Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has branded the Lwandle Commission of Inquiry into forced evictions a “disgrace” and a political “hit squad” concocted by the ANC to “prevent Ses’khona leaders from joining the EFF”.
Zille was responding to a question for oral reply submitted by the leader of the opposition, Marius Fransman, last week, on whether her government accepted the inquiry’s recommendations.
Armed with media reports on land invasions in Tshwane, Zille went on the attack, even using the recent shooting of Ses’khona leader Andile Lili to prove her point.
“In order to pursue Lili and (Loyiso) Nkohla, who were key in Ses’khona for the land invasions at Lwandle, not to stand for the EFF in the Western Cape, they established this (Lwandle) commission to try and back them and support them but that gave Lili so much muscle that he’s planning to stand against Marius Fransman as the leader of the ANC in this province,” Zille said.
“Look what happened to Andile Lili as a result. No wonder the honourable leader of the opposition (Fransman) isn’t here.”
Fransman said the ANC rejected Zille’s antics with the contempt they deserve.
“The Lwandle Commission unmasked the many conspiracy theories of the DA as fallacy. Fairy tales dreamed up by the political bankrupt and hypocritical DA whose leaders cook up unsubstantiated stories in their backrooms, instead of improving skewed and inferior service delivery in poor areas where they are in control,” he said.
Despite a chorus of objections and interjections, Zille suggested the ANC had double standards on land invasions due to the fact that there was no commission of inquiry in Tshwane.
“Where is the commission Minister Sisulu, where is the commission?” she asked.
ANC Chief Whip Pierre Uys said: “The premier is totally off the point, totally irrelevant to the question at hand and I think you should stop it here.”
But Zille said one critical law the ANC had never learnt was “the law of unintended consequences”.
She said the Lwandle political hit squad masquerading as a commission was supposed to embarrass the DA and boost the ANC, but what it had actually done was boost the EFF inside the ANC in the Western Cape to make them strong to take it over.
“We’ve seen what the ANC does with commissions, not only the Erasmus Commission and the Desai Commission, but what it did with this political hit squad.
“It is a disgrace as a commission of inquiry, it is a political hit squad and if anything it supports the DA’s claim that the ANC is such a corrupt government that it abuses lawyers and other people to set up political commissions of inquiry that are not meant to find the truth.”
Cape Argus