Limpopo: A province forgotten by its government that doesn’t care

15 August 2015

Note to Editors: The following remarks were made by the DA Leader in Olifantshoek, Limpopo during his visit to the province on the national Vision 2029 Tour.

My fellow South Africans,

I am honoured to be here in Olifantshoek today as part of the Limpopo leg of my Vision 2029 Tour. I thank you for welcoming me to your community and for allowing me to share the DA’s vision of the South Africa we can all build together. A South Africa built on the values of freedom, fairness and opportunity.

Limpopo is a truly magical province. It is blessed with some of our oldest recorded history and our most spectacular scenery. It’s our gateway to the north and is absolutely bursting with tourism potential.

But it is also a province that has been forgotten by its government. And while the national government looks the other way, the provincial government here, along with various inept and corrupt municipalities, has been allowed to tear this province apart.

In-fighting between ANC factions in several municipalities has had a disastrous effect on service delivery in the province and has, at times, left parts of Limpopo resembling a war zone.

But the real frustration here in Limpopo is the government’s inability to spend public money. Massive amounts of money have gone unspent by the provincial education department as well as the department of human settlements.

This is public money and was meant to be spent on you. It was meant to build houses and educate your children, and when it wasn’t spent, it got returned to national government.

Of the 12 500 houses the government promised to build here in Limpopo by the end of the 2013/2014 financial year, only 1500 were completed. At the same time it sent a billion Rand back because it wasn’t spent.

This province has been forgotten by its government.

Did you know that a person here in Limpopo is almost 20 times more likely to have given up looking for work than someone in the Western Cape?

This province is home to more than 400 000 “discouraged jobseekers”. These are people who have lost all hope of ever finding a job and have simply given up looking.

This is a province where the education department is better known for its inability to deliver text books and its mass poisoning of children in its school feeding programme than for the education it provides for your children.

It is a province where water delivery is almost non-existent in many municipalities, including right here in your own village of Olifantshoek. In 2015 in South Africa, no one should have to buy water from a neighbour with a borehole to survive.

This province of Limpopo has been forgotten by its government. But it has not been forgotten by the DA.

Even though we’re not in government here, we have been fighting non-stop to get textbooks delivered, to get uncovered pit toilets at schools fixed, to get municipal workers’ salaries paid and to expose the dangerous school feeding programme.

The DA has been working tirelessly for the people of Limpopo and, as a result, we have been growing here. Between the 2009 election and the 2014 election, the DA grew in every single municipality in the province.

And you can’t talk about DA growth in Limpopo without mentioning your very own Ward 5 here in Olifantshoek, where we grew from only 1.4% of the vote in 2011 to 38.8% in the 2013 by-election.

Ward by ward, municipality by municipality, change is coming to Limpopo. And with that change comes the type of clean, efficient and caring DA government that many municipalities in the Western Cape and elsewhere in South Africa enjoy.

I have been speaking a lot recently about the DA’s Vision 2029. And, if you don’t know what that is, Vision 2029 describes what South Africa will look like after 10 years of a DA-led government, in the year 2029.

It describes a South Africa where a child born in Olifantshoek has the same opportunities to live a life he or she values as a child born in Sandton.

It describes a non-racial society built on Freedom, Fairness and Opportunities for all its people. A society where the hurtful legacy of apartheid is addressed and reversed through targeted, impactful policies.

Vision 2029 describes a South Africa with a world class education system, quality healthcare across all nine provinces, basic services delivered to all its people and a well-trained, well-equipped police force that serves the communities and ensures their safety.

The South Africa in our Vision 2029 is a place where new small businesses can thrive, creating millions of new jobs. It is a South Africa with a fast-growing economy and opportunities for everyone to become part of that economy.

It is a South Africa where hard-working individuals can make a better life for their families, and where there is a direct link between the effort you put in and the reward you get out.

The South Africa in the DA’s Vision 2029 is governed by a caring, competent and clean DA government that doesn’t tolerate any form of corruption or any form of wasteful spending of public money.

It is a South Africa where no community will be forgotten by government the way you have been forgotten.

And for us to make Vision 2029 a reality here in Limpopo province, we need you to vote for a DA government. That’s how democracy works – you get the government you vote for.

If you’re not happy with your government, then it is your job to use your vote to fire them and hire yourself a new government. All the power lies with you.

I believe the DA is that new government. And, if you’re not happy with the DA government five or ten years down the line, then you must fire us too. But first give us a chance to show you what a difference a caring government can make in your lives.

I thank you.

Issued by the DA, August 15 2015