Democratic Alliance (DA) leadership contender Mpho Phalatse has accused the incumbent leader, John Steenhuisen, of double standards after he criticised the ANC government for using state money to benefit cabinet ministers.
Photo: Getty Images
Democratic Alliance (DA) leadership contender Mpho Phalatse has accused the incumbent leader, John Steenhuisen, of double standards after he criticised the ANC government for using state money to benefit cabinet ministers.
During a party internal debate on Monday between the two, who will go head to head this weekend in a bid to become the DA’s leader, Phalatse said the party could not criticise the ANC when its own members in local government were benefiting from the state.
Steenhuisen and Phalatse were debating on how they would rebuild confidence in South Africa’s economy in the long term, among foreign and local investors as well as businesses.
Responding first, Steenhuisen said he would focus on getting rid of the obstacles to growth and job creation, saying one of these was the ideological obsession that the state must do and control everything.
“We need to remove that. We need to cut red tape, we need to realign our Labour Relations Act into one that is endowed in the reality of the economy we have and not the economy that we want to have, and to be able to make employment much easier, particularly for entrepreneurs and startups,” he said.
Steenhuisen added that the stability of basic service supply, including electricity and water, were the backbone of any further economic growth. He said he would take the billions of rands wasted on VIP protection and other funding for ministers, premiers, speakers and mayors and redirect the money towards youth entrepreneurship development.
“One looks at countries around the world that have been successful with startups, places like Israel, which is known as a startup nation, a very determined focus on incubating entrepreneurs and startups. I think we need to spend a lot more money there than wasting it on cars for politicians and bodyguards for politicians and the like,” Steenhuisen said.
DA leaders John Steenhuisen & Mpho Phalatse. Photo: Getty Images
There has been public outrage after Public Works Minister Sihle Zikalala recently said that ministers and their deputies have been shielded from electricity load-shedding, with more than R7 million of taxpayers’ money spent on buying generators and inverters for their official residences.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously asked for the review of the ministerial handbook following an outcry after it emerged his government had made changes allowing for more perks for ministers and their deputies. These would include free provision of utilities as well as additional support staff, increasing the budget spent on ministers to more than R80 million.
The DA has been heavily critical of the government ministerial handbook.
Responding to Steenhuisen on Monday, Phalatse said the DA needed to practise what it preached.
“We cannot as a party talk about doing away with cars and houses for politicians, when we govern, we still have politicians living in state houses and using VIP protection,” she said. “I believe that under my leadership, we will ensure that we practise what we preach and if we truly believe in something we need to start where we govern, it must start with us.”
Responding to Phalatse, Steenhuisen said he was personally exempt from this practice and that when he became DA leader he had sold the leader’s car and gotten rid of the bodyguard.
“I believe people who are really relatable don’t need bodyguards to keep them away from the people,” he said.