Western Cape Premier Helen Zille’s speech at the opening of the provincial legislature on Friday had been ”aggressive and triumphalist”, the African National Congress (ANC) said.
”Despite a commitment to being a premier for the entire province, [her speech] degenerated into petty point scoring,” said leader of the opposition in the legislature, Lynne Brown.
Brown said her party would strongly support Zille’s commitment to good governance, transparency and reducing wasteful expenditure.
However, Zille’s ”less than wholehearted” response to the effects of the economic crisis on poor people was cause for concern.
In the speech, which was not preceded by the pomp and ceremony enjoyed by her predecessors, Zille said she had told President Jacob Zuma he should see the Democratic Alliance-controlled province as an opportunity, not as a threat.
She also promised what she described as a ”back to basics” approach, which would include a review of financial management and staffing in provincial departments.
She said she was encouraged by the ”congenial and professional” working relationship she had experienced at the extended Cabinet lekgotla that ended on Thursday.
She had got the sense that Zuma meant what he said in his inauguration speech, when he invited South Africans to participate in democratic debate and air different views.
”During a conversation with President Zuma yesterday, I asked him to regard the Western Cape as an opportunity, and not as a threat,” she said.
”I told him that we would always act in good faith and in the interests of all our people when we propose alternative approaches to solve some of our country’s most pressing problems.
”I said that we need the space to implement them.”
She said no single political party had a monopoly on wisdom and solutions, and it was in everyone’s interests to establish which policy interventions worked.
Zille said the tone at the lekgotla was in stark contrast to the ”ongoing slander” emanating from the ANC Youth League and the Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) military veterans association.
The youth league has claimed she is sleeping with the members of her provincial executive council, while the veterans have said they will make sure she ”does not govern properly”.
Their invective, and a demand that she apologise to Zuma, was sparked by Zille’s statement that he had put his wives at risk by having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman.
Zille said on Friday that Zuma was president of all South Africans.
”Every one of us here, in the government and in the opposition, acknowledges his position with respect,” she said.
She said her administration had found that poor financial management in various provincial departments had seriously undermined their capacity to deliver.
She intended to introduce tighter financial controls, and to open all tender processes to the public as far as possible.
Zille said the province had become a top-heavy organisation, with too many senior administrators and not enough staff delivering services. — Sapa