Zille must not be a ‘cry baby’ – Nzimande

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille must not act like a “cry baby” about the farmworkers strike in De Doorns in Western Cape, South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has said.

“I have a message for Helen Zille. Do not be like a cry baby asking national government to intervene,” he told several thousand ANC members today gathered at Kings Park Stadium in Durban for the ANC’s 101st anniversary celebrations.

“Go and tell the bosses to negotiate with farmworkers and give (the farmworkers) decent wages.”

The strike by seasonal workers to have their R69 daily wage increased to R150 – which began on August 27 last year, and was called off on December 4 – resumed on Wednesday.

Zille is also the premier of Western Cape.

Nzimande said the ANC must celebrate its achievements instead of listening to “doomsayers”.

He said people who said life was better under apartheid, did not know what they were talking about because they never grew up in mud houses without electricity.

“The rich and the media, perpetuated that idea.”

- Sapa