Cape Town - City communities are fed-up with having ward candidates who do not deliver and who are “imposed” on them by political parties, say independent candidates standing for the August 3 elections.
Thirteen of them, including a pastor, an IT specialist, a businessman, an advocate and a former DA councillor, are standing as ward candidates.
None are going up against each other, but are going head-to-head against seasoned politicians in well-known DA and ANC strongholds.
The heart of the ANC in the city, Khayelitsha’s Site C, is adorned with posters of Tembinkosi Qondela, an ICT centre owner looking to give marginalised communities access to information technology.
Known as “Taterror” by his supporters, Qondela has started a crowd-funding campaign to get him elected in ward 87.
“People are tired of fighting. You don’t see them burning things here. What’s going to happen, they will either punish the ANC by not voting or they will vote for someone worse,” he said.
Qondela has lived in Khayelitsha since 1992 and is aware of the problems facing his community.
His candidature provided a “positive alternative” for residents disillusioned with the ANC’s governance of the area, he said. If elected to office, his goal would be to empower communities to do things for themselves.
“It’s not true that the council can do all these things for them that they are being promised. We need to take away that mentality.”
Qondela said he would work with civil society organisations to expose the struggles of the community, especially the youth.
“They are the ones on the receiving end of huge unemployment, drug and alcohol addiction. I want to do simple things like open spaces for them to express themselves,” he said. “If I don’t perform, they can recall me.”
In ward 44 that encompasses Heideveld, Bridgetown and Silvertown, Pastor Isaac de Jongh, 41, is well-known for his community activism, having bumped heads over the years with the city on numerous issues, including a controversial housing project.
De Jongh’s even been interdicted by the city for allegedly threatening the DA’s councillor who is standing for a second term. He’s served on the city’s ward committee and the Heideveld Housing Project, and when not tending to his congregation, runs a feeding scheme.
De Jongh said he had been encouraged to stand for election by his community who were members of various political parties. “I’ve proven to my community what I can do,” he said.
“I’m not afraid to address authority. Political parties put up candidates who have never been active in the community before.”
Mark Raciet of Goodwood agreed, saying political parties were introducing candidates who were unknown to communities. “People vote for a party rather than a person, because they don’t know any better. But they don’t know who their councillor is,” he said.
Raciet is the only independent candidate standing in two wards - 26 and 27 - covering Vasco Estate, Elsies River, parts of Parow and Goodwood.
This DA member, who is a 42-year-old businessman and has served as a neighbourhood watch and residents’ association member since 2009, said he's witnessed the problems facing his community.
They, too, had encouraged him to stand for election. His goal was to improve his neighbourhood.
“If a ward councillor hasn’t shown the capability to uplift the area in five years, what are they going to do in the next five?”
Petty crime, theft from vehicles, housebreakings, problem buildings and vagrancy were on the increase in the two neighbouring wards, he said. “The more you turn a blind eye, the more it becomes a problem you can’t resolve,” said Raciet, who is self-funding his campaign.
Leslie Isaacs, who until recently was the DA’s councillor for ward 65, is now standing as an independent candidate for Lotus River and Grassy Park.
He said the community wanted him back in office because of his track record. “If you have a community behind you, you can do wonders,” he said. “The people should govern and we must listen to them.”
Isaacs believed that with the 2019 national elections looming, big political parties would lose focus on their grassroots supporters.
Cape Argus