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Party leaders warn that in Nelson Mandela Bay, ‘explaining party mistakes’ comes with a heavy price tag
The ANC’s elections launch went off with a whimper in Nelson Mandela Bay as party leaders warned that the polls could be costly because the party had to go out and attempt to explain the mistakes of local leaders to their voters.
Just over 30 000 party supporters attended the manifesto launch at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, falling way short of the 110 000 target the ANC had announced.
Organisers blamed buses for not arriving, but City Press spoke to disillusioned locals who had vowed not to attend the event.
ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize told City Press in an interview on the campaign trail in the metro’s Uitenhage area that cleaning up local leaders’ mistakes was contributing to the rocketing costs of preparations for their election campaigns.
He said the elections were already expensive because of the tight economy that had seen “everything become more expensive than it used to be a year or two ago.
There are challenges and issues that people want to discuss, so you must hold meetings, and explain and make sure that we are out there and reaching out to our people and making sure that we are able to respond to the issues,” he said.
This week, party insiders told City Press that the ANC spent millions on staff salaries and its election campaign budget was becoming increasingly expensive.
Mkhize rejected allegations that the party was faced with a financial crisis, which led to the salaries of Luthuli House staff not being paid at the end of last month, as well as concerns that service providers may not be paid on time for the manifesto launch.
“The only thing that would have happened is that payday happened over a period where there were a lot of holidays. So the banks were actually closed for a number of days. That is what affects the flow of funds from one account to another. If there is a holiday, you would know that it would not move after the holiday,” he said.
He said that “when people make those allegations, they should rather do that on the record because if someone in the ANC says ‘I was not paid’, I need to take that issue up seriously and check what happened”, he said. “But if people are going to be giving information as unknown sources, they cannot back it up when I say it is not true.”
Mkhize said the ANC’s T-shirts were in high demand during every election.
“They want T-shirts. They want to show themselves as members of the ANC and there is a huge demand for that and more. They want it for the love they have and their passion for the ANC,” he said.
In Port Elizabeth, President Jacob Zuma took an unusually tougher line on the performance and accountability of ANC councillors.
He promised that the ANC planned to crack the whip on councillors by forcing them to sign “performance and accountability” agreements, among other things. He said communities’ concerns had prompted the ANC to closely monitor levels of “performance and accountability” among councillors.
He presented the ANC as a party that listened to the people, saying it had heard citizens’ concerns about the manner in which councillors were chosen in the past.
“It is for this reason that we have involved communities in the process of nominating candidates for the forthcoming 2016 municipal elections,” he said. “This has helped in choosing the best candidates to be ANC public representatives.”
He said the ANC also heard the call for councillors to be more visible and accessible. “We have thus ensured that our councillors hold report-back and feedback meetings with their communities, and we will continue to improve on this.”
Zuma also said that if ANC councillors did not perform, communities should “hold them accountable and report their concerns”.
Municipalities could also soon be forced to change their operating hours to ensure that service provision did not clash with working hours.
Zuma also criticised doubting Thomases who did not believe that the ANC would succeed in changing people’s lives, saying these were just people who spoke about things they did not know. He likened the naysayers to those who once believed that the ANC would never defeat the apartheid government.
“So we will change people’s lives; we won’t rest as long as there are still poor people in South Africa. We will work day and night.”
However, in Motherwell, which used to be the stronghold of the ANC in the city, residents were highly critical of the ANC.
Resident Nomazotsho Sukani (48) said she wanted to cast her vote for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
“Me and my house will vote EFF, and so will my street block,” she said. “We are tired of these empty promises we have been told over the years. We still remain unemployed despite our dedicated support for the ANC.”
“They will not win us over; our problems have been ignored for too long and we spoke through our vote to make things right,” said one resident.
In Walmer township, young people told City Press that they would vote for the first time and it would not be for the ANC. Asked if they would attend the manifesto launch, they said they would go because there was free entertainment, transport and food.
Luzuko Geelbooi (18) said they were hungry and had little means of survival, so a free show was welcome. “I will go for the entertainment and whatever benefits, but my vote will surprise them,” he said.
The ANC was reported to have made efforts to infiltrate the highly contested Ward 30, which the United Democratic Movement (UDM) won from the ANC in a recent by-election.
Residents there told City Press they would not change their minds about the UDM and would vote for the party again in August.
The party announced that 1 000 buses and 600 taxis had been tasked with bringing supporters to the launch from all over the Eastern Cape.
By noon, the 46 000-seat stadium was still not full as party chairperson Baleka Mbete opened the programme.
