The truth is the majority of the membership in the DA is black. Why you may ask? It’s simply because of the blacks who have become disillusioned by the ANC, they simply forgot that they have the freedom to choose a political home, live where they can afford to live, afford the lifestyle they live or simply be the middle class that they are.
The majority is just fed up with the corruption in the ANC in the areas where they live, some were active ANC members and they were not successful and jumped ship.
In reality though, if one looks at the issues that the DA champions in municipalities, it is really issues that impact the minority. Let’s take an average DA ward councillor; they complain about potholes, street lights, billing, planning issues and meter reading.
Joburg is the most unequal city in the world, the gap between the rich and the poor is a massive one. People go to bed hungry, unemployment is rife, people begging and living in the streets are so many, especially in the DA suburban wards.
So many of our black people leave informal settlements and townships to go to the suburbs to work in the malls, restaurants, madams’ houses and businesses, and they rely on public transport to go to work, especially taxis and busses and trains.
You will never hear a concern from a DA councillor who raises a question or motion in a Council meeting to say what is the council doing about taxi ranks in their wards, they won’t submit a proposal for proper taxi ranks to be built in white areas, look at where taxis park in most suburbs, even at shopping centres there are no proper taxi ranks that have shelters or even toilets.
You will hardly hear that DA ward councillors are doing skills development programmes for the people living on the streets, using business, NGO’s and government departments in their wards to deal with poverty in the city.
Then you will find DA PR councillors allocated to ANC wards, they will never raise concerns around government programmes that are aimed at poverty alleviation, such as the City’s rebates policy, many of them haven’t read this policy, programmes aimed at feeding child-headed homes will never be something DA PR councillors will share with residents in areas where they are allocated, instead they always complain about what the ANC is not doing well or corruption.
The DA councillors and MP’s don’t have a developmental state mentality, they are destructive, always looking for negative stories.
Voters need to open their eyes and read between the lines when a DA politician opens their mouths or write something.
Views shared by Sipho Masigo do not necessarily reflect the views of the Southern Courier or Caxton Local Newspapers
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