretoria North and seized 528 firearms.
According to reports, a warrant for the search was not provided, and the firearms were taken away by the police and the Hawks.
Over the past three years, no charges were filed against the suspected firearms dealer. After a settlement was reached between the police and the firearms dealer, it was discovered that 60 firearms had disappeared.
Firearms disappearing from a police armoury is unacceptable. There is also the possibility that these firearms ended up in the hands of criminals, who could use them to commit robberies, murders, or farm attacks and murders.
The FF Plus asked the Gauteng Police Commissioner, Lt Gen. Elias Mawela, to investigate the unlawful raid on the firearms dealer as well as the police members involved in executing it.
Load shedding is still with us and at times, South Africans feel like orphans who should be only too grateful for getting a treat when Eskom announces that we will not have to endure any load shedding over the weekend.
Jaco Mulder, FF Plus MP, said in his statement that South Africa has been without power for more than 2 400 hours (equal to 100 days) in 2022 alone due to load shedding, which once again proves that sustainable economic growth under the ANC government is wishful thinking.
At a cumulative 2 400 hours with an average of stage 3 load shedding, the damage to the economy this year currently amounts R68,4 billion while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has contracted with a further 0,7%.
The detrimental impact of load shedding is already greater than the damage that the economy suffered as a result of the restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
