NEHAWU CONDEMNS THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT'S SPONSORSHIP OF THE CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW TRIP BY THIS COUNTRY'S SOCIAL ELITE

NEHAWU is deeply enraged to hear that the Western Cape provincial government led by Premier Helen Zille is using the taxpayer's money to sponsor this country's social elite to participate in the Chelsea Flower Show in England. The Democratic Alliance led Western Cape government is co-sponsoring this trip while the poor residents of that province are wondering where they are going to get their next meal and also living in appalling conditions due to lack of proper housing and basic amenities.

We demand to know how much money is being spent on this valueless snobby jaunt and whether this sponsorship was budgeted for by the provincial government. The lack of transparency and the clandestine methods used to award this sponsorship is disturbing and creates suspicion. The province of Western Cape Province is not immune to the challenges facing the majority of provinces with regard to poor service delivery and lack of resources in a number of townships.

There are thousands of poor people's organizations that are looking for sponsorships and poor communities who are looking for the provincial government to provide them with the much needed services. Poor people of that province have the same rights as the social elite and they deserve to be equally treated and serviced with the same enthusiasm that the province has shown for the moneyed class. The DA led Western Cape provincial government's propensity to copy the antics of developed countries is not helping anyone and they need to start investing in programmes that bridge the class divide in order to address the inequalities in that province.

The reality that we all have to live with is the fact that this country is a third world country {including the Western Cape} despite the efforts of all those who are ashamed of this fact to portray us as a first world country. We are the most unequal country in the world and it is surprising to notice that countries with better economies and living standards are not part of this event and yet we are spending money on this valueless exercise. A developing country with enormous socio-economic challenges as ours needs to allocate the available resources to priority areas and the sooner the Western Cape government wakes up to this reality the better.

Statement issued by NEHAWU Secretariat Office, March 3 2011

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