The ANC Peoples March to Tshwane House in Pretoria, 17 March 2023. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen
Members of the African National Congress (ANC) took to the streets of Tshwane on Friday, in an attempt to regain control from the Democratic Alliance-led (DA) coalition.
On Thursday, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the Tshwane metro experienced instability, corruption, maladministration, and a decline in service delivery under the DA’s rule.
The ANC said it has had enough of the Democratic Alliance’s maladministration and corruption.
The protests takes place under the hashtag BuyaTshwane.
ANC members Friday are marching from the old Putco depot in Marabastad’s down Struben Street towards Thabo Sehume Street.
The governing party said the DA’s performance failures “are on an increase since the coalition started governing the municipality eight years ago”.
Speaking to the media on Friday, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the opposition had seven years of being the turnaround specialists.
“What have they fixed?” Bhengu-Motsiri, asked, adding:
“They reversed everything done by the ANC, especially [to] the poorest of the poor.”
She said the ANC has always been candid about the its weaknesses, but she wanted to know:
“What has the opposition said?”
“Seven years of maladministration, appointment of incompetent people in mayoral offices – it’s the story of Tshwane.”
Protesters will make their way to the municipality’s offices in the Tshwane CBD, and motorists should take caution and avoid main roads, including Johannes Ramokhoase Street, Lilian Ngoyi Street and Paul Kruger Street.
The ANC’s Deputy Secretary-General, Nomvula Mokonyane, addressed councillors ahead of the BuyaTshwane march on Friday, with Mbalula leading the march to the municipal offices.
He said the march will be supported by members of the national executive committee, the Progressive Youth Alliance and civil society.
Meanwhile, the DA says the decision to march on the same day the council will be a electing a mayor “seems calculated to give political advantage to the ANC-EFF coalition”.
“To what extent the violence, intimidation and criminality inside the council chamber influenced the decisions of the IEC is not clear.
“What is clear is that holding a mayoral election at the same time and scene as an anti-DA march of the ANC is not conducive to a free and fair election environment,” the DA said.
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