Election campaigns get into full swing
Political campaigning will begin in earnest this week after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proclamation of May 29 as the date for this year’s national and provincial elections.
The long-awaited announcement comes amid a flurry of manifesto launches by political parties including the DA, EFF and other smaller and new parties. The various parties and independent candidates will now start criss-crossing the country soliciting for votes.
The ANC held its manifesto launch on Saturday in a packed Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban promising to create jobs for 2.5-million job seekers in the next five years, as well as to deal with corruption and improve governance. It also pledged to invest in the upgrading of energy infrastructure, roads and railways.
This year’s election will be closely contested as recent polls by market research firms have shown the ANC’s electoral support falling. Some, including one commissioned by the ANC itself, show the governing party will struggle to get the 50% plus one it requires to govern.
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has welcomed the announcement of the election date, saying it would have to pull out all the stops in preparation.
It held two voter registration
weekends and ran a registration campaign locally and abroad, with 27.6-million registered voters so far. The voters roll is now closed.
The IEC will this week reach out to the party liaison committee, which includes all registered political parties, to finalise an election timetable.
Meanwhile, the parties will be busy behind the scenes finalising their lists of preferred candidates for parliament and provincial legislatures.
The DA will on Tuesday launch a billboard in the east of Johannesburg against cadre deployment. It has long challenged the ANC’s cadre deployment policy, and it and other opposition parties could use the information turned over by the ANC last week to expose the governing party’s failures and scandals and challenge its electoral dominance.
The DA will also lead the multiparty coalition in presenting its energy proposals at a media briefing at Eskom’s headquarters in Midrand this week.
In parliament, various departments will present their budget speeches.
This week the presidency will field questions in parliament on the July 2021 political riots and the reform of state intelligence agencies.