Harnessing outrage at graft, Zille rides again
BETWEEN Kimberley and Mahikeng lies the Texas of South Africa. In this cattle- and maize-farming country, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille shifted to top electioneering gear last weekend with barnstorming speeches aimed at the base of her party.
Despite its preponderance of coloured voters, the Northern Cape has never been a happy hunting ground for the DA. In 2009, it received 54 215 votes, or 13% of the total, placing it third behind the ANC (61%) and the Congress of the People (16%).
Since DA Northern Cape leader Andrew Louw took over in 2010, the party has taken on a more grassroots character, canvassing isolated communities on foot, door to door.
Party workers speak of a reality in which wards are so small and so contested that the local ANC leadership would follow 200m behind any DA canvassing team, clipboard in hand, checking up on the same voters the DA had just spoken to.
So progress in these small communities, in which everyone
How can anyone eat so much chicken and pizza? Fifty thousand rands!
knows everyone’s business and so many are dependent on government-sanctioned piecework, is tough for the opposition.
Nevertheless, the province has become more politically contested since 2011, with control in several of the smaller municipalities changing hands, the Hantam municipality in Calvinia being the jewel in the opposition crown.
The average of four posters per lamppost in the provincial capital bears witness to this contestation between the ANC, DA and COPE, and the atmosphere on Saturday last week in the Jim Summers Hall in downtown Kimberley is electric as DA speakers pound the local ANC leadership about corruption, every sentence punctuated by loud, supportive cries from the audience of 1 200.
Heartfelt interjections of “hallelujah!” and “Jesus!” clearly amuse some DA leaders and embarrass others.
The energetic Louw promises that the DA, if elected, will audit every government contract within 100 days to govern the province as cleanly as it governs the Hantam. He also promises a take-home meal for every schoolgoing child in this province of grinding poverty.
Zille, taking her cue from Louw’s comment that people in the Northern Cape “only speak English in self-defence”, whips the crowd into a froth in Afrikaans, attacking the three Bs in the local ANC leadership: John Block, Yolanda Botha and Alvin Botes — all linked to corruption-related charges and all up for re-election.
She saves the best for last. The province’s luckless premier, Sylvia Lucas, with her propensity for fast food, is the target. “A vote for the ANC is a vote for Kentucky Lucas!” Zille shrieks.
“How can anyone eat so much chicken and McDonald’s and pizza? Fifty thousand rands! You must stop her and vote her out on May 7th!”
About 350km up the road past Vaalharts and Vryburg lies North West’s capital, Mahikeng. Not too far from there is the forgotten district of Ditsobotla and the derelict village of Bodibe, which boasts a proud past, a poverty-stricken present and an uncertain future.
Zille arrives in a DA-blue cart drawn by donkeys. Unlikely as this may sound, the two leading asses have a DA poster proclaiming them to be “Together for change” around their necks.
The assembled community — 2 500 in the marquee tent and out in the blistering sun — is duly instructed by its kgosi (chief), Keorapetse Motlhako, to vote DA. He asks the DA to adopt them because the ANC of President Jacob Zuma (loud boos from the gathering) has forgotten them and the DA can help them with claims on land and minerals.
Zille avoided any lingering doubts over whether the excited traditional leader had perhaps mistaken the blue doek on Zille’s head for a red beret by not referring to the DA’s rather more cautious land and mineral rights policies at all.
joubertj@sundaytimes.co.za