Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape has reacted angrily to the DA’s campaign that a vote for small parties would smuggle it back to power in the City of Cape Town.
“The DA is desperate. They have come to realise that they did not anticipate the election could go the manner it has done,” ANC provincial spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said.
Mtsweni said the DA had become too comfortable being in power and it has woken up to the reality that other parties no longer wanted to work with it.
“They have gone to being the original white racist party led by Helen Zille and John Steenhuisen. They realise that people no longer trust the DA,” he said.
In a video posted on social media, DA mayoral candidate for Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis said the ANC was pulling out all stops to win back power in the metro.
“Let’s not make it easy for them. A vote for a smaller party only helps to smuggle the ANC back into power in Cape Town through the back door,” Hill-Lewis said.
Hill-Lewis even took their election campaign bus to some of the areas such as Atlantis and Mamre, which were visited by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week.
He was also at Bo-Kaap, which was visited by ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte ahead of the voter registration weekend.
On Monday, Hill-Lewis declared that his party was big enough to stop EFF leader Julius Malema from carrying out his land grab in Cape Town.
“We cannot play with fire by allowing small parties to open the door for an ANC/EFF coalition. Vote DA to secure Cape Town’s future,” he said.
In his weekly newsletter, Steenhuisen said the DA was the only party that could beat the ANC, and it was the last bulwark against the rise of the EFF.
“A strong DA stops the EFF becoming the opposition. A strong EFF makes the ANC more radical, racial and populist in their bid to shore up support,” he said.
Steenhuisen also said a vote for the DA packed the most punch against the ANC and EFF.
“That’s why, if you aren’t going to vote for them, the ANC and EFF want you to vote anything but DA. If you want to beat the ANC and keep the EFF out of official opposition, voting DA will give you maximum leverage for your vote,” he said.
He insisted that a vote for smaller parties or independents split the DA vote, not the ANC or EFF vote.
“Therefore, the most sensible and powerful use of your vote is to consolidate the DA vote,” Steenhuisen said.
But, Mtsweni said they were not surprised by the antics of the DA, saying it lost support in many municipalities it controlled since the last municipal elections.
He also said the party had been window-dressing Africans and Coloureds, whom it could not use in its campaign this time around.
“That is why it is in opposition to the ANC. If they govern, they are in opposition to the ANC,” he said.
Mtsweni said his party had won one municipality in the last elections because of internal problems.
“We came through a difficult period, but I think in the last five years we have had a stable ANC, Yes, there may be issues here and there, but there is stability at the provincial level and the regions,” he said.
Mtsweni noted that they had won wards in by-elections and took control of eight DA-led coalitions.
“The time is up for the DA. They may want to hang in affluent areas they were servicing, but the DA will not do as well as they did in the last elections,” he said.
Political Bureau