Cabinet Ministers refused on Tuesday to bow to pressure to condemn violent service delivery protests in the Cape Peninsula.
Deputy international relations minister Marius Fransman, who is also Western Cape ANC chairman, told a National Assembly sitting that the protests in the Western Cape were as a result of a lack of service delivery.
He rubbished allegations from the Democratic Alliance and the Congress of the People that it was part of an ANC Youth League attempt to make the city ungovernable.
"The reality is if there's protest action in other provinces, then they say there are service delivery problems. In the Western Cape there are service delivery problems," Fransman said.
Tensions rose in the house when Fransman was heckled several times, prompting chairwoman Fatima Hajaig to intervene.
"If you want to shout and scream, I'll give you five minutes to shout and scream and then be quiet," Hajaig said.
Fransman went on to accuse the DA-led Western Cape government of implementing a skewed development pattern.
"The reality is if the premier of the province speaks of refugees, about black people, it shows what they are doing in this province," Fransman said.
"If former president De Klerk says homelands were not as bad a issue and people in Western Cape feel the brunt of that, that becomes a real problem."
Earlier in the house, both the DA and Cope criticised the African National Congress for not commenting on ANCYL calls to make the city (of Cape Town) ungovernable.
"The youth league threatens ungovernability (sic) in the morning and denies its involvement in violent protests in the evening," DA MP Debbie Schafer said.
She accused the Youth League of calling residents to protest by sms, pamphlets and loud-hailers at midnight.
"We know the DA delivers more than the ANC. If they can't win at the ballot box as a result of good service delivery, they render the province ungovernable by inciting violent protests," Schafer said.
Cope MP Alfred Kganare told the National Assembly the silence of the ANC could only mean its leadership approved of what the ANCYL was doing in the Western Cape.
"They (ANC) must not complain when what they are doing here happens in the rest of the country."
Police reports indicate at least one person had died since violent protests again erupted across the Peninsula from Sunday night.
The killing came during a protest in which a truck was torched in Khayelitsha.
"It is believed the deceased jumped from another truck, after it was stoned by a group of protesters. [He] died on the scene due to his injuries," said Warrant Officer November Filander.
About 350 residents of Khayelitsha's BM Section took to the streets on Monday morning to protest over houses and sanitation, forcing the closure of a section of the N2 highway.
They threw stones at police officers and passing vehicles, including five Golden Arrow buses. A bus driver was injured.
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