Sisulu uses Castro lecture to slate Bay’s DA leaders
A MEMORIAL lecture held last night in Uitenhage for late Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro got off to a rocky start after being delayed by almost three hours.
It was also interspersed with criticism of the DA local government in the metro.
A group of about 200 people sang struggle songs with Cuban flags firmly gripped in their hands while waiting for Human Settlements Minister and ANC NEC member Lindiwe Sisulu to give her speech.
Woven in between a number of lengthy quotes by Castro, former president Nelson Mandela and Bolivian president Evo Morales, Sisulu encouraged the crowd at the Babs Madlakane Hall in Kwa-Nobuhle to continue their revolutionary spirit.
“Challenges he [Castro] pointed out in his speech to [the South African] parliament [in 1998], we have not dealt with yet,” she said, adding that the ANC had come face to face with its shortcomings during the August local elections when it lost major metros to the DA.
“Now we are doing something about it with the lead-up to the 2019 elections.”
Sisulu said although the ANC had “lost the elections and the trademark of a legend [Nelson Mandela Bay]” it had won wards and was looking at “the glass half-full”.
“We will take back this metro . . . it’s not a threat, it’s a promise,” she said.
Sisulu said when Castro died he left the world a poorer place. He was a selfless man who gave so much to others,” she said.
Sisulu’s speech – interjected with scathing remarks about the DA – garnered loud support from the crowd.
“We are in a vital part of our history [which is] now in the hands of those who may have been on the other side [during apartheid],” she said.