ANC responds to Premier Zille's State of the Province speech
The ANC will strongly support Premier Zille's commitment to good governance, transparency, service delivery and reduction of wasteful expenditure.
But the Premier's less than wholehearted response to the effects of the economic crisis on poor people were cause for concern. And it was disappointing that she failed to grasp the opportunities presented by World Cup 2010 to build a common purpose platform to unite people of the province.
The ANC will continue to fight for the rights of labour, for the creation of decent jobs and stronger-than-ever safety nets for the marginalised and the poor.
In general the speech was aggressive and triumphalist, and despite a commitment to being a premier for the entire province, degenerated into petty point scoring.
Zille's emphasis on the constitutional powers of provinces and the ‘federal components' of the Constitution suggest that she is preparing herself to do battle with the national government while at the same time making local government subservient to the provincial government. This would stand in stark contrast to the situation where provincial entities such as Cape Town Routes Unlimited were held to ransom by the City.
Notwithstanding her denial that the DA is a not a party of free market fundamentalism, her reiteration of her previous commitment to the creation of Export Processing Zones suggests otherwise. Not only does the premier not have a constitutional mandate for EPZs, experience all over the world suggests EPZs are a race to the bottom in which investors demand more and more deregulation and the rights of labour are rolled back.
Her repeated allegation of a ‘secret transfer of land' to the national government for mega housing schemes rehashes previous distortions of the reality that the transfer was never secret.
The suggestion that the former provincial government only supported a hospital for Khayelitsha, and not Mitchell's Plain, is a thinly disguised and emotive appeal to a single section of the community. It is also an attack on the national government that provides funding for hospital construction. The issue is in fact one of release of funds over the medium term funding framework.
The Premier's failure to mention empowerment, affirmative action and transformation reiterates the DA's well-known commitment to maintaining the status quo of privilege in the province.
Statement issued by the Lynne Brown, ANC MPL, leader of the opposition, Western Cape legislature, May 29 2009
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