By Lynnette Johns
The ANC will aggressively chase the coloured vote in the upcoming election as the party battles to hold on to the Western Cape. And new premier Lynne Brown has set the ball rolling by putting a cabinet together that contains five coloureds out of a possible 10, including herself.
Securing the coloured vote is crucial to any party that wishes to control the province as they are the majority group. Coloureds make up about 50 percent of the people of the province, followed by Africans who constitute roughly 30 percent and whites who make up 20 percent.
Politically, coloureds are split, but the ANC says traditionally coloureds who vote ANC are loyal to the party.
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'It is rare for coloured voters to leave the ANC' However the ANC is concerned about coloured anger over the treatment of former premier Ebrahim Rasool, who was axed in late July, and frustration at the ongoing factionalism in the party.
The threat posed by the ID has also galvanised the ANC into trying to hold on to its existing coloured support.
On Friday an ANC source said one of the key components of the new provincial cabinet was that four of the MECs and the premier were coloured.
Another source said three of the MECs, Cobus Dowry, Pierre Uys and Patrick McKenzie, were former NNP members. Additionally, another old NNP member, Joyce Witbooi, will be appointed as deputy speaker.
This week the ID slammed Brown for appointing so many former NNP members. Rodney Lentit, the ID's Western Cape secretary, said his party was "shocked by the promotions in the new cabinet of three former NNP members".
The ANC source said it came as a surprise to many that MEC Marius Fransman had not been dropped from the cabinet and he was almost certainly kept because of his race and his popularity along the West Coast. Fransman, however, was moved from one of the most important portfolios, transport, public works and property management, which gets the lion's share of the budget, to health.
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