Premier Winde’s State of the Province Address to focus on safety issues
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde will deliver his State of the Province Address (Sopa) in Beaufort West on Wednesday, outlining the provincial government’s plans for the year ahead and reflecting on its achievements over the past year.
Opposition parties have since urged Winde to confront the “urgent failures that continue to undermine the safety, security, and dignity of its residents”.
GOOD Party secretary-general, Brett Herron, said lofty promises “will no longer suffice, people deserve real, tangible action”.
“The Western Cape’s multi-billion-rand Safety Plan, designed to halve the murder rate in ten years, is at its halfway mark. Yet, from 2019 to 2024, the murder rate has surged by 14.32%. Despite massive financial investment and years of political rhetoric, communities remain under siege by violent crime. There are only five years left for this plan to deliver on its promise, yet crime statistics continue to rise. If the murder rate is increasing, not falling, then the plan is failing.
People deserve answers, accountability, and real solutions,” Herron said.
Leader of the opposition in the legislature, the ANC’s Khalid Sayed, said they are demanding action and not theatrics. He said that the premier should prioritise fixing local government, and ensuring better service delivery as the DA-led provincial government “has played a direct role in destabilising municipalities, leading to governance collapse in many areas”.
“The people of the Western Cape deserve functional municipalities that work for them, not against them.
“Transformation and justice must be at the centre of government policies, not gestures designed to appease the privileged.
“As we go into the Sopa, we fully expect Premier Winde to once again evade these real issues. Instead, he will boast about irrelevant ‘successes,’ deliver empty promises, and continue to ignore the lived realities of the people he has failed. But we will not be fooled.”
EFF Chief Whip, Aishah Cassiem said: “Based on previous Sopa’s, where no true account was given by the premier as to what is currently happening in this province, we won’t be surprised if he, again, fails to address the major issues affecting those in poor black communities.
“With crime increasing in this province, under the DA government, we are hoping that this year, the premier at least touches on how he intends to fight drugs and gangsterism, especially on the Cape Flats,” Cassiem said.
Bishop Lavis Crime Prevention Forum’s Graham Lindhorst wants the premier to tackle gang-related crimes on the Cape Flats.
“We hope that Premier Alan Winde will speak to the social issues in our communities with a view to intervene, arrest school dropouts at an early stage – with interventions from the Western Cape government geared at minimising the risk – and build more decent houses for backyarders and shack dwellers.”