Cape Town - The African National Congress (ANC) leadership in the Western Cape were united and set to “uproot the DA” in the City of Cape Town, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday, as he hit the campaign trail in the Mother City with, among others, provincial chairman Marius Fransman.
Fransman appears to be back in his job following his suspension when sexual harassment allegations against him surfaced earlier in the year.
Fransman, provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs, and ANC mayoral candidate for the Mother City Xolani Sotashe accompanied Zuma to various townships.
While disunity within provincial party structures had played itself out in the media over the past few months, with Fransman calling Jacobs’ return to work after he was found guilty of assaulting a colleague by the ANC disciplinary committee, a “laughable political joke” and bemoaning “factionalism and inconsistency” within the ruling party, Zuma on Thursday insisted there was unity in the province.
“I’m very happy. I found today more than any other time that the leadership here is very united and they are working together in harmony,” Zuma said during his door-to-door campaign stops in Khayelitsha’s ward 87.
Zuma said while the ANC had dropped many votes in the last municipal elections in 2011, the party had worked hard to regain lost ground, adding that residents of Khayelitsha and Philippi whom he visited on Thursday, were not happy with the Democratic Alliance (DA) rule in the city.
“All of them are saying the DA has failed them here in this area (Khayelitsha). They are very clear that the DA concentrates on the areas of the rich people, not them,” the president said.
“I’m more confident that this metro can be taken over by the ANC.”
Thousands had gathered in both Philippi and Khayelitsha to hear Zuma speak at impromptu community meetings.
In Siyahlala, Philippi, Zuma visited the homes of two residents and listened as they related the stories of their hardships living in the informal settlement.
Zuma made himself at home in 50-year-old Nomonde Maxegwana’s tiny shack, sitting on her couch as she stood and told him of her struggles. Maxegwana has been living in Cape Town for 40 years and has yet to move off the housing waiting list and into a brick house. She lives in the two roomed shack with her four children, one of whom matriculated five years ago and was still struggling to find a job.
Zuma told Maxegwana her troubles were as a result of the DA controlling the province and the city. He asked her to use her vote to help the ANC wrest control of the city from the DA in the upcoming local government elections.
Later, as Zuma sat in his heavily guarded vehicle waiting to address residents from an ANC branded truck, a group of men who had climbed onto a shack to get a better view fell through the roof of the corrugated iron structure. Luckily there were no injuries as the men laughed and waved at fellow residents while climbing out of the shack.
Residents cheered as Zuma told them their struggles were as a result of colonialism and the fact that there were two cities in Cape Town – the city of the rich and the city of the poor. He asked residents to vote for the ruling party and it’s mayoral candidate, Xolani Sotashe.
African News Agency