Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Dr Roy Jankielsohn MPL, DA Provincial Leader in the Free State. For images please click here, here and here.
Today during an oversight visit to a school in Vogelfontein by Dr Roy Jankielsohn, Democratic Alliance (DA) Provincial Leader as well as Councillors Eric Motloung, Hilton Maasdorp, and Sello Mokoena of the DA Dihlabeng Caucus, it became clear that empty promises have become the political nutrients that the ANC-led government feed the people of the Free State. The people of Vogelfontein at Bethlehem continue to be victims of these empty promises.
During his last State of the Province Address the outgoing Premier of the Free State Ace Magashule promised a primary school for the people of Vogelfontein during the 2018/19 financial year. During their campaigning for the 2019 national and provincial elections Deputy-President David Mabuza visited Vogelfontein with Premier Sisi Ntombela and made the same promise to the community that is ravaged by unemployment and poverty.
In 2018 the DA laid criminal charges regarding the incomplete R150 million Vogelfontein housing project scandal involving a Chinese company called Unital Holdings and the daughter of Ace Magshule, Thoko Malembe.
According to replies to questions in the Free State Legislature by MEC for Education, Tate Makgoe, the school construction at Vogelfontein was allocated R60 million. Construction began on 30 June 2020 and the project was meant to be completed by the end of June 2021 by a company called Tshitshiritsang Construction and Projects. The project is now abandoned and subject to plundering. (For further images please click here and here).
The DA will continue to pursue this matter in the Legislature on behalf of the desperate people of Vogelfontein who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect by their government. Meanwhile, young children have to walk long distances and navigate busy provincial roads to reach schools in other areas.
The DA remains the only caring party that continues to be the voice of the vulnerable and voiceless people in the Free State who remain victims of political plundering and empty promises by an uncaring government.