Author: Francois Francois Redelinghuys

The Solidarity Movement said today that the loan of about R70 billion granted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to South Africa should be used to help the country in the midst of this crisis and should not be regarded as a donation by certain politicians for their own pockets or projects.

This follows certain high-ranking officials who were recently involved with an investigation into corruption and tender fraud regarding the allocation and use of coronavirus emergency funds, and further bailouts to, among others, SAA.

According to Flip Buys, Chair of the Solidarity Movement, loans taken out by a government are ultimately a yoke that a taxpayer must bear to settle the debt. Therefore, the Movement insists that precise information regarding the use of these funds must be made public to ensure transparency. “With an expected government debt exceeding 80% of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the year, we cannot afford funds, which is obtained at the highest cost to help South Africa during the crisis, to be hijacked by corrupt cadres, while taxpayers must bear the brunt,” said Buys.

Buys further said that the Movement will soon contact the IMF to ensure that stricter measures and requirements are put in place relating to corruption and bailouts to chronically struggling state enterprises such as SAA, for future loans. “These requirements are not only there to protect the IMF but to protect South African taxpayers and the country against wasting. Regardless of the requirements, if there is no reform taking place which is pro-business and economic growth, South Africa will be caught in a debt trap from which it will struggle to recover,” said Buys.

According to Buys South Africa does not have the luxury of advocating state ideologies such as redistribution that dampers the economy. “The fiscal space is already extremely limited and further deregulation must take place to make it as easy as possible for businesses to do their business and help create jobs,” said Buys.

The Solidarity Movement today confirmed that it will accelerate its plans to establish educational institutions with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction. This follows after the MEC of Education in Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, in the National Council of Provinces (NCP) criticised a full bench of the Court of Appeal’s ruling on Afrikaans at Unisa. In the same speech, he also criticised Solidarity’s existing private institutions.

According to the Chiarperson of the Solidarity Movement, Flip Buys, the Constitutional Court, by mouth of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, in its ruling in the Stellenbosch language case, called on the community to build private educational institutions themselves, for the advancement of Afrikaans and other indigenous languages, in terms of section 29(3) of the Constitution. Chief Justice Mogoeng even called on corporate goodwill to make resources available to help fund private educational institutions for Afrikaans and other indigenous languages.

“Chief Justive Mogoeng’s request that communities must build their own institutions and finance it themselves to promote language is thus exactly what the Movement is doing within the framework of the Constitution,” said Buys. He emphasised that Chief Justice Mogoeng’s ruling builds on several similar views by the Constitutional Court in favour of Afrikaans and Afrikaans institutions for higher education.

“Super language”
According to Buys, it is ironic that during the NCP debate, Lesufi warned there should be no “super language” and that all languages should be equal, while deliberately and zealously continuing to undermine recognised indigenous languages so that English continues to exist as the only “super language” as medium of instruction at educational institutions. “The Solidarity Movement, unlike the MEC, advocates the principle of multilingualism and therefore encourages any community to promote their language by establishing educational institutions. The Movement is also willing to work with any community to achieve this,” said Buys.

He also emphasised that the Movement’s educational institutions aims to be world-class in Afrikaans. “The aim is not to exclude others or isolate Afrikaans students, but to create an Afrikaans space where it is possible for young people to live together in South Africa to the benefit of all its people and the country. The goal is also not to exclude, but to ensure that Afrikaans as academic language and Afrikaans students are included. These institutions are also open to any student who does not speak Afrikaans as mother tongue but who would like to study in Afrikaans.

Cultural infrastructure 
The International Law and the Constitution’s point of departure is that language and cultural communities have the right to exist and to survive, and they may have institutions that carries its language and culture over to the next generation. Any attempt to deny them this right, is a totalitarian attempt to destroy those communities. Therefore, the Solidarity Movement’s educational institutions are part of our strategy to build the necessary cultural infrastructure needed for Afrikaners to live free, safe and prosperous in South Africa. The Constitution’s point of departure is exactly unity in diversity, and therefore efforts to enforce uniformity or to incorporate minorities into the majority, will be opposed with all force.

