Campaign Diary - Week 4: ANC actions in Midvaal - untold story of registration weekend
As elections approach, rivalries between political parties naturally heat up; it is part of the nature of politics. Rigorous campaigning on the issues and robust debates between competing candidates are the order of the day in democratic societies. Such vigorous competition is healthy for our society in presenting options to the voters on proposed solutions to the problems our country currently faces.
However, there is a darker element to politics, one that does our democratic system a disservice and besmirches the principles upon which our society was founded after 1994; political violence and intimidation. Sadly, physically aggressive tactics from the ANC were the untold story of this past voter registration weekend.
In Midvaal, a DA-governed municipality in Gauteng, a DA activist was attacked by an ANC member after attempting to take photographs of busloads of ANC supporters who were arriving to register in the municipality.
DA observers later followed the buses all the way back to Orange Farm, which is not in Midvaal, and the party has subsequently met with Chief Electoral Officer Pansy Tlakula to report what appears to be a case of serious electoral fraud.
We have also laid charges of electoral fraud after discovering eight people who were registered at non-existent addresses. They were registered at Plot 109 in Pendale, despite there only being 100 plots in Pendale.
It is clear that the ANC is desperate to take over Midvaal. The party sent Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane to the municipality on Saturday to drum up support, and last week, party spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli admitted: "Our intense voter registration drive will focus on Midvaal." What is ironic about all of this is that Midvaal is by far and away Gauteng's best performing municipality. The ANC refuses to accept that the one municipality that it does not govern in Gauteng has an excellent record of good governance and the satisfaction of residents with the rate of delivery is particularly high.
Consider the Gauteng Provincial Government's own survey of residents of that province, which was carried out last year. This survey asked Gauteng residents about their impressions of their respective councils' records of delivery. Midvaal was the only Gauteng municipality in which more than half of the residents reported satisfaction with council service. In numerous categories, Midvaal residents reported experiencing better service delivery, living conditions and governance than anyone else in Gauteng. What is more, Midvaal was the only municipality in the province in which residents expressed greater confidence in their local government than in the provincial or national governments.
These impressions from citizens have been created by a decade of good government and sound financial management under a DA administration. This year, Midvaal received its eighth unqualified audit from the Auditor-General for the 2009/2010 financial year. This fiscal responsibility has been accompanied by growing development and infrastructure in Midvaal, and investor-led growth which has been facilitated by the DA leadership to accommodate what has become Gauteng's fastest-growing municipality.
This includes the expansion and upgrade of the CBD and a massive road upgrade in 2009. It includes drawing in major new investors such as Heineken and Ferrero Rocher, providing stable economic growth and increased job opportunities for residents.
Compare this to the ANC's performance in Gauteng. Its flagship government in the province, the City of Johannesburg, is a model of mismanagement. The metro has been embroiled in a billing crisis of its own making, with the city cutting off water and electricity supplies to 40 000 residents due to its own miscalculations. This is in addition to the city's inability to finance its own debt sufficiently, with the National Treasury stating in December of last year that the city's debt was growing at a faster rate than any other metro in the country - at 23,5% or R2 billion a year. These financial woes are occurring in an environment where the metro has allowed municipal services and facilities to fall into a state of disrepair and where potholes are a common feature of life for residents.
It is little wonder, then, that the fact that DA-run Midvaal provides an example of excellence to the people of Gauteng is so galling to the ANC. That is why it bussed in its supporters to the municipality over the weekend and willfully engaged in aggressive behaviour and violence. This is standard strategy for the ANC. Elsewhere in the country, members of the ANC attacked a DA activist in Atlantis in the Western Cape and ANC activists physically obstructed people trying to register in the Govan Mbeki municipality in Mpumulanga.
The ANC knows that it cannot beat the DA's record of good government; that proper engagement on the issues affecting people is one of its weak points. So it resorts to violence and intimidation, actions which we should have moved beyond as a country. These tricks won't work with voters who will be faced in May with a choice between a party that aggressively and arrogantly tries to cling to power and a party that offers new solutions for South Africans.
Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko, Democratic Alliance national spokesperson, March 9 2011
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