Thebe Mabanga joins the Democratic Alliance on its local government election trail through poverty-stricken Alexandra Tony Leon revels in the spotlight and looks resplendent in a pink shirt as he moves over to embrace a group of women exclaiming “re a lerata lona, retlolikissa [we love you, we want to kiss you]”. His attire, however, goes down less well with his deputy, Martinus van Schalkwyk, who suggests the pink shirt might create the impression he is gay. “No, I’m a pink old liberal,” Leon replies. They are in Setswetla, a squatter camp in Alexandra, the township north of Johannesburg, where Leon’s Democratic Alliance (DA) has chosen to kick off its local government election campaign. The touring party converged at the Sandton licensing department at mid-morning on Monday. Its main aim was to sell its new battle cry, which takes its cue from United States President Bill Clinton’s recent valedictory speech reminding voters to “put people first”. As the convoy winds its way to Alex, I am seated at the back of a minibus, at the tail of the convoy. At the front is Mike Moriarty, a Democratic Party councillor in the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council. There is also a group of six black women, and sitting next to me is a gentleman called Peter Heim. Heim is retired engineer and a party veteran with close to 20 years in politics who quips about having “survived many name changes [within the liberal establishment]”. During our conversation, I ask him who the lady in front of us is. “I have no idea,” he says. She, however, knows Heim. Her name is Jane Tleane. She stays in Alexandra’s East Bank and joined the DP from the African National Congress in 1996. During 1998 she served on the executive of her local branch of the DP. In the narrow streets of Setswetla, the worn ANC posters remind us how hard it will be to win over this stronghold. The squalor around us is a reminder of the amount of hard work that anyone who governs these people will have to do if they are to give them a better life. DA MP Vincent Gore paints a bleak picture: 35E000 people crammed into a 4km area; unemployment hovering around the 85% mark and the tragic phenomenon of orphans heading households. Our tour guide is community leader Peggy Chauke. She serves as an interface between residents and the touring party, translating where necessary and providing background information. At our first stop the work begins: the liberal lion of Houghton launches the charm offensive. Only his body language is a bit of a let-down. Some limitations are not of his own doing. Most black people he interacts with are intimidated and will interact comfortably only when people like Chauke intervene and put them at ease. But Leon can overcome other limitations. For one, he is fond of leading questions, driving respondents to say what he wants to hear.
Moreover, having taken the trouble to find out what the people’s problems are, the crucial next step is to ask: “What can I do for you?” These limitations notwithstanding, the DA seems to be making an impression, mainly by exploiting people’s disillusionment with the ANC government, succinctly expressed by a DA member later during the tour when he said: “We did not leave the ANC because it has failed to deliver, but because there seems to be an unwillingness to try to [improve our lives].” The next stop is Far East Bank Phase 2, where a set of cluster homes have been standing since completion in 1997. The process of allocating them has been dragging painfully. Patience, a woman in her mid-30s, tries to explain the latest developments in the allocation.
“Tony, I mean Mr Tony,” she stutters and goes on to explain how on Saturday Gauteng MEC for Housing Paul Mashatile had promised that the allocation will not go ahead until a fair method has been devised, yet on Monday he reneged on the promise. “So they broke their promise in 48 hours? They usually take much longer than that,” Tony says to roars of laughter. The feel-good factor is rising amid allegations of intimidation mainly by ANC members but also from other parties ahead of this tour and revelations of corruption at all levels of government. This augurs well for the culmination of the tour. The climax takes place at the Displacees Centre, a facility that has been used to accommodate people displaced by political violence from the Beirut area. A crowd of about 200 people has come to listen to the DA. The address begins with an overdue, predictable gesture. Joe Seremane, the DA’s national chair, steps up to address the gathering. He does so in Zulu – competent, but with a faulty accent – and then in flawless Setswana. As he explains the DA’s sizoku-bona (we have come to see for ourselves) ethos, one cannot help feeling he is an underused trump card who should have spoken to the people in Setswetla. As soon he makes way for Van Schalkwyk, a startling irony occurs. Standing next to Van Schalkwyk is John Mavuso, a former ANC member who helped organise the January 1957 Alexandra bus strike. Yet about 30 years after he helped fight a party that at the time was grooming Van Schalkwyk for a life of privilege and political office, he is translating for Van Schalkwyk. Another underused trump card. The campaign’s most glaring blunder though, is left for the very end.
After Leon’s keynote address, the crowd appears content with its mild applause; they start singing a popular struggle song with lyrics so laudatory I have only heard them attributed to Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Chris Hani. Although their collective voice lacks punch, they seem to believe that ha hona ya tshwana le Tony (there is no one quite like Tony).
Instead of basking in the glory of being exalted and mobbed by his followers, Leon and most of the DA leadership bolt out even before the applause has died down, leaving Seremane and Mavuso to thank the masses. The DP, I mean the DA, has taken the first tentative steps towards winning the black vote, but judging from Monday’s jaunt, the road ahead looks daunting and treacherous, like the streets of Setswetla.