POLITICS

SAPS gave my wife special treatment - Mmusi Maimane

Natalie had initially been rebuffed at police station after trying to report her bag stolen

Maimane says wife given special treatment by police because of her surname

Natalie Maimane got preferential treatment from police because of her surname, DA leader Mmusi Maimane told the masses at the party’s manifesto launch in the Northern Cape.

EWN on Saturday reported that Natalie had recently attempted to report her bag stolen after it was pinched at a function.

She was sent to another station, which referred her back to the one she had initially tried to report it to.

She returned to the police station the following day and was ostensibly immediately assisted after the officers saw who she was on her ID.

Maimane said it was wrong that only the well-connected received proper police services, the publication reported.

'Dreams never take off'

He told the crowd in Kimberley that the Northern Cape has been “run into the ground by an ANC government that simply cannot put the interests of the people ahead of its own greed”.

“Today the Northern Cape is a place where dreams just never take off.

This is a province where children don’t finish school, and even those who do don’t have much of a future to look forward to.

At 54% it has the highest school drop-out rate in South Africa, which means that more than half the children who enroll in Grade 10, don’t write matric three years later.

“This is a province where small businesses are strangled by a corrupt government, bad policy and unreliable services, until they eventually have to either close their doors or relocate elsewhere in the country.

All economic development here has stalled a long time ago, and along with this, all hope of creating jobs.

Today almost 40% of working age people here can’t find jobs.”

Many of the communities still don’t have water and electricity and these residents have “been caught in stage 5 and 6 load-shedding since the beginning of time”.

“The Northern Cape is truly our country’s forgotten province, and the only time they every see their elected leaders is in the weeks running up to an election.

But there is good news: with only forty days to go to the election, the DA and the ANC are running neck and neck in polling.

More residents here than ever before have indicated that they are done with the ANC and that they are ready for change.”

News24