Duarte, DA in UK to whip up voter support

THE ANC and Democratic Alliance are on the campaign trail here to win the votes of between 200 000 and 500 000 South Africans living in Britain.

The DA used a video message from party leader Helen Zille, social networks and other digital tools to connect with potential voters, but the ANC did it the old-fashioned way: door to door.

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte was on the stump in southeast London yesterday to “meet our people in the diaspora here”.

She took a swipe at the party’s election rivals.

Zille, she said, was a “shallow populist in trouble with her own party”, Julius Malema was “just confused” and Mamphela Ramphele was a disappointment. Congress of the People leader Terror Lekota was a “drama queen”.

She said the emergence of Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) would hurt COPE more than the ANC.

The DA’s Francine Higham said the party was going to rugby games to canvass support. She said 50 000 votes for the DA abroad would be one more MP for the party.

Neither party is certain just how many votes are available in Britain because overseas voter registration stations will open only on April 30.

ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa said parties such as the EFF were making “reckless” and “empty” promises in a bid to win votes from poor communities and those with governance grievances, writes Caiphus Kgosana.

Yesterday in Klerksdorp, Ramaphosa came face to face with such voters in the Khuma hostel. The people he addressed complained about bad living conditions and hostile local councillors. He said they were right to demand houses.

In Nelspruit yesterday, Zille said the voters had the power to bring about change, writes Jan-Jan Joubert.

She said Mpumalanga, the “power house”, needed change the most because it stood to gain the most from clean, effective DA government.

DA Mpumalanga leader Anthony Benadie said the party hoped to double its 2009 tally of just more than 100 000 votes in the election. It was expanding in urban centres as well as small towns, and growing in rural areas such as Bushbuckridge, where it has four local councillors. It still struggled in areas under traditional leadership.