Protests in Somerset West on Thursday 11 April – Photo: @erdwolf_tvl / Twitter
Protests in Somerset West on Thursday 11 April – Photo: @erdwolf_tvl / Twitter
It’s a bold claim, but it’s ultimately one that DA Western Cape Premier candidate Alan Winde believes would hold the ANC suitably accountable for “engineering” chaos across the country. The opposition party is adamant that the Alex shutdown and the N2 protests are all manufactured by the ANC and he wants them to pay the biggest price.
N2 protests latest news
Speaking to us from Somerset West on Thursday afternoon, Winde revealed that the situation had calmed significantly since trouble first flared up on Wednesday. He said that “30 or so” protesters were still at the site of an attempted land grab, trying to erect shacks on land earmarked for housing developments.
As of 16:00 on Thursday, the N2 at Somerset West has been cleared but it still remains closed. Down the road in Khayelitsha, the debris and burning tyres that greeted commuters at the break of dawn have also been shifted on.
Alan Winde wants the ANC taken off the ballot paper
With protests flaring up in Tshwane and Mthatha in the last 24 hours, Winde has no doubt who is behind the chaos: He and his party are convinced that the ANC are inciting violence in DA-controlled areas as part of an election ploy – a tactic he feels should be met with a strong punishment.
“Yes, we do think the ANC should be banned from the elections. They are orchestrating all this and quite frankly, it is illegal and our constitution does not work like this. We are considering reporting them to the IEC and although we cannot predict the outcome, we believe these are the repercussions they should face.”
Alan Winde
The premier candidate also vowed to spill the tea about “a couple of other political parties” he believes have helped with the ANC’s apparent plans to cause carnage. Winde says he has both video evidence and legal affidavits implicating other organisations alongside the ruling party. He blasted protesters for stirring-up false narratives:
“It’s illegal to block roads. You have the right to protest, by all means, but that doesn’t mean you can limit other people’s rights. Thinking about the situation in the Western Cape, people are trying to create panic on social media and it is very damaging for the brand of our country.”
Alan Winde
Could the ANC be banned from the elections?
Based on what Alan Winde and the DA are alleging, a political party trying to engineer protests to make another party look “incompetent” breaks two of the IEC’s rules based on their code of conduct. It is illegal to:
- Publish false information about an election that may disrupt, prevent or influence the election results.
- Publish false information that may create anger or fear and could change the election results.
As it stands, this is all just conjecture from the DA. But they have found support from an unlikely source. The EFF held a press conference on Wednesday where they discussed the protests in Alex. Sure enough, they threw their backing behind the claims of their political nemeses:
#EFFPresser Malema: We don't support that Alex protest, it is not genuine. It is an ANC campaign. They must stop playing with the feelings of our people. The concerns of the people in Alex are genuine and no-one should misuse them and take advantage of them.
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) April 10, 2019
N2 protests: Demonstrations grip South Africa
The Alex Total Shutdown movement became something of a political hot potato over the last few days. The ANC blame the DA-run municipality for failing the citizens, but they were hit by counter-claims that corrupt government officials pocketed the R1.7bn set aside for the Alex Renewal Project.
Cyril Ramaphosa was also on the offensive this Thursday when he addressed the residents of Alexandra from the township. He blasted the Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba for failing to visit the region and insisted “it was his job” to clean-up the streets of Alex.
