Cape Town - The DA’s Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill, officially tabled in the provincial legislature on Monday, has whipped up a political storm with the DA claiming that its motives for introducing the proposed legislation have been misunderstood.
At a press briefing to “set the record straight” the bill’s sponsor, DA MPL Christopher Fry, said: “The Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill does not seek independence, nor does it make a case for secession.
“Our commitment remains with fighting for the interests of all South Africans and working towards greater devolution in accordance with the South African Constitution.”
Fry said he introduced the bill as part of his party’s commitment to expand federal autonomy for capable provincial and local governments and to empower them to manage devolved functions from the national government.
“We are of the view that in order to stem the tide against state failure in South Africa it has become critical that greater powers are devolved to capable provincial and local governments such as the Western Cape.”
DA provincial leader of government business, Ivan Meyer, who said the bill had been introduced because the ANC national government was incompetent and could not carry out its statutory and executive responsibilities, leading to a national service delivery collapse.
Meyer said: “The devolution of powers of certain functional areas will lead to better service delivery in the Western Cape because the national government is unable to deliver on its constitutional mandate.”
Criticising the bill’s introduction, Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) MPL Peter Marais said the DA had hijacked his idea.
Marais said: “The DA never had a plan to implement devolution until I challenged them at the 2020 State of the Province Address (Sopa) in Rocklands.
“I pleaded for federal autonomy for the Western Cape and the premier challenged me to introduce a bill. It wasn’t until I came up with the Western Cape People’s Bill that the DA rushed in with their own bill.”
He said the two bills had similar objectives but that the DA’s was a watered-down version of the bill he introduced.
DA deputy provincial leader JP Smith said the bills were fundamentally different. He said the FF Plus bill was about self-determination and an “updated version of the Volkstaat in its racial nationalist view of self-determination.”
Leader of the provincial opposition Cameron Dugmore (ANC) said the DA had realised that it would never govern nationally and was now advocating for power sharing through a federal constitution and a federal system.
“They are clearly trying to usurp the powers and functions of the national government via the back door.”
He said the DA was biting off more than it could chew by demanding full control of national competencies in policing, public transport and rail, energy, trade and harbours.
“They have proven that they can’t even cope with municipal and provincial competencies yet they want more,” Dugmore said.
“Klipfontein Hospital still has not replaced GF Jooste almost 10 years later.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za