The 5000 Club consists of residents and business
people who live
or work in the DA Sandton Constituency, as well as other friends. It
goes out every six weeks with an update on parliament and political
activity in the north of Johannesburg. PLEASE add friends to this group
or email me their addresses. We now have over 3000 readers and hope to
grow it to 5000 by the end of 2010!
In
this edition:
1. How to get involved locally -
An
invitation
2. What we need in education
in SA 3.
A perspective on the new opposition
4. Parliament
matters! 5. Ward 109 update
6. Ward 103
update 7. DA and the kids
from Nazareth House! Have you visited ianollis.com yet? Find a collection of labour
ministry information, news clips, recordings of speeches and photos... 1.
Getting
involved: The DA in the Northern Suburbs is
inviting you to get involved and make a difference in your community
and local government in the City of Johannesburg. On Saturday 13 March
we held a promotional table at Benmore and signed up 45 new members and
answered residents questions about service delivery in the city. On
Wednesday 17 March, Ian Ollis MP debated MMC Parks Tau on the state of
the city ( listen
here) and on Thursday 18 March we held a public meeting at St
Johns' Church Hall in Sandton where 200 residents were challenged to
get involved locally; to get themselves and friends registered to vote;
to join the DA; to donate towards 2011 elections funds and to fight
for better service delivery in the City of Johannesburg. We
have a
follow up meeting on
Wednesday, 24 March, at the Blairgowrie Recreation
Centre, Park Lane, Blairgowrie, Randburg at 7pm. Please attend this
one if you have missed other opportunities to get involved! DA Public
Meeting at St Johns' Church Hall in Sandton
2.What
we need in education in SA: The DA has
just completed a month-long campaign to strengthen the hands of
educators country-wide. A national petition is being circulated that
calls for the scrapping of vat on all textbooks. As a result, treasury
is investigating the financial impact of this and we may see it adopted
as government policy in the near future. We are running an "adopt a
school" programme with each constituency offering assistance to schools
where we are able. Helen Zille held a rally in Port Elizabeth calling
for better services in schools:
The
DA is focusing on the children who
will shape our country’s future. And in the Western Cape where the DA
governs, we can put our policies into practice. Education for millions
of our children is in crisis, but the truth is that we can fix it, Zille
told the rally. “There are many schools that serve the poorest of the
poor that have shown this. One of these is Ethembeni, in Port
Elizabeth, which has had a 100% matric pass rate for 12 years.” In
the last few weeks, we have taken a central message to people around
South Africa:
Our education system may be
broken, but it can be fixed -
with sustained focus and the right interventions, we can turn it
around. When it comes to the schools that are performing well, our
approach is “call us, we won’t call you.” This is what we have told the
167 Western Cape schools that achieved a 90% or more grade 12 pass
rate last year. Individual plans with each one of the 85 schools that
received a less than 60% pass rate have been drawn up by the school in
consultation with the Education Department. Measures to improve
performance in weak schools include compulsory literacy and numeracy
tests for all grade 3, 6 and 9 learners. To relieve overcrowding and
provide better facilities, we have put out tenders for the building of
12 new schools and 200 new classrooms. 126 mobile classrooms have been
allocated for priority schools. Zille tells her
story, “The primary school I attended as
a child only had pit latrines. It had no electricity and it had
corrugated iron classrooms. There were children at that school who were
so poor that they arrived barefoot, which is why shoes were not
compulsory in my school. We had two or three grades to each class and
two languages in each class. When my father's business started doing
well, he was able to send me to a better high school. When I got there,
I was far ahead of all the other children in my grade who had been to
some of the best schools in Johannesburg. This was because the teachers
we had had in that poor school were so dedicated that by the time I
went to high school I was actually in advance of the other
children.”
There are many dedicated
teachers in South Africa today.
They don’t teach for the money – many of them could earn more in other
professions. The best teachers work from early in the morning until
well into the evening and on weekends. The central policy in the
Western Cape is to hold teachers and principals accountable for learner
outcomes through performance contracts. Those who do perform will be
rewarded. No other province in the country has such rigorous
accountability mechanisms. “We are also in the
process of setting
up a number of Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics or STEM
Centres of Excellence. The first two will be in Tokai and Khayelitsha.
