West Rand residents embraced and sung nothing but praises for United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader General Bantu Holomisa during the party’s door-to-door campaign on Wednesday.
West Rand is the UDM’s second biggest region in Gauteng, led by Joburg.
Ernest Monongnong from Kagiso said Holomisa was one of the few leaders who embodied true humility, honesty and integrity.
“The UDM is the party that I am going to vote for in these coming elections, its party leaders always talk sense whenever they make a point in Parliament.
“I like it for its stance on anti-corruption and it is forever exposing the rot that is in our government,” added Monongnong.
While engaging with community members, Holomisa told them that the UDM was the only party that remained true to its course of fighting corruption and making sure that it kept executives accountable.
“We are not a party that goes around and make lot of noise, but we are a party that believes in holding ministers and the president accountable.
“When we are in Parliament our primary goal is to serve the people of South Africa, who put their faith in us as public representatives.
“We have exposed a lot of maladministration and corruption that was happening in our state owned enterprises, the most recent example is the case of the former speaker,” he explained.
The UDM leader said it was unfortunate that 30 years into democracy, people needed to resort to service delivery protests due to failures of municipalities to provide services to people.
“Protests often result in the destruction of infrastructure and property, causing significant harm to our economy.
“Unfortunately, they are escalating in frequency and violence, drawing larger crowds, primarily composed of disaffected and unemployed youth.
“The fragility of our society is evident, with the potential for any one of these protests to spiral out of control.
“Not only that, instead of the government responding with open ears, they respond with opening fire, and the rubber bullets fly.
“Of course, service delivery protests often stem from deep-seated grievances related to inadequate access to basic services such as water, sanitation, housing, and electricity.
“These protests are symptomatic of broader issues of social inequality and marginalisation, particularly in historically disadvantaged communities.”
Holomisa warned that the escalation of service delivery protests would have severe economic consequences, including the destruction of infrastructure and property, disruptions to supply chains, and loss of investor confidence.
Holomisa pleaded with residents to give his organisation a chance to lead Gauteng, as that would help bring much needed stability to the province.
The general told residents that they have the best candidate whom he said had experience in building and creating job opportunities that would in turn help the unemployed and generate money for the province.
The Star