Zara Nicholson
Metro Writer
THE ANC is to march on Premier Helen Zille and mayor Patricia de Lille’s offices today over housing, land and sanitation – at the same time that leaders from informal settlement groups meet city and provincial officials on the same issues.
ANC provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile confirmed yesterday that they had received permission to march along with Cosatu members to the Civic Centre and then the provincial legislature.
The march starts at 10am from Keizersgracht. City traffic spokesman Richard Coleman said Keizersgracht, Darling and Wale streets would be affected. Traffic officers will open the roads once the march is over. “If there is any violence reported we will then close all roads in the CBD,” he said.
De Lille is today to meet a delegation led by ANC councillor Loyiso Nkohla and former ANC councillor Andile Lili. The Concerned Citizens Group, which includes Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Muslim cleric Rashid Omar and former mayor Gordon Oliver, and city and provincial officials will also attend the meeting.
Yesterday, Nkohla said the Cape Town Informal Settlements Group would not be part of the ANC’s march since it had planned its own march for February 28.
Asked why the ANC’s march continued while there were meetings about the same issues, Mjongile said: “We are the ANC and we have our own programme. It’s for them to speak for themselves but we are going ahead with our programme.”
In a statement yesterday, De Lille’s office said she would meet the Concerned Citizens Group and a delegation of senior city officials and provincial government representatives as part of an ongoing process “to redress through improving the quality of life in informal settlements and a pro-poor budgeting process”.
Meanwhile, another march – by the SACP in the Western Cape to the premier’s residence in Leeuwenhof on Friday – has been postponed.
In a statement, the SACP urged members to join today’s ANC march.
zara.nicholson@inl.co.za