GOOD speech by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
09 June 2022
Note: This is the speech that was delivered by GOOD Secretary-General and Member of Parliament, Brett Herron, during today’s debate on the Presidency Budget Vote.
A week ago, when considering our approach to the Presidency’s budget debate, among the areas we wanted to raise was the price South Africans pay for presidential security, and whether the money would not be better spent elsewhere.
We wanted to question not only the cost, but also the inequality and injustice in the fact that around 80 private bodyguards are deployed to secure the Presidency, when there are four times that number of active murder cases in just one gang-riddled suburb of Cape Town, Manenberg.
We would have liked to challenge the President to lead a reprioritization of our country’s spending so that we could address the crises we can no longer ignore.
We would have implored him to accelerate the implementation of a Basic Income Grant, and restructuring the fuel price, because millions of South Africans are struggling for their basic survival and/or swimming in debt.
Then we learned about the breach in security at the President’s farm in 2020, the loss of vast sums of cash, and the questionable steps allegedly taken by the head of the President’s security to manage the incident…
The questions that arise, in the absence of adequate answers – and speedy investigations – have enormous destructive power.
We repeat our call of two days ago for the President to urgently take South Africans into his confidence with respect to the millions of dollars in cash stolen from his farm.
By offering a credible explanation for these events the President would both defend his own integrity, and that of the country.
At the same time, a credible explanation would contribute to breaking the toxic South African cycle of allegations of criminality being weaponised by politicians, and the media, instead of being swiftly investigated by police and prosecutors as they should be in our constitutional democracy.
By choosing, instead, to effectively invoke the so-called sub-judice rule, the President fuels the narrative that there is something to hide.
It feels like the key role-players in the criminal justice system have ceded their powers to investigate and prosecute alleged criminals – and to absolve those who are innocent of charges – to opposition politicians, inside and outside the ruling party, and to public opinion.
Investigators and prosecutors must do their work, for it is they who have the power to prevent our spiraling into another round of endless allegations, accusations and manipulations at the expense of the welfare of the majority of the people and the country.
It is disappointing that this debate is unavoidably diverted from the business of the people of our country. We have a long list of crises, from poverty to crime, unemployment, inflation, natural disasters like the recent flooding, climate change and Eskom.
We really don’t need another one…we need to be debating how we achieve a just and prosperous South Africa based on spatial, social, economic and environmental justice.
We implore the authorities to bring these allegations to a conclusion swiftly. South Africa needs our undivided attention.
Media enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za