MEC Mashatile out of touch with reality

20 July 2017

Comments by Gauteng Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance MEC, Paul Mashatile, that not all service delivery protests in Gauteng are real and that some are caused by individuals seeking attention, shows how out of tune the MEC is with the plight of residents desperate to receive services.

Earlier this year, violent service delivery protests flared up across Gauteng because residents were fed up with the empty promises that have repeatedly been made to them by the ANC. True to form, MEC Mashatile made promises that, as yet, have not been kept.

Does MEC Mashatile believe that people who have no homes, who have no access to clean water or piped ablution facilities protest because they do not have legitimate concerns?

Is the MEC a service delivery protest denialist?

As the ANC Gauteng Provincial Chairman, it is he who sets the tone for how his party will govern in Gauteng. Based on these assertions, it is likely that under the ANC in Gauteng – the voices of the most vulnerable will continue to fall on deaf ears.

Thousands of people took to the ballot box in August 2016 to express their dissatisfaction with ANC governments across Gauteng. Tshwane, Johannesburg and Midvaal are in the stable hands of the DA and come 2019. The people of Gauteng can expect a brighter future under a DA-led Gauteng Government that will leave no-one behind.

Issued by Mervyn Cirota, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC on Human Settlements, 20 July 2017