By Emily Setona
BLOEMFONTEIN – Opposition leader Roy Jankelsohn has accused the ANC of having what he termed ‘a toxic touch’ due to lack of service delivery and false reports to the public.
Jankelsohn made this claim during a debate on premier Mxolisi Dukwana’s State of the Province Address (SOPA) speech at the Fourth Raadsaal in Bloemfontein on March 5, 2024.
“The private sector should be the main source of jobs in a thriving economy not the government. Where government regards itself as the driver of jobs it pushes up unemployment and poverty as we have seen in the Free State and the rest if the country.
“The ANC has destroyed the economy and jobs in South Africa and the Free State through policies that stifle growth and prevent the employment of individuals. The ANC has stripped many people of the dignity of real jobs.
“This is evident in the statistics that indicate that we currently have 28 million people on social grants. The Free State has a million people on social grants. While we support some of the initiates announced by the premier in his SOPA, I will also expose some of the pertinent examples of how the premier misled everyone further,” Jankielsohn said.
In the SOPA, Dukwana had stated that 249 students graduated from the Glen Agricultural college but later admitted in his speech that only 120 graduates were employed for a two-year period which, according to Jankelsohn, shows how the premier is deceiving the masses because 129 graduates remain unemployed.”
Mxolisi responded by reminding the DA not to forget the challenges where they govern.
“Every time the members of the DA come to the podium, and I want to deal with this, they speak of where we govern. Let me bring in the historical fact that you all need to know. Khayelitsha is in, but it is not part of, Cape Town. It is situated a mere 30km from the city centre and remote from the shopping and manufacturing sectors where most of the jobs are to be found.
“In many ways then Khayelitsha is sometimes regarded as an economical, racial, and cultural enclave. Khayelitsha residents are largely redundant and unskilled workers, yet they are valued as consumers; they are isolated from the city’s economic epicentre, yet they are decisively present as citizens and voters.
“They are constructed through racial discourse of crime and fear as a potential threat to Cape Town’s lucrative tourist industry, yet they are themselves objects of tourism,” he retorted.
FS DA leader Joy Jankelsohn.
Addressing the house, MEC Thabo Meeko stated that the ANC would like to welcome the SOPA of 2024 since the premier was able to pinpoint the challenges and outline planned interventions to unlock the province’s potential.
“The struggle continues to resolve the stubborn and interrelated challenges of class, race, and gender. Over the past thirty years the lives of our people have changed for the better. Millions of people have houses, millions of people have electricity and access to clean drinking water and children from poor communities have access to free education.
“The poor and the vulnerable receive social grants. I don’t know what people are saying about the SOPA being a long list of Christmas promises. Indeed, the Free State growth and development strategy would help with planning to achieve an integrated and comprehensive planning of government which also will include and integrate municipalities.
“The province raises these matters passionately about the synergy between what national is doing and what the province is doing as well as including local municipalities is quite critical.”
