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- You've met President Cyril Ramaphosa's Tintswalo when he tabled his State of the Nation Address.
- Now the KwaZulu-Natal premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube has introduced Enzo, whom the provincial leader said benefits from grants and ANC policies.
- Dube-Ncube delivered the State of the Province Address (SOPA) on Wednesday.
It is the ANC government that has made significant progress and positively impacted the lives of the poor, and not the work of the holy spirit, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said.
She was delivering her State of the Province Address (SOPA) which heavily parroted president Cyril Ramaphosa's message from the ANC manifesto launch at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban last week.
Dignitaries included King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini, his prime minister Thulasizwe Buthelezi, and former premiers Willies Mchunu, Zweli Mkhize and Sbu Ndebele.
For Dube-Ncube's second SOPA, the KwaZulu-Natal government rolled out all the pomp and ceremony, which included red carpets for dignitaries, chairs and tables covered in white linen, gold and red railings, and plants lined up by the entrance of the Oval cricket stadium in Pietermaritzburg.
One man, clad in blue-collar workwear, swept the red carpet minutes before the politicians emerged from a special sitting.
READ | Election manifesto: ANC vows to create 2.5 million 'work opportunities' over next five years
As he diligently swept the carpets, cops were telling journalists to keep a distance from the main entrance and completely away from the terrace next to the red carpet.
The road surrounding the precinct was less glamorous: crater-like potholes and lumpy bumps on all the roads around the stadium.
One couldn't miss the heavy police presence. There was a brief stand-off between a TV journalist and SAPS over media positioning by the entrance.
Among Dube-Ncube's main talking points were social grants, a bold promise of KwaZulu-Natal's sole mission to assist in eradicating load shedding nationally, and taming the ballooning unemployment crisis.
She said KwaZulu-Natal has the most number of child grants - at just under three million - across the country.
"What this means is that despite all the challenges in our economy, the democratic government has provided a safety net for the poor and vulnerable individuals and households," Dube-Ncube said.
She added:
While Ramaphosa used an analogy about a young person named Tintswalo to highlight the ruling party's previous successes, in her own spin-off, Dube-Ncube introduced an Enzo, whom she later referred to as Tintswalo.
"Enzo starts being fed by the government when she's still in the mother's womb," she said, using a reference of a mother whose child stands to receive grants as soon as they're born.
"When Tintswalo [Enzo] comes out, he's given a certificate before they leave the hospital. Then Tintswalo gets grants," Dube-Ncube said.
She said this would not have been possible without the breakthrough of 1994, and that all the business development didn't happen in the province because of "the holy spirit", but because of the work of the ANC.
READ | King Misuzulu gives a 'royal order' for an end to political killings in KZN
She said it was important for grant beneficiaries to still become active in the economy by getting jobs, baking and participating in government projects that will benefit them.
She also said there was a need to communicate with spaza shops to assist in the disbursement of grants.
Job creation
Dube-Ncube said the province had been able to create 60 000 jobs through the S'thesha Waya Waya programme.
She also promised that 60 businesses would be receiving funding of R90 million, and that young people who had applied under the youth fund would receive "Dunlop garages".
"I wish to assure young people that the fund will continue to exist in order to benefit the people of KwaZulu-Natal," she said.
Opposition parties said Dube-Ncube's speech parroted Ramaphosa's manifesto and was "out of touch" with KwaZulu-Natal realities.
DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers said the speech was tantamount to electioneering.
ActionSA provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango said the speech lacked substance on how a lot of the province's issues would be addressed.
