Premier Zamani Saul. Picture: Supplied
POLITICAL parties are not convinced by the “old promises” that were made during the State of the Province address on Thursday.
ACDP party whip Roddy Loff believed that Premier Zamani Saul’s speech was a rehash of promises made in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
“Promises do not change the living conditions of ordinary citizens of the Northern Cape in general,” said Loff.
“The premier needs to create jobs so that residents are less dependent on social grants. Jobs restore people’s dignity and encourage them to be economically independent.”
Loff stated that no clarity was given as to how ailing municipalities would be assisted.
“Only one municipality in the Northern Cape has a stable status while 15 are dysfunctional, according to the auditor-general’s report for 2021.
“We also want clarity on the R500 million of which Sol Plaatje Municipality has no record of.”
Loff added that Saul failed to address the “death of local businesses” that were “overrun by foreign national monopolies”. “The ACDP is not xenophobic, but our priority is to see that a stable local business is in place.
“No attention was given to unemployed residents between the ages of 36 to 59 years.
“Nothing was said about the impact of alcohol abuse on the youth, families, society and especially pregnant young ladies.
“Nothing was said about how to encourage sexual abstinence and the reduction of high teenage pregnancies across the Province.”
DA provincial leader Harold McGluwa believed that the Province was in “absolute tatters.”
“There is no magical programme or fancy plan to be implemented by the premier, Dr Zamani Saul, that can save it. The true state of the Northern Cape is far worse and even more unbelievable than anything you might see on an episode of ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’.”
McGluwa stated that the Province was crime-ridden and noted that there was only one police vehicle operational in Jan Kempdorp.
“A sewage puddle was left since 2016 to grow into a dam that now engulfs both sides of a main economic road. There is a road in Kakamas literally left with only a G-string sized sliver of tar covering it.”
McGluwa added that promises made by the premier that the Diamond City would not deteriorate further under his watch had never materialised.
“Things only went from bad to worse. Kimberley roads are filled with potholes, despite a R500 million investment in Sol Plaatje’s infrastructure, and they continue to grow.
“Municipalities lose more than 60 percent of their water to leaks and towns regularly experience water cuts for up to 14 days at a time.
“Operations at Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital get postponed because of broken lifts.”
He stated that 44.7 percent of Northern Cape learners that were enrolled in Grade 10 in 2019 did not sit for the Grade 12 final exams in 2021.
“One in two people in the Province is jobless and more children are dying of malnutrition.
“The list goes on and on.
“We are living in the 21st century, yet we have become so accustomed to the exceptional failures of provincial government that they do not even shock us anymore.”
McGluwa believed that corruption in the Northern Cape was “so precisely executed” that it was “hardly exposed”.
“We have had minimal arrests and prosecutions despite more than a decade of full-blown looting of the state.
“This is largely why the Northern Cape finds itself in this position. Government resources have been stripped bare, services are malfunctioning and we have been robbed of the opportunity for growth and development, and sharing in the wealth of the Province by and large.”