GOOD TURNS ONE– here are five promises we made and delivered on.
Mark Rountree
National Policy Officer for GOOD
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On the 13th February 2019, GOOD was registered as a political party in South Africa.
There will be no huge wasteful cake or party to celebrate, but GOOD wants to thank all South Africans who lent us their votes and explain what they helped achieve this year.
Opposition politicians are not paid to sit around moaning, constantly opposing everything that the ruling governments do – or to stand and throw chairs around.
GOOD works to be a constructive opposition. This means working with governments when they are doing GOOD, or working to change things when they can be done better, but always being unafraid to expose corruption and stop people who are not working for the good of our country.
Our 2019 manifesto made a number of promises to South Africans. Here is the evidence we are delivering on those promises.
1- GOOD promised to work to stop corruption.
A number of cases of alleged corruption in Cape Town, George and Johannesburg have been investigated and reported to the authorities, who are investigating the evidence that various whistle-blowers have brought forward. Within the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, now led by GOOD’s leader minister Patricia de Lille, thousands of cases of corruption where government officials are illegally doing business with the department are being investigated. The appointments of many irregularly appointed senior managers are also being investigated. Dozens of cases have been referred for prosecution and the recovery of public funds.
2- GOOD promised to cut government expenses.
GOOD has opposed a proposal to increase the number of seats for politicians in provincial governments. The move, proposed by the DA with support from the ANC and EFF in the Western Cape – will increase the number of paid politicians in provincial governments by about 40%. When thousands of schoolchildren do not have schools or teachers and when hundreds of thousands of South Africans do not have housing, this call for increased budgets for politicians is cruel and immoral. GOOD is opposing it because it does not meet our promise to reduce government expenses.
De Lille also cut cabinet members furniture budgets – they had to repair what was broken rather than buy new furniture last year. She also cut the 2019 SONA expenses from R2.3 million down to R500,000. We must spend less on government so that more can be spent on delivering services to our citizens.
3- GOOD promised to use public land for public good.
Government-owned land must be used for the benefit of all South Africans. Within weeks of beginning her new job as minister, De Lille halted the sale of dozens of parcels of land. Instead, 22 large properties are now being made available for land redistribution and housing purposes. Several vacant government buildings have been released for use as shelters for victims of gender-based violence. Within months of De Lille’s appointment, she also confirmed that 100 properties would be released to speed up outstanding land restitution cases. By comparison, just 188 properties had been released in the preceding 20 years!
4- GOOD promised to work for more renewable energy.
GOOD wrote to Minister Mantashe to ask him to sign the section 34 declarations needed for municipalities to produce their own electricity directly from solar and wind farms. The fight for municipalities to buy electricity from providers other than only Eskom began in 2016 when GOOD’s leader de Lille took the Tina Joemat-Pettersson, then Minister of Energy, to court. GOOD has appealed to the current minister to stop opposing that court action – it would save taxpayers legal costs – and simply allow municipalities to begin bringing in more solar and wind electricity. Renewables are cheaper than new coal – and better for the environment – so it is a win-win for consumers’ pockets and the planet.
5- GOOD promised to create a safer South Africa by getting police and social services working together.
GOOD’s Secretary General Brett Herron had criticized the Western Cape DA’s plan to develop a provincial police force because evidence from the USA prove that provincial policing simply does not work. Instead, Herron shared GOOD’s solution to creating safer towns and cities – by ensuring that effective policing works together with social services so that the root causes of crime are addressed. In Mexican cities, this approach reduced serious crime by up to 80%. We are very pleased that the Western Cape government has abandoned its former plan and revised its approach – adopting GOOD’s principles instead.
GOOD is determined to lead with a new style of good, constructive opposition. We know the majority of South Africans are good and we will continue to lead with innovative policy, work to keep government accountable and always, without fear or favour, expose corruption.
ends