'Occupy streets' call to support the president

Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula

Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula

Published Jan 29, 2017

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Cape Town - The ANC’s Fikile Mbalula has encouraged Capetonians to occupy the streets of Cape Town during the opening of Parliament as a show of support for President Jacob Zuma against his detractors in the National Assembly.

The party’s national executive member and Minister of Sport was speaking to a crowd of about 300 ANC members gathered at the Masibambisane High School for the 105th birthday celebrations in the Dullah Omar region.

“On February 9, the President will deliver the State of the Nation address; we need to go to Cape Town in our numbers,” he said.

“We are going to the people’s assembly to defend the revolution, to remind South Africans that the Struggle is not over.

“We are going to say what Absa took from our people must be returned, that the land programme must be accelerated.

“We must occupy the streets of Cape Town and demand what is right for our people, so that when Msholozi speaks there, he must know he has supporters, not those who go to Parliament with witchcraft.

“We are not uncivilised. If we were we would have kicked them a long time ago. You know them, they are small in numbers; we could grab them by the overalls and they would go out the windows, but we are not those people. We are an organisation of people with integrity.

“They say if you wrestle in the mud with a pig, you are just like it, so we must let the pigs jump up and down there. We must do what needs to be done to show that the ANC is alive in the Western Cape.”

Mbalula told supporters not to be too concerned about who should be elected leader of the organisation, but encouraged members to continue to debate the kind of policies needed to take the country forward.

“The ANC was not born yesterday; the ANC has been fighting for people’s rights since the Struggle, and we must not think that just because we are in power, the Struggle is over,” he said.

“We have lost power in the Western Cape because as the ANC we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing; we are fighting among each other for positions. But that time has come to an end.

“The matter of who is in charge is not that important, it shouldn’t be that when we get together every January 8, the main issue is around who is in charge, that is idiotic.

“We will evaluate individuals, discuss whether to put them in or not, and then vote in the upcoming conference and move on.

“But what should be more important is what the ANC will do to advance our people, because the reality is we still don’t own land.

“We don’t want people who you can tell are liars. We want policies that will take us forward.

“We don’t have land, what are we doing about it? Over 20 years into freedom and we still don’t have land.

“When we go into the policy conference, we should look at the land issue, the property clause, as well as a review of the constitution.”

Mbalula also criticised former ANC member and councillor Loyiso Nkohla for defecting to the DA, saying communities should be careful of people like him who called themselves revolutionists, but were only interested in advancing themselves.

“Just for money, he goes and sells our people to the DA for him to survive. Beware of people who come to you saying they are revolutionary, there is only one revolutionary (party), and that is the ANC.

“Stay and you will never go wrong.”

Weekend Argus

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