Parties take flak at debate

POLITICAL parties were yesterday chastised by community members at a pre-election debate hosted by the Unisa’s Pretoria main campus.

Some in the audience attending the robust debate organised by Unisa’s Department of Political Sciences and the Human Sciences and Law colleges told political leaders they were quick to campaign for votes, but hardly responded to pressing problems raised by communities through the year.

The pre-election debate was an opportunity for the audience to consider contentious issues in the country regarding land, government corruption, xenophobia, crime and unemployment.

Among the party representatives present were ANC MP Alvin Botes, EFF national executive committee member advocate Dali Mpofu, DA MP Refiloe Ntsekhe, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa, IFP provincial spokesperson Sibusiso Phakathi and Freedom Front Plus MP Anton Alberts.

Those gathered highlighted the recent spate of service delivery protests, using Alexandra township as an example.

Botes was interrogated on why President Cyril Ramaphosa decided to meet Alexandra residents on behalf of the ANC as a means of electioneering and not as a representative of the Presidency.

“You cannot assume the stewardship of a municipality such as Johannesburg and Tshwane. The president, after various calls regarding Mashaba’s delay, then took it upon himself to intervene. It was not a campaign strategy, but he was responding to the outcry of the people of Alexandra as the ANC have warmed up their hearts by attending to them,” Botes said.

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni, who moderated the debate, asked the ANC what it was offering that would make a difference after elections.

“We now have a president that people can entirely rely on and as the ANC, we now have a barrel of political will and our key focus is to tackle unemployment and reduce the high numbers of unemployed people, young and old people and provide free education for students,” Botes added.

The DA’s Ntsekhe, on land transformation and socio-economic issues said: “One of the manners in which we will operate in redressing this significant issue, is by making sure that we have a fair share scheme among all races when we redistribute land, secondly people who work and reside near mine industries must also have ownership of those mines and that’s part of our redress.”

The EFF’s Mpofu said the country’s problems were structural, historical and fundamental.

“The problems that we are currently faced with as a country did not ensue with ANC government, they did not even start with the apartheid government. However, they started many years ago when the land of the black African majority was taken through violence, not by negotiations nor by the presentation of title deeds,” he said, adding that the reason why colonists took the land was not because they were cruel but rather understood that to build an economy one needs land.

Holomisa said the criminal justice system of South Africa was not effective in solving issues relating to the abuse of women and children.

Furthermore, he said the ANC had promised it would handle matters concerning xenophobia and illegal immigration in an humane and holistic manner, in line with continental and international obligations.

The IFP’s Phakathi, in closing, argued that the minimum wage in place is too little. He challenged the next ruling party to increase it to a minimum of R5000.