Arrogant Zille’s political recklessness shames our nation

ON TUESDAY December 1, 2015, I had an opportunity to attend a debate at the Western Cape Provincial Legislature to keep myself informed about the current affairs in the province. While I normally attend these sessions, the difference this time was that the ANC forced a debate to declare a motion of no confidence in Helen Zille’s leadership for using “old and defeated” apartheid tactics to spy on political opponents.

This was due to the illogical decision by the Western Cape government to contract Paul Scheepers for intelligence services, in what has been widely recognised as a replacement of police intelligence mandate, as dictated by the country’s Constitution.

As I observed a wrestle between the ANC as a “fighter and protector” of the Constitution and the DA as a “reviver” of the apartheid-style of governance, I immediately recognised the important of this debate for protecting our hardwon democratic gains. Whenever I attend these debates at the provincial legislature, I become very agitated and angered by the level of arrogance shown by the Western Cape government.

An employment of spies by Helen Zille to spy on her opponents in both the DA and the ANC is simply not in sync with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Having abruptly declared unavailability for DA leadership during its congress, she has come to realise that state power is nothing without political power and has resorted to dirty politicking to remain in the political loop.

Zille’s political recklessness is not new. She once led a march to Cosatu House where our African brothers were used as shields. It is clear that no lesson was learnt from that march as well as the march by the Inkatha Freedom Party to the Shell House in the 1990s. Those that know our history will understand that marching to another political party’s offices is a declaration of war.

However, due to desperation to divert attention from her misuse of public Office, Zille was prepared to risk black lives by renting a dominantly black crowd to march to ANC offices in Cape Town. This march was meant to provoke the ANC to degenerate to the DA’s lowest levels of politicking, thus diverting attention from the provincial legislature. This march by the mouthpiece of White-foreign capital had nothing to do with improving the lives of the most marginalised and the working class but everything to do with protecting apartheid privileges and its practices.

The march was organised under the disguise of self-manufactured propaganda, associating the ANC with gangsterism. This is an extreme form of undermining our intelligence. Instead of tackling this social ills that continue to destroy the fibre of our society, the DA looks for scapegoats to justify its neglect of the working class communities.

The fact is, it is the DA that dispensed patronage to companies such as the now defunct Filcon and Good Hope construction, whose association with gangs is public knowledge. It was in the Western Cape government property where a worker was ruthlessly attacked by gangsters.

It is also public knowledge that both Zille and Patricia De Lille neglected the poor when they were needed the most.

While more 5 000 people were displaced by fire over the past weekend in the Cape Metro, they were busy marketing the DA’s anti-poor policies in the Eastern Cape.

Little resources are provided to assist the displaced families in rebuilding. In fact, the popular strategy is to lump people in community halls without any clear sustainable support. This anti-poor stance – propagated by Zille, De Lille and Bonginkosi Madikizela – further deepens underdevelopment in the working class communities.

I believe that the decision to impeach Zille and her government was a correct one to expose the complete disregard for our Constitution.

Sokoyi is SACP Western Cape provincial spokesperson and member of The Young Independents Community and writes in his personal capacity.