The ANC went out of its way to secure a two-thirds majority win in the 2009 general elections, despite two major challenges - the formation of COPE and loss of support to the DA in the Western Cape. This was a goal that was pursued aggressively in ways that sometimes overstepped the mark politically and legally.
It is perhaps here in the Western Cape that the ANC has resorted to the most despicable campaign tricks targeted at the DA. It peddled lies about the City of Cape Town's impeccable service delivery and good governance record; resorted to racist slurs targeted at Helen Zille and Joe Seremane, which I would not dignify by repeating here; and it pulled out the redundant ‘DA will bring back apartheid' card in a bid to dissuade black voters from voting for the DA.
The irony of all this is that while the ANC and its allies spat fire about the City of Cape Town service delivery record they remained silent about the origin of the challenges which Zille and her team had to overcome. The City of Cape Town was, under the misleadership of Nomaindia Mfeketo, in the league of the worst governed municipalities in the country characterized by rampant corruption, cronyism and nepotism, and a mediocre service delivery record.
The former mayor, unsurprisingly, had the audacity to allege that the ‘DA has never delivered services in shack areas' a fortnight prior to the elections. Perhaps it is high time Ms. Mfeketo tells us what she provided to informal settlements around Cape Town during all those years in office? The truth is that she did nothing. Another truth is that the City of Cape Town under the mayoralty of Zille has done more to provide quality basic services to all the people in three years than Mfeketo did throughout a full term.
These lies were unsurprising though. The City of Cape Town under the DA-led coalition has been a nightmare for the ANC from day one. The ANC in collaboration with the Western Cape Provincial Government tried in vain to destabilize the work of the coalition government culminating in the ‘unlawful' appointment of the Erasmus Commission to investigate fabricated ‘allegations of irregularities in the City of Cape Town'. A full bench of the High Court later dismissed the Commission as part of the ANC's broader strategy to ‘embarrass' the City of Cape Town and the DA. The High Court simultaneously exonerated the DA of any of the alleged wrongdoing which compelled the ANC to find another strategy in its hopeless bid to paralyze the City of Cape Town and Zille.
The ruling party then embarked on a vicious smear campaign to discredit the country's beacon of good governance and quality service delivery record in local government. In March this year the ANC Youth League and its alliance partners (SASCO, YCL and COSAS) marched to the Mayor's Office to demonstrate against the City of Cape Town's ‘ignorance of youth development around Cape Town.' The march attracted less than 100 demonstrators most of whom were school children. After realizing that the youth march was complete flop the tripartite alliance unleashed its big guns and organized a similar march to the Mayor's Office.
One of the silly demands in their memorandum was that Helen Zille must not ‘move outside the borders of the City of Cape Town during working hours'. This ludicrous demand comes from the same individuals who have been silent while Ministers, MEC and senior public servants abandon their public service responsibilities to campaign for the ANC during working hours. The most notable example of this is the MEC of Housing in Gauteng Nomvula Mokonyane. She has been in Cape Town since November last year heading the task team in charge of the Western Cape operation after Luthuli House stripped the PEC of its powers. Similarly, scores of public servants have been deployed to campaign during office hours with full pay at the behest of NEHAWU.
The knives were also out to get Zille beyond the borders of the Western Cape during the campaign season. In February the ANC bussed in its juvenile thugs to prevent Zille from addressing a public meeting in Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga. In vintage Zille style she forced her way through the thugs to address the DA meeting. Less than a week after Zille's visit the ANC was caught distributing a fake DA pamphlet with the old DA logo in the Steve Tshwete Municipality.
In mid-April ANC supporters unsuccessfully tried to disrupt a public meeting Zille was supposed to address in Viljoenshoek, Free State. She had to defy the sickening smell of upturned rubbish bins and heaps of human excrement that were thrown at the door of the hall in which the meeting was scheduled to take place. On Sunday 19 April ANC supporters in Middelburg, Mpumalanga set up a roadblock in the township in an attempt to prevent the DA Battle Bus from proceeding to the venue where she was supposed to address a public meeting. She eventually made her way to the venue after police dispersed the rowdy crowd.
