In light of a finding contained in a Tokiso review, showing that the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) was responsible for 42% of all working days lost to strike action during the 2008/09 financial year, the DA will this week be submitting an application to the Essential Service Committee, asking that teaching be declared an essential service. 

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the Minister of Transport's decision to heed our call for the appointment of an independent task team to investigate allegations of gross financial mismanagement, tender irregularities and misappropriation of funds at the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

Despite Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's assurance on the 4 November 2009 that cabinet has committed themselves to answer all parliamentary questions by the time Parliament rises on 15 December 2009, a total of 110 questions posed by the Democratic Alliance were noted as unanswered and lapsed. The reluctance of the executive to fulfil its constitutional obligation and the disdain shown for the Parliamentary oversight mechanisms, which has been a longstanding issue raised by the Democratic Alliance, has once again become evident through this.
 

A report by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) has revealed that the Forensic Chemistry Laboratories (FCL), responsible for processing scientific evidence in support of drunken driving prosecutions, food analysis as well as establishing cause of death, are in a total state of disarray. Taking into account that crime detection is crippled when Forensic Science Labs are not functioning at optimal levels, this is a most serious state of affairs, since we already know, following a reply to a DA parliamentary question, that 24,375 samples were already backlogged in the system as of August 2009 (up 300% in the space of two years - from 6,068 in July 2007).

The Premier of Mpumalanga, David Mabuza, ought to resign over the spate of murders and the existence of a hit list of ANC officials - which is reportedly linked with World Cup tender disputes amongst other things.
 

The Democratic Alliance believes that the plea bargain agreement reached between BAE, the Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom and the Department of Justice in the United States was not in the interest of truth and justice in South Africa.

The senior ANC figure, implicated in today's Sunday Times newspaper in a series of killings over FIFA World Cup tender disputes in Mpumalanga, must be forced to stand down by the ANC leadership.

Letters from Metrorail - a division of the state-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) leaked to the Democratic Alliance (DA) indicate that it cannot pay its bills and meet its financial commitments to its suppliers of goods and services. In a letter dated 13 January 2010, it is stated that Metrorail is "experiencing cash flow challenges in meeting its financial obligations."

On 30 July last year, following closely on the release of replies to Democratic Alliance (DA) questions showing ministers' expenditure of tens of millions of rands on luxurious cars, the ANC established a Ministerial Task Team to "look at government expenditure in the context of the economic meltdown".
 

The Democratic Alliance can confirm that the Speaker of Parliament, Max Sisulu, visited the Islamic Republic of Iran last week, at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani. The visit coincided almost exactly with Iran's execution of two opposition activists, convicted of "trying to topple the Islamic establishment" after they were linked to protests that took place last June, following the disputed Iranian presidential election. The two executed were among 11 people sentenced to death.