PRETORIA - Outgoing Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga on Friday said the Gauteng province, led by the ANC's David Makhura as premier, continues to fail many South Africans - young and old - who reside in South Africa's most populous province.
"In the last few weeks, we saw the release of the 2018 matric results, where the real pass rate of the province is only 48%. This means that millions of learners who began grade one 12 years ago have been lost through the system and less than half of them make it through matric. This is a crisis," Msimanga told a media briefing in Johannesburg.
"What is even more tragic is that millions of those who have passed matric are likely to join the ranks of the unemployed, trapping them in an impossible cycle of poverty. Gauteng is contending with a 30% unemployment rate which will not positively change under the leadership of Premier David Makhura and the failing ANC."
Msimanga, of the DA, announced on Friday that he was resigning from the post of Tshwane mayor to focus on his ambitions to become Premier of Gauteng province.
The aspiring premier of Gauteng said the Tshwane mayoral position had exposed him firsthand to the massive suffering of Gauteng residents languishing in poverty and exposed to crime.
"More communities are becoming war zones in our province with unacceptable levels of crime, illegal immigration has led to a complete collapse of the system caused by our porous borders and dysfunctional home affairs [department]; and the provision of basic services in too many parts of the province has come to a grinding halt," said Msimanga.
"A clear example of this is the flooding in the Sebokeng and Vaal area last week. This unspeakable damage to over 70 people’s homes can be traced back to a municipality that has failed to provide even the most basic service delivery functions. Premier Makhura is clearly out of his depth and cannot manage to hold local municipalities to account for the collapse of local governance and service delivery."
He said the "failures under Makhura and the ANC in this province have a real and human impact".
"These are not simply governance failures that have allowed corruption to thrive. These are human lives which have been destroyed by an uncaring ANC government. It has been two years since the country and the world at large was shocked by the killing of 148 psychiatric patients through the Life Esidimeni scandal. If there was ever an example of government that is killing the very people it is meant to serve, it is the Life Esidimeni matter," said Msimanga.
The outgoing mayor thanked the people of Tshwane for entrusting him with the responsibility of bettering their lives.
"The progress we have made in the city will be emulated across the province. It is possible to bring real change to Gauteng, and the power to do so lies in the hands of every voter in Gauteng," said Msimanga.