Cape Town – Premier Alan Winde’s remarks about the province’s independent quest for top-up vaccines in his State of the Province Address (SOPA) came under the opposition’s microscope during on Thursday’s debate by the legislature.
ANC provincial spokesperson on health Rachel Windvogel said: “The Western Cape procurement of the vaccine is a costly and futile exercise that is intended at sowing confusion and division in society.
“The billions earmarked for the vaccine procurement can be better used to strengthen our public healthcare and to employ the much-needed health personnel.”
EFF MPL Melikhaya Xego said the DA should stop trying to compete with the national government on all fronts including management of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The DA government in this province must appreciate co-operative governance. Instead of wanting to take credit for everything, the DA must act as a partner in the greater scheme of things and stop competing with the national government.
“The DA government in the province always wants to look like it outshines the national government.”
Good party MPL Brett Herron said: “The question is not whether the Western Cape is constitutionally entitled to purchase vaccines. The questions are how this will happen, when there is a global shortage, and what the impact will be on the national programme.”
On the issue of land and spatial planning, provincial leader of the opposition Cameron Dugmore (ANC) said: “Here in Greyton, it is the DA Theewaterskloof council that wants to sell a prime piece of municipal land to a private school for R100. This is a perfect site for an integrated human settlement and a concrete way of reversing apartheid spatial planning.
“Just like in Tafelberg, where the DA prefers to sell land to private interests, as opposed to using it for affordable housing for domestic and general workers in Sea Point.”
He added: “There is a huge opportunity to work with the community, national and local government to speed up the Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act process so that the community can truly benefit from the thousands of hectares of land that are available. But it needs engagement and working together.”
Responding to the debate Winde said: “The one thing that stood out for me during the debate and really surprised me, is how much energy was put into the delivery of the speech, whether I tabled the document or whether it was subjected to new technological mechanisms like WhatsApp groups.”
Winde said: “There was a lot of noise about the means of delivery and not much speaking to the substance of the actual speech, the detail and the data.”
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the regulations put in place to curb the spread of the virus, only a limited number of guests attended the event.
Speaker Mnqasela Masizole said: “Once again, the Western Cape Legislature has demonstrated that, despite the limitations of the challenging times we live in, the work of the legislature continues to represent the interests of our people inclusively, yet safe and compliant with all Covid-19 health protocols.”
Cape Argus