Human settlements MEC Babalo Madikizela heard how President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ANC executive had allegedly “disregarded and deliberately snubbed” the AmaMpondo aseNyandeni nation.
Traditional leaders gathered at the Nyandeni Great Place near Libode where Madikizela, who is also the ANC Eastern Cape provincial treasurer, came to pay allegiance to King Ndamase Ndlovuyezwe Ndamase and the nation.
The monarch and other traditional leaders asked Madikizela to forward their complaint to the ANC national and provincial executive committees.
“The president and his [ANC] top six has never visited the jurisdictions of AmaMpondo aseNyandeni.
“We do not know what is our offence that the president decided to snub us,” royal family member Nkosi Jongusapho Bokleni said.
Madikizela did not respond to the allegation of the ANC snubbing Ndamase and only urged traditional leaders to be patient with the ruling party.
The MEC said he had visited the kingdom to introduce himself “as a Mpondo boy who has been appointed into cabinet”.
He shared his department’s plans of building 350 RDP housing units for those in need in Nyandeni.
Madikizela promised that 10 of these would be donated to the destitute around Easter holidays.
“There are some most destitute beneficiaries who have been identified and will have their houses completed and ready for occupation before or on the Easter weekend,” Madikizela said.
Human settlements head of department Daluhlanga Mpendu gave an outline of projects that had been carried out in Nyandeni local municipality since 2014.
He said that they had budgeted R82m for the Nyandeni local municipality.
The MEC also donated a cow to the king as a sign of respect and in line with the African custom of ukukhahlela (salutation)...