Other parties have also been on the receiving end of the ANC's bullying tactics. In February the PAC in Limpopo alleged that police instructed its activists to remove PAC posters on lampposts in order to make way for Jacob Zuma's posters. This is despite the fact that the PAC had booked those spots first and supplied the police with the necessary documentation to show that they were entitled to place those posters. But instead of upholding the rule of law to protect the victim, in this case the PAC, the police acted in favour of the ANC.
Approximately two weeks prior to voting day a ‘group of drunkards in ANC t-shirts' stoned cars belonging to a COPE entourage and barricaded the streets to prevent COPE's premier candidate for Limpopo from campaigning in Seshego, Julius Malema's township. This was in line with Malema's earlier threat to ‘crush anything that looks like Lekota, Shilowa or COPE' if they ever set foot in his neighbourhood. No arrests have been made as yet.
Neither the ANC in Limpopo nor Luthuli House condemned the despicable conduct of their members. On April 1 the ID alleged that ‘the ANC in Warrenton switched off the town's lights off half an hour before Patricia De Lille was due to address an election rally outside the Warrenvale Shopping Centre'. In both instances the ANC did not give any assurance that action would be taken against those responsible for instigating political intolerance.
To compound the situation, COSAS President Wesley Kgang told an ANC election rally in Vryburg, North-West on 15 April that ‘...we will remove all posters of any other party save the ANC because those posts (on which posters are hung) belong to the ANC.' The ANC issued a vague statement in response ‘distancing' itself from Kgang's statement. Yet it has not given any indication that it will take disciplinary actions against him. Kgang's words, however, should not be dismissed as a publicity stunt by an immature youth leader given that they were said in front of senior ANC leaders in the North-West and none of them reprimanded him - which implies that he had their blessings.
Similarly, ANCYL President Julius Malema confessed in a recent interview that ‘the youth league says what Zuma can't say and [what he] can't be heard saying' which reaffirms the perception that ANC uses its youth structures to do its dirty work. The reality is that Kgang's words were not just an empty threat. Many opposition parties have decried the mysterious disappearance of their posters in areas perceived to be ANC strongholds. Maybe their frustrations with lost posters explain the markings on ANC billboards and posters.
Another strategy that the ANC used effectively in this campaign, particularly to win votes in rural areas, was to mobilize traditional leaders to urge their subjects to vote for the ruling party. Some of these traditional leaders, however, took their mandate too far. One such example is Chief Thovhele Kennedy Tshivhase of the Tshivhase tribe in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, who ordered villagers to ‘vote the ANC or face my wrath' - in front the Premier of Limpopo Cassel Mathale - who reportedly did nothing to censure him. A day after the incident SABC Radio News reported that some villagers went to the local police station to lay a charge of intimidation but were told they did not have a case.
The partiality of the SAPS throughout the campaign has not helped to quell the political intolerance perpetuated mostly by ANC supporters. The police are yet to arrest a single ANC supporter for intimidation or instigating political violence despite the numerous charges laid against them. Yet they have acted swiftly to arrest members of opposition parties, in some instances for obscure charges.
In Kwazulu-Natal IFP aligned students who prevented Julius Malema from addressing students at the university in early April were deservedly arrested within a week. DA Mpumalanga Youth Leader Stanley Zondi was arrested for apparently intimidating an ANC supporter 48 hours after a case was opened against him when in fact he helped to remove a drunken audience member from a public meeting addressed by DA MPL Clive Hatch. It is ironic that opposition supporters have been arrested for obscure charges whilst the real culprits, ANC members, are left unscathed. I'm not in anyway suggesting that opposition members should not face the wrath of the law for breaking the law I'm rather puzzled by the conspicuous inconsistency of the police in dealing with political violence.
The ANC's 2009 elections campaign was probably its most aggressive and extravagant campaign since the advent of democracy. South Africa would certainly be a better country if only the ANC was as committed to quality service delivery and fighting corruption as it was with its election campaign this year.
Solly Malatsi works for Democratic Alliance. He writes in his personal capacity.
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
