ANCYL protest suspended

The planned protest action by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in the Western Cape on Wednesday has been suspended for now. The announcement was made by trade union Cosatu at a media briefing held on Tuesday at Community House in Salt River. The provincial secretary of Cosatu in the Western Cape, Tony Ehrenreich said the suspension of the protest action came after the trade union met with the ANCYL. Last week the ANCYL marched on the office of the Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille and handed over a memorandum highlighting their demands for better service delivery.

“Cosatu urged youth league to suspend any action until the parties have engaged, and the DA should provide feedback to the ANC youth League by the end of this week to ensure that dialogue is given a chance ahead of conflict and further protest. ”Ehrenreich said instead they will be engaging with the City of Cape Town on the pace of service delivery in the province. Recently Cape Town has experienced a flood of service delivery protests, with the most recent one taking place in Khayelitsha last week.

According to media reports last week, the youth league had also threatened to render the province ungovernable should their demands not be met by Tuesday. This prompted Zille as well as the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia De Lille to lay criminal charges against the ANCYL as well as Cosatu. “The failure of the DA to engage with communities on their desperate circumstances is a matter of grave concern and this arrogance is not the kind of leadership we require in these difficult times.”

Ehrenreich said Cosatu will not be involved in any protest action and that they were not party to the memorandum handed over to provincial government last week. “It is completely misplaced of the DA to site Cosatu as a respondent in any claims that they may have made. We believe that this an attempt to further divide and also an attempt to undermine a legitimate attempt right to protest that many organizations have,” added Ehrenreich.
Solutions

Ehrenreich told VOC News that solutions can easily be found to the service delivery protests. He maintains that the main reason for the lack of service delivery is a lack of political will. The unwillingness of the Democractic Alliance (DA) to engage with community organizations and sections of the community that they see as being historically ANC based organizations is one of the stumbling blocks to effective service delivery.

“They have got to get away from this prejudice and this bias. Leadership brings with the responsibility of engaging with even those whom you disagree upon. We want to urge political maturity so that we find solutions in the best interest of the community.” Ehrenreich added that on numerous occasions they have told the City that there are other sites of public land that is available that can be used to relocate residents living in informal settlements.

During winter in Cape Town, informal dwellings are often left water clogged or burnt down as residents try to keep warm or cook food. “Many of these sites are in wealthier, mainly white areas and the DA and the City of Cape Town refuses to move poor communities into what has been a historically white area, so it is that prejudice that stops us from finding long term solutions,” he said.
Threats

Meanwhile, De Lille on Tuesday said they would not be deterred by threats to disrupt a public meeting scheduled to take place in Khayelitsha in the evening. “I have received credible information from security services that there are plans in place to disrupt an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) report back session to be held in Khayelitsha. I wish to make it very clear that the City of Cape Town will not be deterred by such threats and that we will not allow any part of the City to be turned into a no-go zone,” said De Lille in a statement.

She was adamant that the public meeting will go ahead, but added that the threats cannot be viewed in isolation from the calls made by the ANCYL to make the City and Province ungovernable through disrupting transport routes and other forms of civil disobedience. “I would like to appeal to the leadership of the ANC as well as all other community organisations in the area to help ensure that tonight’s meeting goes ahead free of any form of disruption,” said the Mayor.

The meeting in Khayelitsha will be the last in a series of public meetings held by the Mayor and the Mayoral Committee across the City over the last month. Similar meetings have already been held in Mitchells Plain, Grassy Park, Strand, Atlantis and Kraaifontein. De Lille explained that the purpose of the meetings is for the political leadership of the City to report back to communities on how the extensive input into the IDP has been carefully considered used to ensure optimal service delivery in the metro.
Funding

De Lille said the following service delivery targets will be unveiled at the meeting in Khayelitisha:

- Each ward in Khayelitsha will receive R700 000 for funding of local projects such as the upgrading of community facilities.
- Wards in Khayelitsha will receive part of the R10,000,000 additional allocation as per the Mayoral Redress Program.
- The provision of free call lines to report service delivery complaints.
- The extensive provision of free basic services to the indigent.
- R20 million job creation project through area cleaning.
- R9,000,000 allocated to improve health facilities, including a new clinic in Town 2 and the expansion of the Luvuyo clinic.
- R3,275,196 allocated to enhance the provision of Anti-Retroviral medication.
- R7,500,000 for an upgrade to the Vuyani Market.
- R1,000,000 for an upgrade to the Site C Meat Market.
- R2,000,000 allocation for the Monwabisi Chalet Development.
- Over R500,000 set aside for traffic calming measures.
- R8,000,000 for the revamping of Solomon Mahlangu Hall
- R2,500,000 for an upgrade to the Khayelitsha Wetlands.
- R300,000 for a new swimming pool in Site B.
- R22,000,000 for a new regional library in Kuyasa.
- R8,818m048 for the construction of the Harare Square Business Hub.
- Upgrades of the sewer network and water supply at a cost of over R10,000,000.
- Updates on electrification in RR Section, DT Section, Enkanini, QQ Section and Site C.
- A comprehensive update on all forms of housing projects currently under construction and being planned for Khayelitsha. VOC (Dorianne Arendse)