Zuma blasts attacks on ANC councillors

President Jacob Zuma has denounced recent attacks on ANC councillors, saying "no amount of frustration should justify violence and destruction of property".

He was speaking at a ceremony in Grahamstown at which the Makana municipality awarded him the freedom of the town.

"We must all support our councillors in performing their difficult tasks of serving communities," he said.

A mob set fire to the houses of two ANC councillor last week in Tshiawelo, Soweto, in protest against Eskom's prepaid electricity meters.

Earlier in the year, councillor Enica Mogofe's house in Taung village, Burgerfort, in Limpopo was torched.

Zuma said: "The recent attacks on councillors and their homes in some parts of the country are shocking and are not what should be seen in a democratic society, where people have so many avenues of voicing their grievances or suggestions."

Zuma said his administration's "local government turnaround strategy" was starting to work. The increase in clean audits was a "significant achievement".

But Grahamstown's Unemployed Peoples' Movement (UPM) said the ceremony at the Miki Yili stadium was a farce. In an open letter to Zuma, it said: "A failed municipality wants to give the freedom of Grahamstown to a failed president.

"It is an insult to us. You will be given the key to Grahamstown while many of us do not even have a key to a falling-down, leaking and tiny RDP house.

"The local politicians will herd people without water, electricity, homes, decent education, work or a decent livelihood and the freedom to organise independently to the streets to celebrate the award of your freedom of this town," it said.

UPM spokesman Ayanda Kota said that under Zuma the ANC had become "very little more than a way for the politically connected and the politically loyal to feed off the public purse via access to the state. The state has become a site of patronage and self-enrichment and not a tool for development."

Kota said his group would welcome Zuma to the town if his administration brought "decent homes, jobs and schools".

Makana mayor Zamuxolo Peter said Zuma was being given the town's greatest honour for giving up his freedom in the struggle against apartheid, for making the 2010 World Cup a success and for his contribution "to the improvement of the quality of life of other people".

Zuma said he was humbled by the gesture, especially as he identified with Makana, who led the attack on British settlers in the town in 1819.

He said the municipality had since 2005 carried out about 50 sanitation projects for more than R92-million and would soon benefit from a R66-million grant for bulk-water services.

Zuma urged the municipality to communicate better with residents. "Citizens should be treated as valuable customers."