Executive Mayor of the Capricorn District Municipality Cllr John Mpe has noted with utter dismay the pictures of measly food parcels circulating on social media platforms, purported to be what CDM distributes to indigent households from the recently launched Covid-19 District Food Bank.
The manner in which these pictures are snapped with what looks like a CDM letterhead, is a deliberate misrepresentation – calculated to mislead the public; intended to undermine food security and social relief efforts; and tarnish the image of the Municipality.
This can only be ascribed to the tireless mischievous works of political opportunists who would use every chance they get to launch assault on the good name of the Executive Mayor.
Even at a time when the country has suspended all activities to combat the spread of the virus, the agents of darkness have turned ‘essential’ at night, hard at work, waging war against the poor just to spite the Executive Mayor and depict all other Mayors of local municipalities as a team of heartless politicians who care very little about the plight of the people they serve. This is done with a wrong infantile knowledge that the Food Bank is the Executive Mayor’s one man show, while the truth of the matter is that all other four Mayors in the District are equally involved and hands-on in this project.
Mpe is concerned that these nefarious agents are stooping so low and using the fight against Covid-19 to mock the plight of the less fortunate, whose hope for relief rests on our shoulders to make a contribution and ease the intolerable burden of poverty. Instead, these political conveyor belts stand on the opposite side of humanity and choose to pursue a narrow political agenda against Mpe at all costs.
“The picture in question has 4 items, and is not in any-way closer to what is distributed to those in need. We have therefore enclosed a true picture of food packaging to demonstrate what the food parcels entail, and to prove that this is transparent process meant to alleviate the effects of poverty on the majority of our people”, Mpe says. This is because the Food Bank was established ‘hot on the heels’ of disturbing allegations of councillors who use the food parcels for political patronage and corrupt ends.
The Executive Mayor appeals to good samaritans who have made huge contributions not to allow their humane efforts to be undermined nor deterred by this propaganda.
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