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Premier Oscar Mabuyane titled his State of the Province Address “Siyakha, Siyakhathala, Siyaphambili, Sisonke” – We Build, We Care, We Advance, Together.

However, after 30 years of ANC governance, the Eastern Cape remains the only province where more people are unemployed than working. This was not a State of the Province Address. It was a State of Denial.

While the Premier acknowledged the loss of 32,000 jobs in the last quarter, he failed to mention that, since his last SOPA address, the province has lost 79,000 jobs.

Unemployment has worsened by 5.9 percentage points to 42.5%, the highest in South Africa, while the expanded unemployment rate now stands at 51.4%. In rural communities, three out of every five people cannot find work.

The Premier’s solution? More temporary work opportunities in expanded public works programmes. The government cannot solve the unemployment crisis by creating temporary work. It needs to create an enabling business environment that encourages private-sector investment, which in turn generates long-term employment opportunities.

The Premier should have committed to stabilising distressed municipalities, enforcing consequence management where there is failure, implementing a funded recovery plan to address the R30 billion roads maintenance backlog, ensuring that conditional grants are fully spent, and rolling out a comprehensive Water Supply Master Plan.

He did none of this, opting instead to give a masterclass in spin, cherry-picking data that paints a rosy picture of a province that, in reality, is in crisis.

Premier Mabuyane glossed over the crime reality, praising slight declines in numbers, while ignoring the fact that people in this province are still more likely to be raped or murdered than anywhere else in South Africa.

Oversight has shown that our current resources are woefully inadequate. We need functioning policing and visible law enforcement.

At a local level, 16 municipalities in the province are classified as distressed. Businesses are disinvesting due to unreliable services, and residents in both urban and rural areas struggle with access to water, electricity, and safe roads. The provincial roads maintenance backlog stands at R30 billion, while allocated funds have gone unspent.

The DA remains adamant that the only solution to the crises facing our province is firm and measurable commitments to stabilise and grow the provincial economy, restore confidence in governance, and protect jobs.

This includes decisive intervention to improve local service delivery in metros as engines of economic growth, a clear plan to diversify the economy beyond manufacturing and trade into sectors such as tourism and agriculture, and the implementation of a credible Automotive Sector Recovery Strategy that secures alternative export markets.

The Eastern Cape is South Africa’s primary automotive manufacturing hub, and the transition to New Energy Vehicles (NEV) will directly affect thousands of jobs, suppliers, and export-driven industries located in the province.

It is therefore essential that the Premier ensure the province has a formal seat at the table in shaping and implementing national NEV automotive policy.

A true State of the Province Address should honestly confront the challenges facing residents and present measurable solutions. Instead, the Premier delivered a speech rich in announcements but poor in accountability.

The people of the Eastern Cape deserve honest leadership, functional governance, safe communities, reliable services, and real economic opportunities.

Issued by Dr Vicky Knoetze MPL - DA Leader of the Official Opposition in the Eastern Cape Legislature