By
Hon L de Klerk MPL,
KZN Legislature
02 June 2020
During testing and difficult times, it is very important that we all Stand-Together and try to overcome the problem.
Our minds and discussions are taken over by the covid-19 pandemic. This does not mean that the IFP as to official opposition in this legislator must keep quiet and ignore the huge financial challenges that are staring us in the face.
Winston Churchill said and I quote, criticism may not be agreeable but it is necessary, it fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to unhealthy state of things. The countries financial position has been deteriorating at an alarming rate for the past eight years and has now crashed on the rocks as all three rating agencies currently place our financial ranking as JUNK. This happened before COVID-19 LOCKDOWN was promulgated. The ANC tells us that the government is corrupt because the wrong people were in charge. Once Mr Ramaphosa and his new cabinet is in place, everything will be different. The state will give us the following: –
a) great education,
b) best health care services,
c) free land;
d) the rich will pay their taxes; and
e) the poor people will get the welfare programs that they need to escape poverty.
This utopian view has been the mantra of the ANC for a longtime and always stating, that they will Self correct. The core of their fantasies is a perfect government, one led by honest and patriotic people that will bring an end to corruption, multiply welfare programs and correct the injustices of neoliberalism. There is one small but ever so crucial little detail in their fantasies, such as, it is like a cruel Miraj that haunts most travelers in the middle of the desert. It evaporates as soon as you reach out your hand to try and touch them, they soon and quickly turn into dust.
So far, the new ANC administration has been there for months and the slow motion vanishing of the fantasy.
We were promised that decisive action against corruption that nobody to date, of importance has been found guilty or imprisoned. South Africa was promised a good economic growth rate; however, we are facing the reality of a recession. We again are told that the government will act strongly against crime but more than 20,000 murders are committed every year. The citizens of South Africa as opposed to before, are more unsafe and the statistics are a proven fact of me saying so. During the state of the province address and the budget speeches, we heard the Socialist and Communist mantras, namely the National Democratic Revolution developmental state quotes from Karl Marx and Lenin- “expropriation without compensation”, are disciplined forces of the left.
All these fantasies harp back to a bygone era that proved to the world that these ideas don’t work and are unsustainable. In the past the Socialist communist countries had to build walls to keep their citizens from leaving the country. If it is bad in a country, the citizens immigrate and that sadly, is exactly what is happening in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. Year on year our equitable share is decreasing and year on year, there are fiscal consolidation cuts.
The Department of Arts and Culture and Health now, didn’t receive their EPWP. The department of Health and also Transport incurred billions of irregular expenditure over the last three years. The fiscal failures are never ending and have brought us to our knees. The Covid 19 pandemic was the last straw because of all the wastage looting and irregular expenditure of all the wastage looting. We don’t have enough resources to deal with the pandemic efficiently and effectively. We are now being told by the ANC government that our provincial budget will have to be cut further and to be re-prioritized to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now debating an old budget that clearly will have to be reviewed and is not relevant anymore. It is time for the ANC to take responsibility for our entire financial situation and for them to impose common sense and well except free-market policies to get us out of this hole and not to double-down on rejected and failed socialist communist policies. We as the IFP, implore the ANC to do the right thing, otherwise we will pay the price for many years to come.
I thank You
