The GOOD Party now stands ready to increase its presence across five provinces. We are ready to submit our candidate list, and we have drafted our manifesto. It’s all systems go for municipal elections on October 27. If the election is postponed by a month or three, we'll be even more ready!
Government budgets do more than present dry financial information. In the process of disclosing a State or Department's tangible spending priorities critical intangible indicators of morality and integrity are revealed. Hidden in the fine print of the City of Cape Town's Adjustment Budget, to be tabled on Thursday, is a proposal to spend R7.57m on the Mayoral Art Collection. "I have written to the City Manager, the City of Cape Town's Accounting Officer, to ask for an explanation," said GOOD Secretary-General Brett Herron.
Among the most nauseating symbols of South Africa's political decay is when people in leadership positions are forced, or feel the necessity, to brazenly lie and defend the indefensible – and the unlawful. The high point of this dark art in recent times was then-police minister Nathi Nhleko treating media to a demonstration of the famed Nkandla swimming pool in 2015 – insisting it was, in fact, not for swimming but for fighting fires.
The GOOD Party has written to Deputy Speaker of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature, Beverley Schafer (DA), for an explanation about her apparent association to a threatening group of anti-poor misogynists. On Friday, Schafer announced she will be a presiding officer at the Western Cape's one-day Women's Parliament being held under the theme: Placing the Dignity and Innate Rights of Women in the Spotlight. Schafer is a prominent member of S-Connect Women, a subgroup of the S-Group founded by billionaire Robert Hersov.
Newly appointed Mayor of Johannesburg, Jolidee Matongo, enters office with the full weight of his predecessors’ underwhelming performance on his shoulders. With local government elections around the corner, Matongo has a gilt-edged opportunity to demonstrate decisive leadership. But if he doesn’t, he risks the ignominy of being the shortest-lived mayor in Johannesburg’s history. The GOOD Party welcomes the filling of the city’s highest office. Matongo's previous role as Johannesburg’s MMC for Finance will have equipped him well to ensure the City spends its budget wisely and without corruption.
“When you empower a woman‚ you empower a community” says GOOD’s leader, Patricia de Lille. GOOD is the only woman-led political party in the South African National Parliament. “The theme for 2021 Women’s Month is ‘Generation Equality: Realizing Women's Rights for an Equal Future’ and inspires societies to work to achieve gender equality by 2030” says Mark Rountree, the National Policy Officer for GOOD. “GOOD works for a united, equitable and just society. We committed in 2019 to support workers and small businesses across South Africa to enable growth and this Women’s Day, we are partnering with several other organisations to deliver on that promise for Women’s Month” says Rountree.
The GOOD Party has passed information relating to three WhatsApp groups apparently formed in order to instigate the acts of terrorism, insurrection and looting in KwaZulu-Natal last month to the police unit, Crimes Against the State. The information was leaked to the GOOD Party by members of the ANC. Although the GOOD Party is very wary of becoming embroiled or used, in ANC factionalism, the content on the Whatsapp groups is too explicit and damning to be ignored.
“The ongoing pollution of wetlands by the City of Cape Town is a contravention of two national Acts and an international treaty” says Mark Rountree, a founding member of the South African Wetland Society and former Chairperson of the Western Cape Wetlands Forum. Rountree who is now the National Policy Officer for GOOD. “I have been disappointed at the Western Cape Minister Bredell’s inability to address pollution in the Diep River over the last two years. When the latest wetland pollution incidents were reported to me, GOOD requested assistance to protect the wetlands directly from the National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) and the National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS)” said Rountree. “We have not been disappointed with the speed of the response.”
Sinkholes in Tshwane are negatively impacting local communities and threatening the safety of citizens, an investigation by GOOD National Chairperson Sam Shabane has revealed. The serially mismanaged and incompetent Tshwane municipality appears disinterested in fixing the gaping holes, one of which, in Atteridgeville, swallowed a car that the owner was unable to retrieve. "I undertook four separate fact-finding missions over the past month, visiting communities and assessing the impact these sinkholes have on peoples lives and livelihoods. What I found was that the municipality appears totally disinterested when it comes to servicing poorer communities," Shabane said. "There's no way residents of more affluent neighbourhoods would tolerate, or be expected to tolerate, this level of neglect."
A dossier of documents leaked to the GOOD Party relating to the alleged abuse of City of Cape Town Covid Food Relief funds includes detailed instructions from Councillor Nora Grose to a middleman to unlawfully transfer R171 778 to Life Changers Church in Table View. In the email dated 10 July 2020, Grose instructs Ruben Swartz, of non-governmental organisation SARCO, which appears to be the middleman in the scheme, to transfer R171 778 to Life Changers Church. "Ruben soon as the monies are paid into the SARCO both Ward 23: R150k and Ward 113: R21 778 must be transferred to LIFE CHANGERS," wrote Grose.