It is alarming that this morning’s State of the Province Address (SOPA) by Mpumalanga Premier, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, offered little more than a rehash of plans already announced in previous SOPAs.
Despite the same recurring issues of poor service delivery, incomplete projects and a lack of accountability to taxpayers, even more new projects all wrapped up in empty promises were announced.
The Premier should rather have focused on the collapse of local ANC municipalities.
On local level, Mpumalanga’s infrastructure is in a terrible condition and as soon as there is a surplus in the budget, it is used to fund failed projects instead of upgrading and repairing roads, sewage systems and other decaying infrastructure.
Dit sluit in projekte soos die kulturele kern in Mbombela en prestasiesentrum in Emakhazeni. Ten spyte van die honderdmiljoene rande wat daaraan bestee is, is nog nie ‘n enkele baksteen gelê nie.
And as long as these projects stand still, they are not creating jobs either. The best solution would be to complete the construction of one project before moving on to the next.
The Premier needs to establish close liaison on provincial level to prevent projects from falling through the cracks and becoming a fertile breeding ground for corruption.
To this end, it is important that procurement processes function correctly, that legislation is closely adhered to and that the political will exists to make the necessary changes and complete projects successfully.
Ms Mtsweni-Tsipane boasted about the new fences that will supposedly be built around several nature reserves, but that same promise was made two years ago.
Meanwhile, these reserves are severely affected by poaching as wildlife, including lions and leopards, are caught in traps almost every day. The anti-poaching units’ vehicles are either in a terrible condition or there simply are no vehicles.
The province’s crumbling roads need to be urgently repaired, and the deterioration of natural tourist attractions must be turned around.
It is ironic that the Premier boasted about the majority of Mpumalanga residents having access to clean water and electricity seeing as local protest actions about poor service delivery and water take place nearly every week.
This past week there were two such protest actions which made critical tourism routes inaccessible for long periods on end.
The Premier mentioned that more schoolgirls now have access to sanitary wear, but failed to mention the almost R9 million that was squandered on unusable pads last year.
The time for making empty promises is over; it is now time to take decisive action.
The only way to save Mpumalanga is to get rid of the ANC at the polls.
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