It takes some kind of what the Brits would call “brass neck” to go on Twitter and trash the hard-working mayor of a DA town because he is supposedly only doing the “bare minimum” and that, therefore, we should “not praise a fish for swimming”.
Yet, that is what ANC Youth League member Simphiwe Silwana did this week, after uMgeni mayor Chris Pappas publicised more of the successes he and his council have been achieving in their campaign to roll back the neglect and destruction of the previous ANC-run municipality.
Pappas is, to be fair, someone who recognises the value of publicity and is industrious when posting on social media about repairing potholes, tarring roads, fixing street lights and completing community projects left unfinished by the ANC.
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A few weeks ago, Pappas confirmed that the municipality had cleared its debt.
Social media users laid into Silwana, pointing out that if Pappas was doing the bare minimum, why were the ANC mayors across the country not also doing so?
In fact, under ANC stewardship, towns and cities have been looted and mismanaged to the point of collapse.
While the DA as an organisation has its problems and while some of the places it runs can still be used as examples of inequality in service delivery, the towns under its control are generally the best run in the country.
That is not pro-DA propaganda, it is a fact.
Like social media users, we challenge ANC apparatchiks such as Silwana to produce proof of similarly well-run municipalities under ANC control.
Down the road from uMgeni, the city of Durban is a trash-filled, sewage-polluted, overgrown and neglected mess. The contrast could not be starker.
Also Read: Opposition parties object to R71m bonus budget for eThekwini municipality
If the ANC wants to be re-elected in 2024, its people need to start doing “the bare minimum”.
If unsure what that means, ask the DA…
