Community event or ANC meeting?
Confusion around northern areas ‘community meeting with mayor’
THE ANC stepped up its campaign to lure votes in Port Elizabeth’s northern areas as regional bosses went on a charm offensive yesterday, dishing out food parcels to the Bethelsdorp and West End community.
ANC regional task team (RTT) convener Charles Nqakula and chief whip Litho Suka brushed up on their Afrikaans and encouraged a crowd of about 250 at the Bethelsdorp community hall to vote for the ruling party.
They said they were there to report back to the commu- nity on mayor Danny Jordaan’s progress since stepping into office.
The meeting appeared to blur the lines between a municipal community outreach meeting and an ANC event.
While RTT member Rosie Vrolick stressed that “this is an ANC meeting; we don’t want the newspapers to get it wrong”, a Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality-branded taxi was seen ferrying people to the event.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said he did not know why a municipal taxi was used and would refer the matter to the director responsible for transport.
At least four people said they were confused when they arrived at a hall decorated in ANC banners as a community meeting with Jordaan had been advertised.
Jordaan could not attend as he was called to an urgent meeting elsewhere, the crowd was told by Nqakula.
When The Herald was invited, journalists were informed by ANC councillor Lawrence Troon that the event was to welcome hundreds of new members who had crossed over to the ANC from the DA.
He said yesterday that it was advertised solely as an ANC meeting.
As Troon welcomed the crowd, asking them to give the ANC a chance, some residents mumbled that “this is not an event for everyone” and “this is nonsense”.
DA supporter Desmond Fortein said: “There was a loudspeaker going around announcing that it’s a community meeting for everybody, but now when we get here they’re shouting ‘Viva ANC’ and ‘Amandla’.”
Jerome Harper said: “Many of us are DA supporters here, but we came for the food parcels.”
Fruit packs and 100 food parcels were dished out.
While the crowd on the right side of the hall cheered loudly and responded to the ‘Amandla!’ chants, the majority of those on the left side sat with their arms folded.
A few left the hall as soon as their fruit was finished.
Addressing the crowd in fluent Afrikaans, Suka told how he, together with Jordaan and deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni, had hit the ground running when they took over at City Hall in May.
He said they had visited dilapidated old age homes and taken a decision to beef up security and get the city to take over their management again.
The crowd cheered as he spoke of their commitment to make the streets safer, free of gangs and thieves.
Suka said they were shocked, when they first took over, to see how lazy some municipal officials were.
“The auditor-general found that there was a high level of absenteeism, but we’re working on that.
“There’s no boetie boetie or chommie, we have come to clean up,” he said.
Ending his speech, Suka said: “Some of you voted for the DA, but the services you want are from the ANC ... they [DA] are not the governing party. The road ahead is still long . . . and we want you to walk with us.”
Nqakula, who switched between Afrikaans and English, spoke about Khoi legend Dawid Stuurman and his links to Bethelsdorp.
Speaking about Jordaan, Nqakula said: “He’s our son of the soil . . . unlike other parties who bring people here from somewhere else and they want to be mayor.”
The residents could raise their concerns, which would be passed on to Jordaan.