Eastern Cape a decaying province where no one wants to live, says ATM

The African Transformation Movement (ATM) says the Eastern Cape is the worst province to live in under the ANC.

At least two million people have left Eastern Cape

The party was reacting to the State of the Province Address (SOPA) delivered by Premier Oscar Mabuyane.

The ATM alleges service delivery in the Eastern Cape is so bad that at least two million people had left the province.

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“Statistics show that the Eastern Cape province is imprisoned by poverty. It is estimated that more than 60% of the province’s population lives in poverty. That is six out of 10 who are living in poverty,” the party said.

According to the ATM the Eastern Cape is the poorest province in South Africa and has the highest unemployment rate in the country.

“Over 2 million people have left the EC yet it remains poor,” the ATM said in a statement.

“EC Province GDP standing has moved from number 4 in 2019 to number 6 in 2024,” the party said.

The ATM said it saw no immediate hope of fixing Eastern Cape roads as backlog costs reached R151 billion.

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“Irregular and fruitless expenditure of EC municipalities under the ANC government, is at an unbelievable amount of R10.6 billion.” the party said.

The ATM alleged all municipalities in the province were below the norm of 95% collection rate.

“This indicates poor revenue collection and non-implementation of revenue enhancement strategies resulting in most municipalities to be grant dependent.” The party said.

The party said there is non-implementation of debt management, credit control policies and by-laws as well as a  failure by municipalities to meet their obligations of paying their creditors on time.

Mabuyane’s SOPA was marred by chaos on Thursday, with EFF members being asked to leave the house after violence erupted. Despite this, opposition parties such as the DA said there were no game changing initiatives in Mabuyane’s SOPA.