DA rejects Simelane, Nkabane departmental budgets

The DA has followed through on its threat to vote against departmental budget votes of ministers who are facing allegations of wrongdoing. 

This after the party this week voted against budgets of the departments of human settlements and higher education led by Thembi Simelane-Nkadimeng and Nobuhle Nkabane respectively. 

This decision was taken as a direct response to President Cyril Ramaphosa axing trade and industry deputy minister Andrew Whitfield, of the DA, last week for defying his order that none of the members of his executive were allowed to go to the US at the height of the diplomatic tensions between the two countries. 

The DA in response argued that Ramaphosa had been harsh on Whitfield and that it was not acceptable that he fired him for such a minor transgression while he still kept Simelane and Nkabane in his cabinet. 

Unlike Whitfield, the DA argued, Simelane was accused of corruption and Nkabane stood accused of lying to parliament. Instead of dealing with the two ministers who were facing serious allegations, Ramaphosa decided to axe Whitfield for going on a trip without getting permission, the DA argued. 

DA MP Luyolo Mphithi on Wednesday said his party was voting against Simelane's budget vote because of the corruption allegations she was facing.

Mphithi said the DA was concerned that instead of firing Simelane, Ramaphosa had moved her from the department of justice to human settlements. 

“You'd think that the response to this that the president would have shown minister Simelane the door, he did not. He asked for the report that he stayed with for three months,” said Mphithi. “And even though the DA sustained pressure asking the president to act, he lacked courage to act and instead decided to dump minister Simelane at human settlements, one of the most important departments for South Africans.”

“It seems that this president does not take an issue with the fact that a person accused of corruption sits in his cabinet and will have to look after a budget of R30bn that is set aside for South Africans,” he said. 

Ideally, Mphithi said, the DA would not have a problem with voting for the department of human settlements' budget as it relates to people’s housing and security but they could not do it because of the allegations faced by Simelane.

“The DA will always support the granting of funds to house the vulnerable at the same time fast-tracking jobs and growth to give many more South Africans the dignity of being able to buy and own their own houses,” he said.

 “And though this budget and the department have many challenges under normal circumstances it would be supported. However, we sit with a minister who faces corruption allegations who has not been accountable to the South African public. And it is because of this we struggle support this particular budget.”

Mphithi and the MK Party’s Thulani Gumede raised several issues with the human settlements budget presented by Simelane, saying it was not dealing with some of the key issues faced by South Africans in the sector. 

“A critical examination reveals a fundamental flaw, an overall real decline in the department's budget. None of its five main programmes demonstrates above-inflation increases,” said Gumede. 

“This systemic underfunding of human settlements initiatives will inevitably worsen existing backlogs and impair the progressive realisation of adequate housing.”

He said his party could not vote for as it would mean they accepted the decrease in allocation. 

“I asserted during the committee meeting last week and I reiterate now that this draft budget must be rejected. It's real term decline across key programmes particularly in integrated human settlements and informal settlements upgrading directly contradicts the constitutional obligation to provide adequate housing and the strategic goals of the national development plans,” he said. 

“Accepting this budget will constitute a retreat from addressing deeply entrenched structural inequalities and the pressing needs of the vulnerable communities for basic services and dignified living conditions.”

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