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Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s visit to the Free State is nothing more than a self-serving PR exercise designed to distract from his own scandals and the ANC’s decades-long destruction of the province.

This is the same Deputy President who was this week found guilty by Parliament’s Joint Ethics Committee for failing to declare a diamond gifted to his wife by alleged fraudster Louis Liebenberg, and who also failed to disclose ownership of a R28.9 million Constantia mansion for more than two years. His personal record of secrecy, ethical breaches, and unanswered questions about gifts and benefactors disqualifies him from pretending to be a champion of clean governance.

The Free State has been gutted by ANC cadres whose greed, corruption, and incompetence have collapsed service delivery. It does not need another cadre flying in to inspect the devastation they helped create, without consequence, without solutions, and without shame.

Mashatile’s so-called “Clean Cities and Towns Campaign” would be laughable if it weren’t so insulting. Free State municipalities are among the worst offenders in the country when it comes to environmental pollution and service delivery collapse. This was confirmed by the South African Human Rights Commission’s damning report last year, which labelled the situation a human rights crisis. To date, nothing has been done to address the problems or hold the guilty cadres accountable.

The result? The Free State now has the lowest life expectancy in South Africa, namely 57,3 years for men and 64,2 years for women, and a staggering poverty rate of 62%.

This is the real legacy of ANC rule.

Mashatile’s previous “interventions” in the province, such as his hollow promises after the Jagersfontein tailings dam disaster to improve services and provide debt relief, amounted to nothing more than electioneering lip service.

The people of the Free State do not need a Deputy President embroiled in corruption allegations and ethics breaches using them as a backdrop for personal PR. They need honest, accountable leadership that will only come when they remove the ANC’s corrupt and self-serving cadres at the ballot box.

Issued by Roy Jankielsohn - DA Free State Leader