MORE than 1 000 Middledrift community members braved the heat to attend a march against gender-based violence led by Social Development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi yesterday, after National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete arrived too late to lead proceedings as scheduled.
The crowd had waited eagerly for Mbete’s arrival for more than five hours after the scheduled start to no avail.
Mbete was supposed to lead the march to the local police station at 11am and was due to deliver the Charlotte Maxeke memorial lecture at 2pm, but only took to the podium at 6pm.
Times Media was reliably informed that Mbete had opted for lunch at a fellow comrade’s house in Alice.
The crowd that was anxiously waiting for her showed its displeasure when it was announced she was running late after opening a creche in Fort Beaufort earlier yesterday.
When the march eventually started at 2.20pm, with Sihlwayi leading it in place of Mbete, more than 500 people joined in and sang pro-ANC and President Jacob Zuma songs.
A group of elderly women inside the hall were overheard saying the wait was one of the reasons the party “was losing numbers in this area”.
“This shows us that our leaders do not care much about us on the ground,” Nozibele Mali said.
Some department officials even confided that they were confused as to whether this was an ANC event or the department’s.
Department spokesman Mzukisi Solani said Mbete was delayed because the event she attended in Fort Beaufort started late and she had to attend another meeting in Alice before heading to Middledrift.
Those who were kept waiting included MPs, MPLs, a choir and religious leaders.
When Mbete finally delivered the Charlotte Maxeke lecture, she said Maxeke was “an exceptional woman, whose very action was expressive of her extraordinary intellect, determination, courage, dedication to the highest ideals, principles and love of God”.
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