State of the province address – What Free Staters expect

The premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule, will be delivering the State of the Province Address on Thursday next week. 

It is expected that the premier will address a wide range of topics, ranging from social to political and economic issues. As usual, the speech is keenly anticipated by the Free State population, which has a diversity of expectations from the provincial government.

The Weekly went out on the streets of the province’s capital, Bloemfontein, to find out their expectations and this is what they had to say:

Thandeka Louw“I would do anything to get a job now and I want to work for government in the future. I am still at home after finishing my high school, because I do not have money to study further. I hope our premier continues to do more than he is doing presently and provides us with more bursaries.”

Tlalane Ratela “Education must continue to be prioritised as an important tool to empower young people. I have been unemployed for seven years since I finished my grade 12. I wanted to study further but I could not, because I had no money to pay for my school fees.

“I am not the only one; many young people are still at home doing nothing. We have information of where to go to apply for bursaries but few of us get that privilege of financial back-up.
“However, I finally got a bursary this year from the department of education and I now know how it feels to get an education you need. I am studying financial management N4 at the Motheo FET College.”

Georgina Bosiu “I am studying marketing at a private college. However, my concern is that these colleges are not backed by government; therefore it’s difficult for us to get bursaries. If the government can form partnerships with these colleges, it will help young people who we study with here to get bursaries. We choose to go to these colleges because we cannot afford to study at other institutions.”

Vuyisile Tafane “I am bothered by the high rate of crime in the province and in the country. My solution, especially for crimes against women and children is for the death penalty to be brought back. We have been talking about this problem for a long time now.

“Look at an incident where a woman and her daughter were raped and killed in their home. This is a serious crime that cannot be solved with jail. The perpetrators must be eliminated from the society. They have proved that they are heartless, so they do not deserve to be among other human beings anywhere. I know the premier cannot change the constitution on his own but he can influence the change. We must do something about high prevalence of crime in our society.”

Musa Sithole “I spoke to some people who have lived in my neighbourhood longer than me. I discovered that this area has been in existence more than 15 years now, but we still do not have proper roads and toilets.
“If our premier can find a way to help us with basic services, we will be very happy. The other important thing for me as an artist is the transformation of the department of sport and culture, to ensure that artists especially in Mangaung benefit from events such as Macufe.”

Rethabile Moabi“All I want is to get an education. I am from Lesotho but I have been in South Africa for over five years now. My father works here and all I need is to further my studies. There is no decent life without education and we are here because we believe Free State can offer us all of that.”