On Wednesday last week I attended a function hosted by the Embassy of the USA in Pretoria. My purpose there was to promote the Free State among diplomats in attendance. At this function the representative of the South African government praised the USA for their support, trade and investment in South Africa.

This totally contradicts the reported comments made by Honourable Mashinini at the ANC Lokgotla that accused the USA of imperialism. He is reported to have indicated that he would prefer stronger ties with a failed state like Venezuela, and an impoverished state such as Cuba. It appears that Honourable Mashinini thinks that Cuba’s 15% of people living in extreme poverty, 27% of people living on under $50 a month and 34% between $50 and $100 dollars a month, or Venezuela’s 2 million percent inflation rate and 90% poverty with an average $6,7 monthly income per person is preferable to more modern economies.

The situations in both Venezuela and Cuba are due to the ideological trap that their leaders have placed them in, which always ends up in the shackles of poverty.

It is this type of ideological thinking that keeps our people trapped in a web of poverty and unemployment.
 
My advice to the ANC-run government in the Free State is to remove their ideological blinkers.

We are in a new global digital world. A world full of opportunities for our people. We know that 65% of primary school children will one day work in a job that does not exist yet. Technology has endless opportunities for our province in the future. We can open up these opportunities for our people, especially our youth, or we can continue to keep them ignorant by misleading them with lies that failed nations whose people live in poverty are victims of some sort of international conspiracy and not because of decisions made by self-serving politicians.
 
Allow me educate the ANC, the new world of technology and artificial intelligence will not wait for nations of people who continue to believe the lies of local politicians whose political survival is anchored on the ignorance of brainwashed voters. The new global order is not even run by individual states, but too a large degree by non-state actors.
 
While the world evolves into a world of artificial intelligence and greater global consciousness, the ANC, and those who support and vote with the belief that they should govern forever will remain chained to a world of limited consciousness and restricted intelligence. In short a world where they will remain, to combine Maslow with Darwin, at the bottom of the global economic food chain in a perpetual struggle for the resources required for basic biological survival.
 
A Statistics South Africa survey indicated that in 2016, 220 863 households in the Free State reported that they had ran out of money in the last 12 months before the survey was conducted and 15,7% of households in the Free State missed a meal over the same period. Social grant beneficiaries already account for over one million of our 2,8 million population.
 
We understand the value of grants, but we must acknowledge that they pose a long term danger of entrenching dependency on government. A grant can never be accepted as a permanent replacement for the dignity of a real job. Instead government should focus their resources towards the creation of an enabling environment to supplement social grant schemes.
 
The DESTEA receives R630,925 million for the 2019/2020 financial year that includes R117,775 for the Free State Gambling, Liquor and Tourism Authority and R47,516 million for the Free State Development Corporation. The AG’s reports remain an area of concern for the Department, but especially the entities reporting to it. Both entities are subject to criminal investigations. The words of the AG regarding the FSGLTA that states that “The leadership of the entity did not demonstrate commitment to integrity and ethical values”. Regarding the FDC, the AG indicates that there is a “Lack of adequate understanding and application of the relevant laws and regulations applicable to supply chain management”.
 
Institutions and entities in the Free State that are responsible for both tourism and marketing of the province as an investment destination must be restructured and streamlined towards this common purpose. For this reason, the DA proposes the establishment of a Free State Economic Development Agency (FSEDA). Such an agency will cut red-tape for investors and merge national and international investment initiatives and promotion in trade, investment and tourism into a single entity. The FSEDA should have a small staff component with support from the provincial government through a process of incentivised targets linked to time frames in terms of investment into the province.
 
