When Mpumalanga Premier, Refilwe Mtshweni–Tsipane delivers the State of the Province Address (SOPA) on Friday, we expect her to outline exactly how many of the promises she made since she took office in 2018 have been achieved and what difference this has made to the lives of the people of Mpumalanga.
Mpumalanga residents no longer want empty promises but needs a government that puts them first. SOPA is not just a show where she gets to grandstand with more empty promises.
The DA expects her to focus on the below burning issues:
1. Eskom and Rolling Blackouts
Apart from the impact on our residents, businesses in the majority of our towns are struggling. From 2019, Mpumalanga Premier, Refilwe Mtshweni–Tsipane made promises in her State of the Province Addresses that the province will facilitate the investment in alternative sources of energy so that we reduce our dependence on Eskom. However, four years later, we are still very much dependent on Eskom.
We can expect the Premier to mention the Just Energy Transition and the repurposing of Komati Power Station, however, as thousands of businesses were forced to close and numerous jobs were lost along the way- this is four years too late.
2. Recent Rains in Ehlanzeni District
Since the beginning of February this year, the Ehlanzeni district has been battered by heavy rains, with Nkomazi, Bushbuckridge, Thaba Chweu and the City of Mbombela being particularly affected by road collapses, portions of road being washed away and the widespread destruction of homes due to the heavy and persistent rains.
With the damage estimated to be around R337 million, we expect the Premier to talk of plans to collaborate with the National Government in order to deal with the related damage.
3. Dysfunctional Local Municipalities
According to a recent AG report, 35% of Mpumalanga municipalities are so broke that they may not have the ability to continue functioning in the near future.
The DA expects the Premier to talk about how they will help these municipalities develop strategies aimed at collecting revenue and stop depending on funding which is received from national, provincial and private sectors.
We also expect the Premier to mention that municipalities will ditch the evil practice of Cadre Deployment, the root cause of corruption and collapsing service delivery. In this regard, the Premier must be guided by the State Capture Commission Report, which found that the Cadre Deployment practice is the root to all evil.
4. Unemployment and Job losses
Our province was particularly affected by the COVID 19 pandemic and the related harsh lockdown. In the 2020 SOPA, the Premier announced an economic contraction of 7%. She not only referred to unemployment as an elephant in the room, but she also explained the complexity of the problem by mentioning that provincially, we were nowhere near attaining the targets of creating 105 000 jobs per annum.
With an expanded unemployment rate of 46.5% as per the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for Q3 2022, the premier must stop referring to stalled capital projects like the International Fresh Produce market, the cultural hub, the high-altitude training centre to create much needed employment in the province. We expect her to outline exactly how she is going to lead this Province to economic recovery.
5. Health
The provincial healthcare system has deteriorated to an all-time low. With the department using an outdated organigram from 2010. Since 2010 the population of Mpumalanga has grown by more than 26% and yet our medical staff has decreased over the same period by 49%.
This shortage of senior medical staff is evident by the Maternal Mortality rate which continues to skyrocket. In the 2021/22 annual report, the department reported a maternal mortality rate of 361/100 000 for Tertiary hospitals and 277.1/100 000 in regional hospitals.
Currently the department has R9.5 billion in medical negligence cases. In the last financial year, the department was ordered to pay out R839 691 000.
We also expect the Premier to give us an update on the Tertiary Hospital that she announced previously.
6. Social Development
The Premier must analyse the need for more Community Development Nutrition Centres (CDNC’s) in the province. It cannot be that the number of people who access food through CDNC’s in the province was significantly reduced from 61 818 in the 2019/2020 financial year to a mere 3000 in 2022/23.
Taking into account that the majority of our population lives within the lower bound poverty line of R810 we thus call on the Premier to announce a plan to supplement destitute households with food parcels.
7. Education
The unprecedented rains currently hitting the province have highlighted the lack of proper infrastructure and maintenance at schools. The biggest problem for many learners is proper and safe transport to and from school.
The DA calls on the Hon. Premier to revisit the scholar transport system in Mpumalanga which is currently falling apart between the department of Education and Public works roads and transport.
As scholar transport is being treated as a stepchild between two departments, the Hon Premier needs to ensure that there is a dedicated team in one department which deals only with scholar transport as the issues in the implementation of the policy is killing the learners of Mpumalanga.
We also expect the Premier to give us an update on the school for the deaf. Since the first announcement of the school for the deaf and blind on 24 May 2011 in the 2011/12 budget speech, the location of this project has been moved numerous times due to the government stating that the identified locations are not suitable. Almost 12 full years have elapsed now since the construction of the school was announced, but nothing to show for it. Surely the Premier is expected to address us on this project.
8. Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA)
Over the past couple of years, it has become more evident that MEGA is nothing more than a cash cow for the politically connected.
There is an alleged cartel of companies and the majority of which are based outside of Mpumalanga, and including the directors as well, who are continuously being awarded tenders by the entity.
MEGA had a comprehensive loss in the 2020/21 financial year equating to R89 350 009.
The DA expects that Hon Premier to put a stop to corruption by disbanding MEGA, which will stop millions of rands being lost to the province as politically connected companies will lose the tenders which do not benefit Mpumalanga residents.
9. Public Works
We want to know what is happening with the Parliamentary Village, 10 years later. The Parliamentary Village, which was envisaged as far back as 2013 as a means to curb government expenses, began construction in November 2017 and it had an estimated completion date of April 2020.
Issues relating to the construction of this Parliamentary Village is the inability of the provincial government to stick within the agreed upon budget. On inception, it was stated that the Department of Public Works would be spending R300 million to construct the Parliamentary Village: this figure has now been revised to over R550 million.
The DA expects the Premier to announce that this project will be completed this financial year without any further delay: before they make it another ANC cash cow like MEGA.
The time for grand speeches is over, it’s time for action.