Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, says the onset of the Covid19 pandemic had exposed the weaknesses in the provincial government and the inequalities in communities.
He said the Bhisho Government had to adjust its key priorities to navigate the worst health crisis in the 21st Century.
Mabuyane said the pandemic not only claimed lives but impacted the provincial economy negatively.
The Premier delivered a wide-ranging, 40-page, State of the Province Address in the Bhisho Legislature on Thursday evening.
He said the Province developed a Provincial Economic Recovery Plan to resuscitate the economy.
"The people of our Province expect government and social partners to solve the unemployment challenge. In response to this expectation, we have started to collectively address the economy that is not growing at an acceptable rate," he said.
Mabuyane said, "in this regard, we are building an enabling infrastructure as a catalyst to grow the economy and create jobs."
The Premier also spoke at length about the rollout of infrastructure programmes in the province, including extensive road upgrades and announcing that a new contractor will soon be appointed to continue the Ntentu Bridge project after the previous contractor withdrew due to ongoing community protests.
Mabuyane also commended the province's automotive industry for ongoing investments saying their presence has contributed to the growth of the automotive supplier network which stands at 118, providing over 55 000 jobs in the Province.
Meanwhile, DA provincial leader, Nqaba Bhanga, said Mabuyane was “living in a parallel universe” saying he was acting as if everything was fine, whilst the province falls apart.
“The Premier spent a great deal of his time reporting on successes implemented by other stakeholders, and very little feedback on what his own administration has accomplished.”
“He failed to address concerns of collapsing municipalities across the province, nor provide residents across the province with concrete solutions that would turn these collapsed municipalities around,” Bhanga said.
Bhanga said the school infrastructure rollout Mabuyane mentioned is an embarrassment.
“As of the end of December, only R600 million of the over R1.6 billion Infrastructure budget, which comes from the Education Infrastructure Grant, was spent,” he added.
