KZN’S SUPPORT FOR ACTIONSA IS ON THE RISE, SAYS MNCWANGO
ActionSA KwaZulu-Natal premier candidate Zwakele Mncwango is upbeat about the prospects of the party in the upcoming general elections.
Despite the fact that ActionSA — which was established in 2020 — has no experience in contesting general elections, Mncwango said the strong brand which the party has been building since its formation four years ago will see it perform better than some “older parties”.
“As we speak, ActionSA is not represented in the KZN Legislature, but if you look at the number of provincial issues we have been raising, including around the KZN school nutrition scheme, and the KZN Arts and Culture Department, these are the kind of issues which resonate with the residents of the province.
“In the eThekwini Municipality, where residents are not receiving any decent services from the council, we even went to court to force the municipality to deal with sewage issues.
“Within a short space of time, ActionSA has done more for KZN residents than what older political parties have done,” he said.
Mncwango, who hails from the rural town of Nongoma in the north of KZN, on Saturday tabled ActionSA’s provincial manifesto in the same town.
According to Mncwango, one of the issues which ActionSA will prioritise should it get a majority vote in KZN in the upcoming general elections, would be the re-evaluation of the provincial government’s procurement systems.
“Our view as ActionSA is that the current tender system was to blame for the high levels of corruption that we see within the KZN provincial government.
“An ActionSA provincial government would ensure that government work would be outsourced only when that was absolutely necessary.
“Instead of outsourcing everything like it’s happening now, we will develop the provincial government’s human resource capacity to ensure that the bulk of the work was done by provincial government departments themselves,” he said.
On corruption, Mncwango said ActionSA would be harsh on officials and government leaders found guilty of corruption.
“We will establish robust mechanisms to protect whistleblowers by providing them with immediate security protection after exposing corruption and we will ensure that journalists are protected from intimidation by state institutions when doing investigations into corrupt activities, encouraging the reporting of unethical practices without fear of retaliation.
“We will perform annual lifestyle audits of government officials and politicians to detect and deter illicit enrichment and conflict of interest.”
ActionSA, Mncwango said, will ensure that only ethical leaders occupy government positions.
We will work tirelessly to restore trust and confidence in our governance systems through demonstrable actions against corruption, such as the blacklisting of corrupt politicians and officials.
“We will ensure that our leaders exemplify the highest ethical standards, serving the public with honesty, transparency, and accountability by acting decisively against those found guilty of illicit practices,” he said. • clive.ndou@witness.co.za