Parties offer their solutions to province’s most pressing issues ahead of elections

WITH Election Day in less than three weeks, an Artscape venue room was bursting at the seams as political parties gave their solutions to pressing issues.

Supporters, community activists, non-governmental and communitybased organisations, and the general public filled the room to hear what vying political parties had to say and offer in terms of “the big issues”: crime and unemployment.

Attendees did not hold back in driving their concerns to those vying for votes and support, grilling the politicians on issues related to the high number of murders in the province, gender-based violence and femicide, extortion and the “construction mafia”, unemployment and the employment of foreign nationals, the need for and access to social workers, and potential party coalitions.

The robust political discussion with representatives from 11 political parties, was hosted yesterday by Independent Media via its Cape titles, the Weekend Argus, Daily Voice, Cape Times and Cape Argus.

Panellists included Patricia de Lille (GOOD); Reagan Allen (DA); Khalid Sayed (ANC); Wayne Thring (ACDP); Connie Mulder (FF+); Nkosekhaya Lala (ACC); Nazier Paulsen (EFF); Fairouz Nagia (Al Jama-ah); Lumka Mquqo (Bosa); Axolile Notywala (RISE Mzansi); and Fadiel Adams (NCC). It was moderated by political analyst Nkosikhulule Nyembezi.

Lala said: “As ACC, we are saying, if there are 10 jobs created, seven must go

to South Africans. Three can be given to any legal person in the country. We are saying South African citizens must come first as ACC, 70% of jobs must go to South Africans.” Lala also said the party advocated for rapists to be sentenced to life, and death for murderers.

The NCC's Adams too said that no foreign national should be employed ahead of a South African “as long as the skills exist right here”.

On the criminalisation of young children, he said the NCC had a programme for the scrapping of non-violent criminal history, working with the Department of Justice.

The EFF's Paulsen referred to the “construction mafia” as “the biggest criminality in the province”, enabling the “corrupt tender process system”.

“So what we're going to do is build a state construction company that will build houses for the people, schools, hospitals, clinics where we need them and also construction and maintenance of roads. So infrastructure constructed by the state construction company and also maintained by the state construction company, that will absorb all that unemployed labour out there.”

On the matter of the imbalance of social workers, the ACDP's Thring said: “The ACDP doesn't have a fast ratio, but what we want to do is increase that particular ratio that is a norm and look at ‘best standard' within your developed and developing countries.”

Bosa's Mquqo said the party wants to establish a national crime investigation directorate to pursue and prosecute the top 100 most violent crimes, especially in the Western Cape.

Al Jama-ah's Nagia said the party wants to see at least one psychologist and one social worker at every school, supported by a team of psychosocial members to assist children.

The ANC's Sayed said the party wants to reintroduce specific stations at police stations where rooms with social workers and counsellors can provide psychosocial support to victims of GBV, as well as where criminal cases can be lodged.

The party will also reintroduce the Bambanani programme, where young people will be incentivised to fight crime within communities.

RISE Mzansi's Notywala said education and development initiatives should be introduced, particularly at a primary school level for young boys, to fight GBV and femicide. He added that many police stations did not have functioning Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units. “We need to make sure that those units are functioning and properly resourced.”

THE robust political discussion with representatives from 11 political parties was hosted yesterday.