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Maimane unfazed by 'racial tactics'

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DA mayoral candidate for Tshwane Solly Msimang, in jovial mood, dances alongside party leader Mmusi Maimane and DA provincial head John Moodey. Picture: Supplied
DA mayoral candidate for Tshwane Solly Msimang, in jovial mood, dances alongside party leader Mmusi Maimane and DA provincial head John Moodey. Picture: Supplied

Interpreting slurs as the ANC ‘feeling the heat’, the DA head is driving a campaign to match the governing party’s resources and win over Soweto

It is Wednesday morning, and DA leader Mmusi Maimane is suited up in the party’s head office in Cape Town instead of executing his ground campaign.

His original schedule for the day, which included going door-to-door with Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille canvassing for votes, had to be abandoned so that he could sort out internal logistics for the final leg of his party’s strategy to ensure that voter support was increased.

This meant attending two planning meetings.

On a normal day, Maimane would drive three or four campaign events. But because elections cost money, he has had to attend other meetings to raise funds for the party – and in so doing, try to match the ANC in terms of resources.

The past few months have been hectic for the DA and have taken a toll on its leader. Maimane’s two children are the ones who have suffered the most, he admits, as he often leaves home when they are asleep and returns when they are asleep.

He has visited most of the areas on his schedule and appears unconcerned about the DA-governed Western Cape, saying its continued leadership is as good as “sealed”.

De Lille was left to campaign alone on Wednesday, given the shift in focus towards preparing for the DA’s penultimate rally, which is set to take place in Nelson Mandela Bay today. The final rally will be held in Johannesburg on July 30.

Maimane said he was looking forward to the next week, particularly because the governing party was feeling the heat – evidenced by its use of “racial tactics” to put South Africans off voting for the DA.

“I love a good fight. I feel they are on the back foot, and so they will come up with tricks. But now it is the big push to the last day,” he said.

Reaching out to voters in untested areas has meant that the DA also had to change its approach to nonracialism by integrating it into the party’s message – highlighting the fact that black people were still suffering.

Maimane has asked each of the DA’s public representatives to host at least five events in their communities each day to maximise its gains at the polls.

Like a parent checking that homework has been done, Maimane every night examines a spreadsheet to measure whether that target has been achieved.

Where he finds targets have not been met, he phones representatives on the ground asking why they had not engaged potential voters.

“We are from a school of thought that says, ‘You get what you measure – and if it isn’t measured, it is not important.’”

In Port Elizabeth, Maimane attended three different events. At each one, he was enthusiastically welcomed. His message, often repeated, concerned these same themes: change, jobs, service delivery and stopping corruption.

The party’s concise message has also been conveyed in TV adverts and posters – the idea being to entrench the DA’s four key campaign themes simply yet effectively in the minds of potential voters.

Maimane said he hoped to reduce the ANC’s share of the vote to below 50% in his hometown of Soweto. His family home is in Dobsonville.

After the poll results were announced, Maimane said, he was determined that, whatever negotiations he entered into with other parties regarding coalition governance, service delivery would not be compromised.

“We must ensure we deliver on our mandate because people elect us based on that.”

What effect did controversial comments about racists in the DA have on him?

“Racism in South Africa is a historical phenomenon – we do not deny that ... I think all of us stand on the same side to say we condemn racism and whenever there are cases deemed as racist [within the party], we would take action. The other dynamic is that, in any democratic space where liberation movements lose their legitimacy, they resort to mobilising on the basis of race because race is such a deeply emotive issue.”

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