Cape Town - Western Cape Premier leader Helen Zille did not hold back as she responded to opposition criticism of her disrupted State of the Province Address on Friday.
On Tuesday night she told the legislature: “I never thought I would ever witness such contempt for the constitution, contempt for rule of law and contempt for this House.”
On Tuesday, while proceedings went ahead without disruption, the raucous debate had the Speaker repeatedly calling for order as members of the provincial legislature on both sides of the House resorted to heckling, running commentaries and name calling.
The unoccupied seats of the ANC’s chief whip in the legislature, Pierre Uys, and ANC MPL Siyazi Tyatyam, were a reminder of Friday’s chaotic address, which had to be adjourned without Zille speaking.
The pair were suspended for two sittings of the House.
Zille said the ANC believed all black people who belonged to the DA were “bought”, but this was not true. “We are disgusted by racists and disgusted by the ANC’s racism,” she added to loud applause.
And she branded the ANC the most racist party in the country, saying it should deal with its deep-rooted racism.
She also settled an accusation that she had referred to black women as “elephants”.
She had checked in Hansard, the verbatim record of proceedings. She had been referring to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant whose surname meant elephant and who happened to be a black woman. She had never called black women elephants.
Earlier, opposition parties spent hours dissecting Zille’s State of the Province address, ripping into the DA-led provincial government for failing to attend to the real issues.
Starting proceedings, Speaker Sharna Fernandez warned parties to refrain from personal attacks and racial slurs.
Going on the attack, leader of the official opposition Marius Fransman focused on the lacks and flaws in Zille’s address, which she was never given the opportunity to deliver.
“Under your watch, inequality has grown, and all indicators of transformation-empowerment, employment equity, black SMME development, procurement reform and women and youth empowerment have all regressed.
Friday’s events proved the provincial legislature did not function fairly, and Zille’s address was “extremely weak in substance”.
“The premier, in a failed attempt, tried to respond on our assertion that this provincial government is practising institutionalised forms of racism, with reference to budgetary allocations and implementation.”
Listing Zille’s previous State of the Province promises, Fransman said Zille claimed to condemn racism, yet in policy and practice the DA provincial government was racist in that it perpetuated apartheid privileges, and prioritised spatial planning and land use to entrench skewed ownership patterns.
EFF MPL Nazier Paulsen said the premier had said little to address the province’s challenges, and had only fleetingly mentioned racism in her speech.
He said Zille still bemoaned the changes to immigration regulations which meant South Africa could not get much-needed skills from overseas.
“You really need to develop confidence in the abilities of black people and grow your own corn. What skills do we need to import?”
Paulsen said the EFF wanted Zille to explain why the Western Cape lagged behind in race and gender transformation across all employment levels.
Last, he asked her to bring back the Minstrels on January 2.
Provincial ACDP leader Ferlon Christians copied Justice Malala’s TV show in describing the ANC as the “losers” of the week.
He said the ACDP was encouraged by the province’s commitment and progress in ensuring citizens had access to wi-fi support of new business, growth in jobs and social progress – but reducing unemployment had to be a priority.
Rising in support of Zille’s address, Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said the ANC of today was no longer the ANC of Nelson Mandela, the Freedom Charter or the Struggle.
“The ANC of today has forsaken the core principles of non-racialism and equality. The ANC of today is one of patriarchy. It is one that relies on disruption, campaigns of ungovernability, brown-envelope journalism - just ask the former ANC premier of this province. It is one that frankly relies on abusing every state resource available, including the police to stay in power.”
On the ANC’s anti-racism campaign, Bredell said the party sat in the House wearing badges that read no to racism, yet allowed an MPL in its own benches who used the k-word while referring to municipal officials at her previous job as a councillor.
When President Jacob Zuma had a speech in Parliament there were 150 armed and trained police to protect him from the supposed threat of a handful of MPs demanding accountability, yet when the Western Cape government repeatedly asked for the army to help combat gangs in poor areas, he had repeatedly said no.
“And another innocent child gets shot in the crossfire.”
Cape Argus