Danny Jordaan, who has had his opponent DA mayoral candidate Athol Trollip breathing down his neck since the ANC brought him in last year as the replacement mayor in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, has finally plucked up the courage to throw dust in Trollip’s eyes.
Jordaan was in campaign mode in King William’s Town last week, where he was introduced on Thursday along with seven other mayoral candidates of the governing party in “strategic municipalities” in the Eastern Cape.
He laughed at Trollip for selling his family farm, Mount Prospect in Bedford, in 2005, claiming it was indicative of someone’s sheer lack of capacity to even manage a farm and yet dreaming of running a metro.
“Some mayoral candidate ran a farm and had to sell it ... he couldn’t run a farm. Fortunately, if you can’t run a metro, you can’t sell it. We have a budget of R11 billion. So you must ask the question: what is the size of the budget that you have managed?” he quipped.
He questioned Trollip’s management skills and also accused his party of voting against his pro-poor budget because the DA “would have preferred a pro-rich administration”.
Trollip defended his decision to sell the farm, saying Jordaan knew nothing about farming and should not be expressing any views in public.
“We will see on August 4 what the voters say,” Trollip retorted.
He was referring to the day the local government election results will be announced.