Party political campaigning will take centre stage this week. The ANC, DA, EFF, IFP, Freedom Front Plus and smaller opposition parties will continue to criss-cross the country to bring out the vote.
Behind the scenes, mass mobilisation efforts will continue to ensure the major political parties have a strong showing at the final rallies on the weekend.
A lower voter turnout for the ANC and DA may favour the fortunes of smaller parties, including ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance.
For the first time, the ANC faces a real chance of failing to win a majority, and voter turnout is central to the election campaigns of all parties.
To that end President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Wednesday release the Operation Vulindlela progress report.
Operation Vulindlela is a joint initiative of the presidency and National Treasury to accelerate the implementation of structural reforms and support economic recovery. It aims to modernise and transform network industries, including electricity, water, transport and digital communications.
In addition, reforms to the visa regime are being prioritised to attract skills and promote growth in tourism.
DA leader John Steenhuisen is scheduled to be in the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and the Free State this week. EFF leader Julius Malema will spend considerable time in Limpopo ahead of the party’s final rally there.
The ANC will hold its final rally in Gauteng, while the DA will do the same in the Western Cape on the weekend.
The DA’s electoral majority has been steadily declining in the Western Cape, though not in urban centres in that province, for the past 10 years.
Former president Jacob Zuma will spend most of his time campaigning in KwaZulu-Natal arguing, as he has been, that Africans should take back their country and the ANC.
Through Zuma, uMkhonto weSizwe burst onto the political scene in December after the former president announced his support for the party instead of the ANC. It has so far relied on mini rallies and door-to-door campaigns to garner support but made a strong showing on the weekend with a 40,000-strong rally in Johannesburg.
The party’s manifesto, released on its website in April, proposes nationalising natural resources and the SA Reserve Bank, and repealing Eskom’s alternative energy agreements with independent power producers.
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) will this week open the national results centre at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. It is the first time the central hub is not at the Tshwane events centre, which remains devastated after the July 2021 riots.
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