Western Cape premier Helen Zille failed to give immediate solutions to poverty in her state of the province speech, the provincial African National Congress said on Friday.
“What is worrying me a lot about this speech is that the premier did not speak about what is happening today in terms of poverty,” ANC leader in the provincial legislature Lynne Brown said after the address.
“How are we going to combat poverty today in this province? What are we going to do to get rid of inequalities?”
Brown, the previous provincial premier, said Zille’s speech did not have vision.
It seemed as though Zille thought everyone lived in the central business district, she said.
Zille announced three regeneration projects for the city on Friday.
Lack of detail
Brown said: “Nothing is happening on the Cape Flats and nothing is going to happen in black residential areas.”
There was also a lack of detail on provincial housing delivery, she said.
Zille should have said how many government-issued houses were going to be built for the year so it could be compared with the actually delivery at the end of 2012.
Brown had some good words about Zille’s mention of the national government.
“I felt quite strongly that the premier, for the first time, has actually acknowledged the role of national government.
“She’s also realising you can’t work against national government. We must work together to ensure we are able to do the things that we so want to do in improving peoples’ quality of life.” — Sapa