Johannesburg - The ANC and EFF are sending the big guns to the Western Cape with President Cyril Ramaphosa and red berets leader Julius Malema campaigning in the province in an attempt to loosen the grip the DA currently has.
The president is set to make his first stop in Mamre on Thursday morning while Malema will be out canvassing along Stellenbosch.
Ramaphosa will conduct community meetings in Mfuleni and Khayelitsha.
Malema’s three-day campaign will take him to Khayamandi, Bellville, Nyanga, Khayelitsha and Kraaifontein.
The ANC in the province has already made it clear that the aim of this municipal election is to wrestle their way to the top. They say the DA-led government has failed to meet the needs of the poor.
During the provincial manifesto launch, the party said the DA had shown complete disregard for the poor, neglected communities in townships and villages, and left sewage running through the streets of Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Gugulethu, Delft and many parts of the province. The provincial party also said while the DA claimed the City of Cape Town was the best-run municipality, this had not been the picture for the communities surrounding the affluent areas that it had sought to service.
In its manifesto, the EFF highlighted the collapse of local government and municipalities in the country. Emphasis was placed on municipalities not providing basic services such as drinkable water, reliable electricity, sanitation and refuse removal.
The collapse, the EFF said, was due to a lack of vision for a viable local government; misalignment of functions and allocation of resources; lack of skills and technical capacity; corruption and mismanagement of finances; and ageing and underfunded infrastructure.
EFF provincial chairperson Melikhaya Xego said this week the party had its sights set on tripling its representation in the Cape metro, but also indicated that its plan for other municipalities in the province was to reduce the DA’s majority vote and push for hung municipalities.
Weighing in on what the ANC and EFF hope to achieve during the weekend’s campaign trail, political analyst Professor Tinyiko Maluleke said it was unlikely that the ANC would gain ground.
“The ANC has been losing numbers consistently in the past two local government elections in the Western Cape. The DA has been getting stronger.
“I suppose Malema is hoping that people disgruntled with both the ANC and the DA might vote their way,” Maluleke said.
He added that the Good party, led by Patricia de Lille, will be the toughest competition against the DA, compared to the ANC and EFF.
“There’s a lot of emotion when it comes to the DA and Good party. The question will be which direction will these emotions go?
“I don’t see De Lille competing against the ANC, I think she wants to go for the DA.”
Political Bureau