Housing still a major issue in the province – ANC

ing – where the province had performed badly.

Magaxa is acting chairman of the ANC in the Western Cape and the new leader of the official opposition in the provincial legislature.

He took over this week from suspended ANC leader Marius Fransman, who was not in attendance yesterday.

Magaxa, surrounded by ANC members in a show of support for their new leader, said while Zille had spoken about the Conradie Hospital redevelopment, the site was only a fraction of all the land needed for new housing.

Magaxa said many other parcels of land had been sold to private developers.

“The fact that this province still has a lot of racism is because we are still… distributed here according to apartheid’s special plan.”

He said building low-cost or government-subsided housing close to the city centre would help foster racial harmony.

Earlier in the day, a small group of ANC members picketed outside the legislature while waiting for Zille to arrive, holding up placards bearing messages saying “DA delivers inferior services” and “DA does not care for the poor”.

The sole EFF member in the provincial government, Bernard Joseph, said he was unimpressed with the premier’s speech.

He reiterated the EFF’s call for expropriation of land without compensation

Ferlon Christians, of the ACDP, said he was “generally happy” with Zille’s address.

But he echoed fellow opposition members in saying Zille should have better explained how she would bring down the provincial housing backlog.

“The problem is these people are still on the waiting list after 20 to 30 years,” he said.