The ANC in the Western Cape warned the DA on Friday that its days of controlling the City of Cape Town were numbered because it was ignoring the poor.
About 30 police officers, many kitted in body armour with shields, formed a human barricade on the steps of the Civic Centre where about 1 000 people had gathered to hand a memorandum of demands to the metro’s leadership.
Xolani Satashe, who is chairperson of the branch which covers the Cape Town Metro, said people were fed up with the rich areas like Constantia getting all the money for “selective service delivery” that he said favoured white people.
But, places like Khayelitsha and Manenberg were ignored, Satashe said.
“This march is our last option to engage with the old order regime,” he said.
The ANC’s demands include:
- More clinics and health centres and more staff for them;
- Reopen the GF Jooste Hospital in Manenberg;
- Cleaner and safer stations;
- Functional CCTV;
- Deploy more police to end gangsterism;
- Jobs in Department of Public Works community programmes for everybody, “not just DA supporters”;
- End the confiscation of livestock in Philipi;
- Release land for housing;
- Upgrade the Mfuleni hostels.
Satashe handed the memorandum to the mayoral committee member for utility services.
Satashe said they expected a reply within 14 days.
People waved a large “Zille must fall” placard and speakers included Western Cape ANC chairperson Marius Fransman.
Jenni Evans, News24
