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The DA is set to expand our battle against ANC corruption following the announcement last week that the government has identified gated communities as its next target for looting and political capture. Speaking at the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) Indaba in Johannesburg last week, Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi, announced that the ANC is planning to force gated communities to procure services, such as security and gardening, from BEE companies connected to ANC cadres.

BEE corruption that forces private entities to hand over shares and tenders to companies connected to the ANC elite has already contributed to widespread economic and service delivery collapse in South Africa. Alongside cadre deployment, BEE corruption is the ANC’s preferred vehicle to capture institutions. It has now set its sights on capturing gated communities.

As Kubayi pointed out during her announcement, 27% of the total value of residential property in this country is located inside organised communities, accounting for over R800 billion in asset value. What she fails to admit is that gated estates are so popular precisely because they offer residents a way to use their own resources to build safe and liveable communities outside of the ambit of ANC corruption and destruction.

However, under the new scheme proposed by Kubayi, the ANC intends to make it “mandatory” for homeowners in gated communities to spend their hard-earned levies and other resources on companies connected to ANC cadres.

This will throw the gates of organised estates wide open to ANC looting.

Kubayi also issued a blanket condemnation of community schemes by claiming that “cultural diversity has unfortunately become a major source of disputes within the [community] schemes.” In the context of the ANC’s intensified focus on using race quotas to determine where South Africans are allowed to live and work, this comment should set alarm bells ringing. It raises the spectre that the ANC will regulate both procurement and ownership in these communities based on race.

The DA is already leading the fight against race quotas imposed through the Employment Equity Amendment Act and water licensing regulations. We will now similarly lead the fight against this transparent attempt to corrupt and capture the gated communities that offer a safe refuge from ANC destruction to millions of South African families.

We will be submitting a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request to Kubayi to obtain complete details of her department’s plan to capture gated communities. We undertake to share that information with all homeowners and residents of such estates. We also call on residents and homeowners associations who want to protect their homes and investments in these communities to get in touch with their local DA representative and to visit check.da.org.za today to stand together against the ANC’s plan to capture these communities.

Issued by Luyolo Mphithi MP - DA Shadow Minister of Human Settlements