The Northern Cape Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, yesterday during his reply to conclude the State of the Province Address (SOPA) focussed on expropriation as policy and defended the province’s success with human development.
During the debate on his SOPA, opposition parties confronted the Premier about poor service delivery, particularly when it comes to education and healthcare.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) specifically highlighted the decay of municipalities in the province. Nine of the province’s 31 municipalities are officially in a financial crisis, mainly due to mismanagement, corruption and political appointments.
The solution to this would be to retain only qualified persons in key municipal positions, draft, implement and monitor a turn-around strategy, and allocate enough money to infrastructure maintenance.
In response to the Freedom Front Plus’s statement that expropriation without compensation is a policy that deters investors, the Premier argued that the NP government at the time acquired the farms on which the Gariep and Vanderkloof Dams, as well as Orania, are built without compensation.
He added that the former Department of Waterworks abandoned Orania before the current owners bought it for around R1,3 million in 1991. According to him, the land’s current monetary value is approximately R8 million, calculated at an average inflation rate of 6%.
The Freedom Front Plus contests Dr Saul’s allegation that the Orange River Scheme was erected on land acquired by the state without compensation. The party is busy conducting research and will share its findings with the Premier.
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