A handwriting expert has confirmed that some of the petition lists had been entirely composed by the same person Mungo Soggot The office of Peter Marais, the Democratic Alliance mayor of Cape Town, has been presiding over a vote-rigging exercise to have two prominent streets named after former presidents FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. Petitions purporting to give Capetonians a vote have been filled out with fraudulent signatures in support of Marais’s controversial campaign to change the names of Adderley and Wale streets. In some instances, local National Party organisers have admitted to arranging the circulation and “signing” of the forms. The Mail & Guardian has visited households listed on the petitions who had no idea they had voted. The mayor’s office has refused to give the newspaper copies of any votes or petition forms related to the name change and the M&G is now preparing a formal application in terms of the Freedom of Information Act.
The petitions were drawn up after Marais called in April for public submissions on the name change. It is not known whether Marais, who has effectively staked his political credibility on the plan, has himself been party to the fraud on the citizens of Cape Town. Marais has, however, publicly misstated the votes. On May 20, Sapa reported Marais as saying the response to the move was “overwhelmingly positive”, but that reports had shown people were “poorly informed on the issue”. At that time, council sources say the count of about 500 was overwhelmingly against, with only a handful of letters in support. The following day, on the May 21 deadline, an avalanche of more than 400 pro-votes hit the mayor’s office. The new “votes” came in on both petitions and on “signed” form letters, some of which have also been arranged and circulated by DA organisers on the Cape Flats. A handwriting expert commissioned by the M&G this week confirmed that a random selection of the different signatures had been forged. The expert, Gert Burger, said some of the petition lists which include 26 names were in their entirety composed by the same person. On May 25 Marais was quoted as saying the pro-votes outnumbered those against by two and a half to one. Council sources say that by then the votes were at best equal even counting the fake entries. Even without the fraud, the form letters and the petitions are against the spirit of Marais’s call for the public to have its say. After conceiving of the plan which has been a major talking point in Cape Town Marais’s office published newspaper advertisements seeking voluntary public input. The newspaper advertisements called for the public to write in, providing no legitimate opportunity for canvassing on the part of Marais’s employees or the DA. The advertisement read: “The proposal is for Adderley Street to be renamed Nelson Mandela Avenue and for Wale Street to be renamed FW de Klerk Laan with effect from June 16 2001. What do you think? Please submit your written comments by no later than 21 May 2001.” Public opinion expressed in the Cape press has generally been against the move, making Marais’s upbeat statements puzzling. The Cape Chamber of Commerce says, for example, that at least 90% of businesses are opposed to the plan. On May 20, when Marais made his first false pronouncement on the state of the votes, he also said he was extending the deadline for submissions by three weeks. One source speculated that the deadline had been extended to allow campaigners more time to increase the “yes” votes. The extension was not accompanied by advertisements, leading to some complaints that Capetonians did not know where to send their submissions. The M&G started its attempt to obtain the public’s submissions from the council by approaching Victoria Johnson, a council representative mentioned in the advertisement. She declined to comment on the grounds that she was not allowed to talk to the press and referred all queries about the votes to Johan Smit, a council representative. Smit turned down several requests by the M&G for access to the votes. He said there was a danger of “forcing the hand” of the committee handling the matter. Asked whether the council had merely awaited submissions as opposed to actively canvassing Smit said yes. Smit said more than 1 000 submissions have been received. After several unsuccessful attempts to obtain the submissions from the council the M&G this week obtained some of them elsewhere. The M&G then picked out a random selection of households from Manenberg, the gang-infested NP stronghold, whose addresses had been provided on the petitions. None of the households had voted, except for a former NP organiser who said she had indeed signed (authentically) and had “taken the forms and asked her members to sign. I asked another girl to take forms [elsewhere],” she said. In one household where several occupants were down as having signed, two family members said none of them had signed and laughed off their own “signatures”. One said, “I don’t sign like this and neither does she,” while another said, “The old people don’t want the name change because the streets belong to their history and the young don’t care.” In another household one woman, whose sisters are registered as having voted, said incredulously: “In Manenberg?” Another said her daughter, who was on the petition, had been away from home for more than a year. As for the form letters, some appear to have been authentically signed-off. However, some copies of the form letters in the possession of the M&G have no addresses. One woman in Mitchells Plain confirmed that her husband had signed after the letters were circulated by a “DA councillor”. She pointed across the street to another house, saying they had also signed because they are a “DA house”. On Wednesday night the M&G filed a formal request in terms of the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to all the votes. M&G editor Howard Barrell said that, if the council declined, the newspaper would consider approaching the high court for an urgent application to have sight of the other votes. On Thursday, a couple of hours after the M&G had visited the Manenberg “voters”, Smit contacted the newspaper to inquire what it had been doing there.
Approached later to comment on the fraud, Smit said his office had had nothing to do with any petitions. He then suggested the M&G had either stolen the petitions in its possession or had fabricated them “for a story. I don’t trust the petition you are working with.” Forty-five minutes later Smit phoned to say that if there was any fraud the committee handling the name change would deal with it. As for his tip-off from Manenberg, Smit said a “friend” had called him. Smit said Marais was on an airplane and unavailable for comment. Marais has accused opponents of the scheme of racism and has said the African National Congress and its allies in the Western Cape have opposed the renaming initiative because of “political jealousy”. Marais has a reputation for outspokenness. The Cape Times recently reported him saying that the Ellis Park soccer tragedy could have been averted had he been mayor of Johannesburg, after quipping that some Gauteng residents were so impressed with him they wanted him cloned.