Durban - The ruling African National Congress was dividing the country along racial lines while failing to provide housing to all the country’s citizens, the Democratic Alliance claimed at a Freedom Day rally held in Durban.
Addressing about 1 500 residents and DA supporters in the Welbedacht settlement of Durban’s Chatsworth area, the Western Cape’s MEC for human settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela, said: “What makes me very sad is that there are people living in shacks today. What we have witnessed is a patronage system, where people get housing because they belong to a particular party. That saddens me.”
Madikizela, who said he had lived in Welbedacht in the late 1980s, said that in the Western Cape, unlike in KwaZulu-Natal, there were proper waiting lists for housing and people knew where they were on that list.
“People [in KwaZulu-Natal] do not know where they are on the waiting list.”
Madikizela said the ANC was dividing the country along racial lines.
“People often say the DA is a white party. I am not white.” He pointed out that both the party’s mayoral candidate for Durban, Haniff Hoosen, and its provincial leader, Zwakele Mncwango, were not white.
He also took a dig at claims that the DA was full of former National Party members.
“The ANC must not be hypocritical. It has National Party members as well. The last leader of the National Party (Martinus van Schalkwyk) went with many members to the ANC. ” He further pointed out that the current deputy sports minister Gert Oosthuizen was also a former member of the National Party.
Madikizela said that the DA was proud that people from all walks of life and parties had joined it to improve the country.
“We have leaders in the ruling party defending corruption.”
He said that the R246 million price tag of the renovations to Zuma’s residence in Nkandla would have solved all the housing issues in Nkandla.
“Zuma and the ANC have reached their sell by date,” he said.
– African News Agency