Pretoria - “They are behaving like a jilted lover who has lost a girlfriend... They used to treat the government as though it was their blesser,” DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in Pretoria on Monday.
He was speaking at the #BackToThePeople tour in Soshanguve and remarked that members of the previous administration - the ANC - were sore losers.
Maimane said they used public money as though the government was a sugar daddy. “Now they have lost out. We in the DA don’t see the government as (a) blesser of politicians; we say the government is the blesser of the people.”
The rally was also attended by the city's executive mayor Solly Msimanga, who took over from the ANC’s Kgosientso Ramakgopa after the August 3 elections.
Maimane also used the opportunity to address National Prosecuting Authority head advocate Shaun Abrahams on his decision to withdraw charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. “Corruption starts with Shaun Abrahams. He was chosen by Tsotsi Number 1 Jacob Zuma. How can you drop charges that never existed in the first place?”
Maimane said Abrahams thought “public prosecutions” stood for “president protection” and called for Abrahams to resign from his position.
Also in the firing line was new Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who Maimane said was loved by Zuma.
“People were saying ubaba uyamthanda (Zuma loves her). They asked us why we didn’t vote for Mkhwebane and we said we could not vote for someone who was loved by ubaba,” he said.
The ANC had corrupted the NPA and was now corrupting the office of the public protector, he said.
Maimane called on DA supporters to march to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, in support of the party’s case to have former public protector advocate Thuli Madonsela’s state capture report released. The DA wanted a full inquiry into Abrahams, he said.
Part of the agenda for the gathering was for Maimane and Msimanga to thank the residents for voting for the DA during the local government elections and to outline the party’s plan for the 2019 general elections. This will be a nationwide tour of all DA-led municipalities.
During his speech, there was a moment of chaos when a group of people threw rocks and burnt tyres. However, the situation was defused.
With the Road to 2019 campaign, the DA aimed to extend its gains and make inroads into ANC support.
Pretoria News