The winds of change are swirling in Ekurhuleni
23 June 2016
Madame Speaker,
It is one of the greatest honours of my life to stand here today, representing the people of this great city under the banner of the DA in this august house.
In 1994, at the Carlton Hotel, when I stood with my mother, Amina Cachalia, and my father, Yusuf Cachalia, alongside the great Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and many other fathers and mothers of our nation, I also never thought that I would one day have to take a stand against the organisation I grew up in.
The project that we embarked on in 1994 was one of the greatest in history. It should never have gone awry.
This ANC betrayed the legacy of Madiba, my parents, and our founding mothers and fathers when it chose one man over the rule of law, when it used its parliamentary majority to protect the president from accountability.
This has filtered down into major economic mismanagement in this very city. Under the ANC Ekurhuleni has become the second most unequal city in the world.
Honourable Gungubele, your record is clear – 683 000 people have lost their jobs since you became mayor.
A city that should be a beacon of hope and opportunity remains divided.
Over 40% of the people in this city do not have a tap in their own home.
15% of the people in this city do not have a flush toilet.
Almost 20% have no electricity for lighting, let alone cooking.
These failures are why the residents of Makause took to the streets yesterday to in protest at this governments failures to give them even the whiff off a better life.
You can tell what the ANC’s true priorities are when you have spent R130-million on refurbishing this council chamber but have only allocated R100-million to refurbish failing electricity infrastructure in Germiston.
I thought Hon. Gungubele was initially deployed to resolve party factionalism here, but it seems that internal ANC politics has meant that a mayor who claims he has done a good job is dropped unceremoniously.
It is either the case that Honourable Gungubele has failed the people of this city to face this fate, or that the ANC is more interested in internal politics than the needs of the people.
In my view, it is tragically both.
On the 4th of August, residents of Ekurhuleni will no longer be subjected to the political indecision that has wrecked this once industrious region. On the 4th of August a new dawn will rise under the DA and with it, a renewed sense of hope for the future of millions of Ekurhuleni’s residents.
Issued by Warren Gwilt on behalf of Ghaleb Cachalia, 23 June 2016
