Honourable Speaker
Honourable Premier
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Government officials
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentleman
I greet you all in the name of the Mighty Lord Jesus Christ
(i) Honourable MEC you said that your priorities have been embedded into the B2B programme that your government adopted in the 5th term to consolidate support to municipalities and traditional institutions. It is only municipalities benefiting; neglecting traditional leaders, because ward committees and councillors are African National Congress (ANC) children. These must not be separated, because chiefs are to be informed of everything happening in their areas.
(ii) People had to voice out their grievances because they belong to the municipalities which is ruled by the ANC. The reason why the people are protesting is because you don’t fulfil your promises; you only need them during the election period; making too many promises because you need their votes.
(iii) ANC ward committees and ward councillors must not favour their ANC party members. They must service everybody in the community irrespective of party affiliation.
(iv) The service delivery is the main concern because of the challenges ranging from water and sanitation to electricity. Some of the municipalities are still using bucket system or have no sanitation at all.
(v) Madam Speaker, the MEC is talking about free FBG which consists of provision of free water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal to indigent households, while our people are crying over paying high rates, access to clean water. Government does not care about rate payers, they are only interested in their taxes.
(vi) This “we will” recitation is not nice to our ears; you were singing this recitation since 1994. And I understand the house resolutions and findings are not being implemented. Next year you will be talking the same thing. Your government is government of many dreams yet can’t accomplish any of them. Please don’t dream whilst our country is drowning in the sea. The government needs to prioritise implementation, rather than these empty promises in order to stop these occurring service delivery protests
(vii) The Central Supplier Database (CDS) of the Eastern Cape shows an increased number of government officials who are doing business with government, yet the MEC is talking about good governance and says that the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is at work to fight corruption and maladministration.
As the UDM we want see the suspension and dismissal of those corrupt officials found abusing government resources and they must not be paid during their suspension and their case must be finished within four months. And pre-screening is a must, because this will lead to the collapse of our government.
The UDM supports the budget.
I thank you
