The ANC looks set to deploy prominent party leaders to Soweto on Monday in an effort to lure voters who have opted not to vote, to cast their ballots.
The area, which has been beset with service delivery protests in the week leading up to voting day, is crucial to the ANC which aims to retain the City of Johannesburg.
Voting in the local government elections got off to a slow start on Monday with only 14% of the registered 26,228,975 voters having cast their ballots by midday. By 4.30pm, only 23.13% of voters had voted with polling stations scheduled to close at 9pm.
Insiders that spoke to Business Day confirmed that the party’s provincial leadership has been deployed to the area to get the “maximum” votes out of the people.
“It’s a special case that needs to be monitored and supported in an effort to ensure that we entrench the practice of voting,” said one insider.
Gauteng provincial treasurer general and former Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau confirmed that he would make his way to Soweto and other areas in the southern part of the city later on Monday evening to monitor the situation.
Low voter turnout could hamper the governing ANC’s aim of regaining the lost metros of Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay and to remain as the majority party across the country’s municipal councils. A pre-election survey by market research company Ipsos shows that low voter turnout could benefit the DA as voter apathy among traditional ANC voters could result in a stay away.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who cast his ballot at the Hitekani Primary School in Chiawelo earlier in the day, was booed by residents who had gathered outside the school as he made his way into the voting station.
Despite the cold reception from residents who were wearing EFF and ActionSA regalia, Ramaphosa said the party was confident that it would win the metro, including the more than 130 wards in Soweto.
When probed by journalists about the continuous electricity blackouts that had persisted in the run up to election day, Ramaphosa said these concerns would be addressed.
“We have made our way around these communities during our campaign period and in all those encounters I was with the mayor [Mpho Moerane] and what impressed me was that he had a note book the whole time and was seriously taking notes regarding the issues and he will [be] attending to them,” said Ramaphosa.
Chiawelo, where Ramaphosa was raised, experienced electricity blackouts in the week leading up to election day resulting in frustrated residents barricading roads with burning tyres and large stones to voice their grievances.
Protests began late on Sunday evening but had subsided by the time the president arrived in the area.
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