Zuma, Ramaphosa to woo city voters
BOTH President Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Jacob Zuma are expected to visit Kimberley over the next few weeks as election fever heats up.
The newly launched umkhonto wesizwe (MK) party will hold a motorcade through the city on Saturday, starting from the Galeshewe circle at 12 noon.
MK Party provincial organiser Clifford Sekgoro said Zuma was scheduled to visit the Northern Cape on February 2 before the final voter registration weekend.
“Our membership is growing daily and the minimum membership fee is R10. If you want to pay more, it is up to you. We have voters from the ANC, EFF, DA, PA wanting to join. People are tired of all the lies and promises. My phone is like a call centre and I have to keep on printing membership forms,” said Sekgoro.
“The majority of the masses are unemployed and poverty-stricken. We aren’t even conducting door-to-door visits everyone is approaching us. The ANC is flogging a dying horse and they have no one else to blame for their undoing. Everyone is silent about Marikana and the Phala Phala scandal. State-owned entities have been plundered and there are no basic services.”
Sekgoro stated that the motorcade would drive through Galeshewe, Bobo se Plaas, Roodepan, Colville, Floors and Greenpoint.
“We are in the process of setting up structures in all districts of the Northern Cape and the national commanders have called a meeting on Friday.”
Sekgoro added that they were willing to enter into coalitions with other political parties.
Ramaphosa is expected to attend the launch of the R1 billion housing project in Roodepan on January 18.
The spokesperson for the premier, Bronwyn Thomas-abrahams, said the Northern Cape had the potential to be among the first provinces in the country to eradicate informal settlements.
“A total of 18 000 stands have been serviced in the Province and we will proceed with the construction of 4 143 houses,” said
Thomas-abrahams.
“The R1 billion investment in the human settlements sector will rapidly advance access to housing in the province. With this investment, the Province will begin with the construction of 4 143 houses.”
The EFF has meanwhile criticised the project as a ploy by the ANC, lead by Ramaphosa, to campaign ahead of the elections.
EFF councillor Poncho Mocwana said that while it was presented as a housing project that would benefit the entire Province, it would only cater for people from the Roodepan flats.
“Instead of demolishing the so-called ‘unsafe’ flats that accommodate about 408 families and relocating the tenants to an alternative piece of land in Ward 2, they should be renovated and maintained,” said Mocwana.
“What about the other 408 families that need housing in Roodepan and the rest of Sol Plaatje residents that require housing?”
Mocwana believed that the ANC was hell-bent on reclaiming Ward 1, which was lost to the PA during the 2023 by-elections.
“The intention is to move the PA voters who are living at the Roodepan flats to make space for more ANC voters. The community is again being hoodwinked.
“Today, Kimberley still looks like a squatter camp despite the R500 million that was supposedly allocated to restore the sparkle to the city during the run-up to the 2021 elections,” added Mocwana.