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UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 1 TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 ____ PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ____ The House met at 14:01. The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation. CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ENTERPRISES ON REPEAL OF THE OVERVAAL RESORTS LIMITED BILL There was no debate. The Chief Whip of the Majority Party moved: That the Report be adopted. Motion agreed to. Report accordingly adopted. UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 2 REPEAL OF THE OVERVAAL RESORTS LIMITED BILL (Second Reading debate) Ms L A MNGANGA-GCABASHE: Hon Speaker, the repeal of Overvaal Resorts Limited Act 127 of 1993 was referred to the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises on 25 April 2018. In August 2001, Cabinet took a decision to dispose of Aventura Resorts. This decision was informed by the governing policy to restructure state-owned companies by selling noncore assets which were loss-making. The objective of restructuring was to raise funding for the fiscus and reduce the national debt to empower previously disadvantaged groups and existing sectors that were loss-making and noncore to government. Subsequent to receipts of the Bill by the committee, there were meetings held. The department took the committee through the repeal of Overvaal Resorts Limited Act 127 of 1993 on 25 April 2018. The Bill was approved by Cabinet for publication in the Government Gazette to invite public comments on 29 March 2017. The Bill was published in the Government Gazette, National Gazette No 40921 volume 624 of 15 July 2017 from 15 UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 3 June 2017 to 15 July 2017. The committee invited and received public comments on the repeal of the Overvaal Resorts Limited Act on 127 of 1993. The committee discussed clauses on the Bill on 31 October 2018 and finalised by adopting the repeal of the Overvaal Resorts Limited Bill, B36 of 2017 as tabled in the announcements, tabling and committees, ATCs, on 5 November 2018. The repeal of the Bill was well received by the members of the public and organised labour and Forever consortium and broad- based black economic empowerment forum as well as by all members of the committee. Notwithstanding the above, the committee members agreed that the department should provide the committee with progress report in two months on ancillary issues raised by the public. The progress report will outline the Department of Public Enterprises’ plan to resolve the outstanding land claims in consultation with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform together with the Department of Public Works. The committee received comments from the Forever’s consortium of broad-based black economic empowerment forum. The forum UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 4 raised the following matters relating to Overvaal Aventura Resorts Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 56 of 2003 as amended by Act 46 of 2013: The need to empower employees through employees share ownership programme; the impact of restructuring the business on job creation; the need to address matters relating to appropriating implementation of the sale and purchase agreement between the Department of Public Enterprises and Forever Siyonwaba consortium dated 20 June 2003; the 30% shareholding of broad-based black economic empowerment partners should be implemented in line with the legislative prescripts as outlined by the South African government and allocated to black-owned South African companies. The committee recommends that the above-mentioned issue should be implemented by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Labour, working with the Department of Public Enterprises. Furthermore, the committee members were assured that the repeal of the Act is not going to have negative impact on the commitments made to organised labour, communities and the department. UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 5 As the committee, we fully support the Repeal of the Overvaal Resort Limited Bill, B36 of 2017 in line with the intended objectives of government to dispose Aventura Resorts. I thank you, hon Speaker. There was no debate. Declarations of vote: Ms N W A MAZZONE: Through you Speaker, I thank the chairperson of the committee. The DA is completely in agreement with the repeal of this legislation, but we would like to place on record that we do have serious reservations which were raised in the committee. The level of public participation that went with this specific repeal was not correctly executed and we are concerned that many of the complaints and concerns were received late. However, we realised that it won’t be up to this particular Fifth Parliament, but we urge the Sixth Parliament to please keep a very close eye so that the department does exactly what they assured us they will do. We don’t know why this specific repeal took as long as it did, but we hope certainly that going forward, the land claims and UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 6 anything surrounding the land claims will be dealt with swiftly. Once again, we urge that in the Sixth Parliament a very close eye be kept on the promises that were made to the committee. Thank you. Mr Z R XALISA: Speaker, perhaps the liquidation of Aventura Resorts, the stripping of its assets, and its fringe annexation by private companies, led in the main by foreign resorts, exemplify the tragic story of the retreat of the state from what should be its core function – the restructuring of the economy to ensure it benefits the common good. That this was done here at the insistence of the democratic state, led by a movement that calls itself a revolutionary and liberation movement, is more tragic. It shows the unmitigated descent of the ANC from a movement of the people to a tool firmly in the hands of capital. Today, the department led by Pravin Gordhan wants to hammer the final legislative nail into a process started in 2001 and cemented by another dubious character, Malusi Gigaba, by repealing the Overvaal Resorts Limited Act, Act 127 of 1993. Overvaal Resorts, later named UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 7 Aventura Resorts, manage at least 14 public resorts, most of them acquired and developed after the dispossession of African people of their land by the colonial and apartheid government. A mere eight years after the enactment of the Act, in 2001, the ANC-led government believed these resorts were unprofitable and sold them off for next to nothing to white companies, eight of them to a single American company, Forever Resorts. They did this with the full knowledge that some of these properties were under land claim, so they sold off Bela- Bela for peanuts and then bought it back to settle a land claim for R1 billion. If it is not craziness, then I don’t what crazy is. Similarly, there were land claims for Blydepoort and Swadini, and these properties are yet to be transferred back to their claimants. However, in all these instances, these white companies were paid handsome amounts of money to settle the land claims, but they have not been removed from the land. They still operate as if all is normal, and they are only supposed to pay rental amounts to land claimants. This daylight robbery of public resources for private gain has been facilitated by the ANC. Today, Pravin and his people want to continue stripping the UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 8 state of its invaluable assets ... [Interjections.] ... and hand it over to their white masters, as the ANC has done for years. Mr P D N MALOYI: Speaker, on a point of order: Can the member refer to the hon Pravin as the “honourable” Pravin or “mister”, not just “Pravin”. The SPEAKER: Hon member, you know that is how we refer to one another. The hon Pravin Gordhan is a member of this House and therefore should be referred to as such. [Interjections.] Mr Z R XALISA: “Mr Pravin”. Back in 2002, when the ANC was moving at speed to privatise state entities, the late Prof Sampie Terreblanche asked the following: If the state’s role in the economy is to be drastically reduced, who will fundamentally restructure it? Who will counter the power of the commanding heights and other well-organised pressure groups in the private sector? Who will devise and lead a developmental state? Who will see that the poorest half of the population does not remain marginalised, impoverished, and neglected? UNREVISED HANSARD NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2018 Page: 9 These remain important questions to this day. In a country with a history like ours, why is the ANC handing over its development function to racist, white monopoly capital? The Aventura public resorts have been completely annexed, and this Bill only seeks to cement that process. The EFF cannot endorse the massive looting of state resources that happened. The EFF rejects this Bill. [Interjections.] Mr N SINGH: Speaker, I would like to welcome the hon Deputy President. It is good to see him in the House. May I also, Speaker, use some of my time to welcome colleagues who are serving on the Municipal Public Accounts Committee of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. They are up in the gallery over there, and they have come to sit in on Scopa and some of the other committees to see exactly how we operate. [Applause.] Hopefully with the experience that they gain from the way in which Scopa operates in the National Parliament, they will be able to get the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and good governance on track when they go back.