ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe on a walkabout at Richards Bay taxi rank on Thursday. Photo: @MYANC/X
ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has defended party leaders who have been criticised for campaigning in luxury vehicles in poor communities.
Mantashe was responding to questions about the optics of ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula arriving in a G63 Mercedes — worth about R4 million — for a door-to-door campaign in Inanda township in KwaZulu-Natal where some residents live in abject poverty.
Despite Mbalula facing widespread criticism, Mantashe suggested it was common among party leaders to travel in such vehicles, adding that those who took issue with Mbalula need to lead by example and arrive for campaigns on horses.
“Other political leaders are driving fancy cars as well. Why don’t they ride horses? They should be on horseback if they complain about that,” Mantashe said.
“If the car you have is a Mercedes, what must you do? Should you stay away? It’s not insensitive. When people begin to take you up on a car, it’s not the car. It’s the quality of service they get,” Mantashe told the Mail & Guardian.
Mantashe is part of an ANC delegation campaigning in the province this week. He spent most of the week in the north of KwaZulu-Natal.
The opulent lifestyles of ANC leaders have come under scrutiny during past campaign seasons.
Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane took to social media to lambast Mbalula, posting a video of the ANC leader arriving in Inanda.
The people of Inanda, Maimane said, have no water, no jobs and “the community is suffering but Mbalula and the ANC decide that they are going to show off their top range G Wagon Mercs while asking poor and hungry South Africans for votes. Nasty work.”
Mantashe however said people do not vilify ANC leaders for flaunting their wealth, adding that people did not see them as showing off.
The party deployed its 80-member national executive committee to KwaZulu-Natal in the hope of preventing its political foes from flattening its narrow majority in the province come election day.
The ANC has identified KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as the key election battlegrounds.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal jointly account for 44% of the country’s nearly 28 million registered voters. According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa, Gauteng has 6.5 million voters and KwaZulu-Natal has 5.7 million.
Despite the area being under the Inkatha Freedom Party’s (IFP’s) leadership, residents of KwaHangaza welcomed Mantashe, with many saying they would vote for the ANC in the elections.
Mantashe said people in rural areas were honest and if they say they will vote for a party, they will keep their word. If they say they will not, they will stick to that, he said.
“The people are happy and those who reject the ANC are clear. But the majority love it and my presence excites them,” he said.
Clean drinking water was among the key issues that residents raised during Mantashe’s visit.
One resident, Mkhulu Dangazela, told M&G that he had been living without tap water for three years. He said he was forced to fork out R25 000 for a borehole.
“It’s been so many years not drinking tap water. There’s no water. We had to dig a borehole. There’s many residents who have resorted to building boreholes,” he said.
“There is a white person from overseas who came to build boreholes for those who can’t afford to build their own. They have to push wheelbarrows to go and get the water.”
Despite their difficulties, Dangazela said residents would vote for the ANC.
Another resident, Jabulani Qwabe, said the only party he knew was the ANC, adding that he was still holding on to the history of the organisation.
“There is uMkhonto weSizwe [party], IFP, but we love the ANC. The problem that we have in the ANC is that once they are elected, they don’t help us with anything,” Qwabe said.
According to an Ipsos poll released last week, the ANC could dip below 50% nationally, receiving only 40.2% of the votes.
Mantashe said the party would not entertain any talks about coalitions. “I am not working for that. I am working and campaigning for an outright majority,” he said.
“A coalition is a consequence and you deal with the consequence when it happens. We are campaigning because we want to defy the polls. I’m out in the backyards of Zululand. I am campaigning and we want to get votes.”