Rain, rations, rows cost ANC in Cape
● Election day for the ANC in the Western Cape was a disaster from the moment the polling stations opened, according to party provincial elections head Ebrahim Rasool
In a report to party structures last Sunday, Rasool lists poor planning on the part of provincial leaders and squabbling over party resources as reasons for the party’s failure to dislodge the DA in the province.
In some instances party volunteers were offered “rotten food” on voting day.
In the report, Rasool lifts the lid on the organisational chaos that befell the provincial ANC during the hotly contested election, which saw its already low support in the province decline further.
According to Rasool’s report, it all fell apart for the ANC when rain began to pour down in the early morning of election day, May 8. This threw into disarray ANC plans to galvanise its voters to get out and cast their ballot in the morning.
It had relied on a projection that said the rain would only set in from 2pm. “We, therefore, prepared our LETs [local election teams] to maximise voter turnout from 7am to 1pm. As it turned out, torrential rain fell over large parts of the Western Cape from early morning and only relented slightly at 5pm.
“Many LETs at that point tried to catch up with voter turnout, but reports from many affected LETs speak to the adverse impact on turnout that the rain had in our base areas,” Rasool writes.
To make matter worse, ANC volunteers who braved the rain were not assisted with any form of cover.
“Many volunteers also did not have the protection of gazebos and umbrellas as they worked at the voting stations and in the communities.”
The politics of the stomach compounded the situation, with unhappy volunteers and party agents threatening to abandon voting stations as they were served expired food, or left to go hungry.
According to Rasool’s report, this was while provincial party bosses were bickering with his elections unit over how much money to allocate to each LET.
“The feeding of volunteers and party agents … turned out to be a disaster. The centralised feeding initiative clearly did not work as some volunteers reported that breakfast delivered the night before was not adequate,” says the report.
“In many cases the lunch reached the voting districts only from late afternoon, and in some cases there were complaints that the food had gone off; while the supper for many only arrived much later in the night, if it arrived at all.”
Rasool says “individual leaders” had no choice but to buy food for party agents who were threatening to walk away from voting stations, which would have compromised the security and counting of ANC votes.
This comes as the ANC in the Western Cape is embroiled in a factional leadership battle, including over a R1m donation from businessman Iqbal Survé.
In many cases lunch reached voting districts only from late afternoon, and … there were complaints that the food had gone off Ebrahim Rasool
ANC Western Cape elections head