“Democracy without cultural freedom, is only freedom for the demographic majority and thus not democratic. Therefore, activist politicians who are trying to transform the multicultural reality of the country to a monocultural ideology fitting their political image, may not be allowed to conduct a witch hunt against Afrikaans and its speakers for the sake of cheap publicity. It is a transparent attempt to divert attention from the major educational crisis in the country, in which Mr. Lesufi has a huge share,” Buys said

The Solidarity Movement today called for urgent investigation into possible irregularities regarding the issuing of any tenders to dig graves in Gauteng. This comes after it was revealed that the Gauteng Health MEC, Dr Bandile Masuku, in preparation on Covid-19 deaths, identified space for approximately 1,5 million graves and started digging it.

Flip Buys, Head of the Solidarity Movement, says that although the increase of Covid-19 deaths in this province should not be taken lightly, the assumption that there must be prepared for 1,5 million deaths – three times more than that of the entire world thus far – in this province alone, is absolutely absurd. “The first predictions which prompted South Africa to impose a national lockdown, estimated that the country in its entirety could have, at worst, 351 000 deaths due to Covid-19. However, these predictions were made before much was known about the virus and the trends. The Department of Health, in collaboration with medical experts’ own predictions was later adjusted to a possible worst-case scenario of 48 000 deaths nationwide by November this year. This possible worst-case scenario is far removed from what the Gauteng government now outlines for the single province,” said Buys.

According to Buys, this action by the Gauteng Health MEC raises many questions. “If the Department of Health itself predicts that South Africa could have, at worst, 48 000 deaths nationwide, it is outrageous to think that Gauteng should prepare itself for 1,5 million deaths, which make up about 10% of the province’s total population. Due to the massive difference between what is being predicted by the Department and what the Gauteng government is preparing for, it is extremely important to thoroughly investigate this project and the possible tenders associated with it,” said Buys.

According to Buys, actions such as these may lead to unnecessary panic and anxiety in the province while it is by no means based on any facts. “If the MEC predicts that there will be so many deaths in the Gauteng province he must be able to substantiate it by disclosing empirical facts. If not, he is acting irresponsibly,” said Buys.

Buys concluded that the Gauteng government’s seeming response to the pandemic is cynical seeing that they are rather providing mass graves instead of hospital beds. “The initial reason for the lockdown was to add more hospital beds, yet with more than 100 days in lockdown only approximately 400 hospital beds were added,” said Buys.

The Solidarity Movement has launched an international campaign to apply pressure to the South African government to oppose racial discrimination in the allocation of government funds in the fight against the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to overseas governments and international organisations, the Movement calls for a strong stance against the application of any form of racial discrimination when relief measures are allocated to combat the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, an international campaign is necessary because the government does not heed the pleas of several civil organisations and political parties. “Today, we have called on various overseas governments and organisations to not only take a stand against the alarming events of the past weeks, but also to take steps, within their powers, against the South African government. We have already spoken with politicians in various European countries, and we expect pressure to increase on the South African government.”

In its letter, the Movement refers to Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Nguabane’s Tourism Relief Fund for small enterprises in the tourism industry, as well as the decision by Small Business Development Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni to apply racial requirements when granting financial aid to small businesses.

In addition, the Solidarity Movement is concerned about what it describes as a police state developing in South Africa. According to Buys, the use of force and intimidation by the South African Police Service and the National Defence Force is worrying, and the Movement will make the outside world aware of this as well.

A third point the Movement refers to in its letter to overseas stakeholders is the restrictions regarding the aid provided by community organisations. “We are currently also making overseas governments and organisations aware of the draconian nature of South Africa’s lockdown measures. Certain measures, which do not contribute to the fight against the virus, are enforced in a draconian way. These measures all indicate a general over-regulation of civil society that encroaches upon people’s dignity and rights.”

