‘Direct contact’ strategy and avoidance of negative debate won it for ANC

DIRECT contact with potential voters, the strong ANC brand and the DA’s “negative campaigning” helped the ruling party to secure a comfortable victory in what had been billed as its toughest election yet.

This is according to ANC election campaign chief and outgoing Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba.

The former ANC Youth League president is among the party leaders credited with running an effective campaign that helped the ANC to maintain an electoral base of more than 60% despite damaging scandals involving President Jacob Zuma.

Gigaba said in an interview that the party decided not to challenge the “negative environment” in the media stemming from public protector Thuli Madonsela’s Nkandla report, the tolling of Gauteng freeways and perceived corruption in the government, but focused on making direct contact with the voters.

“There is no sophistication in how the ANC won the elections,” said Gigaba. “The biggest strength of the ANC lies in its ground capacity . . . the existence of the sheer force of troopers of the ANC, who can get into every household and mobilise everyone. We relied on our volunteers to carry our message across and we are very grateful for that. That was the heartbeat of our campaign.

“We knew we were not going to outcompete [sic] negative public debate and discourse about the ANC. We didn’t even want to try to contest all the negative views that were being peddled at the media level. Our focus was getting down to the voters where they lived.”

He said voters were not interested in issues that dom- inated the media. “People were more concerned about the delivery of basic services, the capacity of the state at local government level, the issues of the economy, especially job creation, poverty and inequality.”

However, the ANC did encounter hostile communities, such as in Bekkersdal on the West Rand, Evaton in the Vaal, the mining towns of North West and Malamulele in Limpopo.

“We were strategic when we went to those areas, so that you don’t go there when you know you are not going to be able to yield results.

“We went there when we had done our homework, even in Bekkersdal. After all the hype in Bekkersdal, we quietly campaigned. We quietly campaigned in Rustenburg among the miners. We engaged people away from the glare of the media. We didn’t have highprofile visitation and campaigning. We engaged people directly and talked to influential individuals and turned them around, and used those individuals to continue engaging the masses of our people.”

He said the opposition campaign, which focused on attacking Zuma, backfired because the ANC was bigger than individuals. The opposition mistook the elections for a referendum on Zuma’s suitability to be head of state.

He singled out the DA’s Ayisafani TV advert as a “stupid” move that cost the opposition votes and boosted the ruling party. “What was stupid and silly for me is when [the DA] invested millions of rands of their own money on campaign adverts about the ANC.

“At that moment, we in the ANC just had to sit back and say: ‘Oh, they are campaigning for us. Let them do more.’ We need more adverts like those.”