Scare tactics, name-calling as poll nears

The ANC and DA battle on as the ANC shows muscle by filling FNB Stadium with 90 000 supporters at its Siyanqoba rally

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Scare tactics, name- calling and a raw display of support marked the final electioneering day before the country’s third local and, perhaps, most intensely contested polls on Wednesday.

The ANC and the DA exposed each other’s weaknesses as the ruling

party showed electoral force by filling FNB Stadium with 90 000 supporters at its Siyanqoba (“We will win”) rally.

President Jacob Zuma, who is facing a second election as ANC president, appealed for support, but his speech was a little bland compared with one he made in 2009 at a similar rally in Ellis Park.

DA leader Helen Zille chose Lebogang township in Mpumalanga

to remind people that they could choose five more years of poor service delivery, or five years of steadily increasing access to housing and basic services by voting for the DA.

“It is no good voting ANC on Wednesday and toyi-toying on Thursday. If you vote for the wrong party, you only have yourself to blame. Your vote is the most powerful weapon you have. Use it responsibly on May 18. Use it to achieve an outcome that might change your life. Use it to vote DA,” she said.

In Diepkloof, the DA’s Joburg mayoral candidate, Mmusi Maimane, said his party would run a clean administration and deal with the billing crisis – the ANC’s Achilles’ heel.

 

But ANC Youth League president Julius Malema

upped the ante, employing racial scare tactics against the DA.

“The DA is for the whites and it is not for you. You must never claim to belong to the DA…

The DA belongs to a minority.

“The ANC belongs to us, black and white,” Malema said, adding that the ANC would take back Cape Town and Midvaal from the DA.

“The madam is now running the show alone,” he said, in a derogatory reference to Zille.

Malema mentioned Struggle stalwarts such as Chris Hani and Solomon Mahlangu to woo the voters.

 

Zuma invoked the country’s painful past in his appeal to voters, reminding them of the demeaning ideological stances of Hendrik Verwoerd.

“Each vote that we cast for the African National Congress in each election is a declaration that we do not want to go back to the era of racism, divisions, inequalities and the promotion of privileges of one racial group over others,” he said.

Zuma also outlined the ANC’s achievements since it came to power in 1994, but noted that more needed to be done. He acknowledged recent mistakes, such as the killing of Ficksburg activist Andries Tatane by the police during a service delivery protest.

Although he did not name Tatane, Zuma said: “We also acknowledge the call of our people for some of our police officials to exercise restraint, especially with regards to peaceful community protests and activities taking place within the confines of the constitution.”

The loo discourse, the funniest but also the saddest definer of this year’s polls, crept into the president’s speech: “We don’t want to see a situation like the unenclosed toilets that were provided by municipalities.”

 

The ANC rally was beamed to other stadiums in the country.

The whole stadium was soon on its feet, and singing along as Zuma belted out his famous Awulethe umshini wami song.

Proud ANC member Papi Malatji, 33, from Mamelodi, Pretoria, said the rally felt like a “victory celebration”.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scare-tactics-name-calling-as-poll-nears-1.1069671

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