About 110 ethekwini wards up for grabs in November
EFF and DA campaigning hard
With only a month left before the 2021 municipal elections showdown gets underway, the ANC in Kwazulu-natal must dig deep to ensure that ethekwini metro does not fall into the hands of the opposition.
Opposition parties in the province have centred their electoral campaigns on dislodging the ruling party from power in the metro, which is the economic hub of the province and controls a budget of over R 52.3-billion
Ethekwini is the biggest ANC region and is considered a kingmaker in ANC internal politics. In the last round of local government elections in 2016, the ruling party recorded 57.53% of the vote, followed by the DA at 27.85% and the IFP at 4.57%. In terms of municipal seats composition, the ANC has 127 seats, DA 60, IFP 10 and EFF eight seats.
Kwazulu-natal EFF chairperson Vusi Khoza told Sunday World that his party had a successful election trail.
“The EFF is the only party that has shown massive growth in terms of numbers. In the last elections more than 300 000 ethekwini residents voted for us. The EFF continues to blossom. This shows that the people of Kwazulu-natal are tired of the ANC corruption impacting on service and want a breath of fresh air. Numbers do not lie, and we want to make sure that the ANC goes below 50%. Our first prize is to win the metro outright,” said Khoza.
The significance of the metro and the province saw the red berets unleash their big guns to woo support for the party. Last week, EFF commander in chief Julius Malema, together with senior leaders crisscrossed the province selling the party’s manifesto to the electorates. About 110 wards under ethekwini could be up for grabs.
Despite a recent Ipsos survey predicting the official opposition in the metro might record a decline in voter share, DA caucus leader Nicole Graham thinks otherwise. “Our focus is to do better than the last elections. We’ve got a very strong chance of doing well in ethekwini. We are really campaigning hard across the city. We have a good track record and voters can see that. We are the only party that has been campaigning on the core issues that are affecting residents. A coalition government is possible, but we are not focusing on that for now.”
Apart from the established role players in the political space, Actionsa, the new kid on the block, is also tipped to cause an upset. The party has unveiled former ANC senior leader Dr Makhosi Khoza as their mayoral candidate.
Meanwhile, Bheki Mngomezulu, political analyst and professor of political science at the University of the Western Cape, says the release of former president Jacob Zuma saved the party from electoral embarrassment.