Protests paralysing parts of Cape Town's Khayelitsha township are about local government elections next year and not about services, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille said.
"Building a following and a public profile through protest action is certainly one way of promoting your candidacy," she wrote on the Democratic Alliance website.
She said the ANC was out to create an illusion of spontaneous protest, but was actually associating itself with the burning, stone-throwing and destruction that is disrupting the lives of thousands in the area.
"Last week, three vehicles were burnt during a so-called 'service delivery' protest in Khayelitsha. Ironically, each of these vehicles was busy delivering a service to the community," Zille said.
"One was delivering matric exam scripts to the marking centre. Another was fetching disabled people (for whom the city provides a subsidised transport system). A third was transporting children to a camp for abused children. The fourth vehicle escaped the blaze, but was stoned. It was an ambulance responding to an emergency call in the community," she said.
Abahlali base Mjondolo, a non-party group that has been driving protests in the area, disowned the burnings and blamed them on the ANC Youth League.
The league in turn acknowledged that it was backing the protests to highlight what local ANCYL leader Andile Lili called Zille's broken promises.
Zille said photographs of the protests often included evidence in the background of service delivery ranging from refuse collection to construction.
"It is beyond irony that services are destroyed in the name of service delivery protests," she said.
Citing Lili's confirmation of the ANCYL's support for the protests, she castigated media for failing to report what she said was the obvious truth.
"Is anyone out there joining the dots?" she wrote.
- Timeslive
"Building a following and a public profile through protest action is certainly one way of promoting your candidacy," she wrote on the Democratic Alliance website.
She said the ANC was out to create an illusion of spontaneous protest, but was actually associating itself with the burning, stone-throwing and destruction that is disrupting the lives of thousands in the area.
"Last week, three vehicles were burnt during a so-called 'service delivery' protest in Khayelitsha. Ironically, each of these vehicles was busy delivering a service to the community," Zille said.
"One was delivering matric exam scripts to the marking centre. Another was fetching disabled people (for whom the city provides a subsidised transport system). A third was transporting children to a camp for abused children. The fourth vehicle escaped the blaze, but was stoned. It was an ambulance responding to an emergency call in the community," she said.
Abahlali base Mjondolo, a non-party group that has been driving protests in the area, disowned the burnings and blamed them on the ANC Youth League.
The league in turn acknowledged that it was backing the protests to highlight what local ANCYL leader Andile Lili called Zille's broken promises.
Zille said photographs of the protests often included evidence in the background of service delivery ranging from refuse collection to construction.
"It is beyond irony that services are destroyed in the name of service delivery protests," she said.
Citing Lili's confirmation of the ANCYL's support for the protests, she castigated media for failing to report what she said was the obvious truth.
"Is anyone out there joining the dots?" she wrote.
- Timeslive
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