Cape Town - Premier Helen Zille has asked President Jacob Zuma to condemn the ANC Youth League’s public pronouncements to make the city and province ungovernable.
Zille also announced on Wednesday that the provincial cabinet had directed the State Security Agency (SSA) and the police to investigate the recent violent “service delivery protests” in the Western Cape.
Speaking in her capacity as DA leader, Zille held a press briefing in Parliament on “the seditious threats of prominent members of the Western Cape ANC Youth League”. She was flanked by Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille.
Zille said she had written to Zuma. “My letter to the president follows direct threats by the ANCYL… and the subsequent sustained and co-ordinated campaign over the last two weeks,” Zille said.
“This is not the first time we have written to president Zuma… we have been warning the president for over two years that the league has spun dangerously out of control, and that he should act to defend the constitutional order and uphold the outcome of a democratic election in the Western Cape.”
Zille said Zuma had not responded.
“If the DA Youth league were acting like that I would not keep quiet. The president is absolutely silent,” she said.
“All we have heard from the ANC in [Parliament] is justification for the ungovernability campaign. I am not going to take this lying down.”
Zille said Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele and the provincial director of public prosecutions advocate Rodney de Kock had declined to investigate previous complaints in the face “of prima facie evidence”.
On Tuesday, the deputy provincial commissioner Major-General Peter Jacobs told the Western Cape standing committee on community safety that there was no evidence that the ANCYL was behind recent protests.
Asked about this, Zille said the police’s investigation was in its infancy. De Lille said all evidence had been handed to the police.
“We have given video tapes and written threats to the police and it is now up to them to investigate, identify the individuals responsible, lay the appropriate charges and ensure cases succeed in court,” De Lille said. “It is not up to the provincial government to do this.”
Zille called the evidence devastating and damning. “When a person goes to the police and says they have been raped, the police do not say ‘prove it’, they investigate.”
Asked if the protests were not service delivery protests, De Lille said they were “organised illegal ANC demonstrations with the express purpose to destroy property”.
“If people are allowed to break laws, the country is on a slippery road.”
Zille added that the protests “actually destroy services”.
“People have legitimate grievances and we are working to spend budget to deliver. The challenge is delivering to everyone… sometimes expectations far outstrip what the government can provide. We have a massively redistributive budget towards the poor. Every year we spend R1 billion on free water, free electricity, free waste removal for poorer areas. We have preferential funding of poorer schools and hospitals,” she added.
Asked if she would meet with the ANCYL, Zille said she would if and when they saw reason.
“I have said before that if the ANCYL is reasonable, they will get a reasonable response. It is not my job to make the ANCYL see reason. If president Zuma abrogates responsibility, it is not for me to pick it up. If the police and SSA fail [to act] it is not for me to pick up the baton,” she said.
In response to the DA’s statements, ANC parliamentary spokesman Moloto Mothapo tweeted on Wednesday: “Some media might buy DA propaganda that poor service delivery in Cape townships is figment of ANCYL’s imagination, but the poor on the ground won’t”.
Earlier on Tuesday, he said the DA’s reaction to the protests had a “strong whiff of ‘swart gevaar’ message of apartheid government when faced with resistance”.
The Cape Argus was unable to reach presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj and ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu after several attempts on Wednesday night.
Timeline of protests sweeping the Cape
The DA provided a timeline it claimed showed the ANC and ANCYL’s “ungovernability campaign” in Cape Town and the Western Cape since 2010.
Zille said the campaign started in March 2010 with former ANCYL president Julius Malema’s “Dubula ibhunu” hate speech case. Then it continued with the Makhaza toilet saga in 2010 and the Tafelsig land invasions in May 2011.
* 2012: Zille said there were threats to make DA councils ungovernable through a campaign allegedly led by ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman called “Project Reclaim”.
* February 6: Affidavits were filed by DA councillors at Caledon Police Station detailing “bribery attempts” by an ANC task team in Theewaterskloof municipality to make DA councillors change parties and support the ANC
* March 5: Violent protests took place in Grabouw over the lack of facilities and overcrowding at Umyezo Wama Apile Combined School.
* March 12: Protests begin in Villiersdorp.
* March 30: SSA domestic branch provincial manager CM Mavata declines a request to investigate “the ANC’s illegal and unconstitutional project reclaim”.
Zille writes to Security minister Siyabonga Cwele and receives no response.
* July 27: Ungovernability campaign starts with a march and memorandum handover to the premier’s office. The memorandum was issued by the Dullar Omar ANCYL region “threatening to make city and province ungovernable”.
* July 30: Violent protest at Sweet Home farms early in the morning.
* August 1: Criminal charges laid by Zille and De Lille against ANCYL
* August 2: protests in Lwandle in Strand and Khayelitsha. Ward 90 councillor Luvuyo Hebe arrested for public violence along with 1 000 residents
* August 3: Golden Arrow bus stoned causing it to crash into six shacks in Khayelitsha. Driver killed, five people injured.
* August 5: R50 000 reward announced by Zille and De Lille for information on Golden Arrow bus stoning.
* August 7: De Lille meeting at OR Tambo Hall disrupted.
* August 10: Sections of N2 blocked near Nyanga and 62 people arrested.
* August 12: Mayor prevented by ANC and Sanco from addressing Sir Lowry’s Pass community
Municipal IQ states ANC behind service delivery protests in the province and City Press reports rival ANC factions in other provinces causing protests.
* August 12 to 13: Protests in Khayelitsha and Philippi.
* August 14: ANCYL Dullar Omar regional secretary says that some disgruntled league members might be involved in the violent service delivery protests.
* August 15: DA MP Debbie Schafer asks ANC in National Assembly whether they support league’s statements. No repudiation from ANC. - Source: DA
Cape Argus