Ntombikayise “Ntombi” Lugalo might appear in a DA television advert talking about how the party installed electricity in Tambo Square, Gugulethu, but she doesn’t have an electricity connection of her own, she’s admitted.
But defending her statements in the advertisement, the outspoken Lugalo said she did it to show her support for the party and what it has done for the community at large.
In the advertisement, Lugalo, a DA member, speaks about what the party has done for her and her community since 2006.
Lugalo also denies accusations that she was paid to appear in the advertisement, but admits she was offered a Pick n Pay voucher.
“I wasn’t paid even a cent. But a white man came and gave me a Pick n Pay voucher, but not as payment. But I am not talking about individuals in the ad, but about the community as a whole.
“In 2006, when Helen Zille became mayor, there were electricity plans already in the pipeline, but the implementation was done by Zille. When I talk in the advert I don’t say ‘I’ have electricity; I say ‘we’ have electricity,” Lugalo said.
She said the reason her shack is not electrified is because she’s still waiting for a formal house.
“There’s a housing development on the way and that’s the reason there’s no electricity in other houses. We’re still waiting for them to remove the shacks. But we are being punished because they say we were not involved in the struggle. For four years, I haven’t seen (Ward 41 councillor) Belinda Landingwe in Tambo Square,” said Lugalo.
During an ANC campaign walkabout in the area on Thursday, Landingwe said her street committee earmarked the beneficiaries and that she, as the ward councillor, pushed for electricity in the area.
“I was the one who went to the city. So it’s the ANC that delivered, and not the DA. This is an election; even the person in the advert knows what she’s saying is not true. It’s because she’s paid and she’s a DA member,” Landingwe said.
Ryan Coetzee, who headed up the recording of the election adverts, said since 2006 more than 60 000 new connections have been delivered in informal settlements across the city.
“Ntombi says in the TV advert that, since the DA took power, there is ‘light in Tambo Square’.
“This is absolutely accurate, and it is also absolutely accurate that the DA-led government in Cape Town installed that electricity.
“The electricity lines are also visible in the advert.
“Finally, our adverts were not scripted. They are edited interviews.
“Ntombi is expressing her perspective in her own words, as she is entitled to do,” Coetzee said. - - Cape Times