Johannesburg - The battle for the City of Joburg will reach its dramatic conclusion this weekend as both the ANC and DA pull out one final show of force days before the municipal elections.
The DA will throw down the gauntlet to the ruling party in its stronghold of Soweto on Saturday morning, before the ANC’s own Siyanqoba rally Sunday at the Ellis Park stadium. The two events, as well as the EFF’s final rally in Limpopo on Sunday, mark the culmination of an often-bitter battle for the hearts and minds of black voters in particular.
Analysts agree the ground has shifted dramatically in these elections as the ANC feels the pressure of the previously unthinkable possibility of defeat in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro, and taking a huge knock in Joburg and Tshwane.
That the ANC, and especially President Jacob Zuma, have for the first time singled out the DA for attack was a sign the ruling party was feeling the heat, analysts said.
“In previous campaigns it’s been an absolute no-go territory for the ANC to acknowledge the presence of opposition parties by name, because it’s always been, almost electioneering by itself, in its own cocoon,” said Professor Susan Booysen of the Wits University Graduate School of Public and Development Management.
“”There is no more solid indication of the ANC being really worried than the party coming out and talking specifically about the DA, and specifically attacking the DA,” she said. It was “a certain indicator” that electoral times were changing
Political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni said the fact that the DA had consciously gone after black voters, whom the ANC previously took for granted as belonging to it, was resulting in “a kind of panic”. This was why the ANC had resorted to reminding voters of the DA’s origins in an attempt to “make the stigma of racism stick”, Fikeni said.
The EFF, which has focused its campaign on promises of better housing, service delivery and jobs, white privilege and the land question, while also singling out Zuma as an ANC weakness, will hold its final rally at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Limpopo.
Hopes of a peaceful election day in the wake of multiple killings of councillor candidates - seen as a symptom of vicious factional divides in the ANC - received a boost on Thursday when an agreement was reached to allow polling to proceed in the troubled area of Vuwani in Limpopo, although there are doubts over whether the pact will hold.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko said on Wednesday that 100 000 police would be deployed to secure a peaceful poll - 50 000 at voting booths - following the murders of at least 20 candidates, 14 from the ANC.
Over the weekend, the IEC will move voting materials from provincial warehouses to municipalities for distribution to 22 612 voting stations, including a record 73.9 million ballot papers, along with ballot boxes and voting booths, in its biggest logistical operation to date.
But security of the process has already been called into question with the confirmed theft of ballot papers en route to voting stations in Soweto on Friday.
The DA immediately called for the missing ballot papers to be invalidated and for increased police protection.
Special votes and home visits will take place on Monday and Tuesday before the big day on Wednesday. Politicians were out in force on Friday to mobilise their supporters to turn out on voting day, with the winter chill among the factors.
The ANC - traditionally a strong finisher in the final weeks of a campaign - will be hoping to fill Ellis Park Stadium at its closing rally on Sunday. However, there are questions over its ability to mobilise its forces for the final push.
Booysen said while there had always been factions in the ANC, the problem had intensified and “it has particular resonance with voters because it is so vividly illustrated through the president’s controversies and scandals”.
However, she didn’t think it would suffer the full consequences because of its ability to project the big national picture and draw on racial identity.
SATURDAY STAR