Note to Broadcasters: Please find the attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Jóhni Steenkamp.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in North West condemns the MEC for Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism, Bitsa Lenkopane, for issuing what is nothing more than a thinly veiled ANC campaign statement disguised as an official departmental media release. (See statement here)
The MEC’s statement, issued under the letterhead and authority of the Department, openly promotes, operationalises and legitimises the ANC’s January 8 Statement celebration, a party political party event, as if it were a government programme. This represents a clear abuse of public office and a dangerous erosion of the constitutional requirement of separation between party and state.
The Democratic Alliance views this conduct as a direct violation of the principle of separation between party and state as found in the Public Protector’s State and Party Colours report, which found that the use of state resources, state platforms and public authority to advance party-political interests constitute improper conduct and maladministration. That report arose from similar abuses in the Free State, and the conduct currently unfolding in the North West is no different in substance, only more brazen in execution.
In MEC Lenkopane’s media statement, she announces the mobilisation of departmental resources, public entities, regulatory structures, task teams, and oversight mechanisms specifically to support and manage an ANC celebration. Taxpayer-funded resources are being deployed to market an ANC event, coordinate logistics, conduct readiness checks, and promote tourism linked explicitly to ANC political activities.
Such action is unlawful and unacceptable.
Government exists to serve all citizens equally, not to function as an extension of the ANC’s campaign machinery. The same urgency and coordination showcased for this political celebration are conspicuously absent when dealing with the high unemployment rate in the province, non-operational recreational facilities, and the lack of tangible investment.
The DA will ask the Public Protector to investigate whether public resources and state institutions were wrongly abused to support ANC political interests, whether MEC Lenkopane acted in breach of the Constitution and the Executive Members Ethics Act, and whether the Department’s actions could be considered mismanagement and abuse of power and state resources.
This is not economic development. This is state-sponsored ANC campaigning.
What makes this conduct even more offensive is the reality on the ground:
- Tourism facilities across the province are collapsing due to neglect;
- Provincial parks are in disrepair, unsafe, and mismanaged;
- Small tourism operators struggle daily without meaningful departmental support; and
- Oversight reports repeatedly expose financial mismanagement and weak governance within the very entities now paraded as “task teams”.
If the ANC truly believed in economic development, it would not need to hijack government departments to promote its birthday celebrations.
The MEC’s attempt to frame criticism as opposition to “economic opportunities” is intellectually dishonest. The DA supports genuine local economic activity — but it must be neutral, lawful, transparent, and non-partisan.
The Constitution, the Public Service Act, and the Executive Ethics Code are explicit in that state resources can not be abused for party political interests.
What we are witnessing here is a direct violation of that principle.
This conduct also exposes the ANC’s growing panic ahead of the upcoming local government elections. Unable to campaign on a record of delivery, the ANC is now resorting to using state platforms and public authority to manufacture goodwill and chase votes. The MEC’s actions are not about economic development — they are about political survival.
The ANC knows it is losing ground in communities battered by unemployment, collapsing infrastructure, and failed municipalities. Rather than addressing these shortcomings, the ANC is desperately trying to reframe political rallies as “economic programmes” by blurring the boundaries between party and state.
The DA will continue to expose the growing culture of entitlement where the ANC treats the state as its personal campaign machinery.
The people of North West will not be fooled; they will hold the ANC accountable at the ballot box.