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EFF leader Julius Malema has lambasted the ANC for neglecting the Eastern Cape despite the province being home to many legends of the liberation struggle.
Malema, speaking at the Rotary Stadium in Ngangelizwe, Mthatha yesterday afternoon, told a crowd of about 1 000 “fighters” that the ANC had turned its back on the people of the province, which was evident from the lack of service delivery.
“Here in OR Tambo and the whole of Mthatha our people are neglected. Our people are abandoned. It’s as if the ANC has forgotten about the existence of the people of this province,” Malema said.
“Our people do not have water. I have always asked the question: what did the people of the Eastern Cape do to the ANC because it’s as if they are punishing the people of this province,” he said.
He said despite being the home of Chris Hani, OR Tambo, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela there was nothing that showed that the province had given birth to international icons.
Malema, who was on the campaign trail in Mthatha ahead of the August 3 local government elections, said parts of the province had no water and in instances where there was water, it was not clean.
The EFF leader said Mthatha was better under Bantustan leader KD Matanzima than it is under the ANC-governed King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality.
“Today Mthatha looks like a squatter camp under the ANC. The old people are saying they miss those days of Matanzima because today as you drive in town it’s possible to find a pothole which is the size of Zuma’s swimming pool. They have ruined Mthatha,” he said.
Malema said the EFF wanted to fix the once beautiful capital of the former Transkei, where people would access to land and have proper houses and free services such as water and electricity.
The firebrand leader also tore into the ANC and President Jacob Zuma for their handling of the Nkandla scandal.
Malema said there was no longer the ANC but that everything was President Jacob Zuma.
“R250 million spent on one family in Nkandla. It doesn’t matter how much you love the ANC. The Public Protector say this is wrong. The courts say it is wrong. The ANC still says it is right.
“If they agree that it is wrong why is Zuma still the president. They should have punished him by now. Because anyone who does wrong to the public must be punished,” Malema said to loud applause from his supporters.
He said the real ANC was buried in Qunu along with Mandela in Qunu and that on August 3 it would be “the unveiling of the tombstone of this ANC”.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mlibo Qoboshiyane said Zuma will only leave when his term ends in 2019, “no other tricks and persistent illegal means will prosper”.
He said the EFF’s frivolity and persistent lust of Zuma dwarfed their alternative policy drive.
“Only political tourists who visit the Eastern Cape to campaign for votes would not understand the changes in the province,” he added.
“Huge social infrastructure (water, schools, clinics, human settlements) increased under the ANC.”
