By
Hon VF Hlabisa – Leader of the Official Opposition and President of the IFP
TUESDAY 25TH MAY 2021: PIETERMARITZBURG
Hon Speaker
Hon Members
Once more, as the IFP we are faced with a situation where we have to support approval of the appropriation bill more on the bases of logic rather than on the bases of satisfaction. This is not a healthy state of affairs for our government. It is a situation that does not inspire any confidence at all.
As we sign off this R133 670 022 billion today to the different departments of our province, the IFP wishes to see intensified efforts of service delivery in order for the communities of our province to have faith in government operations once more. The trust deficit that lies between communities and government can be made better by this increased, reliable and honest delivery of services. The IFP wishes to see honesty, integrity and trustworthiness amongst our civil service personnel.
2021 is a year of our local government elections. One can expect that there will be increased service delivery protests from communities. Whilst some of these will be merely a way of mobilizing support by some individuals, others will be really justified complains. The Government can do better to curb these by pro-actively ensuring that people have water and electricity, that roads are attended to and potholes are fixed, that clinics and hospitals have proper medication, that social amenities are satisfactorily provided and maintained, and that all basic services are normalized. This is not a mountain to climb. It only requires and takes a caring attitude from those responsible.
The IFP has continuously maintained that abiding by the rule of law and compliance to legislation are the most important ingredients in ensuring proper governance. It saddens us sometimes when the state institutions that are supposed to be monitoring compliance become the ones that compromise the effectiveness of the state by getting embroiled in irregular activities. The stories that the country is listening to at the State Capture Commission are not far-fetched. Whilst most have to do with operations at national government, provinces are but not immune from them. The reflections of these activities is that government machinery in the country is tainted. Going forward, it remains a duty of all concerned to work towards absolving and cleansing government operations in order to rekindle confidence, KZN included.
This challenges our oversight responsibility over the executive as this house and have to be more vigilant and more focused. The IFP recommits to effectively exercising our oversight role as the Official Opposition in collaboration with all Hon Members of this House.
Hon Speaker, this budget must be a new beginning for our province after the devastating Covid-19 pandemic. As a reminder, the state purse remains the precious property of the citizens of the country. The powers entrusted to us with its out keep is to implement the will of the people.
I thank you.
