Abahlali Basemjondolo publicly endorse the DA Western Cape
This morning, the DA in the Western Cape accepted a public endorsement from Abahlali Basemjondolo for the upcoming elections.
Abahlali is the biggest and most influential shack dwellers' movement in the country whose campaigns are largely geared towards improving the living conditions of the poor. The movement boasts a national membership of over 27000 people and are going to add considerable weight to final leg of the DA's election campaign.
This endorsement comes after the DA in KwaZulu-Natal was also recently publicly endorsed by Abahlahi.
The DA started to engage with Abahlali about two years ago when out eThekwini housing spokesperson, Hlanganani Gumbi, first made contact with them. More recently the DA Western Cape's Leader of the Khayelitsha constituency, Masizole Mnqasela, started to engage with the movement's regional leader, Mzonke Poni.
In our discussions with Abahlali, we came to the common conclusion that we need to strengthen our resolve to:
Fight housing tender corruption
Fight housing allocations corruption
Speed up housing delivery
Increase community participation and communication within projects
Ensure all land evictions are done within the confines of the law and
Treat informal settlement residents with the dignity they are entitled to
The City of Cape Town and Abahlali Basemjondolo will soon convene a meeting to discuss the following issues:
The availability of land
The City's plans with all informal settlements
The occupation of land in Marikana, Philippi
The DA continues to show growth amongst traditional ANC supporters who have been let down by Jacob Zuma's corrupt ANC. Voters are coming to the DA because we have a plan to stop corruption, create jobs and improve service delivery.
The Western Cape DA is very pleased over this public endorsement and will work tirelessly with Abahlali's president S'bu Zikode and mr. Poni to fight corruption so that there can be delivery for all.
Statement issued by Ivan Meyer, DA Western Cape Leader, May 5 2014
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