Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Leon Basson MP, DA North West Provincial Leader.
Disgruntled ANC members in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality have taken to the streets to fight internal factional battles over their preferred candidate on the lists submitted to the IEC. This internal ANC unrest has resulted in the death of an ANC member, who was shot by police after allegedly waving around an unlicensed firearm with live ammunition.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in North West condemns in the strongest terms possible the militant mobilisation of factionalised ANC members under the guise of community protest. Unfortunately, the media have also taken to frame the unrest over the last couple of days as community protests. This is blatantly false. This unrest is nothing but warring ANC factions fighting for the placement of their preferred candidate on a ward list.
Disgruntled ANC members must take their grievances with their own party to Luthuli House.
The community of Ditsobotla has no interest in internal factional battles of the ANC. For years now residents have had to endure the total collapse of service delivery and governance as the two major ANC factions vie for power.
Even now, two ANC cadres claim to be the legitimate mayor of the municipality. While these internal battles play out, the ANC’s provincial and national leadership are left impotent to restore order within their own ranks.
These internal ANC dynamics serve as proof that party discipline has completely collapsed amongst its membership.
Like a parasite, ANC cadres have sucked the Ditsobotla municipality dry of any semblance of resources or governance. The municipality is rife with corruption, fraud, and theft, with little to no benefit of service delivery to residents. It is regrettable that residents now have to be held hostage by ANC unrest.
The people of Ditsobotla have an opportunity to bring an end to the factional tyranny of the ANC by voting DA on 1 November 2021. Together, the DA, with the community’s popular support, will restore good governance and service delivery to rehabilitate the municipality from decades of ANC misrule. Only the DA in government gets things done, and there is a lot to do in Ditsobotla.