A furious Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, has threatened to lay charges with the police and a complaint with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) against an official of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
This follows the refusal by the IFP’s Mthobisi Sokhela, the chairperson of KwaMadala Hostel Residents, to grant permission to a DA entourage to enter the hostel. Sokhela said he and other local leaders still needed to consult their seniors about the visit.
He claimed that these senior leaders had gone home to KwaZulu-Natal and they would only meet on the matter once the leaders returned on a day he could not specify. “I am under instruction not to allow the DA people into the hostel until such time that the senior leaders return, and unfortunately, there is nothing I can do as I also answer to my seniors who have given me this instruction,” he said.
Under pressure from Mashaba and his entourage, Sokhela said the DA could enter the hostel and distribute their pamphlets on condition that they took off their DA T-shirts, a request which incensed Mashaba.
“This is tantamount to blocking us from gaining entry into the hostel,” said Mashaba. “These people are making the hostel a no-go zone and it’s a blatant violation of the Code of Conduct of the IEC.
“I cannot accept that at this day and age of our democracy, there are still people who want to create no-go zones for other parties, moreover an opposition party just like them.
“I am going to lay a complaint with the IEC to ensure that we level the playing fields,” added a fuming Mashaba at the gates of the hostel.
“Clearly,” Mashaba said, “the IFP is scared of the growth and swelling support for the DA in Alexandra, and in Johannesburg as a whole. As the DA grows, it is no wonder that smaller opposition parties will take fright.”
The DA was scheduled to hold a report back meeting with the residents on the ‘appalling and inhuman conditions’ at KwaMadala Hostel after taking their plight to the Human Rights Commission following the party’s visit a few months back.
The hostel sees people living with poor sanitation, unsafe buildings and sporadic water supply, including foul smells of flowing human waste from burst sewerage pipes, which Mashaba said were violations of human rights.
The Human Rights Commission gave an undertaking to investigate the City of Johannesburg for these human rights violations.
DA chairperson for Ward 75, Ernest Buthelezi said he had met all the protocol requirements for entering the hostel and had been granted the right to do so by IFP chairperson of the hostel, Zakhele Mbonani.
“I don’t know now what this fuss is all about, and the demand that we undress and go into the hostel naked,” Buthelezi told Alex News.
