WATCH: ANC slams Zille's #WCSOPA2018 speech

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille delivers the state-of-the-province address in the legislature in Cape Town on Thursday. PHOTO: Cindy Waxa/ANA

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille delivers the state-of-the-province address in the legislature in Cape Town on Thursday. PHOTO: Cindy Waxa/ANA

Published Feb 22, 2018

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Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape has slammed Premier Helen Zille’s State of the Province Address, saying that it missed important issues facing the province.

ANC acting provincial chairperson Khaya Magaxa said he had no expectations but was shocked at a number of issues which we were not addressed by Zille in her address.

Magaxa said: “All that we have experienced is a very long speech of two hours with a lot of content but missing important issues. 

“As we speak now in the great Phillipi there’s violence that is taking place, it started a week ago. People are grabbing land, and frustrated by non-progress in relation to housing and non-availability of land. This frustration has been ignored by this province,” said Magaxa. 

He rebuked Zille for not addressing corruption and maladministration in the City of Cape Town. 

Mayor Patricia de Lille’s administration has been marred by claims, from within the DA and it’s City caucus, that she had tried to cover up claims of tender fraud and corruption within the City’s transport directorate.

These claims have led to the suspension of Cape Town’s transport boss Melissa Whitehead and, some say, to the resignation of former City Manager Achmat Ebrahim.

“The ANC at the national level has acknowledged the issue of corruption, it also acknowledged that some of us within the ANC are implicated in ANC. The DA is quiet, they have said nothing about corruption that herself is also implicated in. She said nothing about DA leader Madikizela who is also involved in corruption,” said Magaxa. 

He further accused the DA of pointing fingers when it does not have solutions for problems. 

Read:  #SOPA2018: Zille reiterates call for SANDF deployment to gang areas

Earlier this year, Zille blamed the national government for the Western Cape water crisis and made numerous calls on the national government to declare the province a national disaster area.

Magaxa also accused the DA of stealing the spotlight from the ANC, when it comes to the party’s achievements. 

“Helen Zille’s behaviour remains the same, the behaviour of blaming the ANC at the national level and to take credit for the same ANC’s performance at a national level. Instead of taking responsibility for her own failure, especially around management of water she is blaming the ANC,” added Magaxa.

He said the ANC was responsible for rescuing the drought-ravaged Cape Town from Day Zero.

Read more:  Zille prioritises #WaterCrisis in #SOPA2018

“It is because of the ANC intervention, it is because of the minister of Water and Sanitation who has negotiated with the farm owners of privately owned dams,” he said. 

The EFF has also joined the ANC in its call for DA-led government to take responsibility for the water crisis.

EFF provincial chairperson Bernard Joseph went further, accusing the DA of creating a crisis to milk Capetonians for money. 

He claimed that the DA-controlled Stellenbosch Municipality had made a profit of R67 million from the sale of water since July 2017.

“How can they make a profit of water which is supposed to be a scarce resource? We need to investigate and see where things went wrong,” said Bernard. 

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