Pretoria - The DA in Tshwane has shrugged off claims that it has already conceded defeat in the six wards traditionally dominated by the ANC after its decision not to contest them in today’s by-elections.
The party said it would contest three of the nine wards up for grabs in one of the biggest by-elections to be hosted in the metro in the local government term.
DA regional leader Mpho Mehlape-Zimu said the party would campaign for votes in wards 3, 44 and 92 because it was confident that it would retain them. The council seats were reported vacant after former DA councillors resigned, while in other instances, they had died.
Mehlape-Zimu said the focus on the three wards was a prudent thing to do to manage the party’s resources that would be much-needed during the municipal elections on October 27.
“We are going to have local government elections very soon, and that is when we will be starting to concentrate our resources into other wards as well.”
ANC regional leader Dr Kgoši Maepa said the DA’s decision to stop campaigning in the other six wards suggested it was losing its overwhelming support gained in the 2016 polls when it attained 93 council seats. The ANC got 89 council seats.
But Mehlape-Zimu refuted the suggestion that her party’s stance signalled a sign of self-defeat, saying that had never been a thought when the DA regional executive decided on its election approach. “It was a calculated decision by the regional executive and we think the executive was wise in taking that into consideration.
“If ever we are going to contest a ward that we know that, for example, we are sitting at 12% (in terms of electorate support) it is a problem. But we can do that with the local government elections because at that point we would have all our ducks in a row,” she said.
On the other hand, Maepa said the ANC had put a battle plan in place to contest all the nine wards, saying the party “has support throughout the country and not in certain areas”.
“There are no no-go areas for the ANC in elections. We contest every ward in the country. Remember the other wards are DA wards, but we have to have a battle plan which we have done in all wards. It will all be up to the voters,” he said.
However, Maepa highlighted that the election’s outcome might be affected by a low turnout due to apathy displayed by voters, especially during the by-elections.
In a media statement, the ANC said: “We know that the DA has now given up on campaigning for support in traditionally ANC strongholds in townships and the inner city of Tshwane as a result of monumental service delivery failures of their DA/EFF corrupt coalition government.”
The EFF, which will be contesting all the wards, hit back at the ANC for saying it was in coalition with the DA.
Regional leader Moafrika Mabogwana said: “We are in the opposition benches, and worse, we don’t have the same numbers that they have as the ANC.
“Therefore, it can’t be correct that if there are failures in the City they apportion the blame to us. We are an opposition with only 25 seats.”
He said the ANC must take blame for service delivery failures because it was also governing the wards like the DA.
“Part of what the ward councillors should do, of which the ANC has got the majority, is to ensure that there is service delivery in the wards. The blame must be laid on the ANC and DA. We don’t have a single ward councillor,” Mabogwana said.
Meanwhile, new kid on the block Areco Arusha – founded By Ally Mlazi in 2018 – is contesting in wards 9 and 24. “These by-elections mean a lot to us because we will be contesting for the very first time,” Mlazi said.
Pretoria News