ANC government to ship R50 mil worth of food from SA to Cuba – insult to South Africans

Dear Editor

In reply to DA MP Willem Faber’s speech in today’s debate on international relations and cooperation, the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, said her Department won’t send R50 million to Cuba – instead they aim to buy food for this amount in South Africa and ship it to Cuba for humanitarian reasons.

This is obviously the ANC government’s attempt to circumvent the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria’s dismissal of its application to appeal the ruling in favour of AfriForum’s interdict to stop a R50 million donation to Cuba through the African Renaissance Fund (ARF).

This blatant disregard of a court order is an insult to the millions of South Africans struggling to survive. The ANC government has enabled and benefited from State capture and the looting of State coffers. This is just another example of how little the starvation of South Africans mean to them. It is clear that the ANC alliance with Cuba has been chosen above our own vulnerable citizens. How can the ANC government justify relief for Cuba, while funding to help KwaZulu-Natal was nothing but empty promises?

Regards

Willem Faber MP
DA Member of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation