Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Dr Roy Jankielsohn MPL, DA Free State Provincial Leader.
The Covid-19 responses promised by the Free State provincial government that is characterised by assessments and master plans remain costly paper exercises. In reply to a question by the DA in July 2020, MEC Makalo Mohale of the Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA) indicated that the services of research professionals were employed to analyse the economic impact of Covid-19 and develop sectoral plans to re-ignite the economy of the Free State.
The R3 million budgeted for the master plans has yet to yield any benefit for businesses in the province. The Free State is now in another national lockdown and local businesses face a dismal start to 2021 that will see unemployment increase further and the social welfare of our people dramatically decline.
While the provincial government is doing what it does best, namely putting out tenders for plans, implementation remains trapped in ANC election-based political bureaucracy that includes faction based looting by cadres who are deployed for this purpose.
The DA is concerned by the serious impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on businesses as indicated by the Mangaung Chamber of Commerce and Industry that indicated that 50% of small businesses in the provincial capital closed their doors due to lockdowns which includes 80% of guesthouses. The picture is even more dismal in rural areas. Only the agricultural sector remains a source of economic growth and stability while facing serious security threats and remain victims of deliberate negative political rhetoric.
While the province is facing the most serious economic crisis in recent history, the provincial government under the Premier Sefora Ntombela who are responsible for giving guidance and leadership in times of crisis have socially distanced themselves from their responsibilities.
The Free State already has over one million people out of a population of 2,9 million on social grants, and the drastic economic decline and unemployment is causing havoc on the social fabric of the province. Long queues outside Post Offices, Social Development Offices and the Department of Labour should prompt members of the provincial cabinet to reprioritise government programmes and expenditure to deal with the crisis. All their intellectual energy, albeit somewhat limited, should now be focussed on dealing with this crisis.
The DA in the Free State believe that economic enabling infrastructure and service delivery programmes should be linked to social relief efforts. It is also time to discard the political election-based deployment strategies and ensure that government programmes and relief efforts are untangled from capture and looting by local politicians and cadres.
This will require political will and leadership that is not available within the ANC-government in the Free State. Only the DA has a track record of good-governance that benefits communities and creates an enabling environment for employment creating economic growth. The people of the Free State will have to embrace the DA alternative in the local government elections in 2021, or accept responsibility for the tears of more hungry people, abject poverty, social degradation and the further decline in basic services such as safe water supplies and refuse removal.