Last bid to woo undecided
Ramaphosa warns corrupt in ANC in last campaign push
POLITICAL parties used massive rallies on the weekend before Wednesday’s crucial general elections to buoy their supporters while making one last pitch to undecided voters.
DA premier candidate Alan Winde said the party can see the finish line but emphasised that it needed all the support of voters to push it over the line on Wednesday.
Winde, flanked by party leader Mmusi Maimane, MECs Albert Fritz, Anton Bredell and DA provincial leader Bonginkosi Madikizela, concluded the DA’s election campaign in Mitchells Plain yesterday.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Mitchells Plain, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha on Friday signified the ANC’s final push, while Good party leader Patricia De Lille yesterday rounded off her party’s inaugural election campaign by focusing on land suitable for low-cost housing and spatial integration in Cape Town.
Winde said: “We had two million voter interactions. We had five different pamphlets, 5.1 million leaflets that have gone out. We have erected 470 000 posters and have hosted eight rallies in this province.
“I want to say thank you to everyone in the blue team because you have taken us so that we can see the winning line. We are almost there. We have seen what the polls are saying.
“This is a close election campaign and that is why we have done what we have done. Our last task is to get across that line and to make sure that the EFFANC guys, who are also working hard, don’t take this away from the people of this province. To get over that line in the next two days, we’re getting to 30 communities in the time left until we start voting.”
Maimane added that the Western Cape had experienced DA governance and that the rest of the country was only starting to taste DA governance.
“In this election there are many people who want to divide us. There are many people who are saying vote for me because I’m this race, of this religion or of this culture. We are the only party that says vote for us because we want to build one South Africa. We are not in the politics of division, we are in the politics of uniting,” he said.
At the Ellis Park Stadium, Ramaphosa used the governing party’s final rally yesterday to send a stern warning to leaders found guilty of corruption.
He said that those guilty of graft and state capture would not be appointed to his Cabinet after the elections on Wednesday.
Yesterday, the ANC and the EFF held their final rallies in the country’s economic heartland, Gauteng, which was hotly contested by parties.
On Saturday, the DA also held its finally rally at the Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto.
Ramaphosa told thousands of ANC supporters that the party would “fight with every measure at our disposal to ensure that those who occupy positions of authority serve only the public interest”.
This comes as a number of senior party leaders faced allegations of wrongdoing. They include Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and Minister in the Presidency Bathabile Dlamini, who appeared high on the list of candidates the party was sending to Parliament.
Ramaphosa said his party and its supporters were committed to clean governance, noting ANC members gave him a mandate to “renew the ANC and to fight corruption”.
“The ANC is determined to ensure that those found guilty of corruption and state capture will not be able to get positions in the party, government and Parliament,” he added.
“We are in the era of accountability. We are in the era of consequence management. We are in the era of renewal and stability,” Ramaphosa said.
In his bid to woo young voters and graduates, Ramaphosa has now increased his target of investment in the country. He initially set a target of R1 trillion but now, a few days ahead of the elections, Ramaphosa has increased the figure to R1.4 trillion.
He said his motive was to create job opportunities for young people.
Meanwhile, EFF leader Julius Malema said his party had asserted itself in the country’s body politic over the past five years and that South Africa’s future could no longer be decided without it.
Malema was addressing the EFF’s Tshela Thupa rally at Orlando Stadium yesterday.
Speaking to thousands of supporters who filled up the Soweto stadium, Malema said many had undermined the red berets when they first contested the general elections in 2014 after their establishment.
“They thought we were a Mickey Mouse organisation. Now they have realised that we are a force to be reckoned with. You cannot talk the future of South Africa without the EFF. We are the future of South Africa,” Malema said.
He said the ANC was so threatened with the growing power and influence of the EFF that President Cyril Ramaphosa offered him and his deputy, Floyd Shivambu, ministerial posts when he took over from former president Jacob Zuma as head of state.
Malema said they both declined the offers.
“If we are going to serve in the Cabinet it will be because of EFF votes; we do not need favours. We are going to Union Buildings. The red flag is going to fly high (there),” Malema said.
The Presidency had rejected the allegations but Malema challenged Ramaphosa to personally deny he made the offer. “I never said ‘The Presidency’… I said ‘Ramaphosa’. Why would I go around saying Ramaphosa offered us posts when he has not done so?”
We are going to Union Buildings. The red flag is going to fly high (there) Julius Malema EFF LEADER