GOOD statement by Shaun August,
GOOD: National Organiser & Member of Western Cape Provincial Parliament
14 February 2022
It is no secret that the global Covid19 pandemic further entrenched the deathgrip poverty has on the lives of most people in this province.
In a time where the divide between the rich and the poor is consistently advancing, we need to review our social model and prioritise opportunities that could effectively eliminate crime, create employment and raise the standard of living. The Winde Administration needs to preoccupy itself with the principles of humanity, justice, development and economic growth.
Entrepreneurship should be a key factor of SOPA 2022. South Africans and more specifically, people of the Western Cape, are capable and want to build businesses that employ, manufacture and export.
What lacks is the policy certainty and base capital for these startups. This government should establish a cross departmental platform that gives preference to ideas that can be supported by a curated provincial business plan, supported by the private sector. Premier Winde should engage his colleagues at national level to explore tax leniency as a possible avenue through which stimulate the proliferation of small and micro enterprises. President Cyril Ramaphosa has set the tone and the Premier must see it to fruition.
Rural development should form the bases of any intervention seeking to change those lived realities breeding further inequality and injustice. There’s a persistent perception that the City of Cape Town enjoys most of the development objectives in the province and this should change. Rural Western Cape has a lot of talented young men and woman wanting to change their communities and build institutions for the development for generations to come. We urge the Premier to provide sound and rational decision-making in this regard.
Our people are strained by the pressure of rising cost of living, increasing inflation and less money to do more. South Africans, at this point, are slaves to poor economic decisions, negative growth and rising debt. It remains this government’s primary objective to ease these burdens on the people and create an enabling environment for growth; by investigating avenues for greater leniency on the high cost of public transport, seek safer conditions to travel in and build a timeous public transport system, the people of the Western Cape are able to afford.
Woman and children live in fear, communities are terrorised and the psychological implications of these events are often long lasting. We need to demand greater reforms in social development and programs seeking to restore and strengthen the fabric of society. As much as more visible law enforcement is needed, our only solution cannot be to haphazardly lock-up offenders. Crime festers where inequality exists. If you want to fight crime, build the capacity of the people.
We remain hopeful that SOPA 2022 will be a lodestar in seeking a better South Africa and a functional Western Cape. We can never measure our success by the strength of the socially and economically strong, but should do so by monitoring shifts in socioeconomic conditions still plaguing the poor. If this is our barometer, this province is far off-point. The WC government is not a poor one, it is time they stop acting like one which only further advances the interests of salary seeking, career politicians.
Media enquiries:
Shaun August, GOOD: National Organiser & Member of Western Cape Provincial Parliament
Cell: 074 746 7378
Email: shauna@forgood.org.za
Samkelo Mgobozi, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0792315977 (whatsapp)/0829684021 (calls)
Email: samm@forgood.org.za