Election rush speeds up
Mantashe warns ANC of giving Bay away on ‘silver platter’
SECRETARY-general of the ANC Gwede Mantashe went on the offensive on the campaign trail in Nelson Mandela Bay yesterday, telling prospective voters in a DA-led ward their living conditions would not change if they backed the opposition.
As campaigning intensified in the Eastern Cape this week, Mantashe was on a two-day campaign of door-to-door visits and calling at malls and taxi ranks where he charmed, joked, sympathised and interacted with prospective voters.
The delegation, which also included provincial chairman Phumulo Masualle and regional secretary Zandisile Qupe, visited the DA-led Khayamnandi Township in Despatch yesterday.
They were greeted with ululation, singing and, in some cases, fierce resistance from residents saying they had had enough of being poor. Like a rock star, Mantashe even had a few groupie moments.
One woman, Luleka Pikoli, ran towards him and said: “Wow, kanti umhle kangaka (you are so handsome). I normally see you on TV. I want you to know that I am and forever will be voting for the ANC.” She then demanded a free T-shirt.
In contrast, Nombuyiselo Kani said she did not plan to vote on May 7 as she had seen no change in her circumstances in the last 20 years.
“We are poor. We have no electricity and no toilets,” Kani said. “My house is wet now because when it rains, it comes in. We have to ask our neighbours to use their toilets and we have to connect electricity illegally.
“We have voted for the ANC and nothing has happened. I am not voting again,” she insisted.
Mantashe retorted that residents had “given” the ward to the DA and could therefore not shout at the ANC for not delivering. “Vote for the ANC come May 7 and then you can shout at us if we do not deliver.”
The elderly woman remained adamant she would not vote. “I live in poverty and will die in poverty. I have accepted that.”
Mantashe promised to return to her after elections, when they would “talk reasonably”.
He urged others in the impoverished, DA-led community of shacks and illegally connected electricity to vote for the ANC by reminding them of what the “ruling party had done for them”. Going door to door , he asked families whether they received grants and had children in no-fee schools, saying it was the “ANC government that brought on that”.
Mantashe turned to culture when he heard a family he was visiting had just lost their 92-year-old mother.
He asked brothers Eric Grootboom and Zamile Mtimkhulu about their late mother, who died on Thursday, before asking that they bring him a saucer, as cultural practices meant he was not allowed to leave a bereaved house without giving inkazatha –a donation.
“I am sorry for your loss, and I hope your mother lived well,” he said before dropping R100 notes in the saucer and encouraging others to do the same. “This is our culture and has nothing to do with the ANC, so sympathies on your loss.”
Mantashe had visited the NU8 taxi rank in Motherwell earlier and was welcomed with open arms by commuters and drivers alike.
He finished his visit to the Bay with a mini-rally at a packed Raymond Mhlaba Sports Centre in Motherwell, where he warned against infighting costing too many votes.
“Opposition parties are relying on us not seeing eye to eye, with some saying they won’t vote, others saying they will spoil their votes, and others saying they will vote for the opposition. In that way, they are hoping the ANC will give it [Port Elizabeth] to an opposition party on a silver platter.”
He laid into opposition parties, calling them wolves in sheep’s skins.
“There are many and strong forces that want to topple the ANC and are imported from overseas. Some will come to you all smiles and talking nicely . . . but when you hear their ideas, they’re saying, ‘let’s go back where we’re coming from’.
“Don’t be ashamed of telling people they should vote for the ANC because what it did in the last 20 years is there for all to see. We must not allow wolves in sheep’s skins to mislead us.
“If you are wearing a blue T-shirt or a red beret, you are a wolf in a sheep’s skin,” Mantashe said.
With only 10 days left until elections, campaigning in the city is intensifying, with the UDM’s Bantu Ho- lomisa set to campaign in New Brighton in Port Elizabeth on Monday.
Holomisa, originally from Mqanduli, said there would be no time for social visits when he came home to the Eastern Cape next week.
Holomisa will be in Gauteng for the day on Tuesday, before returning to his Eastern Cape campaign trail.
He will resume in the Border region and stop in various towns as he makes his way to Mthatha next Saturday. There, he will address a provincial rally at the Rotary Stadium.
Today, DA provincial leader Athol Trollip will be in Willowmore for a community meeting, before visiting Sterkspruit on Friday and Queenstown next Saturday.
Trollip said DA leader Hellen Zille would not be in Port Elizabeth tomorrow as planned because she would be receiving an award on behalf of Frederick van Zyl Slabbert. Instead, she would visit the city next Sunday.
“Otherwise we are wrapping up with agent training to make sure our votes are looked after and don’t disappear after sundown,” Trollip said.
“We are very concerned because although the IEC has run good elections, we have noticed in the last few by-elections that they are becoming more and more timid, so we want to ensure our voters come out, that procedures are followed to the letter and that every vote is counted.”
DA provincial chairman Edmund van Vuuren will lead a prayer session at the Donkin Reserve tomorrow.
Also tomorrow, the UDM will meet at Daku Hall, while COPE will be campaigning door to door. COPE deputy president Willie Madisha will be in the Bay to boost the party’s campaign on Wednesday.
President Jacob Zuma is expected to address the party’s provincial rally at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium at Mdantsane, near East London, on Friday.
There will also be a regional rally to be addressed by a national leader at the Lillian Ngoyi Hall in Kwazakhele on Saturday. The top speaker’s name has not yet been released.