Opposition accuses ANC of betraying Tintswalo’s dreams
OPPOSITION parties said the ANC had reversed all the gains made in the first few years of democracy.
Speaking during the debate of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address yesterday, IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said the economy grew above 5% during the Government of National Unity, but it had since declined.
Hlabisa urged Ramaphosa not to sign the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill because it was a “disaster waiting to happen”.
“Stop looking for the pen to sign the NHI Bill. The NHI is a recipe for disaster. South Africa is on auto-pilot,” said Hlabisa.
He said the ANC presided over state capture, load shedding, and millions of people were unemployed.
“The ANC only serves the ANC,” said Hlabisa.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said the ANC government had betrayed the dream of Tintswalo, South Africa’s democracy child.
Steenhuisen said while Tintswalo had hopes and dreams in the early years of democracy, her dreams were shattered by rampant crime, corruption, and load shedding.
“What the President did during his address, was to tell us the story of Tintswalo’s start in life during the 1990s and the 2000s. It was far from perfect, but it was a time of hope and possibility. But Tintswalo’s life story does not end after childhood.
“Today, she is a 30-year-old woman. She has entered the next phase of her life, as a wife, a mother and a provider. Over the past decade, she has watched with growing horror as the dream of her childhood was betrayed,” said Steenhuisen.
But Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe said Steenhuisen was living in the past.
He said many people who said the ANC had not delivered forgot the government had to undo decades of apartheid.
The debate continues today.