The ANC cares more about Verwoerd bust than it does about service delivery
A bust of Hendrik Verwoerd located on municipal property in Midvaal has been removed and returned to its owners, the Klipriver Vallei Kultuurraad, which is a local cultural organisation. The removal of the bust was done in consultation and with the agreement of the organisation.
The bust - which has gone unnoticed in Meyerton for the past 30 years - has recently generated a great deal of manufactured hysteria on the part of the ANC, unlike the many Verwoerd roads, parks, schools, and nature reserves that dot ANC-run councils across South Africa. This comes as no surprise to the Democratic Alliance (DA). The ANC's sudden interest in the bust is transparently an attempt to shift attention off the issues that really matter in this election: delivering services to the people of South Africa, especially the poor.
The truth is that this election is not about a bust of Hendrik Verwoerd, who has rightly been consigned to history. This election is about the future of the people of South Africa, many of whom depend on local governments to provide the services that make life bearable.
It is about the people of Stinkwater in Hammanskraal who have no electricity or council-supplied water, and whose borehole water is contaminated by nearby pit latrines.
It is about Charmaine Poggenpoel in Calvinia, who needs an urgent life-saving operation but whose municipality is unwilling to assist with getting her to a major hospital.