Mbalula accuses DA of failing black residents in Cape Town

Mbalula made the remarks during an ANC campaign over the weekend, where he argued that the governing party must retain power to ensure that communities receive proper support and services.

“If you want to see black people suffering, you must look no further than those who live in DA-led municipalities such as Cape Town. Our people are not taken care of by those ones,” Mbalula said.

His comments were directed at the DA-led administration in Cape Town and focused particularly on residents in KwaLanga. Mbalula alleged that residents were left without housing assistance despite efforts to identify land where they could build permanent homes.

He claimed that residents eventually built shacks along a railway line after proposed housing arrangements failed to materialise. The allegation places housing access at the centre of a wider political dispute over how municipal authorities respond to residents who need formal accommodation.

Mbalula’s allegations about KwaLanga

Mbalula said land had been identified for residents to build homes, but accused the DA of refusing to assist them.

“Our people decided to build shacks on the railway line here in KwaLanga, Cape Town, instead of following through on what I had initiated to get people houses,” he said.

He added that plots had been found for residents, but alleged that the DA did not help with the next steps.

“We found plots for our people to build houses, but the DA refuses to help our people here in the Western Cape,” he said.

The claims were not independently verified in the information available, and no response from the DA was included. As a result, Mbalula’s account represents the ANC’s position in the dispute rather than an established finding about the housing situation.

Dispute over residents from the Eastern Cape

Mbalula also accused the DA of describing South Africans living in Cape Town, many of whom he said came from the Eastern Cape, as “refugees” instead of addressing their housing concerns.

“The DA ignored that and instead called our people, South Africans from mostly the Eastern Cape, refugees. That’s what the DA said,” Mbalula said.

The allegation adds a political and identity-based dimension to the housing dispute. Mbalula’s comments suggest that the disagreement is not only about the availability of land or the delivery of homes, but also about how residents are characterised and treated by public representatives.

Warning about Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape

Mbalula warned that the problems he associated with Cape Town could spread to Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape if the DA expanded its influence in those areas.

“Now they want to do the same in the Eastern Cape and in Johannesburg. We must make sure this doesn’t happen and our people are well taken care of, and that can only happen if the ANC retains power,” he said.

The statement formed part of a broader appeal to voters to keep the ANC in power. Mbalula presented the party as the political force capable of protecting communities and providing the support he said residents needed.

Housing remains a politically sensitive issue because it concerns both access to land and the delivery of formal homes. When proposed arrangements do not lead to completed housing, residents may remain in informal structures while political parties dispute responsibility. In this case, Mbalula used the alleged experience of KwaLanga residents to criticise the DA’s record and warn against extending its control.

ANC and DA tensions

Mbalula’s attack comes amid tensions over the ANC’s relationship with the DA in the national Government of National Unity. The two parties are working together in the coalition, but their partnership has not removed disagreements over policy, political strategy or the exercise of power.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed Mbalula’s calls to review the DA’s role in the coalition. His position highlights differences within the ANC over how the governing partnership should be managed.

For Mbalula, the Cape Town housing allegations reinforce his argument that the ANC should retain political power. For the DA, any response to the claims would need to address the specific allegations about land, housing assistance and the description of residents. No such response was included in the information available.

The dispute therefore remains centred on competing political accounts: Mbalula’s claim that black residents in KwaLanga were failed by the DA-led administration, and the unresolved question of how the reported housing arrangements were handled.