Duarte woos voters in her home town, Riverlea

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte returned to her home town, Riverlea, southwest of Johannesburg, yesterday and told residents of the poor area to ditch the Democratic Alliance (DA) and vote for the ANC next week, if they want real change.

After a morning door-to-door campaign, she was scheduled to meet the elderly, visit the local Bible Revival church and address the community.

“We have to defeat the DA for us to develop our people. I say that openly. We have to defeat the DA because its proposition is to keep things as they are, so they maintained what apartheid left in place. They don’t develop beyond that,” Duarte said.

ANC DSG Jessie Duarte is pictured during a door-to-door election campaign in Riverlea, 1 May 2019. Picture: Refilwe Modise

Riverlea, which lies between Johannesburg and Soweto, is surrounded by mine dumps, which have become a cause for concern to the health and safety of the community.

The community is divided by a railway line between the poor south, known as Riverlea Extension, and the more affluent north. The area is a DA ward and stronghold which the party inherited from the former National Party.

Duarte told The Citizen in an interview yesterday she grew up there and began her struggle in on dusty streets of the township.

She knows many residents by name and told of how she and others used to hide behind the nearby electricity mast to run away from apartheid security forces.

She said that Riverlea Extension had always been an extremely poor community, dependent on government subsidies and social grants, unlike the area across the railway line that was well developed and integrated, and “alive as a community”.

ANC DSG Jessie Duarte is pictured during a door-to-door election campaign in Riverlea, 1 May 2019. Picture: Refilwe Modise

She said the DA neglected Riverlea Extension since taking over in 1999.

“What we are trying to tell the community is that your pension is your right. No one can take that away from you and it’s not a bargaining tool.

“You will get your pension whether or not you vote for the ANC. That’s a national policy.

“You will get your child grant whether or not you vote for the ANC. That’s a national policy. You will be able to take your children to the healthcare facility whether or not you vote for the ANC.

“All we ask them is to support the good policies of the ANC.”

Duarte was accompanied by a group of activists clad in ANC T-shirts at Amanasie Street in Riverlea Extension.

“We have been very well received here,” she said.

As she went door-to-door in Amanasie Street, residents told her that the lack of housing was their main issue. The housing backlog went as far back as the early 1990s and the processing of the list began in 2007, without much progress.

Duarte said the Riverlea community was put at a disadvantage when their housing list was incorporated into the consolidated list for greater Johannesburg.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.