Cape Town - Western Cape DA leader Patricia De Lille has challenged President Jacob Zuma to prove his party’s commitment to democracy by intervening in the embattled Oudtshoorn municipality and calling ANC councillors to order .
The Klein Karoo town’s council, which is led by an ANC coalition with the National People’s Party and Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa, has been a festering sore for the ANC and the DA.
The DA has been battling to gain control of the municipality since winning a crucial by-election in August last year and again this month, which effectively gives the DA/Cope alliance a voting majority.
In an open letter to Zuma, De Lille on Wednesday outlined what she called the “anti democratic practices” of the ANC in Oudtshoorn.
De Lille said: “You have repeatedly stated that the ANC is a body that fought for the democracy and constitutional order we enjoy today. Part of that order is respect for the decisions of the electorate and the orderly transfer of power according to the law, so that the business of representative government and service delivery continues.”
Listing the DA’s gripes with the local government authority, De Lille said ANC members and aligned politicians have refused to hold council meetings; suspended councillors for no reason; used public money in litigation as a delaying tactic, and allegedly offered inducements to other councillors in exchange for votes and ignored court orders.
Branding De Lille’s letter as cheap political point scoring, ANC Western Cape leader, Marius Fransman turned the tables on De Lille, accusing her of failing to instruct local government MEC Anton Bredell to act on Oudtshoorn.
“No such instruction will come from your office simply because as long as mud can be thrown at the ANC, even at the expense of the people of Oudtshoorn, the DA will continue to try and score the cheap publicity points it so desperately seeks,” he added.
Giving De Lille a brief history lesson into the Oudtshoorn saga, Fransman reminded the newly elected provincial leader that pre-2011, before the ANC coalition took power, Oudtshoorn was in shambles under DA rule. “An SIU report was damming of the DA administration and eventually the municipality was placed under administration. Good governance in Oudtshoorn has never been the DA’s goal and the people of that municipality know this.”
Listing his own encounter in Oudtshoorn when he was nearly attacked in May 2013, Fransman said those behind the attack were the ones who walked over to the DA.
Cape Argus