Port Elizabeth – Democratic Alliance Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral candidate Athol Trollip is fed up with the ruling party, he told supporters on Tuesday.
The African National Congress’s time was up, he said during a door-to-door campaign in the impoverished Walmer township.
He walked from Walmer to Airport Valley, a shanty town that smells of sewage and where dirty water runs between houses and makeshift rubbish dumps.
Residents stood outside their homes, listening to Trollip address them through a loudhailer while surrounded by supporters who called for President Jacob Zuma to step down.
Trollip told residents to teach the ANC a lesson at the polls on August 3, because the party was no longer what former president Nelson Mandela had envisaged.
“We cannot tolerate another five years of this. Their time is up. The ANC cannot rule until ‘Jesus comes'. They have to be told by you until when they will rule.”
Trollip said the ANC was more interested in dividing the country by questioning black South Africans who supported the DA.
Broken promises
He called on residents to defend democracy by voting out the ANC. Should the DA not fulfil its promises, residents could vote it out in five years.
“I’m going to ask you to defend the Constitution and vote for the DA,” he said.
Trollip was told of the poverty and lack of service delivery in the area, and the broken promises that had been made.
Resident Cynthia Dayimani, 57, said she had been struggling to get a social grant.
She was sick, she said, but had been told she needed to provide her old medical file, which was in her hometown in Hankey, Eastern Cape, before she could be assessed.
Some residents said they wanted food parcels to ward off their hunger.