Thousands of ANC members and supporters marched through Pretoria's CBD yesterday, led by Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, to deliver what they termed the people’s mandate to the newly-elected City of Tshwane political executive.
The march, which started at the old Putco bus depot in Marabastad, brought traffic to a standstill as protesters made their way to Tshwane House.
A call was made for the government to take action against spaza shops accused of harming children by selling poisonous food.
Addressing the crowd at Tshwane House, Mbalula threw the gauntlet at the government, saying it needed to act against spaza shops that have been accused of killing children who consumed snacks bought from there.
He also called on the government to prioritise locals in the running of spaza shops and salons.
According to him, owning a spaza shop and a hair salon must be preserved for South Africans.
“You can’t go to Ghana and start cutting people’s hair; that job is a preservation for Ghanaians. Owning a spaza shop and salon must be preserved for South Africans. That is not xenophobia; it is the truth,” he said.
Sharing the same sentiment was the ANC youth league leader Collen Malatji, who mobilised the crowd against the spaza shops, saying they must close them down on their way home.
“The first thing we must do when we leave here is that we must go and close down all those spaza shops. When you see a spaza shop close it. Let us stand up on our feet; our nation won’t perish while we are still alive,”he said.
Both Malatji and Mbalula also emphasised the importance of prioritising service delivery to township residents by the newly-installed political administration with five ANC MMCs.
Mbalula said: “We are here because for the past eight years the people in Atteridgeville, Soshanguve, Mamelodi, Hammanskraal have been suffering under the DA-led coalition.”
He said the people’s mandate included the need to “make Tshwane work; make our townships to be where they were before. Ensure that our townships are well serviced by our government”.
The creation of employment through the Expanded Public Work Programme, provision of clean and drinkable water, relocating of communities living in areas prone to flooding houses, fighting against crime were some of the service delivery needs highlighted during the gathering.
Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya said: “We accept the mandate from you leadership of the ANC and we say wait until January 31, 2025. Give us a few days after that and you will receive feedback from us on how we would have implemented your mandate.”
A participant, Mary Choma, an informal trader representing the interests of women, said: “As women we came together from all seven regions of Tshwane. We call ourselves women in action because we can see now that there is no action in informal trading.”
She bemoaned the fact that the government had failed to provide them with shelter and other resources such as toilets.
“We want to have resources because when it rains we can’t work. We have children. The metro police are harassing,” she said.
Pretoria News