A commotion broke out at the second 2024 Namakwa Political Debate in the Pofadder community, the African National Congress (ANC) supporters in Khai-Ma Municipality took the response of the Namakwa Civic Movement (NCM) as an insult.
This follows a Patriotic Alliance (PA) concern about a promised 100% bursary for the 2023 matriculants by Vedanta Zinc International, but they are currently at home “Why are the future leaders failed by the incompetent local community leaders”, reasoning that councilors and the Mayor lack to advocate for them.
Donne-lee Jano of NCM responded that their parents failed them in voting for the wrong parties.
Radio NFM held a second Namakwa Political Debate in the Pofadder community hall on April 25. Community members attended in numbers and did not shy away from expressing their views.
Loyalty can be rendered and entrusted in a rock, as supporters hyped what was aligned with their beliefs and disruptions occurred during presentations from the political supporters to what they perceived to be out of line.
HEALTH:
Ryno Van Wyk of PA alluded that they will fight the matter of having a medical emergency call centre in Upington. This follows the Namakwa community’s calls to have personnel who can comprehend the geography of the locations.
DA says that corruption has occupied the space for the provincial department to have any ability to do the necessities. “There is a lack of short medical personnel, medicine, and other administrative personnel”. They as the party commit to deliver the necessary needs to the people.
TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY:
DA says the local governance needs people in government who are educated and driven to administrate work ethically and professionally. In the belief that they can be empathetic without the need to be greedy disadvantaging the communities they serve.
NCM promises to evolve community members to policy-making and ensure that their voices are heard. “We will conduct public participation and consultation, which will be followed by feedback for the sake of doing any amendments should they not be pleased”.
J.F. Basson ANC says they do not like giving false hope to the people. Basson says what the NCM promises is already in existence, the only hope is in a matter of entrusted community committees as they are at the ground to know what is lacking and what could be the practical solution.
Alexander Beukers of Organic Humanity Movement (OHM) says they will have researchers on the ground to have a better understanding of what is lacking mostly how can they practically try to change communities at what timeframe.
POLICY:
PA criticized the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill directing to the ANC “It is the shame that the bill allows a 12year-old to be allowed to get pregnant”.
The bill National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Select Committee has recently amended the BELA Bill by removing the power of the head of the Department to regulate the language policy and proposed the School Governing Body (SGB) to authority to determine the policy.
EMPLOYMENT:
With conundrum expressions, community members disputed remarks made by Basson that the ANC created 2.5 million jobs from different sectors and they are yet to create 2 million. “In the Khai-Ma municipality, we going to create jobs from the mining, agriculture, and construction sector”.
According to the results of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) last year, the youth remain vulnerable in the labour market, the third quarter of 2023 results showed that the total number of unemployed youth (15–34 years) decreased by 174 000 to 4,6 million while there was an increase of 237 000 in the number of employed youth to 6,0 million. This resulted in a decrease in the youth unemployment rate by 1,9 percentage points from 45,3% in Q2-2023 to 43,4% in Q3-2023.
