Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has turned the tables on the ANC’s criticism of her government over Worcester’s “dompas” system, revealing the system had already been endorsed by the party in Gauteng.
Responding to the ANC’s questions without notice in the provincial legislature, Zille gave a blow-by-blow account of the same system being adopted in Gauteng even before the Worcester case came to light.
Zille responded to a question posed by ANC MPL Pholisa Makeleni, who tried in vain to taunt the premier, first questioning her on her reference to black people as “refugees”, before going in for the kill on Worcester’s “dompas” system for workers.
But Zille came prepared, and effectively silenced the opposition.
She said the system was a police initiative and had nothing to do with the DA, the local government authority or the provincial government.
“The police are a function of the national government, so perhaps the ANC should ask national police minister Nathi Nhleko, when he stops trying to fight the Hawks for wanting to investigate Nkandla, why they are introducing the dompas systems again,” Zille said.
What was most interesting, she said, was the fact that the dompas system was first reintroduced in Gauteng.
“There was an agreement and this time it was not only the SAPS, it was a proud announcement by the ANC MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, published in the Star newspaper, about a new dompas, a new rural safety strategy promoted by the ANC in Gauteng which states that ‘farmers must hire legal and documented workers and create profile cards to be verified at the local station’.”
Zille said politicians, trade unions, farm workers and the ANC in particular agreed on the dompas system as a safety measure in Gauteng, even endorsing a pass book for formal workers with Nkosi-Malobane leading the charge.
“They thought it was a splendid idea,” Zille said, adding the only person who objected to the move was the DA’s spokesman who issued a statement to that effect.
“This is an ANC strategy, it is even done in ANC colours, and I am amazed that you (the ANC) did not put ‘better life for all’ on it, or ‘a good story to tell’, on the cover. This is your strategy, started in Gauteng and we will kick it out of the Western Cape because we don’t want it here.”
Cape Argus