Port Elizabeth - SA Communist Party boss Blade Nzimande wants the ANC and Nelson Mandela Bay municipal leaders to account for a string of service delivery challenges dogging the Eastern Cape metro.
The Higher Education Minister distributed ANC T-shirts as he conducted a door-to-door campaign at the Ekuphumleni informal settlement near New Brighton in Port Elizabeth on Thursday (July28). He was accompanied by Cosatu second deputy president Zingiswa Losi.
Nzimande, who is set to deliver the keynote address at the SACP’s 95th anniversary event in the city on Saturday, spoke with residents, listened to their grievances and told them to vote ANC on the August 3 municipal election.
The issues raised by residents were the same in each shack he visited: deliver of adequate housing, proper sanitation and electricity, all of which were a scarcity in the area.
Resident Nombuyiselo Charlie told Independent Media that their service delivery protests amounted to nothing.
“But we won’t turn our back on the ANC. Our hope is in the ANC. If we leave the ANC the boers will kill us,” she said.
Luthando Mavela told Nzimande that he will vote for the ruling party “as I have always done in the past. But empty promises must end. I always see you on TV but I can tell you now that you won’t be here after August 3”.
Speaking to Independent Media later, Nzimande said: “I’m very happy that I came to door-to-door in this area because it has made us to understand better the nature of the problems. What is disappointing is that there are plans by the municipality and commitments to address this matter. But the manner in which it is being handled by officials, seems to be the problem ... We are going to be raising this very frontal with the leadership of the ANC here and the leadership of the municipality to actually address this problem”.
The SACP general secretary said it was important that the people in the area supported the ANC.
“They are very committed to the ANC, they are saying we are not going to other parties but these problems have to be better managed. I think this must serve as a wake-up call and for us to continue doing hard work.”
Nzimande said people in the metro knew that the ANC was the only political organisation that would listen to their challenges and address them. “The DA is being opportunistic. They know they have no interest for these people at their heart as the organisation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the debate on whether the SACP should contest elections on its own in the future continues.
“One platform that will further discuss that matter is our congress next year but for now we are very focused (on this election).
“Our position as the SACP is that we must retain the ANC through these local government structures, we must win them and control them, but it is crucial that we address the (service delivery) problems at the point at which they arise,” Nzimande said.