With the local government elections rapidly approaching, campaigning has gone into overdrive as political parties seek to woo the electorate ahead of the polls.
Ahead of the ANC’s manifesto launch on Monday, party president Cyril Ramaphosa spent Sunday on the campaign trail in Ekurhuleni, while the EFF simultaneously launched its ambitious manifesto and newly acquired headquarters in central Johannesburg, which it named after late struggle veteran Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
The DA, which launched its manifesto on Saturday, and the EFF seek to unseat the ANC as the majority party across the country’s municipal councils, by promising to root out corruption, create jobs and provide basic services, a lack of which has characterised many of the underperforming municipalities.
However, the ANC will not be unseated without a fight. The party has fielded 10,000 candidates across more than 4,000 wards and 278 municipalities. A quarter of the ANC candidates are under the age of 30 as the party looks to impress more than 433,000 new voters who used the September voter registration weekend to register to vote in the November 1 polls.
While remaining vague on the details of his party’s manifesto, Ramaphosa presented 16 of the ANC’s councillor candidates, who he said were selected through a rigorous and robust process — though that involved allegations of vote rigging and manipulation and even violence.
The party introduced an additional layer to the selection process, requiring that candidates be supported by the communities they wish to represent. Previously, branches nominated their preferred candidates, and these names would then be collated by the national office and submitted to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC).
On how those who participated in the violence will be dealt with, Ramaphosa said at a media briefing on Sunday: "Through the election committee led by former party deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, we will continue to improve our candidate selection process ... where there was wrongdoing, we will act firmly."
Off the back of its continuous growth in successive elections since 2014 and flanked by the EFF top six officials, party leader Julius Malema presented the party’s ambitious manifesto to over 1,000 party supporters in violation of the lockdown regulations, which limit outside gatherings to 500 people.
Though local government elections are primarily about service delivery issues that directly affect people’s day-to-day lives, Malema said if elected the socialist party’s councillors will deliver services beyond the functions of local government, including the provision of education and sanitation.
Malema said that to rescue SA’s Covid-battered economy, companies operating in EFF-governed municipalities with special economic zones would not be required to pay company tax. These companies would be subsidised with building allowances, in exchange for producing products that contribute to municipal services and create jobs. EFF municipalities would provide property tax and rates rebates for all companies that create 200 jobs or more.
The DA, which recently lost its court bid to declare the extension of the IEC candidate nomination process unlawful, seeks to regain lost ground since its dismal performance in 2019 national and provincial elections, where its support plunged to 20.7% from 27% in the 2016 local government elections.
Party leader John Steenhuisen said on Saturday that where the DA governs the party would make load-shedding an issue of the past. "In the section on electricity provision you will learn of the DA’s mission to make six pilot municipalities in the Western Cape load-shedding proof, in what we call the energy resilience project," he said.
"These municipalities are putting in place measures that will enable them to procure electricity directly from suppliers and ultimately end their reliance on Eskom altogether."
An Ipsos poll released a week ago shows declining
support for the ANC (at 49% from 57.5% in 2019) and DA (18% from 21% in 2019), and growth for the EFF at 15% (11% in 2019).
Without mentioning failed coalitions after the 2016 poll, DA policy head Gwen Ngwenya said at a virtual manifesto launch that the party will "do [our] best to make coalitions work where they are viable," indicating that the party is once again open to coalitions.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.