Provincial ANC disappointed with dwindling support at local rallies
THE ANC in the Western Cape has expressed disappointment over the dwindling number of supporters at party rallies and celebrations.
Addressing a Human Rights Day commemoration at the Khayelitsha Resource Centre yesterday, acting chairman of the ANC in the province, Khaya Magaxa, said he was not satisfied with the fewer than 200 people who had attended the event.
“We are not happy with the turn-out and the people who are to be blamed for is us, the people seated on these seats.”
Magaxa highlighted issues he felt weakened the ruling party and contributed to the ANC losing the Western Cape.
“The reason we lost the province as the ANC was because some of us were greedy for power to a point that we didn’t see that the greed for power would deter us from reaching the party’s goals. The DA is not in the local government offices because their policies are better; the DA is benefiting because of our unnecessary wrestling for power.”
Magaxa, who is from Khayelitsha, spoke briefly about the Sharpeville Massacre and how he believed the Pan Africanist Congress “hijacked” ANC rallies to gain support.
“We are commemorating Sharpeville, but at the same time we are no longer mourning their deaths but celebrating the fruits of their labour. History is the capacity to relate the past with the present. If you fail to interlink the two, then your future is dark.”
Magaxa said there were people hijacking struggles for their own gain. He touched on the cost of damages to universities, released last week after the national university protests. He urged people to protest in a “decent manner”.
“R150 million in damages, think about the number of high-class institutions which could have been created using that money. We have a problem of people protesting for one thing, while destroying another. These people are crippling us, there is no such revolution, it is pure hooliganism.”
ANC Youth League chairman Muhammad Khalid also shared a message of support for the ruling party.
“We need to read up on our history and Sharpeville to gain an understanding and not take the day for granted. The struggle for water and sanitation is very real in the Western Cape.
Our mothers and sisters get raped in communal toilets when they want to relieve themselves. Water distribution is being privatised and our economy is still skewed towards big businesses.”
South African Students Congress provincial president, Lwazi Phakade, spoke on the #FeesMustFall movement and how the ruling party should support it.
He said: “Education is a basic right. We are in support of the ANC and expect that the ANC support the # FeesMustFall movement.”