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Durban - The ANC’s biggest failing in the Northwest Province has been its failure to address unemployment.
The Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane told delegates at the party’s provincial congress in Hartebeespoort that the province’s staggering unemployment rate of 43.2% was indicative of the African National Congress’s failure in the province.
“They have failed the people of the North West in just about every single aspect of government delivery.”
“But the biggest failing of the people of the North West is the spiralling unemployment numbers. Last week Stats SA released their quarterly employment data and it made for grim reading indeed. Along with the Eastern Cape, the North West province has the highest broad unemployment rate in the country, at a staggering 43.2%.”
He said that many of the province’s working age population had simply given up working.
Maimane took the opportunity to accuse President Jacob Zuma of being uninterested in the plight of the families of miners killed in the Marikana tragedy.
“The families, friends and co-workers of the miners killed in the Marikana tragedy are still waiting for closure, and they are still waiting for justice. But our president doesn't see the urgency. He says he needs another month to apply his mind. This, after he’s been applying his mind for over a month already.”
He accused Zuma of mocking people who ask in the National Assembly what had become of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry report.
The inquiry, chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam, was tasked with investigating the August 2012 shooting of 34 striking miners by police in Marikana, North West.
“This is what it means to him that 34 miners were murdered and another 78 injured by his police force. To him, it’s an inconvenience. An irritation,” said Maimane.
He said that Zuma’s “irritation” would not last too much longer as the DA were gaining ground across the country.
Referring to the North West he pointed to the fact that the DA’s support in the province had grown by 43% in the five years between 2009 and 2014.
He said party members would need to work hard in the run-up to the 2016 municipal elections.
“If you compare 2014 with 2009, the DA has grown in every single municipality, while the ANC has shrunk in almost every one,” he said.
