DA Eastern Cape rival vows to win rural areas
THE frontrunner in the race to replace Athol Trollip as DA leader in the Eastern Cape has ambitious plans to deliver the province’s rural areas to the official opposition.
Veliswa Mvenya, who claims to be miles in front of her opponent Nqaba Bhanga ahead of the vote in two weeks, has revealed plans to launch an extensive campaign into the ANC stronghold’s rural areas.
Speaking to the Sunday Times Mvenya said: “People know that I am a hard worker. I will continue doing what I do best. I will deliver the Eastern Cape province in 2019, and I will bring rural areas to the DA.”
Mvenya, a former teacher from Butterworth, joined the DA in 2000 and is credited with launching DA branches in rural villages in the province and contributing to the DA’s growth in black communities.
The ANC enjoys overwhelming support throughout the province with the party scooping 70% of the province’s vote in the 2014 general elections. However, the DA has since made inroads in the province by winning the Nelson Mandela Metro in the local government elections last year.
Mvenya, who resigned from the DA last year but was persuaded by Helen Zille to do an about-turn, is currently the party’s provincial chair, a position that will be contested by Andrew Whitfield, a former DA member of parliament who now serves as one of the party’s councillors in the DA-led Nelson Mandela Metro council. But Mvenya prefers Gustav Rautenbach to succeed her.
Mvenya is expected to lock horns with Bhanga, a DA councillor in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
Bhanga told the Sunday Times that he, too, plans to take on the ANC should he win the contest.
“Our mission is to escalate this campaign to the provincial government not just the DA, in order for us to take over the province which has serious problems. This campaign is bigger than the contest between me and Mvenya, it is about the people of the province. We will bring change to the province and the ANC should be scared of the group of people that will be emerging from the conference. The conference will elect a capable team of people, young and old.”
But Mvenya, who would be the first black female leader of the DA in the Eastern Cape, said she had far more support than Bhanga.
“My support is growing each day and there is no constituency where I do not enjoy support. In some [constituencies] I have 100% support and some I have 80%, so my campaign is in full swing. I will not disappoint, I will bring rural areas of the Eastern Cape to the DA.”