Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Roy Jankielsohn MPL.
While 63% of people in the Free State live in poverty, self-serving Members of the Executive Council (MEC’s) in the province spent R7 200 000 on new cars.
This information was received in a reply from the MEC for Police, Roads and Transport, Mr William Bulwane, to a DA question in the Free State Legislature. The reply indicates that seven new BMW 5 series vehicles were bought for MECs – one of which is a relief vehicle. In addition to this, two Audi Q5 vehicles were bought for the MECs for Public Works and Social development. The vehicles were all bought in October 2021.
The Free State Executive Council remain oblivious to the plight of ordinary people in the province, many of whom do not know where their next meal will be coming from. The MECs who drive in luxury state-sponsored vehicles at the expense of taxpayers do not have to worry about damages caused by potholes or the cost of rising fuel prices.
It is no surprise that ANC MECs who already earn R2 037 129 per annum would not hesitate to spend additional money on luxury vehicles for their own comfort without a care of the increasing living costs of residents of the Free State. Furthermore, their outputs in terms of performance of their departments regarding service delivery as well as their overall experience and qualifications does not even warrant salaries of an average worker. Most MECs would never have been in their positions, or would have been fired from their jobs, as executives in other sectors of society.
The DA will continue to monitor and expose extravagance of an uncaring ANC-run Free State Provincial Government amid deteriorating services and food, fuel, electricity and other price hikes.