Axolile Notywala of the SJC speaks from the floor during last night’s election debate. Photo by Craig Oosthuizen.
11 April 2014
On April 10, an election debate convened by Equal Education and Ndifuna Ukwazi in Khayelitsha with the DA, EFF, Agang and Cosatu, was disrupted by unruly party members.
Opening the debate, chair Yoliswa Dwane said that they had invited the ANC, but the party did not respond to the invite. During her introduction, she introduced Tony Ehrenreich not as an ANC representative but from Cosatu.
People were disappointed that the ANC was not present and demanded Ehrenreich represent the ANC. “I can’t divest myself from the matters of the ANC,” said Ehrenreich. He said Cosatu is part of the ANC.
Each party was given a few minutes to introduce themselves. The politicians took the opportunity to attack each other.
Masizole Mnqasela (DA) said both presidents of EFF and ANC were corrupt and loved money and power.
“Look at [how] Jacob Zuma has Nkandla, and Julius Malema had a mansion in Sandton.”
Andile Mngxitama (EFF) said, “Black people in the Western Cape stay in shacks and this is new to me … This province was ruled by the ANC and ANC did nothing and now it is governed by the DA. And still there are shacks. Then why should we give them more power?”
He said the people should give EFF a chance.
Sandile Eland said Agang has the solutions. “We have a leader that has been proven good in terms of commitment in this country. Our leader has a history of struggle and black consciousness.”
Agang believed that the people needed to be empowered and they should be able to stand up for themselves.
After each speaker had spoken, people commented, and opposition parties booed and laughed when they didn’t like a certain speaker.
The chair posed four questions to the panel.
When Mnqasela said that under the DA 99% of people in the Western Cape are able to drink water from the tap, he was booed. More boos followed when he said the ANC government only gave 14,500 full flush toilets and the DA gave 40,000 toilets.
Agang and EFF people booed, shouting “pota-pota”.
“DA has a 10-year programme to sort out the toilet issue in South Africa.” He said that the problem is normal in the country, but not in the Western Cape.
“I am a DA MP, I am black like you and I am also poor like you, and I also have pota-pota in my house.”
Mngxitama said to Mnqasela, “I can see that the Madam gave you notes to read. Black person who says sanitation is solved and is from Khayelitsha, that brings questions”.
Looking at Mnqasela, he commented about black people who used to work for white people during apartheid to kill other black people.
Mngxitama did not answer the sanitation question, but spoke about how wealth is stolen by white people, and said Mamphela Ramphele [Agang’s leader] exploited black people in the mines.
Eland responded that the DA was wrong for not going to the people to ask them for solutions on the sanitation problem.
Ehrenreich said the issue in Cape Town is inequality. “It doesn’t matter how you speak about pota-pota but a toilet shouldn’t be in a kitchen.
Mnqasela claimed that the national minister of police didn’t want to address the crime issue in the Western Cape because it was run by the DA.
Mngxitama said the police were trained to kill black people.
Eland said that the police needed more education, should work with the community and ask for solutions. “We believe that only few police are corrupt but the few affects others. And police are human, they need motivation.”
Ehrenreich said people should work with those police who were not corrupt. He also asked why “the police” in Constantia and Blouberg are ADT [security firm], but in the township are government police.
Mnqasela said that the ANC must stop politicizing the issue of crime, and that the children in Manenberg needed help.
Mngxitama said that crime was caused by young people who were not motivated. “We as EFF will give them education and skills.”
“The DA and ANC are playing with people’s lives. As Agang we will put police that are trained on the street”, said Eland.
Ehrenreich said the DA had done nothing about crime in the Western Cape. Premier Helen Zille should focus more on Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha and not on Milnerton and other wealthy areas. “You should build a relationship with the national government so that we can work together.”
Angie Peter of the Social Justice Coalition asked the leaders what they were going to do about gender violence related crimes. None of the parties answered her question.
Axolile Notywala (also of the SJC) said that the DA was insulting people when they talked about sanitation. He said that Cosatu shouldn’t judge Ramphele because you haven’t dealt with the Nkandla issue.
The debate ended early when DA members refused to leave the venue after they were asked to leave for being disruptive.
Dwane had asked the DA party supporters to leave the room. Its representative, Masizole Mnqasela, stood up first and left.
This last disruption happened after the DA members claimed they didn’t understand Sandile Eland of Agang, who responded by saying, “I do not understand, how do you listen to your leader who speaks English and yet you claim you don’t understand.”
The DA supporters started singing and walked out during the debate.