DA-led Western Cape Government treats poor people with contempt and disrespects separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature
Whilst the ANC Youth League in the Western Cape stands by its unequivocal condemnation of the looting by certain rogue individuals in the City of Cape Town which has sought to vulgarise legitimate community-based protest, we are clear that the DA-led Western Cape Government treats our people with utter contempt, needs to be exposed, and must be replaced at the polls in 2014.
The DA-led Government's refusal to accept the memorandum with thousands of protestors' service delivery demands is an insult to the poor of this province. Arrogant refusal to engage with communities around their concerns is a feature of Zille and her Government.
The DA failed to send a senior elected public representative to receive the memorandum from the people. They have instead tainted a non-partisan civil servant, the Legislature's Secretary Roysten Hindley by sending him to accept the memorandum on behalf of the DA Government. The peoples' memorandum was addressed to the Government and not the Legislature.
By sending Hindley to accept the memorandum the DA has disregarded the separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature which is a cornerstone of our constitutional democracy. They have sent an official of a structure meant to impartially hold the Premier and her Government to account to now play an executive and party-political role. The DA has treated with disdain the separation of powers which they so hypocritically claim to champion.
Instead of respecting our constitution, Zille and her MECs, especially MEC for Human Settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela pretend as if all is well in the Western Cape while our people suffer from inequalities and undignified living conditions in a province where there is enough land for the wealthy to spend time on golf courses.
According to the City of Cape Town's own figures more than 80 000 households have no access to any form of sanitation. These are the people who are forced to relieve themselves next to the N2. Every night, the people in informal settlements are expected to put that stinking and despicable chamber pot (Porta Potties) next to either their babies or their food.
Since 2009 the DA have only built 55 329 houses compared to the ANC's 72 729 when it governed this province. Every year, including in 2012/2013 the DA have failed to reach their modest and reduced housing delivery targets.
The latest Auditor General's report has exposed Zille and Madikizela's failures. Zille knows that MEC Madikizela is at the centre of this chaos yet she refuses to take any action against him or any of the other weak men in her cabinet. Zille mostly ignores our peoples' needs and instead arbitrarily imposes inferior services on them.
The ANC Youth League is not surprised at the DA-led Government's disregard for the cornerstones of our constitutional democracy when treating the poor black majority with contempt. The DA has consistently sought to undermine independent institutions such as the Auditor General and the Human Rights Commission when exposed for failing the poor. Their labelling of the Human Rights Commission as a mouthpiece of the ANC Youth League and their recent dismissals of the Auditor General's findings of regression and poor performance by their Provincial Government departments and the Legislature stand out in this regard.
This is after all a Government whose Premier insultingly refers to our people as refugees, professional blacks and elephants. Zille even has the audacity to justify the lack of transformation in her Government by saying that there are not enough qualified coloured people in the province whilst mostly closing down so-called coloured schools and allowing education disparity to continue in township areas.
We will continue to support demands against inferior services to the most vulnerable in our society both in political and civil society sites of struggle whilst maintaining discipline.
Statement issued by Muhammad Khalid Sayed, ANC Youth League Western Cape Provincial Task Team (PTT) Convenor, November 1 2013
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
