Rival political parties bring out the big guns at Fort Hare debate

With barely two weeks left until the country celebrates the milestone of 30 years of democracy, opposition parties have called on citizens to evaluate where the country is before casting their ballots.

While the ANC defended its track record, pledging to speed up socioeconomic transformation, leaders of the EFF, DA, Actionsa and IFP voiced their concerns and outlined their plans should they win the upcoming elections during a heated debate at the University of Fort Hare on Wednesday night.

The opposition speakers pointed to the shortcomings of the government, highlighting SA’S high unemployment rate, soaring crime, corruption, poverty and woeful infrastructure.

The DA’S chief whip, Siviwe Gwarube, said the country needed a government that would deliver services across the board.

“Today 30 million South Africans are living in poverty. Seven out of 10 young people don’t have work.

“In fact, the hunger and the unemployment crisis is so dire in the Eastern Cape that half of this province doesn’t work,” Gwarube said.

“Young graduates are staying home with their certificates unable to get jobs.

“Millions of children in this province are dying of starvation. We need change and urgently.

“The ANC has had its run. It’s about time that we show up in our numbers and vote out a government that doesn’t care.

“The choice is simple in this election.

“We can either vote for a government that has failed and will continue to fail us or we can vote for a government that will put people out of poverty, a government that will put people to work ...”

EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu said the country did not have a healthcare system, but rather “a hospitalisation system”.

Shivambu called for SA to model its healthcare system on that of Cuba.

“We have a system where we wait for people to get sick so that we may take them to hospitals.

“Our main focus is on land, it’s jobs, it’s stopping load-shedding, but more importantly it’s the ability to dynamically utilise South Africa’s fiscal resources like the budget to drive industrial expansion and economic development and infrastructure in a way that is going to create millions of jobs for our people

“At the centre of that we will be building state capacity such that the state is able to provide its functions and not be a tendering state.

“Thus far, a tendering state has led to corruption and political killings. We are ready to take over the democracy of SA.”

Actionsa’s Eastern Cape leader and premier candidate, Athol Trollip, said it was ironic that “the government that is responsible for a collapsed public health system wants to introduce NHI”.

“We say before introducing anything new, you’ve got to fix what is broken.

“The government has got to fix primary healthcare clinics and hospitals where women are giving birth in hospitals on the floor.

“We need a change in government in this country. Our government has developed a tin ear.”

Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi, the IFP’S deputy president said: “While we may appreciate the gains we have made in the past 30 years, we unfortunately cannot turn a blind eye [to] the realities that people of SA are facing.

“The coming election ... is a chance to reverse the damage done over the past 30 years.

“The fabric of our society is strained, the poverty, hunger and inequalities.

“Our people’s dignity is under assault as necessities like clean water and sanitation remain out of reach for too many ...”

ANC national executive committee member Parks Tau said: “We’ve got a track record of fundamental socioeconomic transformation.

“What we are saying going forward is that we need to accelerate this agenda.

“Our commitment in our manifesto is that we will create, through direct job creation, two million jobs.

“We have said as the ANC we will focus on industrialisation and re-industrialisation.”

Tau said NHI was about “universal access to health and life”.