By With its back up against the wall, the ANC in the Free State is faced with a mammoth task to make the province an attractive destination for investors, its residents and those visiting the Free State. With so much potential, the Free State resembles a sleeping giant that needs awakening.
During the two days lekgotla, held in Bloemfontein from 19 to 20 February 2024, the Chairperson of the ruling party in the Free State Mxolisi Dukwana said this lekgotla is not a talk show, whatever resolutions taken during the two days session, they must be implemented. The leakgotla was a time to reflect, plan and execute. Dukwana said services to the people must be carried out urgently and promptly.
“We will work with our communities in their moments of grief and moments of happiness. We will provide leadership, but we will also be led by our communities because wisdom lies within our communities. We won’t be complaining anymore, we will be decisive and take action,” said Dukwana.
The lekgotla discussed key issues that affect the residents of the Free State and need urgent attention. To give weight to the seriousness of the agenda, all ANC heavyweights from all levels of the organization and the alliance attended the lekgotla.
Mxolisi Dukwana told the lekgotla that urgent attention must be given to services delivery; and said the ANC needs to pick up its pace in addressing the rampant poverty, social ills, service delivery and a myriad of other issues. As such, the ANC has instructed government to speedily implement resolutions taken at the lekgotla.
“As the leader of society, the ANC has a responsibility to ensure that the state of our roads is improved, abuse against women and children comes to an end, drugs are removed from the streets, illegal occupation of buildings is put to an end and illegal migration is halted,” said the Chairperson.
The lekgotla resolved that:
• Municipalities need to fast track the quality and safety of drinkable water, maintenance of sewer spillages (blue drop and green drop status) including refuse removal and cleaning of graveyards.
• Completion of all outstanding infrastructure projects across various districts.
• Implement the Township Revitalisation Programme (TRP) in municipalities (paving of streets) and repair of potholes on provincial roads.
• Reprioritise unspent, available budgets for roads service delivery initiatives (provision of yellow fleet and grading of identified roads in bad condition) to create employment and support.
• SMME’s must be paid within 30 days.
• Municipalities must ensure the sub-contracting of local companies in construction projects, through structured stakeholder engagements.
• All efforts must be made to assist municipalities and provincial government departments to ensure that grants are optimally utilized to benefit our people. Technical support must be provided to avoid grants being returned to the national treasury.
