Pensioners residing in Phaphamani claim that they have been intimidated by ANC members who were campaigning from a bakkie which has been travelling around the Grahamstown area.
Pensioners residing in Phaphamani claim that they have been intimidated by ANC members who were campaigning from a bakkie which has been travelling around the Grahamstown area.
The pensioners said the campaigners hurled insults and labelled them as Unemployed People's Movement (UPM) members, because they had told the group they did not want to vote in the May 18 municipal elections.
Phaphamani resident and pensioner, Liana Vamva, said yesterday she and her neighbours were on the street, on Monday, when the bakkie brought three or four people to campaign for the ANC. "I told them that whenever it's time to vote, they come here to tell us to vote for them, when there is nothing that shows we should vote," Vamva said.
Another pensioner, Nolinithi Mendile, told the campaigners she had lived in Phaphamani for so long that her children, who were now working, had grown up there. "And I am sill is living there with no proper house, electricity and toilet," she said, telling them she saw no reason to vote.
Vamva said because they had been outspoken, the ANC campaigners had concluded that they were UPM members. UPM recently protested against poor service delivery. Vamva said the campaigners then insulted them, saying UPM members had been bribed, were "surrogates of white people", that the movement had a right-wing agenda", and that they were getting their funding from professors who did not even go to traditional ceremonies.
"We said that we don't toyi-toyi for nothing," Mendile said. "We just want our houses. "The mayor told us four households would share one toilet. We do not want that. We were also told that we would get houses two years ago and we are still waiting," said Mendile.
Fellow resident, Nokirityi Smangweni, said, "We told them that we would not vote, because they have done nothing for us." An resident of Ethembeni, an informal settlement near Extension 7, Zukiswa Tamsanqa, said the truck had also been in her area on Monday.
Ethembeni, too, has no proper housing, water or electricity. It also has no formal roads, which means ambulances and the police cannot get to emergencies easily. "That is why we do not want to vote," she had told the campaigners. In response she had been told that the UPM "steals people away from the ANC so that they can succeed".
UPM chairperson, Ayanda Kota, said he had received numerous calls, reporting such intimidation and insults. "People have every right to vote or not to vote. If they decide to vote it is fine and if they do not, they are exercising their democratic right," Kota said.
"This is serious intimidation. These are old people they are doing this to." He said he was disappointed by the silence of the ruling party, who had not addressed the allegations of intimidation. "UPM is not a political party and we have no ambitions in becoming one. We are a grassroots movement fighting for the dignity of the people," he said.
Grocott's Mail contacted Makana councillors who belong the the ANC for comment, but was referred to the party's regional chairperson, who said that, according to protocol, the media should contact the regional secretary for comments. The ANC was unavailable to comment at the time of going to print.