The Solidarity Movement asks that other countries, especially the US and European countries, put pressure on the South African government to refrain from implementing unacceptable discriminatory practices and measures. The Movement has written letters to the governments of more than 30 countries, as well as to organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The Solidarity Movement today said that it is consulting with senior lawyers in order to head to the Constitutional Court and ask  the court to compel government to devolve the current national lockdown to a regional level.

According to the Movement, there is no reason why in certain regions the persistent, irrational lockdown measures currently in force in South Africa cannot be relaxed to Level 1 as soon as possible. According to the Oxford Government Response Stringency Index, South Africa is currently one of the countries with the harshest lockdown measures.

This comes after it has become increasingly clear that South Africa has already achieved the potential benefit that could be derived from a lockdown and that a further protracted lockdown will not supress the virus’s infection rate but will result in more people being unemployed and finding themselves at the mercy of others. The Movement posited that although the virus has not reached its peak yet, the lockdown in its current format will not prevent it from peaking.

According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, the ANC is sabotaging people’s jobs with this lockdown. “It appears that government’s proposed fragmentation of the lockdown into different regions and provinces was merely lip service. It is inconceivable that the Limpopo and North West Province, which respectively have 17 and 29 active cases province wide, are still on Level 4 of the lockdown. Furthermore, Mpumalanga has 33 and the Northern Cape 12 active cases, while people across those provinces cannot go to work to provide food for their children,” Buys said.

According to Buys, it made no sense to have the entire country or even entire provinces in such a hard lockdown. Realistically, the lockdown in provinces with a low infection rate can be relaxed to Level 1 and they can merely be monitored. “The idea behind the lockdown was to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed. An approach that is more federalist in nature will still achieve this goal as the virus moves through different regions,” Buys said.

Buys emphasised that the time has come to relax the measures urgently so that where the infection rate is lower as many people as possible could be allowed to return to work safely. “People can no longer be prevented from taking care of their families. Returning to work must be done while priority is given to safety and hygiene in the workplace,” Buys concluded.

The Solidarity Movement welcomes the process of phasing out the lockdown but believes the regulations should have been relaxed more so that people who can perform their work in a healthy way could return to work. If this does not happen it would be a case of “too little too late”, and there is the danger that government may let many people die of famine in its attempt to prevent the virus from killing people.

The Movement also welcomes the fact that many of our proposals appear in government’s new regulations as such proposals are in line with best practices that have been successful in other countries. Among others, this includes measures to promote healthy work as well as smart restrictions that will focus on those parts that are worse off during the epidemic.

Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, says the biggest mistake government is making is to think that the state, instead of the private sector can kickstart the economy again. The South African state cannot afford to get the wheels of the country’s economy turning again through large monetary injections as is the case in rich countries.

That is why the only solution is to free the private sector to pump large amounts of money into the economy. Such money should be obtained by dramatically easing taxes for the next year, selling loss-making public enterprises, cutting government spending, and raising the subsistence allowance for the poor for the next year.

Investor confidence

At the same time, government must urgently restore investor confidence to attract capital to the country by doing away with harmful policies and by prosecuting state capturers who, so far, have gone scot-free. Policies that need to be abandoned in the national interest are expropriation without compensation, the planned nationalisation of health care and talk of using pension money to subsidise loss-making enterprises. The racial and transformation prerequisites for state assistance are also divisive and discriminatory and should be relaxed as a matter of urgency. It is a pity that AfriForum and Solidarity had to bring court cases against these practices instead of government itself realising that a state of disaster is not a time to discriminate on the grounds of race.

The first three weeks of lockdown were necessary to halt the spread of the virus and to prepare the country’s health system for a large increase in sick people, but many of the lockdown regulations were unnecessary and aggravated the pandemic crisis by plunging the country into a bigger economic crisis.

By all indications, the Covid-19 epidemic will be with us for quite some time to come and thousands will get sick because of it. The fight against it is a marathon rather than a sprint and the country will need economic resources to finance this protracted battle. That is why it is so vitally important that Solidarity’s proposals on how all people, and not just essential workers, can return to work in a healthy way be implemented nationwide. Buys also emphasised that neighbourhood watch organisations should be allowed to help protect their local communities in partnership with the police.

