ZILLE AND PLATO MOVE ON KHAYELITSHA UNCONSTITUTIONAL - ANC

In line with the provisions of the South African Constitution, when African National Congress (ANC) President Jacob Zuma was sworn into office on 6 May 2009 to become the country's third democratically elected President of the Republic of South Africa, he swore and affirmed faithfulness to the Republic, showing obedience to the Constitution.

Assuming the highest office in the country as President, entrusted him with the noble responsibility to serve all the people of South Africa without fear or favour; regardless of geographic location; race colour; sex or creed. A true servant of the people of South Africa, he has and continues to criss-cross the country to listen and address concerns of all South Africans, regardless of who voted him into power.

This has been the norm in all the eight ANC-led provinces, except for the Western Cape, which is governed by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille as Premier and Dan Plato as Mayor of the City of Cape Town. If the raging conflict over the Khayelitsha racially motivated toilets saga - condemned by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) - is anything to go by, Zille and Plato have grossly contravened the Constitution, which protects human rights. It is their flagrant disregard of their noble duty to serve the people of the Western Cape as a whole, which is at stake in Khayelitsha and not what Zille has referred to as "a South Africa in the grip of feudal authoritarianism".

The recent walkout by Zille and Plato out of a meeting with Cooperative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka aimed at finding a solution to the erection of toilets without enclosures and later corrugated enclosures, should be seen as a show of arrogance and disrespect to the spirit of co-operative governance set out in the Constitution.

The Constitution provides for national government - by legislative and other measures - to "assist provinces to develop the administrative capacity required for the effective exercise of their powers and performance of their functions referred to in subsection (2)".

We congratulate Minister Shiceka and the Department of Cooperative Governance for his continued persistence to bring all the stakeholders together to find a solution to what has racially polarised the Western Cape, with Africans being singled out for inferior service by that provincial government. It is only in Khayelitsha where the DA-led government has introduced toilets without enclosures or with corrugated iron and nowhere else have they done so. This is also a violation of national norms and standards set out by the Department of Human Settlements, let alone being an affront to Black peoples' dignity.

On its own, the erection of poor quality toilets and later a walkout by Zille and Plato out of the meeting with key stakeholders, was enough to provoke and anger the community of the Western Cape, particularly Africans. We call on Zille and Plato to get off their high horses and deal with a responsibility entrusted to them in terms of the Constitution.

Statement issued by Jackson Mthembu, African National Congress, June 29 2010

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