‘NC in dire need of economic growth strategy’
FINANCIAL constraints have hampered the drafting and implementation of a Provincial Growth and Development Strategy for the Northern Cape.
The Democratic Alliance’s Advocate Boitumelo Babuseng pointed out during last week’s debate in the Northern Cape Legislature on the budget for the Office of the Premier, that many of the challenges facing the Province would be addressed if a coherent, feasible plan for economic growth was implemented.
“We have been told that ‘finan- cial constraints’ make it difficult to draft and implement a Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. It is difficult, however, to fathom that there can be financial constraints which can outweigh the importance of implementing a strategy which can remove the barriers of the past, reduce violence and stimulate the provincial economy.”
Babuseng said that by failing to prioritise the adoption of the strategy, the Office of the Premier was failing to hear the cries of the people for freedom, fairness and opportunity.
Babuseng also pointed out that the provincial government had come to be regarded as a milking cow for external legal practitioners.
“It is easy to litigate against the provincial government for the many mistakes that are being made on a daily basis.
“Litigation against the government, especially when preventable, is a costly burden to bear. It is there- fore welcome that the Office of the Premier has set itself the goal of reducing litigation against the provincial government by five percent and reducing the number of cases that are lost.”
The ANC called on Lucas to leave no stone unturned and to crack the whip on non-performing municipalities in relation to the government’s Back to Basics Campaign.
“We thank the people of the Province for their understanding that we are hard-pressed as government, under the current world economic crisis, to effectively address all the issues we wish to address and achieve,” provincial secretary of the ANC, Zamani Saul, said.
“Our officials in government have embraced the reality that ‘they have to do more with less’, as the budgets are tight across departments and provinces. But we are committed to serve the people of the Province irrespective.”
The party also gave the premier the thumbs-up for “criss-crossing the Province with her executive council to address the plight of our people whether it be housing delivery, computer labs in schools, delivering sanitary towels to poor learners in rural areas and handing over essential gifts to elderly persons”.