Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande has hit back at Western Cape Premier Alan Winde who had accused the ANC of collapsing the state and the economy.

Nzimande said Winde has failed to talk about the tale of two cities, instead he decided to speak about the tale of two parties.

Winde, who was speaking during the debate on the State of the Nation Address on Wednesday, said the ANC cannot keep the lights on, has collapsed the railway network, and businesses have shut down because of load shedding.

He said the crime rate was rampant, with more than 27,000 people killed a year.

“Mr President, you must be ashamed,” said Winde of the high murder rate.

The Western Cape Premier said they are pushing for the Provincial Powers Bill so that they will have control of the police.

“When the ANC fails, the DA steps in and the first area I will talk about is a piece of legislation coming out of the Western Cape called the Powers Bill, and it’s interesting how the ANC opposes this like anything. That Powers Bill creates an enabling environment where we will go through the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces or even end up in the Constitutional Court where you are not able to deliver services to our citizens.

“Let me talk about policing, because that is where devolution of power should happen and the Minister of Police says over my dead body. But what do we do in the Western Cape? We go ahead and start to deliver to the citizens where the ANC fails,” said Winde.

He said five years ago, the Western Cape deployed their Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officers and this contributed to the decrease in the murder rate in the province.

“If we can do that with 1,300 LEAP officers using data and evidence, imagine what we will do when we force you to give us the power of policing?” Winde asked.

But Nzimande said Winde was not telling the truth about the state of affairs in the Western Cape. He said Cape Town was a tale of two cities, with one part of the city getting service delivery, but the other part of the city was neglected by the municipality.

He said the municipality was looking after the suburbs and neglecting communities like Khayelitsha. He said schools in Khayelitsha were falling apart.

“Premier Winde should be ashamed, because the DA is telling a false narrative here because all the advances you mention are by the ANC. I thought you were talking about a tale of two cities,” said Nzimande.

.siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za

Politics