The epidemic remains a serious threat and the phasing out of the lockdown does not mean that people can carry on with their lives as before but that there will be a new “normal” whereby everyone will have to look after each other’s well-being by maintaining social distancing and certain health protocols. It remains important to still protect people with underlying conditions, while the state must enhance its ability to test for the virus, to detect it and to treat sick people in collaboration with the private sector.

Finally, the Movement emphasises that decentralisation in dealing with the virus is essential for success in the battle against it. “The fragmented approach according to which different provinces can phase lockdown out at different levels is a welcome first step,” Buys said.

The Solidarity Movement today called on public universities to proceed without delay with their planned online programme and not to let obstacles that can be overcome derail the academic programme.

This call comes amid universities such as the NWU, UP and other training institutions that have yet again postponed the start of online classes out of concern that not all students will have equal access to technology.

According to Flip Buys, chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, it is not a solution to hold back all students because university administrations are concerned that some students will fall behind.

The solution is rather to start online classes as a matter of urgency and to then implement special measures to help those students who do not have access to the right technology. It does not help to prejudice the vast majority of students for fear that the minority will not have access to the classes. Although administrations argue that online classes will be exclusionary, the vast majority of students who do have access are now being excluded by the postponement of classes.

Thousands of lecturers and support staff have worked tirelessly over the past month to get the classes online while students have prepared themselves for classes that were supposed to start this week. Those people now had to find out that university administrations have decided unilaterally to postpone classes until May.

The prolonged lockdown has already resulted in enormous disruptions of university activities, and now university administrations are extending it even further. It is already much more difficult to study online instead of attending regular classes, and the postponement will inevitably lead to even greater challenges for students and lecturers.

Therefore, the solution is that classes should resume as soon as possible, and then extra classes and programmes could be set up after hours to assist students when the lockdown period is over.

“However, it is gratifying to see that some universities are already making plans to accommodate students by making certain websites available for free, setting up refund initiatives on data, and approaching the community for donations of computers and other devices,” Buys said.

Meanwhile, at the private higher education institution Akademia classes are continuing as usual, and students who experience problems with access to technology and data receive assistance.

Today, 7 April 2020, the Solidarity Movement will host an online helpmekaar day. The purpose of the day is to launch a huge helpmekaar (to help each other) effort by harnessing the power of the community to help people in social distress, to support businesses, and to help children so they can continue with school during these uncertain times. This day will be to the benefit of the Solidarity Movement’s emergency fund.

According to Flip Buys, Head of the Solidarity Movement, the Movement is founded on being a helpmekaar movement and communities must now stand together amidst the corona crisis. “This is the beginning of a helpmekaar (help each other) attempt. In the times ahead, we will need to help one another, and the Movement will harness all its institutions to achieve this,” said Buys.

According to Hannes Noëth, Managing Director of Solidarity Helping Hand, the social distress caused by the coronavirus is already and communities must now stand together to cope and deal with this crisis. The organisation is inundated with requests and is already helping thousands of pre-schoolers, families and elderly to receive food and other help daily. According to Noëth the organisation already spent R753 739 on emergency funding in March, which is why strengthening of the emergency fund is essential.

According to Dirk Hermann, Chief Executive Officer of Solidarity, the crisis has not reached its peak yet. Meanwhile, 53 000 learners have already registered on the School Support Centre’s Wolkskool, to continue with their education online. “Government will not carry us through this crisis, we are going to have to carry each other. Although we are all uncertain, we must help each other. It is time for us to work together and to carry each other because we cannot allow vulnerable people and children to be left behind in this time,” said Hermann.

On the helpmekaar day, the community will also be called upon to help small and medium enterprises. According to Kallie Kriel, Chief Executive Officer of AfriForum, the best help for businesses lies in the purchasing power of consumers. Thousands of enterprises has already registered with AfriForum’s network at www.afriforumnetwerk.co.za. Enterprises are encouraged to register here so that people can be encouraged to buy from them.

Supporters can contribute to the emergency fund, here.

Enterprises can register here on the AfriForum network.