Date: 08/04/2009

Source: United Democratic Movement

Title: UDM: Holomisa: Speech by the leader of the UDM at a rally in Umtata

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like thank the Chiefs, traditional leaders and people of Mpunzana
village and surroundings for gathering here this morning and listening to
the UDM election campaign.

We meet here at a time when we are seeing a culture that we are not used to;
when straightforward criminal charges are sidestepped by labelling them
"political". Indeed the ANC is suffering from a victim-mentality syndrome.

The people of South Africa and in particular this province, were raised that
in a just society if somebody does something wrong their fate would be
decided by a court of law. Equality before the law is the essence of our
constitutional order.

The classic example, that people here will remember, is the late Chief
Matanzima who was tried in a court of law without political interference; he
served 3 years of his 9-year sentence before receiving parole.

The recent decision by the ANC to pressurise the NPA into withdrawing
charges against Jacob Zuma, is introducing the politics of thuggery, at its
best.

The onus now is on the people of South Africa to vote the ANC out of power.
If you do not, you will be endorsing this culture of selective justice;
where the poor rot in jail whilst the rich and powerful escape the law.

Don't vote for the ANC, because they have breached the trust of South
Africans. It would be a sad day if the people in these villages were to give
another mandate to a party that has violated the constitutional principles
of this country.

It is unacceptable for Mr Zuma to blame the NPA and the media, when he has
failed to explain the money he received from Shaik and the Thint arms
dealers.

The question is: Can we trust a leader of the ruling party who has
successfully dodged his day in court?

Some Ministers, like the former Minister of Intelligence Lindiwe Sisulu,
were in an ANC committee tasked with seeing that Zuma does not go to court.
Is it coincidence that we now witness how illegal state intelligence is
being used to justify the dropping of Zuma's charges?

So again, who would trust that Executive that it will run this country
fairly? Now we know why people like Mbeki, Pikoli and Ministers were
removed; the aim was to replace them with lackeys like President Motlante.
It is clear that they had an ANC instruction to prevent the NPA from
prosecuting Zuma.

Anybody who says that Zuma has no case to answer is living in a fool's
paradise. The state needs to explain how these taped conversations of the
intelligence service landed in a private citizen's hands to be used
selective for political purposes. How many political opponents are they
taping?

The only way to fight this is for people to ensure that we reduce the ANC's
majority in Parliament so that we can reinstate the charges.

The power you gave them in 2004 was used arrogantly, whilst the people
continue to suffer.

As somebody who was born and raised in the Eastern Cape it fills me with
sadness whenever I return home to find the sorry state of this province. Why
- in a country of our wealth and natural resources - should parts of this
province look like Afghanistan?

I cannot understand why - when you cross the border from KwaZulu Natal, you
find that the Eastern Cape side is a dry and dead landscape, whereas just
across the river in KZN the crops and trees stand high and proud.

It tells me only one thing: the problems of this province must be attributed
to poor management and a lack of leadership.

One of the things that the Eastern Cape is suffering from is that its
infrastructure is lagging far behind the rest of the country. Even within
the province there is a huge disparity between the infrastructure in the big
cities and most other parts of the province. A master plan for
infrastructure in the province is required to address backlogs, especially
in the former homelands.

There will always be suspicions that the budget of the province is consumed
by the big cities because they have existing infrastructure that must be
maintained.

Although the problem can partly be blamed on a mismanagement of the existing
budget, I suspect that the Eastern Cape is heavily under-budgeted.

A massive investment in infrastructure will also address our high
unemployment rate. For instance, look at road infrastructure; road
maintenance units must be reintroduced because they provided permanent work
for the unskilled.

The current Public Works programme must be re-looked because they only
create temporary jobs. People have jobs for 3 months, and then they are
unemployed again. In the meanwhile those roads get damaged, but maintenance
is neglected. Then it is argued that those roads cannot be repaired until
the next year's budget for Public Works becomes available. Often the next
year there is no budget.

And what goes for roads infrastructure, also applies to schools, clinics and
other basic infrastructure.

The Eastern Cape's budget has repeatedly been compromised by corruption and
inefficiency. If a single party continues to dominate the provincial
government, then there is a need for national government to intervene
heavily and monitor the premier's office.

When we in the Transkei advocated as early 1988 to return to South Africa we
were aware that this province was receiving peanuts from the Pretoria
government. Back then they kept this place undeveloped and poor because they
viewed it as a breeding ground for the leaders of the revolution.

How ironic that today this birthplace of people such as Biko, Tambo and
Mandela is still being neglected. As a nation we owe a debt of gratitude to
the people of this province for their significant role in securing our
freedom from oppression.

Therefore whether you vote UDM, ANC, COPE or DA there is a need to address
the unacceptable backlogs and service delivery failures in the Eastern Cape.

How I wish that the outcome of the elections will ensure that the Eastern
Cape will be run by a coalition, so that we save this province from
one-party domination and the arrogance that breeds poor service delivery.

The problems we face have become so big because of a lack of accountability
and poor leadership. Take for instance all the Auditor General qualified
audits that have been produced in this province over the years. Yet nobody
has been punished or prosecuted and therefore every year the problems become
bigger.

Another major underlying problem is that municipalities' budgets are
consumed by consultant fees because they lack vital skills like engineers
etc. To remedy this, the national department of Public Works must take over
projects that were allocated to municipalities who lack sufficient internal
skills.

In that way we can avoid the catastrophes of bad planning we currently see,
where municipalities simply build housing wherever they please without the
necessary water, sanitation or electricity in place. It is a waste of
precious resources and create townships that are environmental nightmares
not fit for human occupation.

A UDM Government would immediately task the department of Public Works to
address this.

In this province another major threat is the question of desertification.
Land-use currently leaves much to be desired. There is therefore a need to
begin programmes of greening the province and indeed the country. It must be
a mixed bag of greening programmes. For instance not only planting trees in
cities but also encouraging subsistence farming to develop into a more
productive and commercial activity. In that way we could also address
poverty alleviation and household food security.

On the economic front the UDM believes that the people of this province are
remarkably resourceful, but have not been properly supported to turn their
entrepreneurship into economic growth. The UDM believes that a major
priority should be a small business programme. Development Bank financing
must be made available for specific industries, such as agriculture,
textiles, and IT-related industries. In addition small business need support
by way of tax incentives, subsidies and government-sponsored mentorship
programmes where established businessmen teach emerging entrepreneurs the
ropes.

The UDM believes that it is government's duty to help those who want to
start new businesses. This is where the future of combating unemployment and
poverty lies; we need to create new businesses and wealth.

The resources are here, but we need to apply the right priorities.

Government cannot be satisfied with what has happened in the Eastern Cape,
where instead of improving, things have deteriorated since 1994.