Big bucks ease DA member’s ANC switch

VANESSA Adriaanse was a DA supporter until she was evicted from the council-owned flat she occupied illegally.

The community activist from Heideveld on the Cape Flats was living under a gazebo in January last year when the ANC came to her rescue and reversed the eviction by taking legal action.

During the next three months, she became one of the faces of the ANC election campaign in the Western Cape — and the recipient of R329 000 from the state to pay for a community outreach project in Heideveld.

Adriaanse marched to the provincial legislature in March last year and handed a petition to the leader of the official opposition in the Western Cape, Marius Fransman, to express how “gatvol and disappointed” she and the mothers of the Cape Flats were with the DA and “its false promises to coloureds”.

Fransman issued a statement on March 20 last year: “For the past five years, this DA government of the Western Cape of Helen Zille as the madam-inchief has declared a war on the working class and poor African and coloured communities.”

Twenty-three days later, Adriaanse made an impassioned plea at President Jacob Zuma’s 72nd birthday rally at Vygieskraal Stadium in Athlone to residents of the Cape Flats to vote for the ANC.

“Mr Jacob Zuma, a happy birthday to you, and like the people in the Cape Flats will say: ‘You still look duidelik [good] for 72,’ ” she quipped. Seated on stage was Fransman.

Adriaanse said: “I was a staunch DA member, and because of me, our DA councillor STAGED: Stills from video footage of Vanessa Adriaanse, left, and Shahieda Thole at President Zuma’s birthday rally won our ward, 44.

“They evicted me. I have four kids. The youngest one is four. And the ANC came to help me.”

On April 14, two days later, a nonprofit organisation, Heideveld Community Care, was registered, with Adriaanse as treasurer. Three days later, the organisation played a key role during a mass community outreach event — under the auspices of the department and ministry of social development — for more than 4 000 people.

Waldie Terblanche, regional executive manager of the South African Social Security Agency, confirmed the event cost just over R2-million. “In procuring services for these events, emphasis is placed on the economic empowerment of local communities,” he said. This included catering, cleaning and security. The agency paid.

The Sunday Times established this week that on April 30 last year, two payments, of R329 000 and R320 000, were made to Adriaanse and Ghalieb Essop — who was with Fransman at an alleged “votes for cash” meeting with the Cape minstrels.

Adriaanse and Essop said they did not personally benefit from the payments but acted as conduits, in turn paying local service providers such as the caterers.

They said every cent could be accounted for, should there be a need to investigate.

Shahieda Thole also shared the stage with Zuma at his birthday rally in Athlone.

Holding a microphone, she introduced herself as the “future councillor for the ANC in Bishop Lavis”, going on to explain why she had abandoned the DA.

The reason for her switch was Fransman. He had helped the family of three-year-old Tatum Prince, killed in the crossfire of a gang shooting, to pay for her funeral.

Thole was one of the caterers hired by Adriaanse for the community event in Heideveld for a negotiated price of R35 000.

Thole became suspicious when she struggled to extract the agreed payment on time. She now wants an assurance that the R2-million spent by the state went to legitimate service providers.

I have four kids. The youngest one is four. And the ANC came to help me