All eyes are on North West Premier Bushy Maape who is expected to deliver his State of the Province Address (Sopa) tomorrow.
Maape courted controversy when he claimed during Sona that there were no water and road problems in the North West. His comments sparked outrage among the province’s residents who are forced to endure giant potholes on major roads.
Despite being the provincial capital, Mahikeng looks like an abandoned town, with the infrastructure in decay as well as regular interruptions in the supply of water and electricity.
Over and above load shedding, residents are often subjected to longer spells of power and water outages without any explanation from the provincial government.
Paseka Molete is one of the residents who are tired of talk and no action and he is demanding an improvement in the state of the province, especially Mahikeng.
“Since the country was liberated in 1994, it’s sad to see many people still denied access to basic services like water and electricity. So we are saying to the Premier, it is about time we stop with the lip service. And act quickly to implement plans that will change the living conditions of people in the province. Enough of empty promises,” Molete said.
A pensioner, Botoko Nkgwang, said he has to share his pension grant with his kids because they are unemployed. He said he expected the Premier to table programs to help empower the youth through job creation.
Lerato Mogaetsho has spent a fortune replacing damaged tyres and rims because of bad road conditions.
“Many motorists suffer damage to their car tyres and wheel rims due to bad road conditions, while political heads use state vehicles supplied with taxpayers money. We really are tired of empty promises.
“I was so annoyed by the Premier’s remarks at the Sona debate. How can he give the nation the impression that all is well while his government is failing? I don’t even remember how much I spent on replacing my tyres. We are tired of these potholes. He must give a clear indication if they will fix the roads or not,” Mogaetsho said.
Vusi Nojoli is vexed by high rates of unemployment and like his generation, he is seeking job opportunities in all spheres of society and in government.
“There is a high rate of unemployment. But we see a lot of job opportunities, where you will find that the government offices are filthy when we could be given the opportunity to go and clean them.
“There is a lot of nepotism in terms of employment. We are denied opportunities in the sense that there is already a candidate for a position before a vacancy can even be advertised.
“Look around you, graduates are wasting their lives on substance abuse because of unemployment. Some of them carry the heavy burden of failing to provide for their parents.
“Many of them don’t even have parents and have to put food on the table for their siblings. So one can only imagine the kind of pressure and stress they have. So they turn to substance abuse as their coping mechanism,” said the 25-year-old.
