Marianne Merten
Uniondale, Oudtshoorn, Calitzdorp. Tiny towns representing the Western Cape hinterland, and for the PAC, a potential heartland of support.
Pan Africanist Congress president Reverend Stanley Mogoba – “the bishop”, or more informally to those close to him, “bra Stan” – visited tiny rural towns this week before focusing his election campaign in urban areas.
If anyone ever needs tips on how to bring an election to people on a shoestring budget, the PAC will be an enlightened source. PAC MP and chief whip Patricia de Lille and the party’s election campaign manager, Avril Harding, drove from Cape Town into the Karoo.
De Lille’s cellphone becomes a mobile office on the road. She’s sorting out the business of hanging up PAC posters across Cape Town, organising a troop to measure, cut and attach string to 3 700 posters. She’s also efficiently handling last-minute crises in Gauteng and logistical obstacles like getting the key to the Uniondale hall for the evening’s meeting.
It will be smooth going for Mogoba later. The bishop is already in Oudsthoorn preparing for the next day’s meeting with the community, council, businesspeople and PAC members. So far, the only hiccup on his trip so far has been a near collision with a springbok.
In the little towns of the Western Cape the PAC has started making inroads. Calitzdorp came into the fold after an intervention to solve municipal problems. The PAC says it signed up 1 400 members and acting Calitzdorp mayor and PAC organiser Desmond Strydom is promising a warm welcome for Mogoba.
Before the evening’s serious business in Uniondale, it’s time to eat. The bishop, his bodyguards, organisers and journalists share a table in a restaurant. The owners, the Verwoerd wife-and-husband team from Pretoria, are happy. Says Adele: “Its fantastic.”
Mogoba is relaxed. Wearing a dark blue suit, blue shirt and natty blue tie, he chats during dinner and then gives the signal: it’s time to go.
The Uniondale hall is packed. The sound system blares out popular music, flowers are handed out and Mogoba walks in to applause.
At the back of the hall is a group with African National Congress flags and stickers on their chests. Tension rises as some heckle. An ANC flag is taken off the wall. “This is a PAC meeting,” shout those in front.
Mogoba smiles from posters on the wall but he sits without a smile as he listens attentively and remains stoic as the tensions in the back of the hall continue to simmer.
De Lille takes the microphone: “The PAC is here to stay. We have not come to the dorp to fight with the ANC, Democratic Party or the National Party, but we are not afraid of you.”
The battle lines are drawn, Uniondale is obviously divided. Yet the problems here are similar to little towns across South Africa. There’s little employment, roads remain untarred, transport is difficult, housing remains shabby and overcrowded.
The issue which has haunted Mogoba for some time, his suggestion to hang, castrate and amputate criminals, was of no importance in Uniondale, Calitzdorp or Oudtshoorn.
Mogoba listens, takes notes and consults his team. Finally it is his turn at the microphone. De Lille introduces him as a man of God, “A man who sleeps with his Bible every night.”
He looks calm, dignified and comfortable, using his preaching skills on the now silent, respectful crowd. He apologises for his weak Afrikaans and De Lille steps in to translate.
Mogoba says the PAC is interested in people. He warns that despite their differences, they must debate among themselves to overcome their fears. He touches on crime, education and land, and then a difficult meeting is over. The PAC team poses with members and supporters for commemorative photographs.
Mogoba is fighting on with firebrand De Lille at his side in little towns across South Africa for the often forgotten people.