Fikile Mbalula, the ANC secretary-general, used his party’s presence in impoverished Hammanskraal to criticize the DA’s seven-year government of Tshwane, particularly the Auditor-General’s R10.4 billion irregular expenditure.
Mbalula addressed on Saturday at the Mandela Stadium in Hammanskraal as the ANC reviewed their 2019 election manifesto.
He used his keynote talk to criticize the DA-led coalition government in a region that earlier this year witnessed the country’s worst cholera outbreak in more than a decade, killing more than 20 inhabitants due to contaminated water in Hammanskraal’s water systems.
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Mbalula’s speech comes in the aftermath of a debilitating strike in Tshwane that halted services due to union activity that the City referred to as “organized crime.”
Because of the City’s severe financial situation, the Tshwane administration decided to renege on workers’ salary-increase agreements, prompting the walkout.
Mbalula did not say much about the ANC’s implementation of its 2019 platform, but he utilized the City’s challenges to criticize the national opposition party in a volatile area.
Today we are in Hammanskraal in Tshwane to engage with the community as prt of our #2019ANCManifestoReview report back process. ⚫️🟢🟡 https://t.co/r29iKOxKuI pic.twitter.com/sTOilU9aZ7
— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) September 23, 2023
He claimed the DA served its middle-class electorate in the suburbs while ignoring destitute Tshwane townships like Hammanskraal.
“When you go to the suburbs, things are working well. Their constituency is very happy because it is well served. But when you come to townships – when you come here to Hammanskraal, Atteridgeville, and Shoshanguve – things that Sputla was pursuing have disappeared. We have eight years since we lost this city to the DA, and they don’t want us to say that. ” Mbalula said.
“Sputla” is the nickname of Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who was the ANC’s candidate for mayor of Tshwane until his party was ousted in August 2016.
Mbalula, on the other hand, recognized that the ANC had its own troubles in Tshwane, adding, “In so saying, it does not mean that there were no challenges when we were in power.” We don’t claim easy victories; we merely speak the truth.”
Meanwhile, the City hailed a Labour Court judgment in its favor against the Independent Municipal & Allied Trade Union (Imatu), which demanded that its members be paid in full even though they were on strike and not working.
It added that “At the end of July, the Labour Court granted the City of Tshwane an urgent interim interdict against its striking employees and declared the strike unlawful and unprotected. Last week, [the] court made the interim order permanent.”
Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink, who has faced a barrage of criticism over his running of the metropolitan, received support from his DA colleagues, including Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who asserted that “The Tshwane mayor is standing up against criminality and trying to fix his City’s precarious finances.
“All strength to him; he has broad public support to do what is right! Those who want to sacrifice the rule of law before criminality are only showing their true colours.”
