Smaller parties will reap the benefits of voter apathy and many alliances will be formed after the 2021 local government elections, says public works minister and political party GOOD leader Patricia de Lille.
“The coalition issue is a trend that has developed at local government and I do think it’s going to continue. We better get used to it,” she said.
De Lille recalled managing coalitions, including with former DA leader Helen Zille, saying they demand respect. “It’s like in a marriage. You can fight but you still have to find ways to work together,” she said, adding GOOD would not rule out any possible ally. The party would approach pacts on a case-by-case basis, based on merit.
In a sit-down interview after three months’ electioneering around SA, De Lille told Business Day about her expectations for the November 1 polls.
She aimed most of her hits at the DA, a party she broke away from in a messy split in 2018, in which she was followed by Brett Herron and other faithfuls. At the time, De Lille posted a boxing video on social media and the sparring theme has become GOOD’s campaign trope; De Lille in pugilistic kit is a political meme.
“Aunty Pat is ready to klap it,” says a placard showing De Lille wielding a pair of boxing gloves. GOOD’s TV advertisement includes the “ping” of a boxing bell.
This messaging is geared at conveying a party that pulls no punches, so you can imagine the surprise on arriving at De Lille’s Pinelands home in Cape Town to find her clad in a flowing satin kaftan.
The sartorial change speaks to a shift in De Lille’s stated political tack: making corrective promises, not issuing threats or exploiting voters’ fears. Dress code notwithstanding, she grabbed the opportunity to dole out sucker punches to the DA, while handling the ANC with kid gloves.
“The DA’s blaming the voters. They’re blaming the voters for not giving only their party votes,” she said. De Lille berated the “arrogant” DA for playing on voters’ anxieties and telling them to shun smaller parties because that would be a “wasted” vote.
“For me, that is very below the belt. We need to build a democracy that’s inclusive.”
The DA, she said, has forfeited leaders of stature — such as erstwhile head Mmusi Maimane and onetime Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba — and “cannot stand competition because of their own internal destruction”.
De Lille claimed the DA “fears” Mashaba, who founded ActionSA after his walkout in 2019. “I like what Herman Mashaba said […] don’t vote for a party that is getting smaller and smaller — that’s the DA — I thought that was quite lovely,” she said with a laugh.
Save for De Lille, all cabinet ministers are ANC members. She is adamant that any association with the scandal-ridden governing party does not cost her in opposition politics. “The ANC knows me better than anybody else because I’ve been fighting against them all the time, but now [as a minister] I’ve got one task to do,” she said.
During her SA tour jostling for support, De Lille detected anger and apathy among the electorate. “People are very much sick and tired of the old parties but it doesn’t automatically translate into voting for another,” she said.
Among De Lille’s concerns was low voter turnout, which she worried could drop below 50% of registrations. “What I can tell you, without a poll, is definitely anger. There’s definitely a feeling of disappointment, feeling that politicians just rock up this time of the year and afterwards they disappear,” she said.
More than 70,000 people supported then newcomer GOOD in the 2019 national election. For perspective: it came in behind the African Transformation Movement and UDM.
GOOD’s sight is now set on growth ahead of 2024. In 2021 it is participating in six metros, 45 municipalities and 1,000 wards. GOOD has grown fastest in the Western Cape, De Lille’s home province, where it is participating in all municipalities.
“We’ve got pockets of support all over the country,” De Lille said on return from the Northern Cape. Initially sceptical about contesting in the KwaZulu-Natal metro municipality eThekwini, a pre-election visit changed her mind.
“Now that the campaign is on the ground the response is good but, of course, you can only measure it on election day,” she said.
The politician is “positive” about Tshwane. Since Johannesburg is so big, it “will be fine” were GOOD to secure between three and five seats on the city council.
De Lille recommends that voters make a loan of their support to parties rather than sign it over for life. “Lend us your vote just for five years and after five years if we don’t do what we say we’re going to do then [for] the next five years you vote us out,” she said.
Results in the local government elections on Monday will show whether GOOD is punching above its weight as a relative newcomer or steadily growing as a viable contender among the smaller opposition parties.
On Wednesday, the Electoral Commission of SA’s Sy Mamabolo said the 2021 elections will be “highly contested” as the tally of independent candidates has almost doubled, from 855 in 2016 to 1,546 in 2021. With 26.2-million voters registered to mark ballots on November 1, the gloves are off.
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