Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Parties trade blows in poll pamphlets
Struggle heroes, ‘poo wars’, housing targeted
POLITICAL “pamphleteering” looks set to become a vital component of electioneering campaigns ahead of next year’s general elections.
And the pamphlet war between the ANC and the DA, the two main political rivals in the Western Cape, has escalated to such an extent that both parties are engaging in public spats, over everything from Struggle heroes and cellular airtime vouchers, to the “poo wars”.
Highly publicised was their spat over the DA’s “Know Your DA” campaign, and the DA pamphlet showing Nelson Mandela and activist Helen Suzman embracing, with the wording: “We played our part in opposing apartheid.”
Then there was the DA attempt to draw a comparison between the ANC today and the old National Party, with an image lifted from an internal DA power-point presentation showing the ANC’s logo with the colours changed from black, green and gold, to orange, white and blue, the colours of the old National Party.
Most recently, the ANC last week distributed anti-DA pamphlets listing an array of promises made, and allegedly broken by that party, ahead of President Jacob Zuma’s whirlwind visit to Hout Bay, Manenberg and Gugulethu.
The DA was quick to hit back, accusing the ruling party, in turn, of failing to improve the lot of South Africans disadvantaged by decades of apartheid.
The pamphlet in question depicts images of township life, with a particular focus on waterlogged shacks, and encourages voters to register and vote for the ANC next year.
The DA had put out a similar anti-ANC pamphlet, entitled “Jacob Zuma’s Broken Promises”, ahead of Zuma’s 2012 State of the Nation address.
The DA document listed 10 promises the president allegedly did not keep, with issues ranging from jobs and service delivery, to social grants, health, corruption and education.
Turning the DA’s strategy back on that party, the ANC’s latest pamphlet reads “No Housing for the Poor”.
It claims credit for building 72 792 houses during their term in power in this province between 2004 and 2009, against the DA’s 42 741 since it took over in 2009.
“The DA promises but does not deliver. It’s time for change in the Western Cape,” the pamphlet says.
The ANC also accuses the DA of betraying backyarders from Mitchells Plain, Heideveld, Manenberg, Gugulethu and Nyanga; and says while it delivered 84 526 serviced sites while in power in the Western Cape, the DA had delivered only 24 102 between 2009 and last year.
The pamphlet claims further that the DA refuses to release available land to house the poor, instead entrenching “apartheid special planning by condemning the poor to live far from work and opportunities”.
ANC Western Cape secretary Songezo Mjongile said the party was hard at work identifying weaknesses in the DA as they delved further behind the party’s public image.
“Things are going to get even more intense the closer we get to elections. We will use cunning messages to expose the DA’s own hollow messages. We will do this through social media, pamphlets and posters,” he warned.
The DA, meanwhile, says they would rather run “a positive campaign on their own service delivery track record”.
“We will not reflect on the ANC failures because they are doing a fine job of exposing themselves. Our aim is to show people the good work the party has been doing,” said Western Cape DA leader, Ivan Meyer.