Premier Mxolisi Dukwana has accused the opposition of undermining the government’s attempts to address the interlinked challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment in the Free State.
In his reply to the debate on the State of the Province Address (SOPA) that he presented a fortnight ago, the newly elected premier said it was important to understand the history of these challenges.
“It was clear from your inputs that you are concerned about the poor state of our infrastructure, especially water leakages and irregular supply of water, very poor state of our roads, potholes on our streets, sewer spillages especially in our townships, landlessness especially for the Africans, poor state of our health public centres, high level of unemployment, constant disruptions to energy supply, malfeasance and poor leadership both politically and administratively,” Dukwana, who was recently elected as ANC Free State chairperson before he took over the reins as premier, said during a sitting of the Provincial Legislature in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.
The premier singled out the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Front Plus for allegedly not supporting government-led interventions such the broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) policy designed to advance economic transformation and enhance the economic participation of black people in South Africa.
“The members of the opposition especially DA and FF Plus have raised objections and displeasure in BEE, cadre deployment, EPWP projects as job creators,”
“In fact, their approach is that of ridiculing even undermining any attempt of intervention applied or implemented to deal with inequality, poverty and unemployment,” he added.
The EPWP, or Expanded Public Works Programme in full, is one of the government’s key programmes aimed at providing poverty and income relief through temporary work for the unemployed.
Dukwana said the history of poverty and inequality dated back to the pre-apartheid era.
“We are the first to accept that poor leadership and lack of clarity and purpose as well as corruption and poor management have all contributed to exacerbating the situation further,” he said.
“Madam Speaker, it is very important for the honourable members to understand the history of poverty and inequality, during apartheid and even before.
“This background or if you like history will perhaps remind them how did we get here and maybe their conscience will be pricked a bit and they’ll for once be remorseful and work with us to address these challenges created deliberately to protect one race at the expense of the entire population of this beautiful country of ours.”
Dukwana said the Free State and South Africa were grappling with “structural poverty” that he claimed had contributed immensely to the state of inequality recognised in the world as being the highest.
“Honourable members, there is a clear distinction between conjunctural poverty and structural poverty,” the premier said.
“What has been visited upon the majority of the people of this country is structural poverty, and this has been designed and executed deliberately to address the fears and anxieties of the white community over a long period of time.
“This is the history they will want us to forget and they will do everything to undermine any effort geared towards addressing these three interlinked challenges.”
The DA has, however, hit back at Dukwana’s claims, with the opposition party’s leader in the Free State legislature, Roy Jankielsohn, saying the premier had opted for a 50-minute “antagonistic race-based history lesson” instead of proffering ideas to address pertinent issues relating to water, sanitation, roads, unemployment and other challenges raised by opposition party members in the SOPA debate.
“His reply contained no concrete plans to deal with the issues raised in the debate which proves that the ANC in the Free State is out of fresh ideas or plans of action to turn the province that is plagued by failed service delivery, life-threatening poor roads and poverty,” Jankielsohn, who is also his party’s leader in the province, said.
“He has proved what the DA warned that we may have a new face, but it remains the same party in power that has nothing more to offer the people of the Free State.
“The DA will use the departmental budget debates to continue to highlight the issues facing our province and offer the people of the Free State a viable political alternative.” – Staff Reporter