CARIEN DU PLESSIS
Political Bureau
THE ANC has embarked on an all-out campaign to stave off the opposition threat in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, as tensions over the party’s candidate lists continue to simmer in the run-up to next month’s local government elections.
ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader Julius Malema yesterday invoked the memory of struggle stalwarts and urged people not to deny the ruling party their votes for the sake of Nelson Mandela’s health.
He was delivering the ANCYL’s annual memorial lecture in memory of Solomon Mahlangu, who died at the gallows during the struggle against apartheid. President Jacob Zuma will be in Port Elizabeth tomorrow for door-to-door visits, while Malema is set to address a rally in Bethelsdorp on Sunday.
In an emotive speech, Malema told the several hundred-strong crowd at the Nangoza Jebe hall that they needed to unite behind the ANC and spurn independent candidates or risk allowing the metro to fall into the hands of the DA.
While the ANC appears to have abandoned hope of recapturing the City of Cape Town, governed by a DA-led coalition since the last local government elections in 2006, it appears to be taking seriously the possibility of an opposition upset in Port Elizabeth where the municipality bears Mandela’s name.
In the 2009 general elections the ANC won only 49 percent of the vote in the metro, due largely to reverberations caused by the party’s recall of former president Thabo Mbeki.
The province has been beset by protests by members unhappy with the outcome of the list process. Malema was greeted by toyi-toying crowds appealing to him to intervene when he arrived at the venue for yesterday’s speech.
Malema invoked the names of not only Mandela and Mahlangu but also Walter Sisulu, whose birth date coincides with the May 18 polls, and Chris Hani, whose death anniversary falls on Sunday.
Malema capitalised on Mandela’s recent health scare which saw the elderly former president hospitalised for a lung complaint.
“President Mandela is sick and you don’t want to contribute to a worsening condition of Mandela by not voting ANC,” Malema said.
“We can’t reverse what president Mandela has fought for. This is for you president Mandela, get well,” he said.
“If you want Walter Sisulu to turn in his grave on his birthday (May 18), vote against the ANC,” he said.
“If you want Chris to turn in his grave, go and vote for the independent (candidates).”
The youth leader also begged party members not to leave the ANC, saying that Cope – launched in 2008 by former ANC members who claimed the party had abandoned its principles – was a “Micky Mouse” party, while Bantu Holomisa, who formed the UDM after being expelled from the ruling party more than a decade ago, was now “a loner”. The PAC, said Malema, had almost ceased to exist.
Malema warned that the DA might seize control of the metro, echoing the words of Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi earlier this week.
But in a statement last night, ANCYL spokesman Floyd Shivambu criticised Vavi for being “alarmist” in telling members of metalworkers union Numsa in Joburg that the country could end up with a “president (Helen) Zille” if there wasn’t a concerted effort to get ANC supporters to the polls.
Vavi told Numsa’s bargaining council conference that losing the Nelson Mandela Bay metro would be an embarrassment to the party.
Shivambu’s statement said it was “alarmist” that Zille would ever become president, and that this could not happen “even if the sun can set from a different direction”.
Zille represented “the interests of some white people and play(ed) on their insecurities to secure votes and funding”, Shivambu said, accusing the DA leader and Western Cape premier of disregarding black communities. Zille was recently campaigning in the Eastern Cape herself.
Cope – still the official opposition in the Eastern Cape legislature – yesterday announced former ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama as its mayoral candidate for the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, which is currently embroiled in a corruption scandal after the release of a report alleging widespread maladministration and fraud.
Ngonyama promised to address the alleged corruption but acknowledged the party faced “a daunting task”.
He also said Cope would be prepared to talk to both the DA and the ANC after the elections about the possibility of forming a governing coalition.