The real motive behind the ANCYL's "ungovernability" Campaign
The ANCYL in the Western Cape has spent the weekend mobilising for a march to the Provincial Legislature tomorrow, the second in its on-going "ungovernability" campaign.
During the week they repeated the threats they made before their first march on 27 July, to bring the Western Cape to its knees. This time, ANCYL chairperson in Cape Town, Khaya Yozi, announced: "On Monday our people will stop being slaves in this economy, they must be part of making the province ungovernable."
The police have assured the Western Cape Government that they are ready to prevent a repeat of the violent protests that have marked the "ungovernability campaign" so far, resulting in the tragic deaths of four people, numerous injuries and the destruction of public property worth millions.
Dominating the media coverage, is a debate over whether the protests are about legitimate service delivery issues or the result of a sustained and co-ordinated political campaign by the ANCYL to topple the current ANC leadership and take power in the Province.
Let me be clear: many people do have genuine grievances about their living conditions. (ANCYL leader Khaya Yozi is not one of them, as he lives in an RDP house delivered by the City). However, it is true that too many people live in very poor circumstances in informal settlements. Most of them have come to Cape Town in search of work.
It is not helpful to point out that their basic services are significantly better in the Western Cape than in informal settlements in other provinces. As urbanisation escalates and as more private land is "invaded" (where the City is prevented by law from delivering services) the dissatisfaction grows, particularly during the Cape's wet winters. This is aggravated by the excessive red tape that has delayed the release of suitable state land for human settlement, by the national Department of Public Works. Community conflicts in informal settlements also cause interminable delays in upgrading projects. It is impossible in this context, to "get ahead" of the wave or urbanisation.
The Province has a housing database of approximately 500,000 people who want a house. Given the competing demands for available budgets, this will take decades, whichever party governs this Province. In the meantime, municipalities are doing their best to provide acceptable basic service levels: water, electricity, sewage, storm water and refuse removal, usually free of charge, subsidised to the tune of R1-billion annually. (Budgets would stretch much further if the City did not have to spend R2 out of every R3 of capital expenditure on fixing vandalised property.)
Because we are well aware of the enormous difficulties of living in an informal settlement, both Mayor Patricia de Lille and I try to be available, as much as possible, for meetings with communities who have grievances, so that we can discuss honestly what is possible within the constraints of existing waiting lists and resources.
But the ANCYL protests fall into a different category. The Youth League is not interested in discussing service delivery problems, as they demonstrated in Khayelitsha recently when young men wearing ANC berets violently broke up a service-delivery report-back meeting convened by Mayor de Lille.
Ironically, the best explanation of recent events has been given by the ANC itself. Tony Ehrenreich, ANC leader in the City Council, correctly describes the riots as being driven by "people who want to make a name for themselves".
This is precisely what the ANCYL is doing. Their role model is Julius Malema. The DA is not their primary target. Just as Malema is taking on the ANC's leadership nationally, so his loyal supporters are taking aim at the current ANC provincial leadership and a number of sitting councillors, who they wish to depict as weak, ineffective and compromised. They do this (in various provinces) by combining populism and violent protest, in their campaign to "own" the ANC's brand and displace some of its elected representatives. One of their strategies involves militant resistance against the DA-led government of the Western Cape.
The ANCYL's current round of violent protests began last month, when they led a march and handed over a memorandum demanding (among various other things) the scrapping of the Bus Rapid Transit system and the expropriation of private and corporate property. The memorandum ended with the following threat: "We demand that the abovementioned demands be positively responded to within 7 working days. Failure to do so the young people and the abovementioned stakeholders will make this city and province ungovernable! Amandla!!"
ANCYL leaders have repeated these threats during media interviews and on television.
A senior ANC source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is quoted as saying "Listen, of course ANC people in the communities are at the centre of demonstrating - they are councillors, community activists, etc, who will organise at a local level, using SMSes, sure."
On the very day that ANCYL leaders reportedly threatened to "enforce" a strike by "preventing any and all" Golden Arrow buses from operating, a bus was stoned in Khayelitsha, killing the driver and two more people.
Protestors also blocked roads with burning tyres, stoned motorists and a train and set tyres alight on a train track. Metro Police vehicles have also been stoned and petrol-bombed. Traffic lights have been vandalised.
CCTV footage shows how carefully co-ordinated some of these protests are.
The footage corroborates reported interviews with ten residents and community leaders in Philippi, Nyanga and Khayelitsha who told the City Press newspaper that the ANC members and allied organisations, including the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), are behind the violent protests. The residents stated that community members are often mobilised by ANC members through SMSes and loud-hailers at midnight.
Significantly, when the ANCYL issued a call to suspend the protests, they stopped.
Yet despite this prima facie evidence, the ANCYL now strenuously denies it is behind the recent violence.
Even more surprising is the fact that commentators have repeatedly asked both me and the Mayor to "prove" that the ANCYL is involved.
This question reveals a profound misunderstanding of how the criminal justice system should work in our country.
It is not the job of the City of Cape Town or the Western Cape Government to gather the proof.
This is the constitutional responsibility of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Simply making the threats that the ANCYL has repeatedly made is a crime in its own right. That is why the Mayor and I laid charges of intimidation against all the organisations named in the ANCYL's document of "demands".
When such threats are followed by criminal acts that result in the death of people, it is up to the police to investigate and find the perpetrators - and their instigators. This should be easy when people announce their intentions on television.
To assist in this process, the Mayor and I have offered a R50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the persons responsible for stoning the Golden Arrow bus, resulting in the death of three people.
During a recent meeting with the Western Cape Cabinet, the deputy Western Cape Police Commissioner, Major General Peter Jacobs, said the Police were investigating. I have written to Western Cape Police Commissioner General Arno Lamoer requesting feedback on the progress of these investigations.
Events over the last few weeks share a striking resemblance to a series of incidents that took place in 2010, when ANCYL league members including Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla also threatened to make the City ungovernable. Shortly afterwards protestors blockaded roads, threw bricks at motorists and petrol bombs at government vehicles including a Dial-a-Ride bus, used for transporting disabled people.
Identifiable ANCYL members were also shown on television destroying state property. Yet the Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute.
The lesson the ANCYL obviously learnt in 2010 is that they can get away with violence and vandalism, even when their members are caught in the act on national television. This is a serious reflection on our criminal justice system.
All this does not detract from the fact that life is extremely difficult for many of our compatriots. Destroying the available infrastructure only makes things worse.
I stand by my response to the ANCYL's request to accept their memorandum tomorrow and engage with them in a constructive manner on issues that are relevant to our service delivery mandate if they retract their unlawful threats and apologise to the people of the Western Cape.
Sincerely yours,
Helen Zille
This article by Helen Zille first appeared in SA Today, the weekly online newsletter of the leader of the Democratic Alliance.
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