Nine provinces a waste

16 April 2009 - 02:00
By unknown

Azapo's policy position to abolish provinces is in line with our desire to establish a unitary state and enhance service delivery.

Some of us have done extensive comparative studies between the federal and unitary state model, and we came to a conclusion that throughout the years of the liberation struggle one of the key liberation struggle strategic objective was to establish a unitary state, which the ruling party abandoned.

However, as the liberation struggle progressed, we noticed that the ruling party began to vacillate between the federal and unitary state model due to the influence exerted by both the black and white liberals who were beginning to fall in love with the ruling party's "broad church approach''.

We find it very strange that in a country where the majority of our people are ravaged by diseases, landlessness, poverty, and high unemployment rate, the ruling party finds nothing wrong with using South African taxpayers' money to maintain the extravagant lives of more than 10 ministers for the same portfolio duplicated at all nine provinces and national level without any shame.

This is the money that could have been used to accelerate service delivery at local level.

We can survive without nine provincial legislatures, nine premiers, 90 MECs and all associated additional taxpayers' money required to maintain this clumsy quasi-federal system.

Lesego Mogotsi, Tshwane