The series of imbizos across the Western Cape last week was billed as government interaction with communities, but the 2004 election could not have been far from everyone’s minds. There is still a stalemate in this crucial province’s politics: according to a Markinor poll in early July, the African National Congress would get 33% of the vote and the New National Party 21% if an election were held in the Western Cape.
With neither party thus able to form a new government on its own, the ANC-NNP cooperative governance pact is likely to continue — with possible changes to its composition depending on each party’s showing in next year’s poll.
So the politicians put party rivalries that boil under the surface of the pact on the backburner during the imbizos, even if supporters were less subtle.
”Forward with the Western Cape cooperative government, forward,” was the opening volley from Ebrahim Rasool, provincial ANC leader and provincial minister of finance, at the final meeting in Cape Town.
”This is a government function. There are some things we can’t talk about, but you know what is in my heart,” he responded to some ”vivas” from the 2 000-strong crowd at the Civic Centre last Saturday.
Throughout the week he deftly sidestepped political preferences among audiences, explaining there would have been more ”amandlas” if it had been an ANC meeting. But it wasn’t. Instead Rasool said that, unlike Moses, who led the Israelites through the desert for 40 years, the ANC-NNP government would not let people ”dwaal [wander aimlessly]”.
And although NNP leader and Western Cape Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk glowed in the cheers from groups of noisy supporters in NNP T-shirts and caps, he too steered well clear of party rivalries.
”If the NNP and ANC work together then we can get this province right. If we do that, then the poor benefit. [Government] for the first time represents all people,” the premier said in halls from Paarl to Picketberg, in George, Caledon and the Dutch colonial headquarters, the Drosty, in Swellendam.
The ANC may have scored greater support in the Markinor poll, but there is also a new dynamic: the province’s voters prefer Van Schalkwyk as premier to Rasool (33% to 22%). When the Markinor survey allied their names to their parties Van Schalkwyk scored 36% and Rasool 30%, indicating that the Nat leader has slightly more personal appeal. So, while the ANC-NNP pact is not an entirely happy marriage, the couple need each other for now.
Much of the imbizo programme was built around the premier. It was Van Schalkwyk who handed over the cheques. He featured as the keynote speaker on posters announcing the imbizos, and the newspaper adverts showed a cellphone with an SMS- like message: ”Calling … Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk”.
NNP strategists want Van Schalkwyk, who has his eyes set on returning as premier, to make the most of his 25% support among Western Cape African voters. But that support drops to 19% when his name is linked to the NNP.
Behind the scenes senior NNP officials are crunching the numbers: its Western Cape support is the highest, followed by a 17% standing in its other traditional heartland, the Northern Cape. Elsewhere, according to Markinor, support ranges from 1% to 5% — consistently trailing the Democratic Alliance, which scored support from 3% of voters in the Eastern Cape to 20% in the Western Cape.
Historically, the ANC and NNP competed for votes in coloured communities. Coloureds are the numerical majority in the province. The Markinor findings indicate that neither party could form a government after next year’s election, a scenario similar to that of the 1999 election. Then the ANC won the most votes (42,62%), but was out-manoeuvered by the then Democratic Party (14,18%) and NNP (34,38%), which formed the provincial coalition government.
With voter apathy and disillusionment over defections widely predicted, the two parties used the imbizo platform to gather support for their cooperation pact. And the imbizos’ anti-poverty message became the rallying point.
Each provincial minister had at the ready a list of projects under way at each imbizo location. Concurrent ”delivery events” brought something for everyone: bicycles to police; cheques to a school and clinic; the building of a house; and the announcement of a fresh-produce market in Phillippi township in Cape Town.
The week was crucial for the NNP in its ongoing efforts to put the party back on solid ground after a politically damaging 18 months: from the bitter break-up with the DA to defections by senior representatives and its lack-lustre by-election performances.
Cooperative pact notwithstanding, the ANC has not pulled its punches. It contested all Western Cape by-elections, trouncing the NNP and gaining higher support in predominately white wards in the December 2000 municipal poll.
The imbizos were used to re-launch its African-coloured working-class solidarity strategy, first used in the 1999 election to unite these historically divided, poverty-stricken communities under its banner.
Emphasising that the current provincial government reflected the demographics of the province, Rasool urged the audience to ”come home” and unite behind their shared interests as the poor and working class. ”The fight between African and coloureds is finished. The one squats in a shack. The other squats in the yard,” he told the Cape Town audience.
A few digs were made at the DA, which was never mentioned by name. But the reference was clear when Van Schalkwyk told people in Caledon that ”the government we inherited wasted money”, and later in Cape Town, ”I don’t know if they feel they are not part of the Cape. The imbizos are for all.”
The imbizo adverts were, after all, published and aired under the emblem of the Western Cape government, not any political party. But those who turned up were overwhelmingly black and working class. Even though fewer than 20 white Caledon residents attended the imbizo there, their presence was enough to provide a comment from the dignitaries’ podium that there was more interest there than in George.
But if the provincial cabinet had expected an easy ride, it was wrong. People were not to be fobbed off. Angry fishermen told Thursday’s Caledon imbizo that about 600 families along the Arniston coastline face hunger because only six boats received quotas.
”I want to tread on toes. Don’t raise expectations,” shouted Bennie Beukman from Genadendal during the Caledon imbizo. ”We have nothing in Genadendal.” Not even the official listing of various projects worth R4-million and soon-to-be-announced water rights for local agriculture could placate him.
The overwhelmingly black audiences cited individual council or provincial employees who were rude, unhelpful or wanted money in return for services. Issues such as the deteriorating state of council housing on the Cape Flats, or dubious housing allocations in small towns like Grabouw, were raised, as were the lack of employment opportunities for school leavers.
”Why are two of our clinics closed down. We want to know,” demanded a woman from Elsies River on the Cape Flats. ”The bread price has been going up. I want to know that the cabinet is doing to bring it down,” asked Taai Levy from Woodstock. ”Rosie” from Khayelitsha wanted to know when everyone would get anti-retroviral treatment: ”I am on [anti-retrovirals] and I am surviving.”
The pro-unity, pro-poor messages notwithstanding, some questions showed much work is still needed. ”Why do only Africans get food parcels and not the coloureds?” one woman asked in Cape Town.
After the meeting Rasool got a taste of the work of provincial protection services. After his official car was stopped at a roadblock that was part of the anti-crime campaign Operation Tswikila, and he was ordered out of the car with his driver and bodyguard, a trainee policewoman said for everyone to hear: ”Hy is nou kak kwaad [He is now shit angry].”