AFP
Gianluigi Guercia
South Africa’s main opposition party called on voters Saturday to “punish” the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in a final push for support ahead of fiercely competitive municipal polls.
Democratic Alliance (DA) chief Mmusi Maimane is hoping to lead his party to a breakthrough result on August 3, as the country struggles with record unemployment and flat-lining economic growth.
“In a democracy, you don’t need to be loyal to one party forever; if that party betrays you, you get the chance to punish them,” Maimane said at the party’s final election rally.
“Just because you voted for the ANC in the past doesn’t mean you must vote ANC forever.”
Some 20,000 supporters clad in the DA’s sky-blue T-shirts filled the benches of Dobsonville Stadium in Maimane’s hometown of Soweto, the iconic Johannesburg township that set the scene for much of the struggle against white-minority apartheid rule.
The DA has slammed the ANC’s record, citing the country’s poor economic performance and a series of corruption scandals plaguing President Jacob Zuma.
“People of this country have been betrayed by this government,” Maimane told supporters.
“You vote for jobs and services, but get unemployment and corruption.”
The DA rules in the Western Cape province, currently holding the strategic metropolis of Cape Town.
The latest Ipsos opinion polls suggest that the ANC, which has ruled since the end of apartheid in 1994, could be under threat in three more major cities — Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth — at the election.
“The ANC’s had their chance — they had twenty years,” supporter Geoff Finn told AFP.
“People don’t have jobs, services aren’t being delivered, and it’s opportunity for change.”
Lucky Dinake, a 22-year-old candidate for the opposition, said the DA was a “forward-looking party”.
“We get so caught up in our past in this country, and I found a political home that looked to the future,” he told AFP.
The radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party is also seeking to make a major impact in its first municipal elections.
All three main parties hold their final rallies this weekend.
Zuma, 74, will have completed two terms in 2019 and is not eligible to run for president again, but the ANC could replace him ahead of the next general election if the party scores poorly in the local polls.
