Durban — Motions on “false promises” made by President Cyril Ramaphosa, concerns over the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) and the blacklisting of doctors found guilty of sexual abuse were recently tabled in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
IFP MPL Poobalan Govender said that more than seven years ago, in September 2015, Ramaphosa addressed South Africans on the power crisis and asked citizens to be patient while “he resolves this problem”.
“Ramaphosa said ‘we are already building power stations and one of them has already gone live and in another 18 months to two years, we will forget that the challenges that we had with relation to power or energy and Eskom ever existed’,” recounted Govender.
The ANC-led government, said Govender, should stop making false promises and prioritise the lives and well-being of the citizens of “our” country.
Govender called for a debate on the power crisis in South Africa in the legislature.
DA MPL Dr Imran Keeka said that while deployed cadres were getting fat from feeding off the corruption trough, learners on the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) were being rationed and recent oversight visits by the DA showed this.
Keeka said there were days on which food was not delivered at all and in some instances rotten and decayed food was delivered.
“The DA holds the view that the NSNP is allegedly used to win elections inside and outside of the ANC by those who control these purse strings,” he said.
Keeka called on Education MEC Mbalenhle Frazer to urgently resolve all issues related to the NSNP corruption, shortages, delays, quality and quantity of food.
IFP MPL Ncamisile Nkwanyana said the Department of Health should blacklist doctors found guilty of sexual misconduct.
She said a doctor was alleged to have raped a 20-year-old patient at the Port Shepstone Hospital on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.
Nkwanyana said the first responsibility of any medical professional was not to do harm and when someone violates that oath they must be held accountable.
“A doctor who abuses their position by sexually assaulting a patient puts the entire health profession into disrepute,” she said.
Nkwanyana called for Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane to present a detailed plan with tangible solutions outlining how she intends to protect patients.
Minority Front leader MPL Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi called for Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube to initiate a framework for the social enterprise spectrum in the province by assessing the commercialisation of NPOs and NGOs and creating a government database to track the funding and social missions of such organisations.
ANC MPL Nomakiki Majola called for a discussion around the substandard management of public libraries and their role in providing access to information, recognised as a human right.
IFP MPL Subramoney Moodley called for a no-nonsense approach towards unroadworthy vehicles, including trucks that pose a great threat to the province’s roads and for traffic police to be deployed 24/7.
Daily News