'STUCK IN THE PAST'

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has flipped the script on his “learn from the DA” comment, slamming the party for neglecting service delivery to the poor in Cape Town. 

In a National Council of Provinces (NCOP) meeting on Tuesday, Ramaphosa slammed the DA’s pro-poor investments as following the same pattern as apartheid policies, saying that per capita, rich white areas were far better maintained. 

Last month, during the ANC’s roll call for councillors event at the FNB Stadium in Soweto, het Ramaphosa sy party members lelik afgewas. 

Saying that DA-run municipalities performed better than ANC ones, he wysed them: “I can name it here because there’s nothing wrong with competition. They are often DA-controlled municipalities. 

“We need to ask ourselves, what is it that they are doing that is better than what we are doing? 

“And there’s nothing wrong with us saying we want to go and see what Cape Town is doing. We want to go and see what Stellenbosch is doing.” 

DA provincial whip Frederik Jacobus Badenhorst then said yesterday: “Cape Town’s record R40 billion in three years infrastructure budget directs 75 percent of spending to lower-income houses - an investment that alone exceeds the budget of other metros. 

“Simply put, no city invests more in the poor than Cape Town. 

“So you were quite right and honest in saying publicly that the ANC should learn the DA-lead cities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch. 

“After that you tried to do damage control by suggesting that the Auditor-General (AG) only audits financial audits and not service delivery. But someone in your position should know that the AG does. 

“Will you now correct your erroneous comment regarding Cape Town’s performance?”

Ramaphosa hit back, saying: “My reliance is on two scientific instruments - one is a StatsSA data analysis and the other is on the budget analysis of the City of Cape Town. 

“Census data in the decade between 2011 and 2022, Cape Town performed worse than the average of all metros in expanding access to services such as refuse removal, piped water, electricity and flushing toilets. 

“You may look at the audit, but in the end what matters is the impact on the lives of the people. 

“Other cleverer people say that on a per capita investment, it is significantly lower in townships and informal settlements. 

“Per capita it continues to follow the same racial patterns of the past.”