By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday says the African National Congress (ANC) will surprise its detractors and win a clear majority in the upcoming elections.
Ramaphosa has spent the past two days in Kwazulu-Natal, which is the stronghold of the former president Jacob Zuma, who threatens to eat into the ANC’s voter base with his fledgling uMKhonto we Sizwe (MK) party, and visited Inanda and Mariannhill on Saturday.
He described other political parties’ efforts to garner votes in the province as nibbling.
“The ANC has an overarching presence in KZN, all the other political parties that are emerging yesterday and so on are trying to nibble at the edges and so on and all they will ever do is to nibble at the edges. The African National Congress has hegemony in KwaZulu-Natal, and we are confident that we will emerge victorious in the upcoming general election.
“Because the people of KZN and the people of South Africa love the ANC and we are going to surprise you and many others who think that the ANC will not have a clear majority, we are going to have a clear majority, so even the recent making of a party called MK Party will see what the ANC is all about even here in KZN” he said.
His visit coincides with election campaigns by the EFF, IFP, ActionSA, Patriotic Alliance and National Freedom Party in the province.
Ramaphosa faces the toughest election of his career in a vote where the ANC is forecast to lose its outright majority for the first time in 30 years. The party won 57.5% of the vote in the last general elections in 2019.
A survey by the Social Research Foundation published a fortnight ago bore the worst prognosis yet, suggesting the party’s vote share would drop to 37%, with the MK party polling around 13%. Earlier polls suggested the ruling party was in trouble but would still get well above 40% of the vote.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) last week asked the constitutional court for leave to appeal a ruling by the electoral court that found Zuma was allowed to run for parliament.
It upheld an appeal by the MK party against a decision by the IEC to uphold two objections to Zuma’s parliamentary candidacy for the MP party in the 29 May vote.
Meanwhile Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema believes the ruling ANC is using the power cuts as an electioneering tool.
Malema addressed the media on the party’s election campaign programmes in Johannesburg on Friday.
“Load shedding still exists, that’s why they say it remains suspended. They don’t say we are done with load shedding,” Malema said.
“They are doing what they did during the Rugby World Cup. They are holding it to the detriment of the grid.
“I can tell you 29 May after voting and everything closes, we are going to stage 6.
“They did it during the Rugby World Cup [in 2023], they kept the lights on because they are using the remaining reserves.
“When we came back from that, they said stage 6 so that they can recover what they were using to keep the lights on for the World Cup. They are doing the same,” said Malema.
Elsewhere Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen, challenged Ramaphosa to put in place specialised courts and police units for gender-based violence victims, as well as dedicated prosecutors to deal with murders and human trafficking.
South Africa has recorded an increase in violent crime by the end of 2023, with several police stations across the country recording a high number of murders.
Steenhuisen said, urgent action is required following a clear escalation in the intensity of child murders and kidnappings over the past year.
Just this past week, three-year-old Emilio Hutchinson was shot to death inside his parental home in Helenvale, in the northern areas of Nelson Mandela Bay. Like so many other young people who have been robbed of their future, little Emilio will never have the opportunity to go school, get a higher education and be a future leader of this country.