The DA is aiming to win an outright majority in Nelson Mandela Bay after five years of shifting and unstable coalitions have left the city in disrepair and residents desperate.
The party brought out the big guns on Monday with both DA leader John Steenhuisen and federal council chair Helen Zille addressing a manifesto launch in the northern suburb of Helenvale, attended by exuberant activists and members of the party.
Zille, who has not featured much on the campaign trail, is enormously popular in the coloured neighbourhoods of the city and speaks immaculate Afrikaans. The DA aspires to do what Zille did in Cape Town, following up the 2006 victory via coalition with repeated absolute majorities ever since.
Her key message was that residents must not make the same mistake they did in 2016 and vote for smaller parties. It is these smaller parties that have held the balance of power in the metro since 2016, shifting power between the DA and the ANC and then back to the DA in December 2020.
“If you sit here without a full majority, you cannot move forward. In Cape Town, it was after the 2006 coalition that we have achieved a DA majority. That is how we built a stable government; the DA must have a majority to make that difference,” she said.
Smaller parties such as the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the newly formed Northern Alliance, which was an offshoot of the PA and the ANC, hope to make gains in coloured areas. They are most likely to partner with the ANC in a coalition.
The DA is in coalition with the UDM, African Independent Congress, COPE and the African Christian Democratic Party, with DA mayor Nqaba Bhanga leading the council.
“Smaller parties are the laatjies (youths) that break into your house, but a big thug is standing behind them. Don’t
be misled by the laatjies that slip through your burglar bars,” said Zille.
The PA, which uses the language and style of local gangsters to win popularity and which was started by former inmate Gayton McKenzie, stood for the “Pollsmoor Alliance” and NA stood for the “Not Applicables”, said Zille to cheers and laughter.
Steenhuisen appealed to residents that “if you wanted potholes filled, your pipe leaks repaired, your street lights fixed, your roads resurfaced and your refuse collected, you want a DA government in charge ... All we need is five years of uninterrupted government. If we do not deliver, you can kick us out,” he said.
The ANC, which won only 40.9% of the vote in 2016 against the DA’s 46.7%, is also intensely focused on Nelson Mandela Bay, where President Cyril Ramaphosa campaigned on Sunday. Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane said on Monday the ANC had lost the city in 2016 because its supporters did not turn out to vote.
“We are optimistic because last time, in 2016, our people never voted. They did not vote for other parties,” he said.
Large numbers turned out to hear Ramaphosa on Sunday.
The ANC is counting on people to turn out this time, having learnt the lessons of losing political control.
“The last time houses were built in Nelson Mandela Bay was when the ANC was in power,” said Mabuyane.
Steenhuisen said: “We did more in this two years than the ANC has done in 27 years.”
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