Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille received a movie star welcome in a Pietermaritzburg suburb on Thursday while campaigning for the April 14 poll.
”It’s her, it’s her,” bright-eyed children said when they saw De Lille walking from house-to-house meeting the residents of Eastwood, a predominantly coloured area.
The children swarmed around De Lille begging for her autograph which she signed on pamphlets outlining what her party was about.
De Lille, who is currently on a four-day election visit to KwaZulu-Natal, heard from the community that drugs and unemployment were huge problems.
A woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, told De Lille that a drug merchant was living in her neighbourhood and the police knew about him but they had not arrested him.
”When you tell police who is selling drugs, they don’t do anything,” she said.
The woman also said her husband, who used to work in the education department, had been unemployed for nine years.
Another man stopped De Lille on the street and asked her in Afrikaans if he voted for her, would she ”put him in a bottle”.
De Lille responded in Afrikaans to Petrus Witbooi saying she would not put him in a bottle because her party stood for the truth.
Asked what he meant by the bottle comment, Witbooi said: ”The ANC (African National Congress) has put us in a bottle with empty promises and closed the lid.
”Look at all our children who still don’t have jobs, but (President Thabo) Mbeki’s children have jobs and so do (Deputy President Jacob) Zuma’s children.”
De Lille also spent a few minutes in a local tavern where she chatted with Lucky Gordon who asked her a few questions about what her party’s plans were concerning the country’s unemployment.
”It’s not part of me to make promises, we’ve got a plan to create jobs, but we need money, and the current government has got the money,” she said.
De Lille was then told by a woman at the tavern that Gordon had in fact won the Lotto and was now R1,2-million richer.
”I should be taking a loan from you,” she told him jokingly.
Caroline Myburgh told De Lille that she thought she was going to die when employees of the municipality arrived earlier in the day and cut the grass on the pavements.
”They never cut the grass. They are only doing it now because it is election time and they are looking for votes.”
Earlier in the day De Lille led a march comprising of mainly unemployed people to the Pietermaritzburg legislature.
The group of between 100 and 200 protesters handed over a memorandum demanding job creation.
The marchers were made up of members of De Lille’s party and the Unemployed Silent Majority organisation.
Beatrice Mbongwa (52) told De Lille through a Zulu interpreter she was unable to pay the rates for her home because she was unemployed.
”When people can’t pay their rates, it’s not that they don’t want to pay, it’s because they are not working,” De Lille said in response.
She told the woman to give her name to local ID members who were present at the gathering saying they would assist her in the matter.
Bheka Mhlanga (45) told De Lille he had been given a R17 000 subsidy for a house in Tamboville, an informal settlement outside Pietermaritzburg.
He had only used R3 000 of the money, and the rest had ”disappeared”.
”We wanted to know what happened to the rest of the money but we were told the money was used for toilets and roads,” he said.
De Lille said: ”You must give us the name of the area and developer, we will take this up because it is corruption.”
There were also complaints that homeowners were not getting their allocation of free basic electricity and water.
De Lille also paid a visit Rape Crisis Centre at Northdale Hospital. She was briefed by the women who run the centre on how they dealt with rape victims and she told them to keep up the good work saying she had much admiration for them.
KwaZulu-Natal is De Lille’s second-last stop for her election campaign. Next week she will be in the Limpopo province. – Sapa