The African National Congress has promised to build houses for the poor in the affluent suburb of Constantia if it won the local government election in Cape Town.
“The first thing to do is build homes for our people in Constantia where government owns land,” the party’s mayoral candidate Tony Ehrenreich said at a May Day rally on Sunday.
He said the ANC “will win Cape Town” and declared it a “decent work city”.
Speaking to about 2 000 people in the 40 000-seater Athlone Stadium, he said he would, if he were to become mayor, ensure better health, education and housing for people in places such as Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu.
He accused the DA of only taking care of the rich.
Ehrenreich said the ANC was aware of the gap between the promises in the Freedom Charter and what was actually being done, but said the party had “done much for the people” and would continue to do so.
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande, who spoke after Ehrenreich, criticised the media for supporting the opposition.
He said it spread the message of despair, designed to make workers and the poor lose heart. The media aligned itself with every party against the ANC, he said.
Threat of ‘hardships’
KwaZulu-Natal workers should vote for the ANC, or risk facing the same “hardships” as Western Cape residents, provincial Congress of South African Trade Unions chairperson Chris Ndlela warned at May Day rally in Pietermaritzburg.
‘We are saying a vote for the IFP, DA, NFP or any other party amounts to a vote for the DA, and we have seen how that party treats the majority of our poor people,” he said during the poorly-attended event at Harry Gwala Stadium.
Under a DA leadership, workers would be unable to hold rallies or meetings, as prices for facilities would be too high, he claimed, referring to Cosatu having to move its event from Cape Town’s Greenpoint Stadium to the Athlone Stadium due to the hiring costs.
‘No amount of sweet talk should blind people to the reality that the DA would take us back to the days of apartheid.”
Let’s vote and after that sort out all the problems
Meanwhile, President Jacob Zuma told a crowd in Gugulethu on Saturday that the only way to solve poverty and housing problems in Cape Town was to vote for the the ruling party.
Addressing hundreds of people who had gathered to see him, Zuma said the Democratic Alliance (DA) was not doing a good job in the city or in the Western Cape.
“There is a myth that the municipalities of the Western Cape are the most excellent… that it’s performing … in fact it’s the worst-run municipality.
“The DA is only looking after the rich people. There are lots of problems, but we can’t solve them because you are under the wrong municipality. We can sort out the problems only if you vote for the ANC. Let’s vote and after that sort out all the problems.”
He said the only way people living in Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain could live better lives was if they voted for the ANC. – Sapa