Note to Broadcasters: Please find attached soundbite in English by Freddy Sonakile
The DA urges acting North West Premier, Nono Maloyi, to acknowledge and apologise to residents for the horrific state the province finds itself in due to his ANC-led government failures that have increased unemployment, inequality and poverty.
Premier Maloyi should not use this last State of the Province Address (SOPA) tomorrow to make an array of more empty promises once again, but rather give a crisp, unfiltered admission of guilt for his government’s hand in causing untold misery for ordinary residents who struggle every day to find a job, to put food on the table and clothe their children.
Despite his government’s verbal commitment to an “Accelerated Service Delivery Plan,” service delivery throughout the North West has almost entirely collapsed. Case in point, the remnants of what was once known as the Platinum City now lay desolate and strewn with rubbish, industrial sites throughout the province have turned into ghost towns and, increasingly, companies are forced to close down because of his government’s failures to ensure that municipalities deliver the most basic of services.
Every single North West Municipality is dysfunctional, the majority have collapsed, while one or two are quickly following suit. And with it the delivery of clean water, refuse collection, sanitation services and infrastructure maintenance have all deteriorated to the extend where communities are without water and electricity for days and weeks on end, and raw sewage flowing down their streets.
The staggering figure of a 51% unemployment rate, the highest in South Africa, is evidence enough of the ANC’s failures.
Premier Maloyi and his cabinet promised to allocate R13 billion towards rural roads projects, yet today, roads throughout North West are pothole ridden deathtraps.
Throughout this administration’s term, residents of North West have faced one disaster after the other while the government’s response has been ineffective and mediocre at best. Raging veldfires have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of grazing, leaving subsistence and commercial farmers in desperation, while the response to date to alleviate the suffering of the Deelpan community has been lackluster. In natural disasters this provincial government lacks the capacity to respond effectively to limit damage to property and the livelihoods tens of thousands of people depend on.
During both the 2022 and 2023 SOPA pronouncements, his government indicated that allocations would be made to assist the province in developing alternative measures to limit the impact of loadshedding, yet nothing tangible came forth. Instead, many small businesses had to close their doors.
Premier Maloyi must admit to the province that he has lost the battle against corruption within his ANC government. The much-welcomed announcement to create a Forensic Unit in his office proved to be a lie, and a promise by his predecessor to subject public representatives to lifestyle audits never materialised while the promise of an implementation plan to deal with Zondo Commission State Capture report’s recommendations was a fallacy.
North West schools are unsafe. Hospitals and clinics are understaffed, lack resources, and fail every day to deliver the quality public healthcare patients are entitled to.
Nothing Premier Maloyi will say in his SOPA tomorrow will be of benefit to the hundreds of thousands of North West residents desperate for a job and a meal to eat. Citizens should make sure that this is a the last SOPA by an ANC Premier and vote DA in this year’s elections so that a DA-led government can rescue and rebuild our beautiful province.