De Lille’s ANC rival accuses her of being a ‘liar’‚ ‘rude’ and of ‘talking down' to people

26 July 2016 - 18:31 By Babalo Ndenze

The ANC has labelled Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille a “liar” for claiming to spend 67% of the city’s budget on poor communities.The party also called her “rude” for “talking down” to people in poor communities. In its election manifesto and on its official Facebook page‚ the DA said it spends no less than 67% of its budget on the poor. Fact checking organisation Africacheck subsequently compiled a report after analysing the DA’s claim‚ and found that the party spent roughly 49% of its budget on the poor.“We have a mayor who has lost her credibility. She is a liar. Everything that she says. You can’t have a leader who is not credible‚ a leader who is chased away from communities because of lies. She was chased away in Bonteheuwel because what she does‚ instead of listening to people‚ she’s very rude to people. She doesn’t have a way of communicating with people. She talks down to people‚” said ANC mayoral candidate Xolani Sotashe.He said the ANC has always maintained that the DA doesn’t spend a substantial amount of its budget on poor communities.“I’ve been saying this to you as the media and you did not also want to listen to us. We said stop publishing the lies. When we took De Lille head on in terms of the debate‚ she could not substantiate this 67%‚” said Sotashe.He said an example was how the national government invested more than R8 billion in MyCiti bus serve.“Is Mitchell’s Plain benefitting from that infrastructure? No. Is Khayelitsha benefitting from that infrastructure? No. Who’s benefitting from that infrastructure? It’s people who are in the CBD‚ Milnerton. It’s your Blouberg‚ your Table View. Who is that constituency? I mean the answer is right there‚” said Sotashe.Responding to Sotashe‚ De Lille said his understanding of budgets and how government works leaves “much to be desired”.“Instead of doing his own research‚ he relies on analysis that compare apples to pears. The report by Africa Check does not challenge the number for 2014/15 of spending R17.5 billion in poor areas on direct service delivery. This is compared to the equivalent total spend on direct service delivery of R26.1 billion‚ which leads to a 67%‚” said De Lille’s campaign spokesperson Cameron Arendse.He said Sotashe has resorted to “spewing baseless claims because he has nothing else to campaign on”.“The facts are‚ the DA-led City of Cape Town spends 67% of its budget on the poor‚” said Arendse...

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