Zille expected Zuma's 'No'
Image by: ELIZABETH SEJAKE
President Jacob Zuma has rejected Western Cape Premier Helen Zille's request that he deploy soldiers on the Cape Flats to quell gang warfare in Lavender Hill and Hanover Park.
Zille yesterday said that Zuma's response had been expected because Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had vehemently opposed the idea as soon as it was suggested.
"He [Mthethwa] went in there [to Lavender Hill and Hanover Park] even before the president had responded to me, and even before he had any of the facts, figures or analysis; he already said 'No'," said Zille.
When Mthethwa visited the two areas last month he said the police were better equipped than the army to fight gangsters.
Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, yesterday said that, instead of deploying troops on the Cape Flats, more intensive action was needed by the police along with "long-term interventions by the social and economic clusters of the government".
But Zille said the army had been sent to rein in gang violence last year and had been sent into the townships at the request of the previous ANC provincial administration.
Mthethwa's recommendations came after he and Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula were ordered to investigate gang warfare in Lavender Hill and Hanover Park, which has claimed the lives of 23 people.
Maharaj said a team from the departments of police and of defence, and of military veterans, had gone to Hanover Park and Lavender Hill to assess the situation.
He said the government's response to gang warfare on the Cape Flats will be extended to areas such as Manenberg, Elsies River and Nyanga.
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If you have an opinion you would like to share on this article, please send us an e-mail to the Times LIVE iLIVE team. In the mean time, click here to view the Times LIVE iLIVE section.MicaParis
Posted 307 days agoIf the DA is failing to overtake the ANC in their political race, they need to be told so that they can urgently improve before our country drown into the ''red water''! It is time for DA to articulately realize that ANC will never take them serious as they will always treat their ideas as jokes which are not to be taken serious as they are segregated contaminated bad news which belong to apartheid era! Is a fact that cannot be disputed, the criticism style of DA must change!? As it is currently not exerting a relevant necessary pressure on the ANC.
A minority supported party must try disparately hard to convince the majority of the citizen in any given political democratic situation. If DA ever dream of unsetting the ANC to the election throne, they must convince majority of black citizens to vote for them. This is still a huge mountain to climb for DA as far as that is concerned, it is their challenge which is vested on their shoulder to achieve!
Perhaps they should for a stater have a black South African citizen as a President of the DA so that black majority South Africans can start taking them serious that they believe and can really fight for their rights! In a political system were majority is a determining factor, no matter how relevant a political party is of value, there is nothing that can really be achieved without the real actual majority to decide your faith and good ideas!
I do not presume Comrades to say ''look who is talking '' but a fact is a fact which we both face and cannot necessarily dispute or turn a blind eye on? DA need to be very serious than now!
GrantHide
cozib5
I pity these communities having to cope with gangsters and drugs.
BTW you do not deserve to use Nelson Mandela as your avatar. Quite insulting your rantings next to his photo.
MicaParis
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Fearless means touching and engaging core issues that the two conflicting parties avoid talking about! Nobody can dispute the fact that ANC is too strong to lead alone without necessary teethy opposition to put it at toes! They are currently having a walk on the park without any serious thread and our democracy is seriously getting injured! Nice academic research comrade Hide but seriously it got used on a wrong platform! If you quoted that extract during a matric dance function it will be too relevant! The current situation will not take us anywhere, precisely if comrades cannot tolerate fairness were they are being criticized. DA must pull their socks extremely high so that we can have a fair democracy, ANC need something to keep them busy and a little bid fearful when thinking about acting altra vires or openly stealing from tax coffers without any serious repercussions! We will go nowhere if we fear to overcome our fears, let me advise you to be advocates of fairness and the rule by the people, divided we will always fall!
QPCLCD308
As a DA high profile member (I mean very high profile) I feel very unhappy and shaky in my chair if ANC possesses such kind of grievous and very harmful talent which their intelligence can single handedly lead DA into political wilderness. Mica's ideas are not ANC or DA based but are relevant to the true unity that this country is dreaming and in need of! If ANC can rule by people like Mica, than Zuma is not lying if he is saying ANC will rule until Jesus comes back, Mica is a very dangerous hot property that I would love to steal over to the DA, she is a top notch head honcho that any political party can think of , it is very difficult to find a comrade who can easily lure and win over the interest of the opposite enemy, Mica has got clearly that skill and talent which is a powerhouse in any political platform.
QPCLCD308
As a DA high profile member (I mean very high profile) I feel very unhappy and shaky in my chair if ANC possesses such kind of grievous and very harmful talent which their intelligence can single handedly lead DA into political wilderness. Mica's ideas are not ANC or DA based but is relevant to the true unity that this country is dreaming and in need of! If ANC can rule by people like Mica, than Zuma is not lying if he is saying ANC will rule until Jesus comes back, Mica is a very dangerous hot property that I would love to steal over to the DA, she is a top notch head honcho that any political party can think of, it is very difficult to find a comrade who can easily lure and win over the interest of the opposite enemy, Mica has got clearly that skill and talent which is a powerhouse in any political platform.
DuaneHamann
i_stub_born
Posted 307 days agoMike123
Posted 306 days agoKafreeMoneykey
DuaneHamann