NW premier slammed for ‘turning a blind eye on service delivery’

Opposition parties in the North West have lambasted Premier Bushy Maape saying he is turning a blind eye to service delivery challenges that are facing residents.

They say Maape’s State of the Province Address leaves much to be desired and has brought up more questions than answers on promises made last year.

This emerged at the provincial State of the Province Address held in Mahikeng.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader Freddy Sonakile says, “When you look at the speech they are talking about, the energy plan that they are going to start. I mean load shedding is here now, residents and business people are suffering. They thought that this was their chance to get answers but nothing came out of that. He is talking about youth strategy, he cannot be talking about all these strategies we have previously, we have nothing on agriculture nothing and tourism.”

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Secretary of EFF in the province, Papiki Babuile says, “We have actually requested the ANC to recall him as the premier because he lied to the nation during, the SONA debate when he was addressing there.”

Promises

Maape made several promises to the residents including roads in the province will be upgraded.

He says, “We are pleased to announce that Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) through the Presidency has set aside R13 billion for the maintenance and upgrading of 39 roads projects in the province. These projects will be implemented during the 2023/24 financial year. This is in addition to the R1.3 billion for road upgrading and maintenance in the current financial year.”

VIDEO | North West Opposition parties react to Bushy Maape’s SOPA address: