Premier Supra’s speech incites violence against foreigners

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West said in a statement they are concerned by the language of the North West Premier, Supra Mahumapelo, in his speech to the official opening of the provincial house of Traditional Leadership in Mahikeng on 17 March 2015.

The DA said “in a province where xenophobic violence is brimming just below the surface, the Premier stated: “You would realise that the tuck shops for instance have been leased to foreign nationals, so one of the things we want to attack, working with the traditional leaders is that people must get back their shops.”

“This speech was an attempt to develop the economy of the province through his ‘village development plan’.It is unclear exactly how the village can be developed, when the very idea behind his speech is designed to tear the communities apart by igniting violence and hatred towards foreign nationals.If the Premier had a real and viable plan to develop the village, it would include all of those who live and work in it. It would not mean taking away the small businesses operating there from the current managers and owners. Premier Supra Mahumapelo’s record in creating jobs and an environment conducive to Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMME’s) has failed. Over 1 million people in the province are without work already and he plans to centralise the tuck shop operation by building four warehouses to distribute stock, with a R200 million guarantee by his government in partnership with the African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc). The Premier must come forward and tell us who will fill these warehouses, whether the contracts have already being allocated and to whom. The DA will monitor who the suppliers will be and demand transparency in the procurement process. The DA believes that through good governance, a sound business infrastructure would allow SMME’s to develop organically and not be tied down to a centralised distribution, controlled by the provincial government, where certain members of the community are unfairly excluded. Premier Supra is fear- mongering to cover the fact that he does not have a real plan to help SMMEs and create jobs for the people of North West”, the DA said.