Setting the record straight on the DA’s billboard

The audacity of using these victims as clickbait to vent about her municipal bills affirms that Marianne Merten has been salivating for an opportunity to unleash her rage at the DA.

By contrast, the DA’s decision to erect the “ANC is killing us” billboard was thoroughly considered as a tribute to the memory of South Africans who were killed by the ANC government.

Rather than reducing the lives of the deceased to a campaign tool, by adding the names of the victims, the DA chose to remind South Africans of their humanity.

It is precisely because they were mothers, brothers, children and friends that we sought to remember them as individuals rather than a number — 144 or 34. People are not statistics.

They matter, as do the reasons that caused their deaths. More importantly, the people who are responsible for killing them should be held accountable.

No matter how uncomfortable it may be for the ANC and it’s sympathisers, the hard truth is that it was the ANC government’s actions and dereliction of duty that directly led to the tragic loss of lives in Marikana and Life Esidimeni.

The fact that Merten reduced the DA’s actions to Jack Bloom raising “the flag on Life Esidimeni at an early stage” is an indictment. All that was required is a google search, Marianne!

We raised the issue of Life Esidimeni in the Health Committee of the Gauteng Legislature in February 2016 and proposed a six-month extension of the contract to avoid disaster.

We called for then health MEC Qedani Mahlangu to be dismissed after reports of fatalities first emerged. We questioned Premier David Makhura and members of the executive council in the legislature on the patient transfers.

In February 2017, the DA pushed the oversight committee to probe the Premier’s role in the deaths and for the patients to be moved from unlicensed NGOs.

In January 2018 we opened missing person cases for 62 patients and pushed for the compensation awards to the victims’ families to be finalised. The DA has tabled a motion of no confidence against Premier Makhura and called for the inquest to be finalised.

We demanded that Makhura and then health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa take legal action against those implicated in the tragedy to ensure that they were personally held accountable. We continue to follow up on the 21 Esidimeni patients who are still missing. Unlike the ANC, we will ensure that those who have been ill-treated by this government are never forgotten.

Furthermore, DA leader Mmusi Maimane has visited Marikana every year since 2013. We have continuously called for responsibility to be assigned to then minister of police Nathi Mthethwa and then national commissioner of the SAPS Riah Phiyega. We have called for criminal investigations into all those responsible for the killings and the subsequent attempted cover-up.

A key theme of our campaign focuses on reforming the SAPS, with a particular focus on the demilitarisation of the police service, the need to reform public order policing and better police training.

We have demanded fair compensation be provided to the dependants of the victims of Marikana and called on both former president Jacob Zuma and President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare 16 August Marikana Memorial Day. Once again, the ANC government presided over one of the most tragic and deadliest attacks on our people. Almost half a decade later, there has been no political accountability for these murders.

As the official opposition, we have an obligation to ensure that the lives lost in Marikana are never forgotten.

On the issue of adequate and dignified sanitation for learners where we govern, we continue to hold ourselves to a higher standard. The Western Cape Education Department has eradicated pit toilets at all schools in the province. They are using their comprehensive maintenance infrastructure programme to build extra toilets at schools where learner numbers have increased, despite the massive infrastructure budget cut by the ANC national government.

Merten wants to speak about dignity, decency and the right to privacy.

We would like to add to that the rights of the victims to life, to bodily and psychological integrity and to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources.

The violation of these rights led directly to the deaths of these victims at the hands of the state. The DA remembers, the families remember, and so should all South Africans.

Furthermore, Cape Town has the lowest utility cost out of the country’s five biggest metros. This is not just our spin but was a finding by a recent Numbeo and Expatistan cost of living survey.

The City of Cape Town has dropped its water tariff since lowering water restrictions, but surely cannot be held responsible for Eskom’s financial woes?

Fixed service charges are important because they ensure operational sustainability (they keep water flowing and the lights on). When last has Merten not received weekly waste removal, clean drinking water and uninterrupted power (barring the impact of Eskom power cuts)? This level of service delivery is aided by fixed service charges.

This being said, the City of Cape Town is not uncaring and has rolled out an extensive basket of goods and services to indigent residents. As part of this basket, those who meet the indigent criteria or who are pensioners earning R15,000 and less are exempt from fixed charges and are also eligible to access a portion of their water and electricity free.

It is precisely because Merten, as she has self-identified, falls into a “middle class” income bracket that she is being billed for the fixed service charge — as part of the City’s cross-subsidisation of its poorer residents. DM