Our country is currently experiencing one of the greatest disasters in a generation. Daily, Covid-19 is claiming the lives of people we know.

As we have heard, numbers are starting to have names. For some it may have struck closer to home, for others it is a relative or friend.

The pandemic has also claimed critical staff and skills. The effects of the pandemic on our health sector in particular will remain with us for years to come. While other sectors may be able to pick up the pieces and start all over again, it will be the health workers that would have suffered the most. The number of health care workers succumbing to the pandemic will impact the existing shortage of critical skills in our province.

Our provincial government though has continued to do what they know best: oppose, simply for the sake of opposing. While President Ramaphosa is seeking to lead our country in a united response against this pandemic, the Democratic Alliance has used the critical process of providing vaccinations to our people, to play politics. This they have done by announcing that the Western Cape Government will procure its own vaccines. This simply undermines the national effort and creates confusion.

It now appears that the province was simply politicking as no evidence was provided to the most recent legislature Covid-19 Ad hoc committee that the province has begun a procurement process of its own.

Our advice to Premier Winde has always been to resist attempts by his then acting and now elected national leader, John Steenhuisen, to play narrow party politics in the province and rather listen to the advice of the excellent provincial health department. And our advice to Steenhuisen has always been to let Premier Winde do his job without interference.

It is clear that the DA cannot resist bringing its politics, policy and culture to bear where they govern. And this is why we have the unnecessary “competition” and controversy about the vaccines. It is an attempt to not only undermine national government but increasingly to find ways of undermining national policy and legislation.

As the official opposition we have long pointed to the bias, bullying, interference and destabilisation of municipalities by Winde’s MEC for Local Government, Anton Bredell. Besides the blatant bias when it comes to his treatment of ANC-led municipalities in the province compared to the kid glove treatment of those run by the DA, there is evidence that Bredell has used his position to fight internal DA factional battles.

We must hold them to account especially when what they practice is not what they preach.

On 18 May 2018, the then provincial chairperson of the DA, Anton Bredell, who also just so happened to be and continues to be the MEC for local government, wrote a letter, on a DA letterhead, instructing the acting mayor, speaker, chief whip and DA caucus chairperson of the George municipality to halt the appointment of the director of corporate services in the municipality.

The Public Protector has now found Mr Bredell guilty of breaking the ethics code.

The Public Protector’s report states that “it was inappropriate for Mr Bredell, holding the office of the MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, to have interfered in the appointment process of a senior official of the Municipality and that in so doing acted in violation of paragraph 2 of the Executive Ethics Code.”

In terms of the remedial action, the Public Protector instructed the premier of the province, “in terms of section 3(6) of the EMEA [Executive Members Ethics Act of 1998] within a reasonable time, but not later than 14 days after receiving this report, to submit a copy thereof and any comments thereon, together with a report on any action taken or to be taken in regard thereto to the Western Cape Provincial Legislature.”

As the ANC caucus, we had called on Premier Winde to remove Bredell from his cabinet. Upon his election Winde had promised clean, accountable and ethical governance. He promised to act without fear or favour against any MECs who transgressed the code of conduct.

The fact that the Premier has decided that the only action he will take is to reprimand MEC Bredell, is further illustration that Winde is not prepared to act according to the standards that he has set for himself.

In his rambling and convoluted response to the Public Protector, Winde tries to compare a tweet of Minister Mboweni to the conduct of MEC Bredell. Firstly, I am not aware of any complaint lodged with the Public Protector or finding against Minister Mboweni regarding his tweet. On the other hand MEC Bredell has been found to have breached the code of ethics after a formal complaint was laid with the Public Protector. So the comparison made by Winde holds no water – there was no complaint lodged against Minister Mboweni (yet President Ramaphosa severely reprimanded him) and secondly, MEC Bredell and the DA interfered in a local government appointment process in which they had no legal authority to do so.

What is less known are the facts of this particular case in George. An examination of the facts reveals that the DA and Bredell were not simply guilty of breaching the Code of Ethics, but they stand exposed of naked racism and DA cronyism.

The one applicant, who happened to be black, was not only acting in the post of director for Corporate Services but was eminently more qualified than the white male who the DA-cabal wanted to appoint. Nevertheless, a DA cabal–loaded selection committee had proposed the white applicant for appointment to the full council. It was at full council that ANC councillors supported by some black DA councillors questioned the recommendation and voted to support the black candidate. In fact the HOD of the Local Government Department in the Province advised the council that the appointment of the black candidate would be lawful and in line with employment equity given the lack of representivity in the senior management of the municipality, let alone the applicant’s qualifications and experience.  The DA and Bredell’s intervention was aimed at blocking the appointment of the better qualified black applicant in favour of a less qualified white applicant. This is nothing less than racism, cronyism and jobs for pals by the DA. This conduct is inextricably part of the DA’s DNA.

It is this racism and cronyism that Premier Winde totally ignores in his response.

He merely says that there was no finding of racist intent by the Public Protector. In my complaint I asked only that the Public Protector investigate whether MEC Bredell had breached the code of ethics in this matter. I did not ask the public protector to investigate racism.

What I am explaining are the facts of this case which clearly show the racism and cronyism by the DA and Bredell.

And that is why we are in the process of asking the Employment Equity Commission to investigate this appointment in George and whether the conduct of the DA and MEC Bredell contravenes employment equity legislation and regulations.

We are also asking the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to investigate every instance where MEC Bredell and the DA conspired to intervene in  the appointment processes at local government level.

This is the greatest indictment of Winde. Not that he gave a slap on the wrist for Bredell’s breach of the code of ethics, but that he has said nothing about this shocking racism and cronyism in George.

It demonstrates that Winde will not go up against the powers that be in the DA, who lead a racist organisation which uses its new policy of “non-racialism” to try and mask its determination to preserve the privileges of those who acquired them through Apartheid and Colonialism. Or it demonstrates that Premier Winde himself condones racism and the undermining of redress.

The DA preaches that it is against racism yet halts the appointment of this Black person into this municipal position to try and ensure the appointment of a White person instead. The DA preaches that it practices good governance but instead allows for political interference in the administration of the municipality.

We will stand united as the people of the Western Cape to defeat Covid-19 despite our provincial government continuously being obstructionist. But we will also stand united in ensuring that maladministration and unethical behaviour is defeated in our province. We will hold the DA to account and we will continue to expose them as a party which simply does not practice what they preach.

This opinion piece is written by Cameron Dugmore MPL, Leader of the Opposition in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature

The views and opinions expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Polity.