Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape is fuming after Premier Helen Zille snubbed ANC supporters who marched to the provincial legislature to highlight the party’s “Stop Racism, Build Non-racialism” campaign.
The party claimed the premier treated them with contempt by sending a junior staffer to accept their grievances.
“She thinks racism is not an important issue and is keeping her head in the sand,” ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said. He claimed that Zille had agreed to receive their memorandum but instead sent a junior staffer.
But Zille’s spokesman, Michael Mpofu rubbished the claim.
“When we received notification of the ANC’s march, we immediately wrote back to inform them that the premier would be unavailable due to prior commitments.
“We, however, assured the ANC that we would receive the memorandum on behalf of the premier and bring it to her attention urgently,” he added.
Mpofu said when ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman arrived at the provincial legislature, it was he who refused to hand over the memorandum. “This is nothing new from the ANC in the Western Cape. The race card is the only card left up their sleeves.”
Mjongile said the ANC would now present the memorandum to the premier during the sitting of the provincial Parliament.
“We will give it to the premier in the House, as soon as an opportunity arises. Then we will take the memorandum to her. We are not fighting, we are merely saying these are the issues we are concerned about.”
Mjongile said in the memorandum the ANC stated that they wanted an action plan from the provincial government outlining how they were going to reverse institutionalised racism in the Western Cape taking into account the issues of land, employment and economic opportunities.
Cape Argus