ANC to #OccupyWaleStreet for Zille's final State of the Province Address
13 February 2019
Fare thee well, Helen Zille, and "good riddance".
This will be the ANC's message on Friday when its members #OccupyWaleStreet, while Western Cape Premier Zille is delivering her final State of the Province Address on Friday.
The ANC has "mobilised communities" to deliver the "real state of the province", the party's provincial leadership announced on Wednesday.
Ebrahim Rasool, former premier and ambassador and currently the ANC election campaign manager in the Western Cape, said he expects a "whitewash of the last decade in the Western Cape".
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs said he had spoken to residents from various communities who would get a chance to speak on Friday and raise the following issues:
- Lack of public participation;
- Failures in clean governance;
- Fiscal dumping;
- Racial polarisation;
- "Messing up" the water situation;
- Employment equity; and
- Evictions.
"They're evicting everybody," said Jacobs. "It is now the time for the DA to be evicted."
Khaya Magaxa, acting provincial chairperson and leader of the opposition in the Western Cape legislature, said the ANC was not going to disrupt Zille's speech "like other parties".
"We're going to expose her," he said.
"We're not going to take her shine," he said, remarking that Zille was the first Western Cape premier to finish two terms.
"She's been very fortunate that she has been allowed to mess up this province for two terms."
He said racial tension in the province had grown during her terms and she had given confidence to racists with her tweets about colonialism.
Jacobs said Zille would seek to create the impression that she had served the people of the province.
"We want to wish Zille well, and also good riddance," he said.
"After 10 years, our people are tired. We must direct that gatvolness to Wale Street."
Zille is expected to arrive at the legislature between 09:30 and 09:45, and the ANC's rally is expected to convene at 10:00. Zille's speech will start at 10:30.
ANC 'desperate, dismal'
DA Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela said the ANC's plans smacked of desperation.
"The State of the Province Address is a social contract between the people of the Western Cape and their elected government. It is an annual opportunity, upheld by the premier, to communicate the Western Cape Government's work and plans to meet the needs of the province," Madikizela said in a statement released shortly after the ANC's press conference.
"The DA-led Western Cape government is serious about finding solutions to better the lives of the people of the Western Cape, and we will not tolerate any attempt to sabotage this process by any political party. The ANC seeks to disrupt, among others, the provincial government's plan to address a severe lapse in rail and policing services under national government's control which continues to cripple our province and threaten the lives of our people."
He remarked on the "dismal provincial government" under Rasool and former premier and later minister of public enterprises Lynne Brown.
He also called the ANC's attacks on the DA in the province a "desperate attempt to remain relevant in the Western Cape".
"We will not allow it [the ANC] to disrupt this province's government and its commitment to the people," Madikizela said.
