Johannesburg – As we approach local government elections on November 1, it is crucial to reflect on the reality that South Africa is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the unequal societies in the world.
This statement rings more true if we consider the conditions that define black life in South Africa.
For example, our people still do not have readily available clean water, social grants are unreliable and pitifully low, and a large majority of people in rural areas still use pit toilets.
The government is unfazed by these conditions and enters dilapidated homes with buckets of water on the floor, campaigning for votes.
Our society has normalised that people can fall to their deaths in pit latrines and that R350 must sustain a family of four unemployed people.
The EFF remains the only organisation to make meaningful commitments to alleviating the conditions of the poor through dependable plans and interventions.
One of the EFF’s most implementable plans for water provision is two-pronged.
First, private ownership of water infrastructures such as dams and pipelines must be handed over to the state, and emerging communities must plug into existing water infrastructure.
This will fast-track the equitable distribution of water.
As an opposition, the EFF has not been idling around waiting to govern before providing water services to our people.
Instead, we have been making practical interventions in communities to get clean, accessible water by building boreholes and donating taps.
The same applies to the provision of flushing water. For example, in the North West, the EFF has built 2 300 flushing toilets in ward 28.
Development starts with the people and their conditions; anything outside of this is lyrical about the progress that only filters down to the economic elite.
That is the EFF’s understanding of a developmental program at a municipal level. This is why all of our efforts as the opposition have been people-oriented.
In Thabazimbi in Limpopo, the EFF addressed a historic challenge of water shortages by drilling three boreholes and erecting stand-alone taps.
Due to our understanding of early childhood development to educational outputs in the future, the EFF built three crèches in the Blouberg municipality.
This is because our conception of education as an organisation is not haphazard.
The EFF remains the only consistent voice for the poor, particularly in advocating for increased social grants. The party has also reaffirmed its commitment to an increase in social grants and a permanent unemployment grant.
Job seekers are subject to costly endeavors while pursuing employment opportunities. These include but are not limited to; data costs, printing costs, clothing costs, and transport costs. It is further dehumanising to seek employment while needing small loans to do the mundane task associated with it.
The logic for a permanent grant is therefore undeniable.
Outside of this, the EFF will ensure that municipalities employ 50% young people to curb youth unemployment while funding and giving opportunities to small, medium, and micro-enterprises. (SMMEs}.
Our commitment to giving SMMEs opportunities can be seen in Rustenburg municipality where the EFF ensured these got access to operating with Sibanye Mines. In addition, the corporate social investment by companies in EFF municipalities will be monitored and enforced, and dictate companies’ relations with tax rates and
operational costs.
The EFF has already ensured the employment of young people in Moretele’s local municipality in the North West, where the party ensured more than 100 young people were employed under the Phaphafatsa Moretele Project.
The EFF has exhibited its capacity to be a people-centered government, and its local government elections manifesto is a recommitment to work that it has already been doing.
- Poppy Mailola is the deputy secretary-general of the EFF
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