COPE ‘will win 59 Bay wards’

[caption id="attachment_156643" align="aligncenter" width="500"] ELECTION DRIVE: COPE deputy president Willie Madisha. Picture: MIKE HOLMES[/caption]

COPE says it expects to win 59 of the 60 wards in Nelson Mandela Bay in the upcoming local government elections. As it stands, COPE does not control a single ward in the metro.

Drawing support from about 100 people in Soweto-on-Sea, COPE deputy president Willie Madisha said: “We are going to win all wards. Why not?”

COPE is only contesting 59 wards after a candidate was rejected by the IEC for not submitting all the necessary documents. “People don’t have anything to eat because there are basically no jobs,” Madisha said.

“People don’t have water, they don’t have electricity. It’s very, very terrible.” Madisha said the COPE candidates could change the situation. “It’s not about gaining votes, it’s about making sure the people who have suffered and continue to suffer get their resources.”

On the challenges facing COPE, he said: “There were challenges and we have been able to deal with those challenges.” He also visited the Soweto-on-Sea home of a 92-year-old woman and gave her R200.

He promised to renovate her house before the August 3 elections. A teary-eyed Nomgqibelo Zandana said: “I feel so much better. “My house has been leaking for years and my toilet is not working, so I am happy that something will be done about it now.”