ANC punished for ‘poo-litics’, says DA

CAPE TOWN, 2014/05/09, Dr Ivan Meyer and Patricia de Lille from the DA celebrate their win in the Western Cape at the IEC centre in Bellville South Africa, Western Cape, South Africa. Picture: Adrian de Kock

CAPE TOWN, 2014/05/09, Dr Ivan Meyer and Patricia de Lille from the DA celebrate their win in the Western Cape at the IEC centre in Bellville South Africa, Western Cape, South Africa. Picture: Adrian de Kock

Published May 9, 2014

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Cape Town - Voters in the Western Cape have punished the ANC for their “poo-litics” by keeping the Democratic Alliance in power, said the DA's Ivan Meyer.

Speaking at a press conference at the IEC's provincial results centre in Bellville, the party's provincial leader said the DA ran a positive campaign around service delivery and good governance, while the ANC ran a negative campaign around “poo politics”.

Provisional results at midday on Friday, with a handful of results still incoming, showed the DA had a comfortable lead in the province, holding 59.2 percent of the vote.

The ANC followed with 33.04 percent.

The next closest competitor was the Economic Freedom Fighters, with 2.11 percent.

“The ANC's efforts over the last few years to make the Western Cape ungovernable have failed miserably,” said Meyer. “Not the ANC's race-based divide and rule tactics, especially in vulnerable communities like De Doorns, nor their efforts to bribe DA councillors, nor their outrageous so-called faeces war could unseat the DA in this province.”

He said the City of Cape Town would continue to allocate the bulk of its resources to poor communities.

He also called for co-operation in the aftermath of the “heated” election atmosphere.

“After the results are known, we must all come down from our thrones... and come together in the spirit of cooperation in the interest of protecting our young democracy.”

Marius Fransman, the ANC premier candidate, congratulated the DA for winning the province, but promised a “formidable” ANC team in the provincial legislature to keep the DA in check.

Fransman will give up his post as the deputy minister for international relations and co-operation to lead the ANC in the 42-person legislature.

He said the fact that the ANC had increased its share of the provincial vote from 31.55 percent in 2009 to 33.04 percent at noon on Friday showed the party was growing.

He said the DA's use of the “race card” or “swartgevaar tactics” that tried to turn “coloured sentiment against black Africans” was a contributor to the DA's success, but promised the ANC would continue to show up their opponents for using such tactics.

IEC head in the province Courtney Sampson said the commission would likely announce the final results on Saturday afternoon.

Provincial and parliamentary seat allocation will only be calculated once the results have been declared.

He said there had been a few objections in the Western Cape – “not many” – but that the commission had dealt with each one.

These included an EFF complaint about music being played at voting station in Barrydale, an AgangSA complaint about a voters roll only starting at N, and an ACDP complaint that one of its party agents was prevented from entering a counting centre.

Some of the complaints have been referred to the IEC's legal services. Others, like the AgangSA complaint, had easy explanations: the incident occurred at the substation of a voting centre, specifically designed to split up large groups of voters into smaller, more manageable numbers.

He said there were no issues that concerned the result auditors.

“We as the IEC in the Western Cape have convinced ourselves that what we've achieved is to have a fair expression of the will of the people of the Western Cape,” said Sampson.

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