The Free State is the epicentre of cadre corruption, it is prevalent in every municipality and provincial department and seriously hampers service delivery.
The Premier’s plan to establish task teams to combat corruption in Free State municipalities is not the solution seeing as councillors are responsible for preventing irregular expenditure.
The ANC-controlled municipal councils fail miserably in this regard and in most cases, these expenses are approved without thorough investigations and as a result, guilty officials are not held accountable.
The ANC is Accused Number One and must be brought to book for the corruption in the Free State.
Local governments in the Free State do not deliver services as they ought to, the roads are in a terrible condition, towns do not have water, municipalities’ outstanding debt to Eskom is out of control and sewage pollution is a common occurrence.
Residents do not get the services for which they pay municipal rates and taxes. Thus, communities have started to take over service delivery where municipalities fail to do their duty towards residents.
The Free State government is supposed to value taxpayers and earn tax.
The Free State’s dilapidated infrastructure contributes to the province’s stunted economic growth. Thus, it is to be expected, albeit alarming, that nearly 40% of the people of the Free State are dependent on social grants.
Rural areas in the Free State are depopulating at an enormous pace and more and more people are leaving the province altogether. The Premier needs to take note of this and realise that lip service will not keep businesses and human resources in the province. Only feasible plans and decisive action can save the Free State ship from going under.
The Premier’s mere concern about farm attacks and murders will not put an end to these atrocities. These cruel attacks will continue as long as certain politicians keep inciting the flames of propagandist myths, such as the farmers stole the land.
This cheap politicking must stop and the ruling party must start to value and protect the agricultural community.
Without commercial agriculture in the Free State, the province’s economy will decline even further and unemployment will grow by leaps and bounds.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Armand Cloete on FF Plus
