Premier Chupu Mathabatha’s State of the Province Address (SOPA) today was riddled with promises for the people of Limpopo and smoke and mirrors for the issues that represent significant failures for him and his executive. The premier also utterly failed to address Gender Based Violence at all.
Premier Mathabatha failed to outline provincial strategies to tackle the scourge of GBV despite Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown having highlighted it as a serious societal issue facing the people of Limpopo. Limpopo recorded the highest increase (13.5%) nationally for sexual offences in the latest crime statistics for the period of October to December 2020. During the period under review Limpopo recorded 2453 sexual offences.
The issue of unemployment and job creation was addressed at length but the severity of the job loss crisis in the province was downplayed by Premier Mathabatha. The province currently has 3.176 million people who are unemployed, discouraged work seekers and not economically active and has seen employment decrease by 119 000 people from quarter 4 in 2019 to quarter 4 in 2020.
During SOPA the Premier indicated that over the next two financial years his government would provide 40 schools with adequate water infrastructure and provide 100 additional schools with proper sanitation. This is despite the fact that the Education MEC Polly Boshielo had committed to eradicating pit toilets in 2020 and failed dismally.
The Premier also promised to build 17 brand new schools with none of them being in Polokwane despite the current failure to accommodate all learners in schools. He failed to shed any light on plans to address the infrastructure backlog in the Education Department that amounts to over R20 billion in infrastructure and maintenance backlog.
Premier Mathabatha made a commitment to rolling out a number of water infrastructure projects and having meetings to resolve blockages at a plethora of bulk water projects. The reality however is that Limpopo residents have been subjected to a lack of access to water, with only 70% of households in Limpopo having access to piped or tap water. This is a drop from 83.5% in 2007 and 74.7% in 2017. The access to water continues to decline at a time when the washing of hands is one of our biggest weapons against Covid-19.
The delivery of healthcare infrastructure was addressed in the speech with renovations to the Letaba hospital’s surgical ward and an Out-patient department at Maphutha Malatjie Hospital. The Premier failed to go into more detail of infrastructure meant to increase the province’s Covid-19 capacity.
The Premier’s list of projects being rolled out by SANRAL and National Departments are also a major concern. It shows the extent to which Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL), and Departments such Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure are incapable of carrying out their mandate.
Corruption remains at the heart of most of our Provincial Government Departments and Municipality’s failures. Although the Premier did mention service delivery agreements with MEC’s and investigations that are underway, he did not outline clear plans to stop and deter corruption in public institutions in the future.
We cautiously welcome the Premier’s reference to R3.5Billion being set aside to drive the Limpopo Socio-Economic Recovery Plan with the bulk targeted at Education, Health and Social Development. Commitments to support the Province’s tourism sector, Covid-19 relief to Co-operatives, Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises are also encouraging and will strengthen our economic outlook if they are effectively implemented.
This SOPA and its failure to address GBV as well as window dressing serious failures has made it clear that our Premier is out of touch with the needs of the people of Limpopo and does not have solutions to take the province forward. The DA is committed to holding Premier Mathabatha accountable to ensure that the plans and commitments made in the 2021 SOPA are implemented.