Ellen Pakkies is the National Colored Congress’ mayoral candidate for Cape Town. (Photo: Provided)
Despite her past, Ellen Pakkies was not named as the National Colored Congress’ (NCC) mayoral candidate for Cape Town this month. Her past is precisely why she is this party’s choice for Cape Town in the run-up to this year’s municipal elections.
In 2007, Ellen Pakkies from Lavender Hill turned herself in to the police after she killed her son, who was addicted to typing. Pakkies pleaded guilty to the charge of murder and was finally given a suspended sentence in 2008.
“I still live in Lavender Hill – in the house where my son, Abie, grew up,” she told Maroela Media in an interview on Tuesday.
“Am I happy? I don’t know if a mother will ever be happy again after what I went through,” she admits almost 20 years after the murder of her son.
“But I have a goal and that is to fight for communities that feel forgotten. This gives me strength and it makes me happy.”
Ellen Pakkies (centre) is the National Colored Congress’ mayoral candidate for Cape Town. (Photo: Provided)
Ellen Pakkies for mayor
Pakkies tells Maroela Media that she only recently became a member of the NCC.
“I wasn’t part of the party at first,” she then explains. “But I was part of the fight.”
Pakkies says that she initially protested together with members of the NCC against high electricity rates in Lavender Hill after some residents’ electricity was cut off due to non-payment.
“I didn’t know they were the NCC and Mr. Fadiel Adams (leader of the NCC) didn’t know who I was either. We were ordinary people on the street who stood together and fought against the power that is so high. We only realized later that we were fighting for the same thing and then they asked me to stand for mayor.
“Mr. Adams said I represent the suffering of our mothers on the Plains.”
The NCC enjoys particular support in the Cape Flats and currently has one seat in parliament.
Pakkies admits that her past – her fight against Abie’s addiction at the time and his eventual death – is partly the reason why she agreed to run for office.
“I am not a politician who chose a party. I am a mother who was chosen by the people… I know the pain that drugs and gang violence bring to a home. I lost my son to tying. I want to use my experience to help other families before they reach breaking point.”
“Why mayor? Because the mothers of Lavender Hill don’t need politicians. They need someone who understands what it feels like when your child goes to bed hungry, the power goes off and the violence next door doesn’t stop.
“It’s bigger than politics for me,” she then explains. “It’s about life and death for me.”
However, Pakkies’ election campaign will not only focus on drug abuse on the Cape Flats, but also on the protection of Lavender Hill’s women, girls and boys.
“We must stop the violence that breaks up our homes. Too many of our women and daughters are raped and too many of our young men grow up without fathers – without hope. Their mothers scream for help but no one helps. This is why so many turn to drugs and gangs,” explains Pakkies.
“It’s not because they’re bad, but because they’re broken.”
Ellen Pakkies with Jill Levenberg, the actress who played her in the 2018 movie Ellen: The Ellen Pakkies story. (Photo: Archive)