Christelle Terreblanche
Independent Political Bureau
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has vowed to take the Western Cape on the back of the ANC's split and to continue "a winning streak" into the 2014 elections when it plans to be part of the national government.
"This time, the DA can win!" was the message from the official opposition as it kicked off its 2009 election campaign in the historic Kliptown in Soweto on Saturday.
"Politics have changed. The ANC has split, it is no longer guaranteed majorities in every province in South Africa," Helen Zille, the DA leader said.
She had forecast in 2007 that the ANC would split soon and that her party would benefit from it. Now she claims that the DA had won more by-elections since December in going head-to-head with the ANC than its breakaway party, the Congress of the People (COPE).
Against the backdrop of the strains of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', Brenda Fassie's 'Open the Door', and large TV screens beaming chocolate-box images of a happy and harmonic multi-racial rainbow nation, Zille told the crowd, frequently switching to isiZulu: 'When the ANC splits, the DA wins.'
Her message to a crowd of more than 5 000 supporters in the Walter Sisulu Centre was that the DA was 'on track to win the Western Cape' from the ANC in 2009. "There is a good chance of us being able to form coalition governments in other provinces, too," she said.
There is intense speculation that Zille will leave her position as Cape Town mayor in favour of taking up the premiership if the DA is able to either win the province outright or form a coalition to govern it.
In an interview with Independent Newspapers on Saturday, Zille said she could not rule out relinquishing her position as Cape Metro mayor if the party decided she take up the Western Cape Premiership or become its Presidential candidate.
She had promised to stay on as mayor after taking over the reins of the party in 2007, but on Saturday said that was when the Cape Town coalition that put the DA in the driving seat was still 'very very fragile'.
Times had since changed dramatically.
"We had to consolidate it and we had to build it," Zille said about the coalition in the metro.
"The ANC has (now been) weakened considerably, the DA has grown considerably and the ID (Independent Democrats) has decided not to side with the ANC."
The DA was still finalising its candidates for public office and the positions of premiers, mayors and president.
"That process has still to run its course and we are currently weighing up the pros and cons and there isn't yet a common position," she said.
"The key yardstick is not what is good for Helen Zille, but what is good for building the democratic alliance as an alternative for consolidating democracy in South Africa."
She told the enthusiastic crowd: "The DA will govern in towns and cities across the country after the 2011 local government elections; and we will be part of the national government in 2014."
"We're in it to win it."
A mixed crowds of all races and backgrounds, clad in the DA's new deep blue t-shirts with its rising sun logo, arrived in dozens of buses from early morning, but the main roads in Soweto were festooned with ANC posters bearing the image of party president, Jacob Zuma.
The ANC Women's League kicked off its 60 days non-stop campaigning drive not far from Kliptown on Saturday.
DA posters will only be rolled out from Sunday ahead of its election manifesto launch on February 14. The party wants to avoid peaking too soon before the national and provincial elections, expected to be held in April.
The DA chose to launch its campaign at the site where the Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955 sending the message that the split in the ANC, which gave rise to COPE, had opened the door to it ascending to power.
The event has become a main bone of contention between the ANC and its 2008 The party's recently undergone a rebranding to change its image from that of a white middle-class affair to something new, and more representative.
This has not been without its birth pains, however. A number of party stalwarts are apparently deeply unhappy about being trumped on party lists by complete newcomers.
Zille admitted that some people's experience had been overlooked due to a weakness in the party's performance assessment system, which it will now set out to correct before the 2011 local government elections.
This will be done by bringing in outside professionals in a bid to rule out the potential that party insiders keep positions among themselves in the same kind of closed patronage system the DA accuses the ANC of being a master of.