Taking legislature to the People
Elliotdale, Amathole District Municipality
17 October 2018
All protocol observed.
Honourable Speaker.
The social development committee report tabled today highlights seven co-operative projects that were visited by the portfolio committee during the end of August this year.
A very simple definition of a co-operative would be to say it is a business where a group of people get together voluntarily to address their common needs.
A co-operative is a distinct form of enterprise that provides services and or products to its members and surplus to neighbours, shops, schools and hospitals.
They are primarily aimed at fighting poverty and providing some sort of sustainable income to the members of the co-operative.
Honourable speaker empowering the individual means empowering the nation, and empowerment is best served through rapid economic growth with rapid social change.
The projects we visited, have the potential to be successful and thriving operations.
However, this will require that the local people and government officials are more focused on connecting these co-ops with immediate local consumer markets such as hospitals, schools, churches and other non-profit organizations in their immediate areas.
We must cut the cost of doing business for the projects mentioned in this report.
We must assist with marketing their goods and service to local and close by consumers in order to grow their turnover and increase production.
This will ensure that local demand is created, and ultimately grow local spending that will create a local multiplier effect that will boost local rural economic growth in this area.
The DA is of the view that the ANC government is failing to make Inter-Governmental Relations (IGR) work in order to improve the lives of the people present here today.
They are not connecting government departments to create a conducive environment that is needed to stimulate the local economy to grow.
In the DA we’ve seen over time that countries that show the best economic growth are those that have good governance at heart.
Let the people speak their mind, let them tell us what they want, let government put the people first, let the people grow and benefit from local projects.
We must set projects up for success, and not to fail. We must set projects up for success by allocating enough resources.
The ANC must stop corruption now! It stifles economic growth. Economic growth will come from ending corruption and providing more resources to projects in the Amathole region.
Economic growth comes from people that are not fearful and scared to expose corrupt government officials and politicians.
Economic growth and prosperity comes from politicians and administrators that are fearful of the people’s power, not political masters.
The ANC must stop blaming the people for project failures.
Voters must never be scared of any political party ever again.
We are free, and we must fight for more project funds.
The ANC’s abuse of power has disrespected and bankrupted the people of South Africa.
The people of the Amathole area are suffering, the people of the Eastern Cape have no jobs, food to eat and no real money.
Honourable speaker, under the ANC government South Africa’s economy shrunk by 2,2% nationally in the last quarter.
According to Statistics South Africa, agriculture, mining and manufacturing were the main contributors to the slowdown, with the electricity, construction and trade industries also recording negative growth.
The ANC’s failure to grow the ‘economic cake’ has resulted in massive job losses and soaring unemployment figures in South Africa.
The loss of income to millions of people leads to a decline in spending power and the risk of falling into more debt.
The quarterly labour force survey as released by Stats SA reinforces that unemployment has increased from 9,2 million in the previous quarter to 9,5 million people that are hungry today.
It is clear that the ANC has no coherent plan to attract more investment.
President Ramaphosa’s “false dawn” has driven 264,000 South Africans to the ranks of unemployed in the last quarter.
Currently the national unemployment rate stands at 37%.
The unemployment rate amongst the youth is the highest with 68% between the ages of 15-24 years now unemployed, up from 64% in the previous quarter.
In addition, 43% of people between the ages of 25-34 years are unemployed.
Honourable Speaker, the negative effects of unemployment triggers a range of psychosocial ills in individuals and families including such as a sense of shame and a lack of self-worth.
Unemployment and job losses lead people to abuse alcohol and drugs in order to feel a sense of worth. This irresponsible behaviour costs the government of today even more.
Does the ANC of today really care?
In the Western Cape where the DA governs, we care, our economic policy has brought about stability and certainty that managed to attract domestic and foreign investors.
Our keen focus on growing the economy has also resulted in more people accessing job opportunities as the unemployment rate stands at 22% compared to the ANC led-government in the Eastern Cape where a staggering 46% of people are unemployed.
Nationally, widespread corruption such as Guptagate and VBS Mutual Bank hurts the ordinary man, the country’s economy as well as businesses at large.
75.6 Billion has been recorded as fruitless and wasteful expenditure during the financial year 2017/2018.
This is money that could have assisted various people in the community projects such as those mentioned in this committee report today.
Furthermore, billions are lost through bribery and the manipulation of tender processes to benefit a small group of well-connected cronies to the political elite.
Government’s failure to grow the local, provincial and national economy has led to the rise in the cost of living that is fast outstripping the consumer’s income.
Honourable speaker, the people are punished for the ANC’s failures and corruption, such as the increased taxes to get their hands on more money.
The ANC’s application of tax increases is based on quick fixes, irrespective of the negative impact on the poorest of the poor.
The increase of various taxes by the ANC is not a long-term sustainable solution to our country’s growing unemployment and food price increases.
The poor will still suffer the most as they are the lowest income earners that spend a larger portion of their income on transport and food.
The ANC must stop corruption and reduce the size of government.
Given the country’s low economic growth and high unemployment rate, how can the ANC employ bodyguards and drive expensive bulletproof cars, while the man on the street is exposed to crime on a daily basis?
Why does the ANC leadership have to stay in expensive hotels, whilst the majority of the people are sleeping in poor quality RDP houses that are leaking, with no food?
Stop stealing the people’s money and start working for the people or face being vote out and Mmusi Maimane’s DA, being voted in.
Honourable speaker, I promise you that under a DA-led government we will fix our broken economy!
We will start by right-sizing government and its bloated administration, harnessing the latest technology, lowering taxes and investing in infrastructure expenditure.
Let us build a better South Africa with Mmusi Maimane.
Voters must stop rewarding the ANC for corruption and bad service delivery. The ANC of today is the same ANC of Zuma.
The election is about your future, not the ANC or its leaders.
The DA can bring corruption free, people centred service delivery to you, if you give us your vote come 2019.
Let us vote for real, honest change to improve our lives. Vote for Mmusi Maimane!
The DA supports the report. Thank you.