At a time when interest rate hikes and rising food and fuel prices are making it increasingly difficult for people to make ends meet, executives of the ten Eastern Cape Provincial Entities are still living their best lives. Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, needs to stop the gravy train and make good on his promise to rationalise these entities. He needs to shut down these bloated, inefficient, revenue-draining entities that …


Read More

The Democratic Alliance is calling on the provincial government to cut its losses in the Magwa Tea Plantation, accept that the project has failed and move on. Instead of reviewing the feasibility of the project, the Eastern Cape Provincial Government has budgeted a staggering R88 million for the plantation over the next three years. This is over and above the R305 million invested by the Government between the 2012/13 and …


Read More

The Democratic Alliance today rejected the provincial budget tabled in the Provincial Legislature, as it fails to put the needs of the people of this province first. Sadly, this has not stopped the ANC from pushing the budget through, issuing themselves and their cadres a free ticket for another year onboard the gravy train at the expense of the people they claim to serve. Rather than prioritise funding to deal …


Read More

Eastern Cape municipalities have slashed 360 000 indigent households from their books, not because the poor have become less poor, but because municipalities failed to provide assistance during the greatest time of need. Shocking statistics show a massive decrease in the number of recognized indigent households in the province between 2017 and 2021, at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has caused massive economic hardships. Unemployment in the province surged …


Read More

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling for a moratorium to be placed on the purchase of all new official vehicles for municipal political office bearers in the province. In response to parliamentary questions by the DA, Eastern Cape MEC for CoGTA, Xolile Nqatha, revealed how vehicles to the value of R26,8 million had been purchased to transport political office bearers in Eastern Cape Municipalities between 2016 and 2021. Download IQP …


Read More

As locust plagues of biblical proportions ravage the Eastern Cape, decimating everything in their path, the ANC-led Eastern Cape government has turned a deaf ear to the desperate pleas for assistance from farmers and organised agriculture. Not one red cent has been made available by the provincial government to assist farmers in eradicating these swarms, leaving farmers already devastated by prolonged drought to face this disaster on their own. Swarms …


Read More

Farmers, still recovering from one of the worst droughts on record, are now battling to save their farms from one of the largest locust plagues in living memory. The locust plagues are currently sweeping across three provinces, including the Eastern Cape, destroying everything in their path, wiping out crops and decimating veld meant for feeding livestock. The Democratic Alliance has written to Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, to request that …


Read More

The poor handling of the road tender for the upgrade of the R56 road, near Indwe in the Eastern Cape, has inflated the cost by R111 million and delayed construction by 12 years. The maintenance and upgrade of roads are critical in linking individuals to opportunities, by providing accessibility and mobility for both commercial and personal transport. The project was recently flagged by the Auditor General at a meeting of …


Read More

The Democratic Alliance recognises the difficult task that Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko had to balance the needs of the province against an extremely tough fiscal position. Sadly, not enough attention or budget has been given to projects that will stimulate the provincial economy and the scourge of unemployment will remain an albatross around our necks. The MEC acknowledged our excessive wage bill, which is impeding service delivery as we are …


Read More