What will it take for the Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, to admit that his province is facing a catastrophic water shortage and must be declared a drought disaster area? Nelson Mandela Bay and Kouga are literally months away from dry taps. The Kouga dam is now at 4.48%. It is estimated that in two months, no more water will be able to be extracted from it. When this happens, …


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The Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency (ECRDA) has been dishing out taxpayer’s money, as loans, with apparently no intention of getting it back, despite offering some of the lowest interest rates in the country. The ECDRA, which falls under the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, has been granting agricultural and non-agricultural loans to individuals at an interest rate as low as 3%. This means that the Eastern Cape …


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Eastern Cape residents and businesses have been especially hard hit by the economic fallout of the Coronavirus pandemic, as money owed to local government for services soars past R20-billion. Alarm bells should be ringing across the province for all local municipalities currently determining their rates and service increases for the new financial year. Ratepayers are already under significant strain, and excessive price hikes are more likely to result in additional …


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The ANC provincial government today have made it clear that, when it comes to addressing the crippling drought that the province is facing, they are leaving the people of this province to fight for themselves. The Democratic Alliance appealed to Premier Oscar Mabuyane to disclose his contingency plans, if any, to assist water-scarce municipalities with the drought crisis and declare a disaster area for the province during a sitting of …


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The seven-year drought that has decimated the western parts of the Eastern Cape has farmers on their knees. Despite continued calls on the Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, to declare these parts a disaster, the Eastern Cape provincial government seems hell-bent on refusing to assist farmers. A capable state would be investing heavily in drought mitigation and water augmentation measures to support an economic sector that is one of the …


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The Eastern Cape Budget tabled by Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko today could not accommodate all the promises made by Premier Oscar Mabuyane during his State of the Province Address. The Democratic Alliance welcomes the planned reduction in financial support to State Owned Entities, as well as plans to cut to cost of employment by R22,8 billion over the medium term, but notes with concern that no plans on how this …


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The Eastern Cape Budget to be tabled by Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko on Wednesday must back the promises made by Premier Oscar Mabuyane, in his recent State of the Province Address, to rebuild the provincial economy through major infrastructure investment. As the first provincial budget following the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be an important litmus test for both Mabuyane and Mvoko, either charting a new financial trajectory for the poorest …


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The Democratic Alliance, during a sitting of the Eastern Cape Legislature yesterday, called upon Premier Oscar Mabuyane, to declare the Eastern Cape as a Drought Disaster area. The entire western half of the province is still grappling with a seven-year drought that is decimating farmers and water-scarce municipalities. A capable state would be doing everything in its power to put drought mitigation measures in place. Without water, everything else fails. …


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The Eastern Cape Provincial Government has blatantly ignored direct instructions from the National Treasury, requiring that the province ensure local municipalities ring-fence funds collected for water and electricity. The ring-fencing of funds means the money is set aside for a specific purpose, in this case, to repay the ballooning debts to Eskom and the relevant waterboards, and cannot be used for anything else. The Democratic Alliance has been calling for …


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Premier Oscar Mabuyane is the Mad Hatter at the Magwa tea party, dishing out hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ rands to produce some of the most expensive tea in the world. Not only has Premier Mabuyane used taxpayers’ money with wilful abandon to produce the tea, he also wants provincial government departments and local municipalities to use even more taxpayers’ money to buy the tea produced. If anything, Magwa should …


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