The ANC in the Western Cape made good on their promise to protest outside the Western Cape Provincial Legislature on Friday as Helen Zille delivered her final State of the Province Address.
They were joined by members of other organisations in the Western Cape, including liquor traders, trade unions and residents of the historic Bo-Kaap area.
The call from all groups that came together outside the legislature was the same: "Goodbye and good riddance, Helen Zille".
The heavy presence of police did not deter the protesters.
ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs called Zille’s 10 years as premier a "whitewash".
"The DA government of Zille has failed people in communities," Jacobs said. "This is not a caring government. Thank God this was her last address."
ANC elections head in the province, Ebrahim Rasool, did not mince his words when he said his party was the government in waiting in the Western Cape.
"We are outside today but, in a year’s time, we will be inside the legislature."
Leader of the ANC in the legislature, Khaya Magaxa, said he staged a walk out during Zille’s speech because "the real state of the province is outside".
"What Zille was saying [inside], what she was bragging about, we have never experienced as the people of the Western Cape," Magaxa told supporters.
"They are so racist… and come voting day, we are voting ANC," proclaimed one member of the ANC Women’s League.
Meanwhile, the DA chief whip in the provincial legislature, Mark Wiley, has called the ANC's walkout an "act of political delinquency".
"The walkout flouted democratic processes and is a slap in the face to the majority of the voters in this province who have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a DA-led government for over a decade," said Wiley.
"The ANC may try to peddle a misinformation campaign, but the cold, hard facts will always prove their claims to be baseless. The residents of the Western Cape will not have the wool pulled over their eyes by a political party which dwindles by the day in this province."
News24 will publish another story of Zille's speech from inside the legislature.
#SOPA A group from Bo-Kaap also outside the WC Provincial Legislature this morning. The historic site is set to be declared a Heritage site. Members of said community have been in and out of court fighting against what they call the gentrification of their area. @TeamNews24 pic.twitter.com/rae9CVwvzH
— Kamva Somdyala (@kamva_somdyala) February 15, 2019
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