DA wins Ward 112 but voters unhappy about crime and housing

Voters shelter from the rain under the eaves of Alpha Primary School’s roof in Morningstar.

The DA’s Theresa Uys will serve a third term as Ward 112’s councillor, but there is unhappiness among some of her constituents who feel the City is not doing enough about crime and housing in the area.

Ms Uys won the ward with 88.76% of the votes after sweeping all five voting districts at Crossway Baptist Church, Durbanville Primary School, Alpha Primary School, Durbanville High School and Durbanville Methodist Church. But this was down from 94% in 2016. The Freedom Front Plus came second with 4.7%, up from 1% in 2016, and the ACDP came third with 2.6%. The Good party came fourth with 1.08% while the ANC only managed 0.72%, down from 1.87% in 2016.

The DA’s Theresa Uys will serve a third term as the Ward 112 councillor.

Ward 112 encompasses Durbanville, Morningstar, D’urbanvale, Goedemoed, Rosedale, Pinehurst (west of Brackenfell Boulevard), Langeberg Village and Durbanville Meadows. There was a 65% turnout among the ward’s 16 863 registered voters.

“Our first priorities will be commencing work on the Durbanville public transport interchange, the Durbanville sport precinct as well as the fence on Langeberg Road and addressing the concerns regarding the street people,” Ms Uys said.

Wendy Herbig, of Goedemoed, who was among those who queued in the rain at the Alpha Primary voting station on Monday November 1, said she had jumped ship from the DA this year.

“I was involved with the DA as a volunteer when they first started and Helen Zille was still running for mayor. I was very idealistic then. Back when I first volunteered, no one took salaries, but when the DA started paying huge salaries to people, that’s when I lost interest. I believe we need coalition, we need opposition to the DA because they’ve become too powerful.”

Several Morningstar voters, none of whom were prepared to give their names, complained about a lack of housing and rising crime in the area. They claimed some beneficiaries had waited nearly a decade for houses.

“I’m a street sweeper,” said one man, “and I’ve noticed that every day there’s complaints in the CBD, in Aurora, Stellenberg, Langeberg if their sidewalks are dirty, but what about Morningstar? Look how it looks here. We’re a massive team, so why not send us to Morningstar so we can clean our streets for a change.”

“We also need more youth-outreach programmes for the kids because it’s a hopeless case here. We need to stop the gangsterism, and it’s not even our own kids that’s doing it but people coming from outside.

“Here I’m still sitting in a ’backyard’ while people come from outside like Khayelitsha and they’ve got houses. My wife and I have been on the waiting list since 1998.”

He said he had been present at the first sod turning of the Morningstar housing development in 2017. The City’s R34.1 million project was meant to benefit 664 beneficiaries on the municipal housing waiting list (“Morningstar gets RDP housing,” Northern News, March 2 2017).

“I remember (then mayor) Patricia de Lille’s words at the first sod turning. She said: ’These are Morningstar’s backyarders’ houses.’ At the time, I was already waiting, and now I’m still waiting, and I hear there’re only six houses left.”

Morningstar Development and Upliftment Initiative (MDUI) chairman Zane Williams said last year that only a small portion of Morningstar’s residents were on the list to get houses while most of the beneficiaries lived outside the area (“Court battles for houses,” Northern News, February 6 2020).

Wheelchair-bound Morningstar resident, Eldora du Plooy, 53, accused Ms Uys of ignoring the plight of Morningstar’s residents.

“She wants to tell the newspapers that Morningstar’s people are getting houses? Our people’s bungalows are standing like Titanic ships, our people don’t even get houses! But today she wants people to vote for her as a councillor? She must fall! There’s just been violence in Morningstar. Today our kids and old people are living in fear in Morningstar.”

The FFP, ACDP and Good party did not provide a response before the time of publication.

The voters queueing at Durbanville High School.