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De Lille blames ANC councillors for protests

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille PHOTO: ELVIS NYELENZI
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille PHOTO: ELVIS NYELENZI

CAPE Town mayor Patricia de Lille said ANC councillors in the city were responsible for service delivery protests by their failure to communicate the city's policies to their constituents.

But ANC councillor and ANC Youth League regional chairman Khaya Yozi dismissed De Lille claims, saying ANC councillors could not communicate to residents "when there is nothing for them".

De Lille said the local government system was designed so that people could be heard, and that the role of councillors was critical at ward committees, sub-councils and councils.

"In this system, people can and are heard," she said in her weekly newsletter.

"At the municipal level they speak to their representatives who are councillors. They can do this directly or at ward committees.

"These councillors represent these matters to councils and, in Cape Town, sub-councils as well. They provide constant input into our cycles.

"Of course, priorities and policy directions are determined by the government of the day.

"But our democracy ensures that the government is not deaf to those who did not vote for it."

But Yozi said: "We are just embarking now on an IDP [integrated development plan] process, there are forms that we're encouraging our communities to fill and put up their wishes but the reality is that this process is just a lot of bull.

"What happens is that these portfolio committees, through the mayoral committee, change all those 'wishes', and the DA administration allocates budgets on what they want. They are not taking any inputs from ANC councillors or sub-councils," Yozi said.

He said the DA used its majority in council to ram through decisions on budget allocations, a point made earlier by the ANC's chief whip Xolani Sotashe.

De Lille and Western Cape premier Helen Zille have blamed the ANC and its youth league for inciting service delivery protests, citing a memorandum in which the members of the youth league promised to make Cape Town "ungovernable" if their demands were not met.

Last week at a press conference they asked President Jacob Zuma to "condemn" the youth league, saying the provincial government had called on the State Security Agency to investigate the "seditious threats" issued by some in the youth league.

De Lille said service delivery protests in Cape Town, which caused the deaths of four people, were destructive and had made the city's residents feel unsafe.

The city's executive director for safety and security, Richard Bosman, said about R13-million was needed to fix the damage caused by the recent spate of service delivery protests.

Last week Zille acknowledged that protesters had legitimate gripes about service delivery in their communities.

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