Calls to trash Cape slammed
The ANC and its youth wing have denounced calls by an ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader in Cape Town for the destruction of city property.
Following a fracas which saw the destruction of newly constructed corrugated iron enclosures around previously uncovered toilets in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, ANCYL Dullah Omar Region executive member Loyiso Nkohla threatened to make Cape Town "ungovernable".
But ANC provincial co-ordinator Duma Ndleleni said the party condemned the call for the destruction of council property.
"It's not the nature of the ANC (to destroy), our policy is to build," said Ndleleni. But he added that the people of Makhaza, Khayelitsha needed toilets which were "proper and decent".
"The ward councillor met with mayor Dan Plato on April 30, she made proposals about the toilet (enclosures) which should be built there, then she went back to the community and promised them a response from the mayor."
Instead, Ndleleni said, the city officials had decided to erect the enclosures, going against the wishes of the community.
ANCYL national spokesperson Magdalene Moonsamy said the situation in Makhaza had reached "a point of being intolerable" but that the organisation was not one to encourage ill-discipline.
"We have been in contact with the comrades in Cape Town, the issue around what happened on Monday was due to a publicity stunt by Plato.
"For us, it seems as if people who voted ANC were being penalised with conditions placed upon them by the DA," said Moonsamy.
She said the ANCYL would conduct negotiations with the city to find a solution to the toilet issue, not just in Makhaza but also in other areas in Khayelitsha.
ANCYL spokesman in the Dullah Omar region, Chumile Sali, backed off from earlier threats of violence but said the most important thing was "restoring the human dignity of residents in Makhaza who had been disrespected" by Plato.
"Government is supposed to eradicate shacks, not build them. Violence is secondary, what comes first is human dignity," said Sali.
Nkohla said on Tuesday that the league was "going to destroy everything and make the city ungovernable".
"We are calling on all youth to do this - vandalise the city - especially those living in informal settlements."
