Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has joined the chorus in condemning the pandemonium and mayhem that played itself out in Gauteng and KZN yesterday. In a statement the premier mentioned that “We commend the ordinary people of our province for refusing to emulate in our province, the violent conduct of looting businesses and destroying public and private infrastructure that we see in our sister provinces of Gauteng and KZN. We are inspired by the campaigns that are led by ordinary people on social media to discourage each other from participating in acts of criminality, and in our communities to protect their towns from any potential attacks by anarchists.”
Luthando Bara speaking on behalf of the Black Business Forum explained that the destruction of infrastructure does not bode well with our vision of building an Eastern Cape that people can live and work in. “We have a huge problem with youth unemployment and ailing infrastructure, participating in this grotesque and senseless act of violence will further set us back as the Eastern Cape.”
Bara who is president of the Black Business Forum called on government to unlock the potential of the SMME sector to create jobs for young people and address issues affecting business in the province including red tape and late payment of suppliers with a burning sense of urgency.
“We have an opportunity to have a meaningful dialogue as business, government and civil society about an Eastern Cape of our imagination. A province brimful with opportunities and untapped potential. Now is the time to have that conversation that will focus on rebooting the economy of our province” added Bara.
The premier pleaded with citizens not to partake in the senseless acts of violence because
“We are in the phase of building the Eastern Cape we want, not of destroying the Eastern Cape we have. Let us all protect the future our children.
As it is, our province is battling with huge challenges of socio-economic infrastructure underdevelopment. Many of our brothers and sisters were forced to look for work in other provinces and that does not sit well with us. We cannot afford to shoot ourselves on the foot, by destroying the infrastructure we have, as it is a catalyst for jobs.”
The premier cautioned that the province was making inroads “to develop key infrastructure such as roads, ports and building new factories, particularly in COEGA SEZ and EL SEZ to make our province attractive to investors. Violent, anarchic protests will be a turn off to potential new investors. It is in the interest of every person in our province to protect the investments we have and to build on them to create new jobs for our unemployed people.”
He was not oblivious to the growing challenges faced with people of the Eastern Cape as he noted “We have a challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality which affects mainly people in townships and rural areas. Over the past few years, government, in partnership with the private sector has worked hard to re-build the economy of our province to create jobs for our people. Most of the investments we have gained in our province are in the retail space, in the form of shopping malls and state of the art taxi ranks, in places where there were none before.”
