Old foes unite for sake of hood
● Two of Khayelitsha’s prominent sons, who stand on opposing sides of the political divide, this week put their differences aside in an effort to save their hometown from a Covid-19 catastrophe.
The township this week emerged as the area with the most confirmed cases of Covid-19 (1,600 by Friday at noon) within the City of Cape Town metro municipality.
Leading DA member Masizole Mnqasela, who is the speaker in the Western Cape legislature, and ANC MP and former housing MEC Richard Dyantyi agreed to put politics aside after they were approached to provide leadership by the Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF).
The two political foes, whose parties are engaged in a war of words over the government’s lockdown regulations, turned into colleagues as they co-chaired a KDF Covid19 steering committee virtual meeting to discuss steps to tackle the pandemic ravaging their neighbourhood. Other current and former MPs and councillors from different parties also sit on the steering committee.
“We were deliberate on who we wanted involved to lead this process and why. We wanted a process that is going to overlook our political posture so that we look at an adequate and genuine response to the rapid spread of coronavirus in Khayelitsha,” said KDF chair Ndithini Tyhido in his opening remarks to the meeting.
Dyantyi emphasised the extent to which many in Khayelitsha rely on social grants. “Before we talk about the R350 for unemployed people, you already have 94,000 people in Khayelitsha who are benefiting from social grants,” he said.
Mnqasela pledged to lobby the provincial government to support a rearrangement of the City of Cape Town’s budget following the impact of Covid-19 on Khayelitsha.