International precedent shows that economic development strategies are best implemented by an agency and people who have real business expertise. It is also essential to ensure value for money in our spending on economic development and proper integration between the various role-players in executing economic development strategy. The FSEDA could be mandated to manage the following:
 
Co-ordination of destination marketing for major events and tourism.
Investment and trade promotion.
Enterprise development.
Local economic development co-ordination.
Skills development as a participant in a provincial skills development forum.
Co-ordinating support and liaison between various role players in government, business and education within the various sectors of the provincial economy.
Reducing bureaucratic red-tape for investors.
Linking skills with opportunities.
Our schools will have to adapt curricula to accommodate entrepreneurship if the country is to become competitive in the near future. The Free State must create opportunities for individuals to become entrepreneurs and informal entrepreneurs to enter the formal economy. The FSEDA could play a meaningful role in facilitating training and funding to allow innovation to be transformed into opportunities. Entrepreneurial potential must be supported across the Free State. The successes of this sector could be enhanced and encouraged through regulation at both local and provincial government levels, as well as through training and other support to allow these entrepreneurs to enter the formal economy.
 
The DA further believes that the mandate of the Free State Development Corporation and the Free State Liquor, Gambling and Tourism Authority should be restructured to ensure greater streamlining and value for money.
 
The Free State has a range of eco-tourism potential, a rich history, cultural diversity, and a potentially sound entertainment and conference industry.
 
The province has well established and branded existing tourism areas such as Golden Gate, Clarens, Gariep Dam and Parys that contribute to this sector. There is, however, much more potential in terms of sport, cultural experiences, historic sites, and architectural beauty that could be harnessed to attract more foreign tourists. Certain experiences, such as the World Heritage Vredefort Dome, should be established and marketed to attract both foreign and local tourism. Research could indicate specific preferences of different groups, ages or genders of individuals in terms of tourism. Marketing for tourism should be targeted directly and aggressively at the potential market.
 
Currently our local governments are not tourism friendly and many tourists are put off by dirty streets, crime, and by poor municipal services and infrastructure. Tourism entrepreneurship should be encouraged and supported and become an integral part of municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDP’s).
 
The DA believes that the province should be divided in priority (job) zones that could be prioritized for government support. Such zones could include manufacturing, tourism, bio-fuels, petro-chemical, financial and administrative, and various forms of agricultural production and processing.
 
The manufacturing sector has an infrastructure that is greatly under-utilised. Qwaqwa, Thaba Nchu and Botshabelo have a number of factories that have become redundant. These areas also have the largest concentrations of unemployed people in the province. This infrastructure could be revived to re-ignite this sector of the provincial economy. Our province will have to become competitive by providing incentives for investment in this sector, specifically in these areas. The province can negotiate with municipalities using national grants and potential foreign investment to provide a number of competitive incentives for investors in the manufacturing industry. Provision of a secure environment, a sound infrastructure, and financial incentives such as reduced rates and taxes and service fees based on the size of the investment and numbers of jobs created could be a huge economic injection in these areas and create much needed employment. The costs to local governments will be recouped through the financial injection into other industries and through the increase in numbers of people able to pay for services.
 
The declining mining sector in the Free State has greatly contributed to unemployment and much rehabilitation still has to be carried out, especially in Matjhabeng. The mining sector in the Free State has experienced a substantial decline in terms of employment due to the costs involved with extracting minerals in existing mines that are becoming depleted and require deeper, financially unviable shafts. During her 2018 provincial budget speech the former MEC for Finance Elsabe Rockman shared our concern that in 1995, gold mining in South Africa employed 380 000 people which dropped to 118 000 in 2014. The decline in the mining sector has serious economic implications for municipalities such as Masilonyana and Matjhabeng.
 
The province can use the current mining infrastructure for other industries and tourism. Infrastructure used by mines can be used for new businesses such as agri-processing and old mine shafts can be used to simulate mining experiences for tourists. Matjhabeng has the potential to become a hub for engineering products and skills for mining and excavation in other parts of the country and in other parts of Africa.
 
Currently illegal miners, many of whom are foreigners, are a major source crime in the province. This has to be addressed. Law enforcement agencies will have to be deployed to clean up the areas that are currently dens of crimes that range from illegal mining, murder kidnapping, rape, and prostitution. The rehabilitation of non-functional mines will have to be sped up in conjunction with those responsible.
 
In closing, I would like to reiterate that the DA will continue to support that which works and promote viable and tested alternatives for that which has failed, or is failing our people in the Free State.