Four months ago, I criticised the premier for giving preferential treatment to Haw & Inglis, a white-owned company whose actions have harmed the lives of people of colour.
These individuals have colluded with gang bosses and should be imprisoned and banned from doing business with the state. This is a legal requirement, not a matter of opinion. However, in the Cape Colony, the law is applied differently to different people.
The premier rightly pointed out that the DA-run City of Cape Town should have blacklisted Haw & Inglis. Therefore, we asked mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis why the City had deliberately failed the Cape Flats. Twenty-one days later, the supposedly most transparent municipality in the country has been unable to respond. We understand why.
On Tuesday, the Cape High Court ruled that the Western Cape Provincial Administration’s supply chain management had violated seven of its own laws to ensure that Haw & Inglis won a tender. Despite being R6 million more expensive than a qualified, coloured, female-owned company, the DA’s veneer of good governance and non-existent commitment to economic transformation is being exposed.
The sad part is that people of colour must seek recourse through the courts to obtain fairness, which is an expensive option that few can afford. This is what the DA knows, and this is how they abuse us in our battle to unlock the shackles that have been placed on our hands since Van Riebeek landed.
The premier would do well to initiate a forensic audit into both the Bid Evaluation and Bid Adjudication committees. A cursory glance at the court judgment indicates that highlevel employees have made several gross errors that they are paid not to make. It is important to remember that this lawsuit was dismissed with costs, indicating the judge believed the motion to defend was so weak that it was a waste of the court’s time.
Once again, the struggling taxpayer will be expected to pay a seven-figure amount because the DA has tried to exclude a coloured person to the benefit of a white one. This is why the DA exists, after all.
The CCC would demand that the results of the forensic report be made public seven days after its conclusion, as the DA-run City of Cape Town is seeking to suppress a similar report that could amount to millions of rand, all in the name of transparency and clean governance, no doubt. Mr Premier, we implore you to take action today.
* Fadiel Adams, Cape Coloured Congress.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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