PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has promised Ugu District Municipality residents, in southern KZN, that he will attend to problems they raised on Friday, 18 November.
He was addressing them during a Presidential Imbizo, where they raised issues of water shortages and interruptions as well as unemployment.
Ramaphosa said he was aware that Ugu was an agricultural district, and the majority of people relied on the land to feed themselves and their families, and to grow crops for their livelihoods.
“As the different arms and spheres of government, we will follow up on the issues you have raised and report back on what is being done to resolve them,” he said.
He encouraged them to join hands with the government to make local government stronger in the district and throughout the province.
“When the government is efficient, capable, agile and responsive, there is progress and development. People’s quality of life improves while living standards go up and incomes rise. As a result, the economy grows. I look forward to today’s debate, and hearing from political parties and premiers on measures being taken in their respective provinces to strengthen the governance,” said the president.
This year, Ramaphosa has led five Presidential Izimbizo in the North West, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Northern Cape. He talked about the Presidential Employment Stimulus, that he said had benefited over a million people in the last two years.
“Of these opportunities, about 186 000 were in KZN. Over the last four years, we have raised more that R1 trillion in new investment commitments, of which R330 billion has already flowed into the economy. The factories, data centres, paper mills and mines that are built through this investment are not located at the Union Buildings or Parliament. They are located here, where people live, which is why we need to make sure that companies want to invest here,” said Ramaphosa.
He admitted that since 1994, the ANC had not been able to fulfil its promise of “a better life for all”.
“As parliamentarians, yours is a critical role. You hold government to account for the promises that have been made and ensure that they are met.”
