Heckles and laughs at Cape’s last sitting

140325. Cape Town. Anton Bredell from the Ministry of Environmental affairs and forestry holds up a book by Adriaan Basson called "Zuma Expose" in the Western Cape Legislature. Next to him is Albert Fritz. Picture henk Kruger/Cape Argus

140325. Cape Town. Anton Bredell from the Ministry of Environmental affairs and forestry holds up a book by Adriaan Basson called "Zuma Expose" in the Western Cape Legislature. Next to him is Albert Fritz. Picture henk Kruger/Cape Argus

Published Mar 26, 2014

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In what has probably set the tone for the coming election showdown in the Western Cape, politicians spent the last sitting of this term in the provincial legislature heckling, clowning around and hammering one another about racism, employment equity, service delivery and transparency.

While there some goodbye speeches from members who did not make the cut on their parties’ nomination lists for deployment after the May 7 poll, other MPLs were hellbent on tarnishing the image of their political rivals.

The mudslinging started with Finance MEC Alan Winde saying the ANC could not even get “load-shedding right, because they give the wrong time as to when places are going down”, causing business to lose money.

“Quite frankly, while we are trying to be the best-run regional government in the world, the ANC is trying to become the worst-run government in the world… The ANC is really working really hard at keeping people of this country poor,” he said.

Premier Helen Zille ripped into the ANC for accusing her of cadre deployment and misleading the house about appointments for pals.

She said: “The only politician this year who has misled the house is the one that got up in the national Parliament and said he had taken out a bond to pay for Nkandla and no state money had been used on the private facilities. That is misleading Parliament.”

And DA MPL Mark Wiley called the ANC’s “toilet activists” Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla “economic saboteurs” as he asked the premier if she would make the ANC pay if any damages were incurred in the city during a march scheduled for today.

The ANC’s Mcebisi Skwatsha couldn’t resist fooling around, as he interjected: “Andile Lili, there he is!,” pointing to the public gallery.

Opposition MPs burst out in laughter as DA MECs, MPLs and even Zille looked up to the gallery to check if the recently reinstated ANC member was indeed in the house. He was not.

The premier again ripped into the ANC over Lili and Nkohla’s reinstatement, saying it would not help the ANC in the elections. “All the voters see is that the ANC condones people throwing faeces, causing mayhem and violence in the city, blocking highways and making people late for work.”

Zille said if there were disruptions or violence during the planned march on Wednesday, the DA government would hold the ANC directly responsible.

She would not hesitate to approach the electoral court to have the party disbarred from the elections if it continued with its “ungovernablity campaign”.

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Cape Argus

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