Both the ANC and the Good Party in the Western Cape have criticised Premier Alan Winde’s State of the Province Address (SOPA) as lacking in detail.
He delivered the SOPA in Genadendal in the Overberg. He elaborated on many issues including measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, job creation and growing the economy.
Winde’s SOPA below:
The ANC’s Cameron Dugmore and Good Party’s Brett Herron say he has missed an opportunity to address more pertinent issues.
“He did not give any concrete plans to deal with poverty, unemployment and actually the issue of inequality both here in the Overberg and in the province he simply repeated issues from the last speech”, Dugmore said.
“The Western Cape and the City of Cape Town is facing a free affordable housing crisis, the delivery of free basic housing is falling in numbers and the quality of houses and the location entrenches and perpetuates the policy of apartheid”, Herron said.
Winde says about 270 000 people have lost their jobs in the province since the beginning of the lockdown.
He says 37 000 new jobs have since been created.
Winde says support for small businesses is key during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 6 000 people have succumbed to COVID-19 in the province over the past year.
Winde has, however, warned of a third wave.
“No matter how fast we get these vaccines into our system, we have a massive risk ahead of us and that risk is a third wave. It’s happening in other parts of the world, as we speak. Other countries are ahead of us. They are in the third wave. We need to know. We will not have everyone vaccinated by the time we get to winter and so, we have to make sure that we continue to mitigate risk.”
The country officially kicked off its vaccine programme today.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize received the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at the Khayelitsha District Hospital in the Western Cape.
Reaction to COVID-19 vaccine rollout in SA: Dr Nisha Jacob:
