Try to imagine Julius Malema’s wife or Mmusi Maimane’s wife getting on to the stumps and addressing political rallies on behalf of their husbands before elections.
Possible?
Hard to imagine here as many South Africans have hardly heard them speak, let alone know their first names.
But in the USA’s closely contested elections, the spouses are at the forefront, making the case for why their partners should be elected to office.
City Press attended two events where Heidi Cruz – the wife of Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz – and former president Bill Clinton – husband of Hillary Clinton – argued for the election of their spouses.
Cruz is fighting a rearguard battle to be the presidential nominee of the Republicans while Clinton is the favourite to be the Democratic Party presidential nominee.
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Saturday, Bill Clinton started his speech, like many politicians here do, talking about how much Hillary loves Indiana.
He then moved on to social issues that affect the community, including jobs, health insurance and drugs.
He spoke of Hillary’s concerns about the troubled steel manufacturing industry in the state, the pervasive problem of heroine in poor communities and the disproportionate numbers of young (black) people who spent most of their adulthood in jail.
He said if only a fraction of the money spent on keeping them in jail was spent on educating them, they would be so much useful to society.
On job creation and incentivising private companies, Clinton said his wife would give companies a 15% break if they formed profit-sharing schemes with their employees.
“We need a whole different system of carrot and sticks. We need to reward companies who come up with profit-sharing plans with employees.”
The day before, Heidi Cruz addressed the Howard County Republican Party dinner in Kokomo, Indiana.
Heidi exalted the legal skills of her husband, who she said first attracted attention because of the numerous constitutional cases he was winning.
She added that when he was appointed senator and sent to Washington DC, he went there hoping to make a difference but was shocked at how government was not working for the people.
Heidi, a former employee at state treasury and currently an investment manager, described Ted as a man of great courage and incredibly principled.
She bemoaned how media was unfair to her husband and refuted reports that he is quite unpopular.
“He will do the right thing, even if it is unpopular. It is not that he is unlikeable, but he is just doing things that people who have not been acting for you don’t like.”
It would be interesting to see the wives of Malema, Maimane and one of Zuma’s wives campaigning for them.