The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes the Premier’s State of the Province Address (SOPA) delivered in Bloemfontein today. The Premier in her address touched on several critical issues facing the Free State, including provincial roads, incomplete infrastructure projects, municipalities, and job creation. While these are the right issues to raise, the address fell short on accountability, urgency, and credible new solutions.
The Premier announced that an additional R1.4 billion will be spent on incomplete projects. The DA’s first and most pressing question is why are these projects incomplete in the first place? These projects were already budgeted for. Allocating additional funds without clearly explaining failures in planning, project management, and consequence management raises serious concerns about waste and consequence management.
Road infrastructure is vital to the Free State. The economy runs on roads. Deteriorating provincial and municipal roads are a key reason why the province continues to struggle to attract investors. Without reliable transport infrastructure, economic growth remains constrained, logistics costs rise, and job opportunities are lost.
While municipalities were again highlighted in the address, Free Staters have heard these commitments before. There were no genuinely new initiatives to turn around failing local government, and the crisis on the ground continues. In Winburg, in the Masilonyana Local Municipality, residents are reportedly forced to drink sewage-contaminated water, while in many other towns they still have no access to clean, reliable water. These are not abstract policy problems; they are the lived experiences of Free State residents.
The DA believes municipalities cannot be renewed by recycling the same leadership that created the current failures. New, capable, and ethical leadership is required. We cannot expect the same old cadres to fix the very problems they have created.
On job creation, the address once again leaned heavily on government-created employment. This approach entrenches dependency and expands the state without building a sustainable economy. The Free State needs private-sector-led job creation, driven by investment, functioning infrastructure, and competent governance. When people have real jobs in the private sector, the government does not need to subsidise basic needs indefinitely, families can afford school fees, and more people can access private healthcare.
Years of ANC governance have turned the Free State into a dependent province. The DA wants a thriving, growing province, particularly for young people seeking careers, skills, and opportunity, not temporary handouts disguised as jobs.
The DA will continue to hold the provincial government accountable for the failures in our province and will fight for a Free State that works for all its people, with functioning municipalities, quality infrastructure, and an economy that creates real opportunity.