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The Democratic Alliance (DA) cautiously welcomes the announcement by Cabinet that the North West Provincial Health Department will be placed under national administration. While this is a small step towards rebuilding what has been broken by years of corruption, maladministration and neglect under the ANC and Premier Supra Mahumapelo, it is not enough.

Previously The Department of Health was placed under the administration of the Provincial Treasury. MEC Wendy Nelson and her department should be co-accountable for the mess in this department as Treasury was responsible for the budget, pay-outs and financial management.

The surest way to get the North West working in the short-term is for Mahumapelo to be removed from office, either through his resignation or ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa recalling the man who destroyed the North West and has lost the confidence of the people.

Ramaphosa and the ANC have been fiddling while protests flare up across the province. By not recalling Mahumapelo, Ramaphosa has shown that his new dawn is nothing more than a PR gimmick and that he will place the ANC before the people who have emphatically stated that Mahumapelo is the problem and must, therefore, be removed.

The province can no longer sustain the chaos and disorder, devastation and collapse of services due to anti-Surpa. Ramaphosa and the ANC are not interested in building the North West and restoring order, they are only interested in sustaining the political careers; all at the expense of the people who are calling for change.

Ultimately, total change will only come through the ballot box because the ANC and Ramaphosa cannot be trusted to do what is right. The people of the North West deserve a government that will always put them first; that government is one led by the DA.

Issued by DA