EFF says ANC ‘can no longer hide’ what it thinks of South Africans

By Anita Dangazele

• The EFF has condemned Water Minister Pemmy Majodina for swearing at a disabled resident during a community meeting in Kouga, Eastern Cape.

• The party says this reflects a wider pattern of ANC leaders losing patience with residents frustrated by poor service delivery, ahead of November’s local elections.

The EFF says the ANC “can no longer hide” its contempt for ordinary South Africans, after a video showed Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina swearing at a disabled resident during a community meeting in the Eastern Cape.

“The ANC has for far too long felt entitled to the votes of the people of South Africa, and it is for this reason that even on the campaign trail, they either insult residents, or blackmail them with service delivery,” EFF spokesperson Thembi Msane said in a statement issued today.

The party pointed to a separate incident involving Johannesburg Executive Mayor Dada Morero, previously criticised over his own comments to a Soweto resident, and said “this is what the ANC and its public representatives think of the people of South Africa, and they can no longer hide it.”

The EFF said Majodina’s position makes her conduct worse.

“Majodina presides over water affairs of this country which affect millions of South Africans, many of whom struggle to receive safe, clean and reliable water supply,” the party said, noting that water crises affect not only Kouga, but cities like Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay and eThekwini, and rural areas including Ditsobotla and Giyani.

The party called on South Africans to “punish the arrogance of the ANC” at the ballot box on 4 November.

The confrontation itself happened on 10 September, after the official launch of an upgraded R5.98 million sewer pump station in Loerie, Kouga Municipality, funded through the Water Services Infrastructure Grant. According to Kouga municipal administrator Kyle Minnaar, the meeting turned chaotic during a question-and-answer session, when a resident being escorted out of the hall for speaking out of turn swore at Majodina. The video shows Majodina telling the man to leave and repeating the insult back at him. Minnaar said the resident, who is disabled, “may have been guilty of speaking out of turn,” but that this did not justify the minister’s response.

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s spokesperson, Lebo Maseko-Ngcamane, said the minister was not available to comment. The Democratic Alliance has separately lodged a formal ethics complaint with Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests, with parliamentary leader George Michalakis calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to act.

Pictured above: Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has been heavily criticised after a video showing her swearing at a disabled resident in the Eastern Cape surfaced.

Image source: Sarah Baartman District Municipality