KZN opposition parties blame corruption & cadre deployment for shortfalls in province
The parties believe a lot has gone wrong under the ANC government, from service delivery issues, to crime and corruption.
The eThekwini council meeting to vote on a motion tabled by the DA in a bid to dissolve it on 14 February 2024. Picture: X/ DA_KZN
DURBAN - Opposition parties gunning for the provincial government in KwaZulu-Natal ahead of this week's polls have blamed corruption and cadre deployment for shortfalls in the province.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the province spoke to Eyewitness News on various topics concerning the province ahead of this week's much-anticipated election.
This is as most political parties are confident that there will be no outright majority in the highly contested province, as they also hope to bring the ruling ANC below 50%.
The parties believe a lot has gone wrong under the African National Congress (ANC) government, from service delivery issues to crime and corruption.
"There’s quite a number of corrupt activities that have happened in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, you’ll know recently of monies that were stolen during COVID-19. It was under the same leadership and also the flood victims are still wandering around.”
For the EFF’s Mongezi Twala, corruption is to blame for what the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has described as government's failure to deliver basic services to KwaZulu-Natal communities.
Twala's made reference to alleged corruption linked COVID-19 personal protective equipment, where millions of rands were looted.
The DA’s Chris Pappas echoed similar sentiments but added that the ruling ANC had failed to build an ethical and capable state in the province.
"A state that has been infiltrated by systems of cadre deployment, nepotism and patronage networks. Those things then start to break down the state as a mechanism to deliver to the people and that is what we have seen in KZN."
Meanwhile, the IFP’s Thami Ntuli has blamed the government of the day, saying under its leadership the economy had been crippled.
"I think there is a lot that is not going right, hence we believe to address the province of KwaZulu-Natal, we need to fix the issue of our economy."
Despite several attempts to secure an interview with the ANC, its leaders were not available for the one -on-one due to what they said was a busy elections programme.