1 DAY TO GO

Smaller parties also vying for support

A DAY before the crucial elections smaller parties are in battle mode, hoping to eke out every last vote and get a seat in the provincial legislature.

A Cape Town councillor for more than a decade, Ganief Hendricks is no stranger to the hurly burly of politics and leads Al Jama, a faith-based party with its foundations in Islam.

“We are trying to build a strong Muslim party, not only for the benefit of Muslims but also other communities,” says Hendricks.

He said half the party’s councillors were from outside the Muslim community, and a significant number of their voters were not Muslims.

African Progressive Party (ApMo) leader Sebastian Petersen, who is taking part in his first election, said that should his party take power it would make sure that land restoration took place.

Petersen said his party would also look at strengthening education outcomes by emphasising entrepreneurship.

“We also want to improve policing in the province, but for that to happen we need to get rid of cadre deployment in the SAPS,” said Petersen.

Another priority for ApMo was the protection of women and children.

“We believe that a commission has to be set up to deal with farm workers,” said Petersen. He proposed to deal with the issue of land tenure by giving farmers’ land to farm workers for housing.

Cape Party leader Jack Miller is hoping to make a dent in the DA’s support base with his calls for a devolution of national powers to the Western Cape. Miller says the DA has been unaccountable for the last decade.

“For example, on property rates the value of houses has gone up 30%, yet the DA (City of Cape Town administration) has increased rates by 90% in the last four years,” said Miller.

He said the Cape Party would also fight for the Division of Revenue Act to be changed so that the Western Cape would get a more equitable share of tax revenue.

“The Western Cape pays R200billion in taxes every year and the national government gives us back only R50bn, so we’re losing four times the amount of money that we’re generating here in the province,” said Miller.