No fear No Favour No Free Elections in Africa........
North West - Residents of Tlokwe were warned on Friday not to allow the ANC-run government to lose power as this would mean they would lose grants and food parcels.
Thabapelo Lehloo, a representative from DR Kenneth Kaunda district municipality in North West, issued the stern warning to the community of Ikageng in Tlokwe, once known as Potchefstroom, during a Social Development outreach campaign.
“Let us make sure this government that gives us grants and food parcels doesn’t slip from our hands,” he said. “If it (the government goes) these things will be gone.”
Lehloo’s comments flew in the face of denials by Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini that the outreach had anything to do with buying votes.
The minister visited several households and addressed the gathering in Ward 9, where by-elections for a new councillor will be held next week.
“My presence here is part of an outreach programme that we do as the department,” Dlamini said.
“As I have said before, I have nothing to defend myself for because we are doing this all the time.
“We are not going to stop our programmes because there are by-elections. The problem of malnutrition in this area is a concern for us.”
Dlamini said her department was concerned that there were more than 17 000 child-headed families in Tlokwe.
She had earlier visited several youth service centres, households and the Potchefstroom crisis centre to deliver parcels and speak to the community.
She was accompanied by ANC and high-ranking government officials, including former Tlokwe mayor Maphetle Maphetle who was last month ousted from the council for the second time in seven months.
“We don’t want to say that our children must die because there are by-elections taking place,” she added. “The very same people that say we are here for votes are the same that say the ANC government doesn’t deliver to the people. We will come here whether there are by-elections or not.”
Tlokwe has emerged as a key battleground for political parties in North West ahead of the by-elections, and also for the 2014 general elections. Though the ANC has expelled the councillors, there has been a concerted effort to win back the municipality from the DA in the by-elections.
The SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco), which has been fighting alongside 14 expelled ANC councillors in Tlokwe following the vote of no confidence in their mayor, claimed the minister was trying to “buy people’s votes with the food parcels ahead of by-elections in the ward”.
Sanco regional secretary James Gadinabokao said it was not coincidence that Dlamini had chosen to visit the area soon after Maphetle was ousted. “This is a blatant abuse of state resources to campaign for votes,” he said. “Why does the minister choose to go to Ward 9 where by-elections will be held of all the poverty-stricken areas in Tlokwe? The people of this area must not be fooled by such attempts to buy their votes when the very same government tolerates corruption in the municipality.”
Gadinabokao claimed that most of the food parcels delivered to the people were actually donated by an NGO from the North West University which had been regularly attending to the needs of the community in the area.
Several community members told Dlamini of their frustrations with the Tlokwe municipality in delivering services such as grants, houses and the massive corruption in projects intended to uplift the poor. The visibly annoyed minister called on her officials from the social security agency, and social workers to account for themselves in front of the public, warning that their conduct was unacceptable. But they were shouted down.
She instructed several official to personally investigate cases of tardy delivery of services and report directly to her within a month. - Saturday Star
Saturday Star
COMMENTS BY SONNY
VOTE RIGGING OR ELECTIONEERING AS TAUGHT BY THE RUSSIANS?
ANC COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA AND RHETORIC PLACES THE PEOPLE AT THE HANDS OF
POLITICIANS?
POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS AND EXTORTION ARE THE ORDER OF THE DAY IN THE WILD
SOUTH!
THIS ANC DESPOT MUST BE VOTED OUT!!
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