* This article was first published in the Cape Argus newspaper on October 5, 2021.
Cape Town - The ACDP’s Cape Town mayoral candidate Ferlon Christians is putting the issue of abortion on the agenda of his party’s local government election campaign.
The ACDP’s manifesto makes a point of defending Christian family values and states that where these elements are missing, delinquency, crime and violence usually occur.
Recently, while the party’s manifesto was being launched in Johannesburg, Christians led a group of supporters in the Cape Town CBD on an anti-abortion protest.
The group prayed that mothers in “crisis pregnancy situations” could find help and choose the option of giving up their children for adoption instead of terminating their pregnancy.
Speaking later, Christians said: “We cannot condone the abortion clinics opening across this province and city. We can only change that situation when we have God-fearing leaders.
“If I am a Christian and vote for a party that makes it a policy to kill babies, I am complicit. We cannot be Christians on a Sunday, and when it comes to voting we forget that we are Christians. In the ACDP we are first accountable to God before we’re accountable to man,” he said.
Al Jama-ah mayoral candidate Ganief Hendricks said that for his party, opposing abortion is a matter of faith.
“The abortion laws have failed the country and the reason is because South Africa does not have a policy on families. If I become mayor we will have a special Metro police unit to monitor illegal abortions.”
With regards to the City’s finances, Hendricks said Al Jama-ah wanted every ward to have its own budget, as this would help remove the inequalities between township wards and wards in the affluent suburbs.
“This means more money needs to be spent and the best way is to have a budget for each ward and [the] rest of municipal services to be in a pool.
“Monies from the province and national fiscus must go directly to wards to service rental stock and housing developments,” said Hendricks.
He said if he was elected mayor, every homeless person, including backyard dwellers, would get a plot of 100m² with a title deed.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za