DA promises to fix city in five years
DA FEDERAL leader John Steenhuisen assured Kimberley residents that it would not take “500 years” to rid the city of “filth and decay”. He promised that the party would end loadshedding and water cuts, during his closing rally in the city on Tuesday.
Steenhuisen said that he was confident the DA would secure 40 percent of the votes in the Northern Cape and stated that a decision would be made on forming a coalition government based on the outcome of the national general elections.
“In coalition with opposition parties who signed the multi-party charter, we hope to bring in a new government. We do not believe in bringing back a government with a failed history,” Steenhuisen said.
“The people of the Northern Cape are ready to vote the ANC out and to elect a new DA government, because they know that things do not have to be this way.
“For too long, the ANC has forced our people to live in sub-human conditions.”
Steenhuisen said that he believed the party would be able to improve services and infrastructure in the next five years.
“The majority of the people of the Province are unemployed and impoverished and are tired of broken promises.
“You don’t have to wait 500 years for the thieves to be done looting before they start caring about your problems. If you vote premier candidate Izak Fritz and the DA into office, we will begin to turn things around within just a single term. The DA will do in five years what the ANC could never do in 500 years.
“We will place all the dysfunctional municipalities under administration and place competent officials and administrators in charge,” he assured attendees.
Steenhuisen also met with the bereaved loved-ones of the Brand family outside the Northern Cape High Court. The Brand family were murdered on their smallholding near Hartswater in 2020.
“The pain of the family years after the brutal murders took place is heartbreaking,” Steenhuisen said.
He added that it was a travesty that five million murder cases in the country were never prosecuted.
“We will continue to put pressure on forensic laboratories to speed up DNA analysis and prioritise murders that occur in remote areas. It is easy to forget that for each person murdered families have lost loved ones.”
Steenhuisen stated that the DA would employ the use of technology such as drones to track down criminals and stock thieves.
“Police reservists and communities themselves can become involved in reducing crime levels. The SAPS is under-resourced while its fleet of vehicles stay for months awaiting repairs at the government garage. We advocate for vehicles to be repaired by local businesses.
“We also want to ensure that dockets are investigated by experienced officers. Too many times cases are thrown out of court because of incompetence.”
He pointed out that they would restore the Northern Cape to once again being the safest province in the country.
“We will get rid of corrupt cadres and build a professional police service that protects the people, rather than corrupt politicians.
“We will institute rural safety units to protect our farm workers, our farmers and all of the people who work hard every day to put on our tables.”
Steenhuisen stated that they would establish public private health care partnerships opposed to the national health insurance (NHI).
“What the ANC have done to our children, by destroying the education system in this province, is a crime against the people. The Northern Cape has the lowest matric pass rate, and one of the highest dropout rates, in the country.
“Over 8,600 people are currently waiting for surgeries because of the chronic mismanagement of health facilities by ANC cadres. At the moment, patients are losing their lives because these hospitals cannot even run air conditioners anymore.
“A new DA government will fix and upgrade the Robert Mangaliso hospital in Kimberley and the Harry Surtie hospital in Upington – without stealing any taxes – like the ANC plans to do with NHI,” Steenhuisen concluded.
