ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has backed his deputy Paul Mashatile, supporting his view that the DA government in the Western Cape was neglecting townships and informal settlements in favour of more affluent suburbs.
However, DA federal council chair Helen Zille said Mashatile was “talking bulls**t” and fired back with 14 tweets.
Speaking at the party’s 113th cake cutting ceremony in Athlone, Ramaphosa agreed with Mashatile that the DA was not delivering services to poor areas. Mashatile has been at loggerheads with Zille over his remarks about lack of service delivery in townships such as Khayelitsha and Gugulethu.
Zille dismissed Mashatile's rhetoric as “bulls**t”, saying DA municipalities spent more money in poor areas than in the suburbs.
After days of back and forth between Mashatile and Zille, Ramaphosa entered the fray and told an ANC gathering that poor areas were being neglected by the DA government. He said that the disparities between the poor and more affluent areas were glaring.
“Here in the Western Cape we still find ugly features of differentiation where a number of our people live,” said Ramaphosa. “Where people who are wealthy live, they have better services. Where many of our people live they have horrible services. Many of our people don’t have houses, services in many places where they stay are very poor.”
Ramaphosa told the gathering celebrating the party’s birthday that the ANC has to intervene and make sure that services are delivered to poor areas.
“The municipalities here in the Western Cape serve the interests, often, of people with money. We must make sure that municipalities serve the interests of all our people equally so that there is progress that we can see.”
Zille on Wednesday, however, doubled down, sending out a whopping 14 tweets explaining why Mashatile was wrong.
The tweets, she said, were meant to expose how Mashatile was dishonest about the DA’s service delivery “failures”.
“Let's start with pro-poor infrastructure investment. In 2024/25, Cape Town is making South Africa’s largest ever infrastructure investment by a metropolitan municipality, with a 75% pro-poor spend directly benefiting lower income households,” read one of her tweets.
“Lower income households will directly benefit from 75% — or R9bn — of Cape Town’s R12bn infrastructure spend in 2024/25. Over the next three years Cape Town’s infrastructure spend of R39.5bn is more than all three Gauteng metros combined.”
She said that R3.7bn over three years goes towards upgrading informal settlements.
She said that R126m goes towards water, sanitation and waste, while R36m goes to electricity, R1bn to bulk services and R2.5bn to housing.
“SA’s Census data (2024), shows Cape Town has SA’s highest proportion of people benefiting from free basic water and electricity. The city is 10 percentage points ahead of the next metro for free electricity reach, and 25 percentage points ahead for free water and sanitation,” said Zille.
“A R6.3bn new MyCiTi bus route will link Khayelitsha with surrounding suburbs over the next three years. The MyCiTi N2 Express service to Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha is the busiest route in the city, providing a world-class public transport service.”
Security cameras, she said, were being installed at sewer pump stations to prevent theft which she said causes sewer spillages and service disruptions.
“Despite Eskom increases in excess of 40% per year, the City of Cape Town has reduced the price of electricity for indigent households over the past two years. The only city in the country to have done this,” said Zille.
“Cape Town has SA’s lowest unemployment rate with 300,000 jobs added since Nov 2021. The R39.5bn infrastructure plan will create 130,000 construction jobs over the next three years.”
“Khayelitsha has its own world-class public hospital. It was based on demographic projections which have been exceeded because of the scale of in-migration to Cape Town by indigent people looking for better opportunities in life.”
She said there were more examples she could give on the service delivery achievements of the DA municipalities in the Western Cape.
“I could go on and on with examples. But you get the drift. The city and the province do their job in Khayelitsha, Dep-President. It is time for the ANC to do its job where it governs. Rather spend time telling this truth to them, than lying to the public about the DA,” said Zille.
TimesLIVE
Zille reacts to Ramaphosa's backing of claim that 'DA neglects the poor'
'Bulls**t' Zille tells Mashatile, 'DA spends more on poor than the ANC does'
Journalist
Image: MyANC
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has backed his deputy Paul Mashatile, supporting his view that the DA government in the Western Cape was neglecting townships and informal settlements in favour of more affluent suburbs.
However, DA federal council chair Helen Zille said Mashatile was “talking bulls**t” and fired back with 14 tweets.
Speaking at the party’s 113th cake cutting ceremony in Athlone, Ramaphosa agreed with Mashatile that the DA was not delivering services to poor areas. Mashatile has been at loggerheads with Zille over his remarks about lack of service delivery in townships such as Khayelitsha and Gugulethu.
Zille dismissed Mashatile's rhetoric as “bulls**t”, saying DA municipalities spent more money in poor areas than in the suburbs.
After days of back and forth between Mashatile and Zille, Ramaphosa entered the fray and told an ANC gathering that poor areas were being neglected by the DA government. He said that the disparities between the poor and more affluent areas were glaring.
“Here in the Western Cape we still find ugly features of differentiation where a number of our people live,” said Ramaphosa. “Where people who are wealthy live, they have better services. Where many of our people live they have horrible services. Many of our people don’t have houses, services in many places where they stay are very poor.”
Ramaphosa told the gathering celebrating the party’s birthday that the ANC has to intervene and make sure that services are delivered to poor areas.
“The municipalities here in the Western Cape serve the interests, often, of people with money. We must make sure that municipalities serve the interests of all our people equally so that there is progress that we can see.”
Zille on Wednesday, however, doubled down, sending out a whopping 14 tweets explaining why Mashatile was wrong.
The tweets, she said, were meant to expose how Mashatile was dishonest about the DA’s service delivery “failures”.
“Let's start with pro-poor infrastructure investment. In 2024/25, Cape Town is making South Africa’s largest ever infrastructure investment by a metropolitan municipality, with a 75% pro-poor spend directly benefiting lower income households,” read one of her tweets.
“Lower income households will directly benefit from 75% — or R9bn — of Cape Town’s R12bn infrastructure spend in 2024/25. Over the next three years Cape Town’s infrastructure spend of R39.5bn is more than all three Gauteng metros combined.”
She said that R3.7bn over three years goes towards upgrading informal settlements.
She said that R126m goes towards water, sanitation and waste, while R36m goes to electricity, R1bn to bulk services and R2.5bn to housing.
“SA’s Census data (2024), shows Cape Town has SA’s highest proportion of people benefiting from free basic water and electricity. The city is 10 percentage points ahead of the next metro for free electricity reach, and 25 percentage points ahead for free water and sanitation,” said Zille.
“A R6.3bn new MyCiTi bus route will link Khayelitsha with surrounding suburbs over the next three years. The MyCiTi N2 Express service to Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha is the busiest route in the city, providing a world-class public transport service.”
Security cameras, she said, were being installed at sewer pump stations to prevent theft which she said causes sewer spillages and service disruptions.
“Despite Eskom increases in excess of 40% per year, the City of Cape Town has reduced the price of electricity for indigent households over the past two years. The only city in the country to have done this,” said Zille.
“Cape Town has SA’s lowest unemployment rate with 300,000 jobs added since Nov 2021. The R39.5bn infrastructure plan will create 130,000 construction jobs over the next three years.”
“Khayelitsha has its own world-class public hospital. It was based on demographic projections which have been exceeded because of the scale of in-migration to Cape Town by indigent people looking for better opportunities in life.”
She said there were more examples she could give on the service delivery achievements of the DA municipalities in the Western Cape.
“I could go on and on with examples. But you get the drift. The city and the province do their job in Khayelitsha, Dep-President. It is time for the ANC to do its job where it governs. Rather spend time telling this truth to them, than lying to the public about the DA,” said Zille.
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