Port Elizabeth - The African National Congress has “lost track of what it means to defend the Constitution”, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said on Friday.
Maimane was speaking at a public meeting at the Chatty Community Hall in Port Elizabeth's northern areas - a DA stronghold. He was accompanied by Western Cape premier Helen Zille and DA Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral candidate Athol Trollip.
Addressing a packed hall, Maimane was scathing about President Jacob Zuma and the matter involving Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.
“Bashir murdered 300 000 Africans; that our government feels that that person must be protected when he comes to South Africa, is something that tells me that the ANC has lost track of what it means to defend the Constitution. [The Bashir case] went to the Supreme Court of Appeal and lost there and now they want to use taxpayers' money and go lose at the Constitutional Court,” said Maimane.
He also referred to a motion of impeachment in which the DA sought to have Zuma removed from office.
The ANC used its parliamentary majority to defeat the motion.
Maimane said that the people “protecting” Zuma did not respect the Constitution and the “ANC skeletons” were going to come out. “They can kick us out of Parliament, they can fight against us, they can break the laws, but what they cannot break is the spirit that lives in us, that says we will fight for this freedom for it is the only thing we have left, and if Jacob Zuma wants to destroy it we will fight him as well as his ANC. I will say if you want freedom we must vote for the DA... for if the DA does not succeed in Nelson Mandela Bay, Nelson Mandela Bay will not succeed,” he said.
Zuma “only wanted freedom for some” and government tenders were granted only to “ANC-connected people”.
“That is corruption... what worries me the most is that he [Zuma] is stealing our Constitution... we want to say to Zuma that freedom does not belong to some. It must belong to all of us, otherwise it's not freedom.”
Maimane further lambasted government for handing out food parcels when Zuma attended an official Operation Phakisa update event on Friday.
“The president came here to say its Operation Phakisa, but instead he brought food parcels to the people. The ANC think that people must only eat every five years. We are here to tell them there is nothing wrong with the food parcels, bring them, we are not going to buy votes with food parcels, we are going to eat them and then vote for Athol Trollip.”
Zille also called for voters to support Trollip in the August 3 local government elections.
“The most important job I ever did was to be in local government when I was a mayor 10 years ago... in Cape Town the city has grown by 45 percent in 15 years - I don't say that to boast, we want everyone to be number one,” she said.
Zille was scathing about Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Danny Jordaan, and highlighted the questions around Jordaan's alleged involvement in the Fifa 2010 World Cup scandal.
“It was a bribe; Jordaan was a big man at Safa [SA Football Association]... what happened to the money? Why does he deserve to be mayor when he has a big cloud hanging over his head?” she asked.
African News Agency