EFF protesters accuse ward councillor of racism

The group led by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) accused their ward 11 councillor, Jacob Jacobs, of being racist and servicing only coloured residents in the area.

They claimed he gives land to people from other areas to build churches because they are Coloured, however when it comes to building sports fields for black kids, Jacobs says there’s no land.

Resident Amos Ntsabo said, “This municipality only cares about coloureds. When we come here with our grievances they ignore us.”

He also claimed that Jacobs does not attend meetings called by black community members. He only attends when a meeting is called by coloured leaders.

“When we take our problems to Jacobs, his response will be ‘we didn’t vote for him’. And that has to stop,” said Ntsabo. “All we want is to be involved in this municipality. Our grievances must be taken care of. We are voters. It doesn’t matter which political party we vote for. We are tired of this racism we getting here,” he said.

In their memorandum residents claimed that when there are job opportunities at the municipality offices only Democratic Alliance and African National Congress members are given jobs.

They also complained about lack of parks, speed humps and other facilities.

Resident Banele Ntlangani said that Jacobs is not involved in his community.

“Some of us don’t even know if he is our ward councillor or not, because when we come here, he tells us we did not vote for him so we have no right to make demands,” he said.

However Jacobs dismissed the allegations against him. He said that he has nothing to do with municipality employment. “This is nonsense. There’s a public park in Kalkfointen. They have a hall. Each street has speed humps. I don’t know what they want,” said Jacobs.

He said he’s been telling residents that there’s no land in the ward. “We are about to build a new park here and residents are aware of that,” he said.

Jacobs said he does not understand why he is accused of being racist, “I do attend their meetings if they call me,” he said.

“People are hired here through a database and everyone is welcome to come here and fill in a form. These residents are aware of that. They accuse me of giving jobs to foreign nationals. They don’t understand that those people are hard workers,” he said.

The protesters have given Jacobs seven days to respond.

Jacobs said he will sit with officials from housing then he will respond after the meeting.

“For now I can only promise to add speed humps,” he said.