Mabuza to answer questions on SAA bailout and land reform in National Assembly

The government’s decision to cut service delivery funds to bail out South African Airways will be one of the questions coming Deputy President David Mabuza’s way on Thursday in the National Assembly.

The matter also arose when President Cyril Ramaphosa answered questions in the National Assembly two weeks ago, and on Wednesday, when it was Health Minister Zweli Mkhize’s turn to be quizzed.

Other matters Mabuza will have to respond to are Eskom, gender-based violence, land reform and the state of municipalities.

The hybrid sitting is scheduled to start at 14:00.

The questions are:

– DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone: With reference to his comment in the National Council of Provinces on 3 March 2020 that each and every district municipality will have a plan which is a combination of national government, provincial government and municipalities, what are the relevant details of (a) how the delivery of social and other services by the various government departments, their public entities and provincial and local governments will be now affected by the cutting of their budgets to the tune of R10.5 billion in the 2020-21 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in order to fund the SA Airways business rescue plan and (b) the steps that the government intends to take to mitigate the negative effects that the budget cuts will have on the delivery of social and/or other services?

– EFF chief whip Floyd Shivambu: Whether, with regard to his capacity as the chairperson of the inter-ministerial committee on land reform, he has been informed that some of the land that is being advertised for state disposal to emerging farmers is already occupied and used by communities and some emerging farmers; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what measures has he put in place with regard to the rights of the persons already occupying the farms?

– ANC MP Grace Tseke: With reference to his assertion in the National Council of Provinces on 3 March 2020 that the government is not looking at privatising the SA Airways (SAA) as it believes it can deal with the challenges faced by the airline, and in view of the more than R16.5 billion that the government has allocated to the recapitalisation of SAA over the past decade and the recently announced further allocation of R10.5 billion to SAA by the minister of finance in his 2020 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, what (a) assurance can he give to South Africans that the government will ensure that the money that will be managed by the business rescue practitioners will lead to a sustainable turnaround of SAA and (b) measures will be taken to restructure SAA and strengthen the capacity of its management going forward?

– IFP MP Mzamo Buthelezi: Given the recent disappointing financial results announcement made by the power utility Eskom for the financial year ending in March 2020 and citing its unsustainable debt burden which led to a net loss of R20.5 billion, (a) what is the government’s response to the announcement and (b) how does the government intend on implementing a rapid response to the issues cited by Eskom?

– FF Plus MP Michal Groenewald: Whether, with reference to his reply to written question 2084 on 2 November 2020 regarding the identification of the Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality as a service delivery hot spot, he supports the Free State provincial government’s decision to end the section 139 intervention; if not, what were the reasons that the provincial intervention was terminated; if so, what measures have been put in place to settle the historic outstanding debt of the municipality to Eskom?

– ANC MP Bernice Swarts: With the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) being one of the symptoms of the decay in morality, what progress has been made in placing GBVF at the epicentre of the Moral Regeneration Programme and of the implementation thereof?

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