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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo is very disappointed in Premier Stanley Chupu Mathabatha’s lackluster rendition of the State of the Province earlier today.

The Premier’s address was void of and understanding of the reality of what the people of Limpopo face every day:

• This week a child died because a bookshelf fell on top of him in a school library, yet no reference  was made to the child or the school's infrastructure crisis with a backlog of R20 billion;
• The Foot-and-Mouth (FMD) outbreak late last year crippled the country’s red meat industry for 3 months with dire long term consequences, with stakeholder losses tallying into billions of Rands. Yet, the Premier was silent on the issue, specifically the Department of Agriculture's inability to effectively monitor FMD.

Although we cautiously welcome the upgrades of the Mokopane Hospital to have the largest Trauma Centre, it will be worthless if we do not have trained paramedics and well-equipped ambulances to transport patients there.

Polokwane hospital’s oncology department has a waiting list of 2 years for treatment. The one “cancer machine” that the premier boasts about in his address will hardly make any difference.

Most issues highlighted by the Premier are repetition from previous years:

• The ever-elusive Limpopo Provincial Theatre still seems to be a pipe dream;
• The controversial Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been in the SOPA address for the last 3 years with very little known progress. The Premier is still vague on details but seems to have the confidence to increase job creation expectations from this project;
• The revitalisation of our Industrial Parks seems only to surface during SOPAs as in reality, very little progress has been made;
• Corruption in the public sector received its annual mention with more idle threats to crack down the whip on corrupt officials.

The Premier also saw it fit to take credit for the work of our national entities: The roads built by SANRAL and the Department of Water, Forestry and Fisheries’ (DWAFF) water projects.

These projects have also been dragging on for years while people in Giyani have forgotten what clean drinking water looks like.

Limpopo is in a crisis with the highest unemployment rate and the lowest matric pass rates and one corruption scandal after the other.

It is clear that this provincial government does not have the know-how or political will to fix our long-standing challenges.

This SOPA made it clear that our Premier does not have solutions to take the province forward and for the interest of the people of Limpopo, we suggest that he steps down.

Issued by DA