Johannesburg - The DA in the Western Cape is prioritising issues only for privileged white people, ANC chairwoman Baleka Mbete said on Saturday.
“That sentence that the Western Cape is the best run province is not true,” she told Bekkersdal residents at a rally in the township west of Johannesburg.
“The DA had an opportunity to deal with problems of people. What are the priorities for them are the issues of privileged white people.”
She said black people living in squatter camps and townships in the province were being ignored.
“Black communities are not a priority to the DA,” she said.
Mbete told residents that members of the African National Congress had grown up in townships like them.
“We grew up in townships. These things 1/8issues 3/8 are not far from our own experiences.”
She said governing was a huge responsibility but reassured the crowd that their issues were being dealt with.
“Now we are more hands on. We will engage. We have already started to address those issues.”
On the sidelines, she said the people of Bekkersdal were reasonable people.
“The people of Bekkersdal are like the people everywhere else in South Africa. They are reasonable. They are not stupid or unreasonable.”
She said they just needed reassurances from government.
Those in the crowd were not convinced by the ANC visit.
Vincent Mzuzwana said the ANC was lying.
“No, I don't believe them. They are lying.”
Another resident, identifying himself only as Joseph, said the promises were only being made now because it was election time. He said he has lost faith in government.
Saturday's rally went off without any violence.
ANC veteran Winnie Madikizela-Mandela waved to the large crowd and they cheered.
Wearing black, she waved from the podium.
ANC Gauteng secretary David Makhura said Madikizela-Mandela was unable to address the crowd because she was still in mourning following the death of former president Nelson Mandela.
He also welcomed 53 Economic Freedom Fighters members from Bekkersdal who had rejoined the ANC at the end of March. - Sapa