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Opinionista

Coronation or inauguration?

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John Steenhuisen is the leader of the Democratic Alliance.

The election has not even taken place and already signs abound of what is to come: More of the same.

The South African economy is in dire straits. While our economic outlook languishes in semi-decimals, the government continues to fork out billions of rand to prop up failing SOEs which have been gutted by decades of ANC-sponsored corruption.

Ten million South Africans cannot find a job and put food on the table. Our police are so desperately under-resourced that they have a greater chance of catching a cold than a criminal. Millions of South Africans who have waited patiently for change for 25 years remain with little choice other than to continue enduring the grinding poverty of their daily lives.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is hyper-aware of the state of play. He has assured our nation time and again that he will lead the charge of South Africa’s rejuvenation. Some are hopeful, waiting for the turning tide of 8 May to sweep the carnage of the Zuma years into the sea. Ramaphosa, the vanguard of the ANC’s “New Dawn”, will “steady the ship”, they pronounce in their well-heeled columns. Yet words ring hollow in the face of facts — and time and again the ANC has proven to South Africa that it is chronically incapable of change.

It comes then as no surprise that before South Africa has even voted, Ramaphosa’s presidency has budgeted R120-million for the 2019 Presidential Inauguration — no doubt in the hopes that he will be graced with the crown jewels.

To guarantee the ensuing biggest fanfare yet, the Presidency has switched venues from the traditional Union Buildings to the large and lofty Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Tshwane. The stage must be wide, you see, to accommodate the ever-bulging bellies of the thieves who have fattened themselves at the trough of ANC patronage for decades, but remain steadfast on the party’s lists, delighted by the prospects of a further chance to feast first from the breadbasket of our land.

In glaring contrast to the R120-million made available for a few hours of presidential fanfare, when the Parliamentary Administration Service requested a budget of R60.6-million to roll out the parliamentary inauguration programme which will see all 400 incoming members of Parliament on-boarded, trained and inducted, National Treasury refused to grant this. Parliament has been left with only the R8.4-million remaining on its 2018-19 budget to roll out the programme and has had to implement a number of drastic austerity measures to plug this hole.

In a twist of even more bitter irony, the Presidency has instructed provinces to send 2,000 municipal delegates to fill the new, larger venue and instructed that the costs for these 2,000 delegates be covered by cash-strapped local municipalities. Buses alone will amount to an additional R2-million.

The dire financial state of our municipalities is not a secret. Of the country’s just over 270 municipalities, a total of 128 are in serious financial distress. Municipal debt in 2018 exceeded the total amount allocated to local government from the national fiscus. More than half of the country’s municipalities have serious liquidity challenges and are failing to deliver services, bill for those services and collect revenue.

Governance and operational inefficiencies continue to plague these administrations, depriving millions of ordinary South Africans access to even the most basic services such as running water, electricity or sanitation. Our municipalities should be providing basic services to South Africans, not busing delegates to political events.

The election has not even taken place and already signs abound of what is to come: More of the same.

We must face up to the fact that the ANC is indeed the same old, broken bus with the same unlicensed drivers, and nothing is going to change.

Fool us once, shame on you.

Fool us ad nauseam, shame on us. DM

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