MEC backs president on Nkandla
Support for Zuma as gifts handed out
SOUTH Africans must say they do not want a president who grew up poor in a village and became a political prisoner instead of opposition parties hiding behind Nkandla as the reason they do not want Jacob Zuma as the commander-in-chief. This is according to Eastern Cape Social Development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi, who told Veeplaas residents at the weekend that they should not be misled by opposition parties, which she described as newcomers. Sihlwayi said newcomers claimed the ANC-led government was corrupt but when asked how it was corrupt, they pointed to the Nkandla upgrades and claimed Zuma stole the project’s money. “When [apartheid presidents FW] de Klerk and [PW] Botha were presidents, they lived in mansions. They got into office with the mansions already there and they extended them so that they would be well protected as state presidents,” Sihlwayi said. The Nkandla upgrades cost taxpayers more than R240-million, while De Klerk told journalists in 2012 that the state had paid to increase the height of a perimeter wall around his property in Cape Town, the installation of cameras and the construction of a room and a toilet for his guards, she said. “A book of protecting presidents was created. Even if it is a prisoner like the president of the ANC, he is still a president. “That book was implemented – so that if you are a rural man who wants a kraal and cattle, they should be protected and not stolen by thieves,” Sihlwayi said. “But when this one who freed this country, when he has a kraal, a place to relieve himself, a swimming pool – which are also in their [De Klerk and Botha’s ] homes in Cape Town and Johannesburg – they say he’s corrupt.”
Sihlwayi was addressing a packed Veeplaas hall as part of her department’s community outreach programme, where she handed over food parcels, blankets and three wheelchairs. Sihlwayi cautioned residents against opposition MPs who wanted Zuma to answer for the Nkandla project in parliament. “When it was De Klerk, why did they not say that? Why are they saying that to him now? “That’s undermining and trying to overthrow the ANC government,” she said. “The people of this country must say that a president who grew up poor, in the struggle and went to jail does not have rights. “They must say and we will listen.” Yesterday’s event was the second this month by the department in the area. Sihlwayi said she had decided to visit the area because it had high levels of poverty, with residents abusing alcohol and drugs. While the country only put a spotlight on the abuse of women and children for 16 days, the MEC called on residents, especially women, to stand up against abuse. Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini would be at Dan Qeqe Stadium in Zwide on Friday to launch a programme to curb substance abuse and teenage pregnancy, Sihlwayi said.
