Dear OUTA Members and followers
It’s March 2017 and OUTA is now five years old.
The first four years of OUTA’s existence (since March 2012), was focused on the Gauteng e-Toll debacle and these years saw the OUTA team mired in expensive court cases, as the small team of four operated on a low budget to challenge SANRAL’s propaganda and keep society’s moral courage high.
The past year however has seen the organisation transcend well beyond e-tolls, combining effective communications with a funding model that has injected significant energy behind OUTA. We call it people power, with tens of thousands of people donating toward OUTA’s work and a heightened sense of hope and prosperity for South Africa.
2017 is well underway and true to expectations, the political landscape has been mired in controversy and questionable conduct on numerous fronts. OUTA certainly has a mountain of work cut out for it, as we continue to build a team that is focussed on tackling the myriad of issues related to maladministration, corruption and questionable conduct by many in positions of authority.
I’m often asked if there is hope for South Africa. Hope in the sense of good governance, for the people, with improved growth in jobs, investment, GDP, good governance and general national prosperity. My honest response is yes. Absolutely yes. While the volume of wrongdoing and plunder of state coffers continues almost unabated, we are far from a failed state and the signs of change are on the horizon. However, there is a lot of work to be done, and I for one sincerely believe our country has enough good people, legal structures and a range of robust avenues available to society, to halt the brazen conduct of the few in power who have no regard for the people and the future of this country.
Aside from the work of political parties, we believe it is civil activism and principled leadership emerging from our society that is driving a new dynamic of change within South Africa. One that is giving rise to a heightened civil courage, significant enough to develop a schism within the ruling party which is now turning in on itself and is set to break up as a result of sheer greed. When this happens, the gates will open wider for civil society to hold those who perpetrate the past and current wrongdoings to account. This is the journey of OUTA and we’re in it for the long haul.
As we wrap up our fifth financial year end – February 2017 – we briefly pause to acknowledge what a significant year of growth it has been for OUTA. Our annual report is due out next month. It will provide our followers with a comprehensive summary and overview of the projects undertaken by OUTA throughout the past year. Our new era and a broader mandate has taken us well beyond e-Tolls, and along with it, phenomenal growth which has enabled our staff compliment to grow from 11 to 32. OUTA’s new structure includes competencies such as litigation, research, analysis, investigations, communication, administration and leadership (see Table 1). Our manpower growth has been structured to ensure focussed capacity building to tackle the challenges we take on (see table 2).
Hand in hand with the SAA Pilots Association, this month has also seen OUTA’s latest legal action against the Chairperson of SAA, Ms Dudu Myeni to have the High Court declare her to be a “delinquent director”. This charge comes on the back of several incidents under her watch, including the fraudulent BnP Capital transaction which OUTA halted in mid-2016.
Our listed projects are at various stages and take time to bring to closure, with many in the pipeline and yet to get off the ground. What is constant however, is the motivation and determination of our passionate teams who take this job seriously and without whom, OUTA is nothing.
Thank you for playing your part in supporting OUTA and helping to make South Africa great again.
Wayne
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