Vote with your head, not with your heart

THE ANC unveiled its election manifesto yesterday, hoping to convince you to vote it back into power when you, along with millions of other South Africans, cast your ballot in the local government elections on August 3.

Speaking at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth, President Jacob Zuma shifted this season’s election campaign into top gear by unveiling a bag of promises, including yet another pledge to create jobs. If you vote the ANC back into office, he promised, it will fight corrupt officials and make them liable for losses incurred by municipalities through graft. Once you vote it back into office, the ANC will, it promises, deal decisively with those officials doing business with the state. All ANC councillors will be made to sign performance agreements, promised Zuma.

But we have been here before. The blue-light convoys and the branded luxury sedans and 4x4s snaking through our dusty township streets are a familiar sight in an election year.

And most of the promises made by Zuma are familiar too. In the build-up to the 2011 local government elections, Zuma promised to fasttrack the delivery of basic services, deliver jobs and houses and clamp down on corruption at local government level.

More of the same is expected as other political parties follow suit. They, like the ANC did yesterday, will come to you offering a bag of reforms.

Among them are two leading opposition parties who will launch manifestos before the end of this month. The DA launches this Saturday and the EFF follows on April 30 at Orlando Stadium.

The contest between these three will turn this local election into probably the most important since 1996. A fierce contest is expected in most, if not all, metropolitan municipalities, including Nelson Mandela Metro, named after South Africa’s liberation icon. There the ANC’s electoral support has been in decline — dropping by more than 20% in the past decade.

The ANC has admitted it faces an uphill battle to retain both Tshwane and Nelson Mandela. The party is also in trouble in Johannesburg.

This has emboldened the opposition. It believes it can wrest control of these metros from the ANC, especially the Nelson Mandela Metro.

The election comes as the ANC is embroiled in a number of embarrassing scandals. The recent Constitutional Court ruling on the spending of taxpayers’ money to upgrade Zuma’s Nkandla homestead is but one example.

The odds are stacked against the governing party. The economy is bleeding jobs while crime is reaching epidemic proportions. Service delivery protests, a clear sign that the poor and the vulnerable are not happy with the quantity or quality of service delivery, are becoming extremely violent.

The ANC knows its back is against the wall. It is against this background that the party has taken the unprecedented decision to announce its mayoral candidates before the election. It also wants communities to influence the nomination of its councillors. This, too, is unheard of in the ANC.

We can never tell you not to vote. That would be irresponsible. We can never tell you who to vote for. That is your decision alone.

All we ask from you is, as the ANC, the EFF, the DA and the myriad minor parties come knocking on your door to beg for your vote, ignore the soundbite, put emotions aside and choose wisely.

This is one election where people must vote with their heads and not their emotions.