Mass defections to DA
to have access to water. The Oxkraal dam is full of water but it is going to Komani to water gardens,” she said.
Barker said the water was not fit for human consumption as the purification plant had not been fixed, which she said was absolutely unacceptable, adding that it did not make sense for people to struggle for water when there was a dam.
“I will ask the water department leadership to explain what is happening with the dam. It is unacceptable that the clinic in the area has no water.
“The clinic needs work, it is falling apart and is not big enough to provide adequate services.”
She commended the staff of the facility but acknowledged that they were working under terrible pressure as it was impossible to run a clinic without clean water.
On health matters in the Eastern Cape, Barker said women travelled to the Western Cape to deliver their babies because few of them died during delivery.
“In the Eastern Cape we have a high rate of deaths of mothers and children during delivery, while they are minimal in the Western Cape.”
On corruption Barker said: “In the Western Cape where the DA governs there are clean audits. The money does not get blown away in the wind or under the table, get eaten or sent to another bank account, it goes to- wards serving the people. That is what we want to do, but to do that we need your votes.”
In welcoming the Mbekweni residents she said it took courage to join the DA.
“It takes a lot of thought to leave your mother party (the ANC) and go to another party (the DA). Nelson Mandela said if the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did, then you must do to the ANC what it did to the Apartheid government. I believe that is what you are doing.”
She said a true leader sacrificed like Nelson Mandela did to attain the freedom of South Africans.
DA provincial chairman Veliswa Mvenya urged new party members to be courageous in joining the DA. Mvenya, who has been with the DA since 1999, said she was threatened a number of times but had no scratches.
She said the DA was not excited by the added number of members in the party, but by the future of South Africa.
“We are here to fight for change, not against the ANC.
“We can not tolerate being led by people who do not follow the constitution they formulated. We have to make them fall. If we do not make the ANC fall, then South Africa will fall.”
She said Nelson Mandela did not fight to have the ANC rule forever, but gave a five year period for people to exercise democracy.
“Democracy is to free you from a party that does not do what you want.”
Mvenya said the ANC lied to people by telling them they would move their lives forward when in fact they moved their own families forward.
“You are not aware that government is built by you. If you want to teach the ANC a lesson you must vote for the DA.
“Voting for the same party allows them to continue to undermine you. When you vote for them you are telling them that they are doing well, but if you don’t they will wake up,” she said.
She said if people wanted employment they must vote for the DA. ANC municipalities did not receive funding from investors because they were corrupt and urged voters to vote for the DA which attracted investors due to the party’s clean audits.
“The DA reflects the rainbow nation. Stop taking food parcels, they will not serve you for five years,” Mvenya said.