Changing the names of towns, cities and airports in the Eastern Cape, like Port Elizabeth, Maclear and Uitenhage, serves as clear proof that the ANC considers cheap politicking and its failed ideology more important than the financial crisis in which the Eastern Cape and South Africa find itself.
New place names will not make any meaningful contribution to sustainable job creation nor the security of an income for anyone. Thus, it comes as no surprise to the FF Plus that the Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, made no mention of it in his recent State of the Province Address (SOPA).
The ANC with its failed ideology demonstrates that it is quite willing to let people suffer needlessly for the sake of transformation. The costs related to changing place names are immense and the money should rather have been used to bring economic relief on grass-roots level in the province.
Just like last year, the Premier made no mention of how he plans to turn dysfunctional municipalities around. He also made no attempt to address issues at municipalities, like the lack of proper service delivery, reducing inflated wage bills and eradicating irregular and unauthorised expenditure.
The FF Plus is of the opinion that there is no use in supporting municipalities by improving systems for financial management, infrastructure planning and implementation if fraud, corruption, irregular and unauthorised expenditure are not eradicated.
The Premier also seems to be pushing on with the implementation of the Magwa-Majola Agri-Ecotourism project as a supposed sustainable tourism attraction even though it failed as a tea plantation because it is not economically sustainable.
The Premier seems determined to keep spending hard-earned tax money on the project even though the success of it is not guaranteed. The FF Plus would rather like to see the money spent on helping the tourism industry in the Eastern Cape get back on its feet after the devastating Covid-19 pandemic so that employees who lost their jobs can be hired again.
Despite the Premier’s admission that the availability of water is one of the province’s biggest challenges and that it undermines the economic growth potential of the province, he made no mention of the influence of water wastage or losses.
Water losses caused by leakages in the various metro councils amount to more than 50% of the average water consumption. And yet there is no drive to turn the situation around.
And instead of holding municipalities accountable for repairing water leakages and upgrading water infrastructure, consumers are punished with higher tariffs and having water restrictors fitted to their water meters.
Despite the Premier’s impressive report on the Department of Education, the Department is under immense pressure due to budget deficits and also due to the lack of cooperation and poor service delivery of other departments, like the Department of Public Works, Transport and Water that do not do their part to upgrade and improve schools.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Theo Coetzee on FF Plus
