POLITICS

We need jobs in every home, and we need them now – Zwakele Mncwango

DA KZN PC says South Africa is just a notch above junk status

We need jobs in every home, and we need them now

13 April 2019

Democrats

For more than 25-years in our democracy, this country has gone from bad to worse. We have seen our economy brought to its knees by the Guptas, which was then handed down to Bosasa and later the VBS saga. Scandals that have taken away from the poorest of the poor.

As we sit our country is a notch above junk status. Amidst all this, there is no turnaround strategy from the government of the day. Just last week after years of continuous fighting with the MEC for COGTA Nomusa Dube –Ncube, Msunduzi was placed under administration. Msunduzi under the ANC government has collapsed from high expenditure against low revenue collections, collapsing of internal controls, inaccurate consumer billing, poor spending on grants funding and the list goes on. All of this under the noses of the KZN Executives, all of whom are stationed in the Capital City. The ANC has failed the people of Msunduzi the same way they have failed the people of many parts of this province by protecting incompetent cadres more than the people they should be serving.

KwaZulu-Natal according to the 2018 fourth quarter’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey has an unemployment rate of 28.5%, with young occupying the majority of that space. Today and as we have always echoed, we want there to be a conducive environment for business big or small to thrive. We want a government that can keep the lights on, a government that will ensure that we live in safe communities and a government that will ensure that our health care is up to standard.

Our call today is for young people to take centre stage in their future. We must get to a point where we say enough is enough. We must say we’ve had enough with our monies that could be used to develop our communities being used to sustain the lifestyles of the connected few.

Your vote come May must seek answers to the following:

- R15 million spent by the city to purchase the Rainbow Chicken farm that lay baren with no prospective plan to empower its intended community.

- We find already outdated equipment further deteriorating, just because the cost implications of the failing projects do not affect the instigators.

Your vote come 8 May  must put a stop to:

- R920 000 being spent to celebrate Former Head of State Jacob Zuma in the name of a “Liberation Route” Seminar

- R200 000 being spent on a record deal for Jacob Zuma when there are thousands of young people who have been looking for a breakthrough in the arts industry and have been ignored for years.

Our Priority Pledge: Eradicating Employment Corruption

Time and time again our vulnerable groups, our mothers, sisters and daughters are plagued with employment corruption. Carpet interviews have crippled our communities, they have destroyed peoples lives and have torn families apart.

The scarcity of job opportunities, considered with the broad failure of the current governments empowerment efforts, perpetuates apartheid-era inequality and poverty. This has sadly made more people desperate to secure their space in the jobs market. Making females in this instance more susceptible to compromising situations like sex for jobs and carpet interviews.

The DA’s offering is that we need to create an inclusive society, with equal access to opportunities in particular employment opportunities, needs to be extended more diversely and in a fairer manner.

Combating Employment Corruption, a DA-led government will:

- Increase the transparency of the recruitment process by, -

- Ensuring that high-profile public sector jobs are adequately advertised through a variety of media

- Make a hotline available to report instances of employment corruption and,

- Require that all candidates applying for employment in the public service complete a public entrance exam

As a DA government we want more and more young people as innovators and job creators in their communities. Can we export our skills and innovations as opposed to the frequent import. Our country is doing more importing than exporting. Factories are being shut down when people continue to need jobs.

Institutions like the NYDA that are designed to be funders of innovations must stop being the ATM for the ANC and its leagues but must serve the intended recipients.

Where we govern people have seen and tasted change and will continue to do so long as they continue to trust us with their vote. We have a plan, and the plan will ensure that more jobs are created, our plan will keep the lights on and our plan will put our the people first.

Today you have taken an active step to realise the dream that South Africa can be great. Be part of the team that wants to see an inclusive and non-racial South Africa. Join Team One South Africa, and as we head closer and closer to these elections, put the interest of your community, your future and that of those to come first.

Let us be on the side that wanted to save our country when historians write our history. Let our names be forever carved on the walls of our nation, and the hearts of its people.

Let us Stand Up For Change, Let us Build One South Africa for All together

Ngiyabonga.

Issued by Zwakele Mncwango, DA KZN Premier Candidate, 13 April 2019