Picture: The elderly woman standing next to the garbages in Ditsobotla
By OBAKENG MAJE
The embattled North West Premier, Bushy Maape is expected to deliver the State of the Province Address (SONA) at North West Provincial Legislature on Friday. Maape, who is under pressure from opposition parties who call for his immediate resignation, told the people on national television during the State of the Nation (SONA) debate that, he drives across North West roads without hitting any pothole.
Now, this has rubbed the people of the North West who are living in dire situations the wrong way. Now, some political parties such as Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Forum for Service Delivery (F4SD) call for his resignation.
However, the COSATU secretary in North West, Kopano Konopi said: “We note the Premier’s input at the SONA debate on 15 February 2023 and believe that his SOPA will come home and address itself to the realities of the North West province.
“We believe that Maape will also provide some progress on the commitments made last year’s SOPA. Workers and the people of the North West province are living under strain as a result of the disaster of load shedding and this is made worse by the state of service delivery in our province, from provincial to local government level,” Konopi said.
He further said they have raised various issues that needed to be addressed such as electricity disasters, unemployment, crime, and corruption.
“We want to understand Maape’s strategic measure to grow the economy of the province in a manner that, will create jobs and improve the livelihood of the people of North West.
“To provide quality service in the manner that, will address the challenges of access to clean drinking water, 24-hour access to fully resourced health service and reliable supply of energy,” said Konopi.
He said Maape should also present plans for the revitalization of the infrastructure of the province in a way that, will address the backlog of the roads in the province as a whole. He said their observation is that all challenges they raised in 2020, have not been addressed, instead, the situation has worsened in the province.
“We note the challenges and hardships brought by the electricity disaster, particularly on the workers and working-class communities of our province.
“We equally note the government’s plan as outlined in the SONA including the roll-out of power panels for businesses and households,” said Konopi.
He said, as much as they support that move, they also expect the provincial government to prioritise schools also to ensure that learning and teaching take place uninterrupted in the province.
Konopi said the energy supply challenges have further exposed the infrastructure inequality gap in the basic education sector and this calls for a dispensation of no-fee and low-income schools to facilitate access to alternative energy supply resources, instead of relying on the norms and standards budgets for this purpose.
The Guardian 