They will remain state schools, but have greater freedom and autonomy
to reward teachers for good performance and remove teachers who don’t
perform. It simply means that we believe the rights of our children to a
decent education are more important than the rights of undedicated
teachers to sheltered employment.” The full speech can be found here. 3. A
perspective on the new
opposition: As you have probably by now read
in the weekend papers, there is a move afoot to unite key opposition
parties into a new force that can challenge the ANC for power all over
South Africa. Discussions are underway between the UDM, ID, COPE and DA
to work together. What form that co-operation will take is yet to be
agreed by all parties. The ID voted on Saturday 20 March to empower
their leadership to negotiate a working relationship with one or more
opposition parties within 180 days in order to complete a merger
or coalition before the 2011 local government elections. More
announcements are expected in due course, although the parties are in no
rush to form a "shotgun" marriage. Any merger agreements will be
concluded with a concern for matters of principle and a long-term future
rather than short-term expediency. 4.
Parliament
The first term of Parliament for 2011 has
been very active with committees sitting regularly and churning out
policy and draft legislation. The draft human trafficking act has been
tabled, draft labour broking legislation is being finalised, and much
more is on the way. The State of the Nation speech by President Zuma
found little traction with opposition parties, the media or civil
society. The president has been under intense pressure in Parliament
over his handling of Julius Malema, his appointment of questionable
candidates to key positions in the civil service and the financial
collapse of so many government run entities such as SABC, Transnet,
SAA, Eskom and so on. Of course much colourful debate ensued from the
throwing out of Mluleki George MP (COPE) from Parliament, the walk out
of Cope and the DA and the inappropriate language of Dianne Kohler
Barnard for which she was disciplined and formal apology made, Nando's
ad notwithstanding. The call, by COPE for a no-confidence vote in the
president also sparked much enthusiastic debate, but interestingly
enough the ANC response did not consist of a defence of the president,
but an attack on the opposition.
5.Ward
109 (Alex/Wendywood)
establishes new DA branch A
new DA branch was established in Ward 109
on 8 February at a well attended AGM at the Ernest Ullman Park. Ward
109 in Joburg includes Morningside Manor, Marlboro Gardens, Kelvin,
Wendywood and parts of Alexandra. It is presently represented by an ANC
ward councillor. Giyani Phanuel from Alexandra is the new branch
chairman and he will be working closely with Councillor Patrick
Atkinson, the shadow DA councillor for Ward 109. The main goal of the
new branch committee over the next year is to work towards the
re-election of a DA ward councillor in ward 109, during the next
national Municipal elections expected in April/May 2011.
Johannesburg's ward 109 has been one of the most closely
contested wards
in the city in previous municipal elections In 1996 an ANC councillor
was elected as ward councillor. This all changed in the 2001 municipal
elections when Alan Fuchs of the DA was elected as Ward 109's new
councillor. After serving a five year term he lost narrowly to the ANC
in the 2006 elections.
6.Ward
103 Update
- Sandton
has witnessed
first hand the results of poor service delivery. Pikitup failed to
deliver bins to lease holders at the Field and Sudy centre despite
having a signed contract. They promised in early December to put a skip
in place until they could get the bins. Nothing happened. They then
said there was a shortage of bins. On investigation it was found that
they had bins at their depot in Roodepoort but had failed to deliver
any. Eventually, after intervention, bins arrived in late January.
- Sports
& Recreation is also failing to maintain many of its
facilities and in some areas the centres are falling into disrepair.
Complaints have been highlighted in the local newspapers but the Sports
& Recreation Department has not responded to questions.
-
Potholes continue to be a nightmare. I am reporting as well as tackling
JRA to sort out drainage and underground water problems on many roads.
-
The public meeting held on 20 January regarding a proposed helipad at
Sandown High School was attended by more than 100 residents. The
majority voted no and a petition containing over 200 signatures has been
handed to the Petitions Committee at the Johannesburg Metro.
-
Many of our street lights have still not been repaired despite constant
calls to City Power. We will however persist and bombard the city
entities with our requests and complaints until we get results.
-
Good news is the re-tarring of Rivonia Road in the Morningside area.
-
The Branch Committee in the ward is calling on all residents to sign up
as DA members and send their e-mail addresses to vearp@iafrica.com As
we
gear up for the 2011 Municipal elections, we want to communicate to as
many residents as possible.
DA
sponsors pyjamas for Nazareth House kids! We
were thanked profusely by Nazareth House for our Christmas gifts of
pyjamas for the children of this Johannesburg children's home. Nazareth
House has lost some of their sponsorship and could not give Christmas
gifts to the children in December.
Message from
Nazareth House:
"Dear Darren. It was absolutely wonderful to have you and all from the
DA's office spend time with our children. They really enjoyed
themselves. For all your generosity and kindness, which you all showed
to them was really appreciated. I also enjoyed having you all here.
What a pleasure! On behalf of the sisters and children I would like to
express how grateful we are for the wonderful gifts that were brought
for the children. There are no words to say ‘thank you so much’. With
an assurance of continued remembrance in my prayers, God Bless, Sister
Agnes"
Darren Bergman at
Nazareth House | 
