Genevieve Quintal
Sapa
JOHANNESBURG: Spoiling your ballot or voting for a minority party could help put a dent in the ANC’s majority, says former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils.
“If the ANC were to lose three, four percent in this election they’ll still be in power, nothing will stop that,” he told reporters at Wits University yesterday.
“But what that signals… is the ANC better wake up… you’re not going to last for five years. You’re losing more and more respect.”
Kasrils was part of the Sidikiwe! Vukani! Vote Campaign along with other ANC stalwarts such as former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
The group said it was not a “no vote” campaign – they were calling on people to go to the polls on May 7.
Madlala-Routledge said citizens could send a strong message by either voting for a minority party, which would take away from the dominant political parties, or spoiling their ballots.
“It’s about deepening our democracy,” she said. “We are doing this out of love for our country.
“There is a lot going wrong in our country and you can see a lot is going wrong.”
Madlala-Routledge referred to the security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private home in Nkandla.
“We see our leaders putting themselves first. There is no way we can justify the expenditure on Nkandla,” she said.
“Who does he (Zuma) fear in Nkandla? Is it those people knocking on his gate saying: ‘President, we are hungry?’”
Kasrils said the ANC had a tremendous record until recently and it was a record he was proud of. However, the “rose-tinted” glasses needed to come off.
“When we enter an election… let’s enter the public debate,” he said. “Let’s listen to what our people are talking about. Let’s not be in denial with our rose-tinted spectacles that can easily talk away the abomination of the palace built in KwaZulu-Natal for Number One, or the shooting down of miners so disgustingly at Marikana.
“What did Mandela say when we were coming into power? He said if we do not deliver and solve the problems of the people then they have a right to fight against us.”
Veterans of the ANC could no longer be quiet. They had to set an example.
He did not vote for the ANC in the last elections. This time he had decided to come out into the open and make it public.
The Sidikiwe! Vukani! Vote Campaign has a list of signatories, including former Unisa vice-chancellor Barney Pityana, former senior public servant in the fisheries ministry Horst Kleinschmidt, cartoonist Zapiro, Bram Fischer’s daughter Ilse, author and painter Breyten Breytenbach and academics Vishwas Satgar and Devan Pillay.
Satgar, who joined Kasrils and Madlala-Routledge yesterday, said that in 2011 more than 600 000 voters had spoilt their ballots. He believed this campaign was a “democracy project”, and that it belonged to all South Africans.
The ANC had failed millions of Africans.
“A vote for the ANC today means a vote for the Guptas, for people who are parasitic on the state, for people who want to accumulate.”
The ANC said yesterday the call for voters to either not vote for the ANC or spoil their ballots was “reactionary”.
“The ANC regards this call espoused by the Vote No Campaign as disruptive, reckless and counter-revolutionary,” spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.
“Reactionary statements therefore that call for such careless behaviour as spoiling ballot papers is tantamount to undermining the long struggles and the sacrifices of our people.”
Mthembu said the ANC was confident Kasrils’s call would have no impact on the party or the elections.
“On the contrary, we believe that it will galvanise more of our people to go out to show Kasrils and (his) ilk that the right to vote is sacrosanct.”
The Workers and Socialist Party said the campaign was not a solution to anger with the ANC.
“We… appreciate their desire to do something about it. But we disagree with the campaign’s founding statement because it does not offer a clear alternative to the ANC or the other capitalist parties.”
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) also condemned the campaign. It said the notion betrayed the workers’ struggle for a better life.
“The former ministers should have pursued measures of direct engagement with the ANC on matters that they believe need address or attention from their perspectives,” the NUM said.
“But launching a campaign against their own organisation which they served for many years… can only add to the betrayal of the struggle for a better life for all than help change the ANC as they aspire.”