Opposition parties spent Sunday launching their local government election manifestos as the African National Congress looked inwards.
The Democratic Alliance launched its local government election campaign in Durban on Sunday with promises that it would enhance service delivery and bring an end to corruption.
The Inkatha Freedom Party broadly promised the same at nearby Umlazi, while the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) planned to make Cape Town God-, rather than gay-friendly.
ANC national executive member Mathews Phosa, meanwhile, lashed out at party members who wanted to contest the March 1 poll as independents because they were left off of the ANC’s candidates list.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said South Africans wanted good service delivery and a clean government. Instead they had failing municipalities and broken promises made by the African National Congress.
”We help the poor. We will stop corruption. We will accelerate delivery,” Leon told supporters who attended the launch in Durban.
Leon listed a number of examples where municipalities were not up to standard. These included families in Khayelitsha in Cape Town still using the toilet bucket system, power outages in Johannesburg, and people who had died in Delmas in Mpumalanga due to water contaminated with typhoid.
He said most municipalities could not provide clean water, decent sanitation or rubbish removal for the majority of their residents. Half of all local governments were officially ”dysfunctional”.
Leon went on to attack the ANC’s slogan for the election — ”A plan to make local government work better for you”.
Leon mocked: ”A plan? Twelve years in power, and all they offer us is a plan. We don’t need a plan. We need action, not more broken promises,” he said to rousing applause.
IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi expressed concern about floor-crossing and the public’s notion that the IFP was guilty of maladministration, in his address at Umlazi.
But he also spoke confidently about the party’s popularity and believed that the party will fare well during the upcoming election.
”The IFP is looking forward to the election and you can use this election to change the teams that are ruling this country. The vast number of people gathered here today tells me that the IFP is going to win the 2006 local government elections,” Buthelezi said to the 30 000 people gathered at the King Zwelithini stadium.
”The theme of the IFP’s election campaign is ‘Honour, Service, Delivery’ and we promise to bring relief to the most vulnerable sectors of our society — the aged, the young and those most affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic.”
He expressed anger that the IFP was being portrayed as if it was guilty of maladministration.
”The dissolution of the Abaqulusi municipality was an example of abuse of power at its worst and we are taking this matter to court,” Buthelezi said.
Buthelezi also lashed out at councillors who crossed the floor to the newly-formed National Democratic Convention as well as to other parties.
Nadeco was formed in August last year by then national chairperson Ziba Jiyane after a public feud with Buthelezi over the direction of the IFP.
Meanwhile, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) planned to make Cape Town God-, rather than gay-friendly.
”We will make Cape Town an efficiently run, world-class, God-friendly city, instead of a poorly run, gay-friendly city whose political leadership lacks credibility and does not care about the needs of its own staff nor the people of Cape Town”, said mayoral candidate Pauline Cupido.
”The ACDP will restore representative democracy by revising the executive mayoral system, disbanding the wasteful sub-council system, and empowering the ward committee system to take meaningful decisions for their local communities,” she added at a rally in Athlone.
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania launched their manifesto at Delmas in Mpumalanga, the scene of a deadly typhoid outbreak last year.
PAC president Motsoko Pheko warned that greedy councillors would destroy South Africa.
”The PAC believes that councillors are elected not just to run services. The voters expect them to be their servants and champions of their interests and needs on local issues.”
He said that the poor who had experienced a bitter life, rather than a better life, would come first if the PAC came to power.
Pheko said a vote for the ruling ANC would be one for empty promises.
”Will they [people] continue to vote for corruption, unemployment, dirty and unhealthy squatter camps, which often burn and leave many dead in those fires?”
Pheko said far more Africans were living in absolute poverty now than in 1994, while the rich elite claimed that the struggle was not to be poor.
”Your vote is very critical,” he told the launch rally.
”You get what you vote for. Because you did not vote for the PAC in the last elections, delivery of services in many parts of our country has been a disaster.
”The PAC wants to change this through its dedicated councillors and its policies and faithfully fulfil its promises.”
At the Jabulani Amphitheatre in Soweto ANC national executive member Mathews Phosa attacked party members who wanted to contest the March 1 poll as independents because they were left off of the ANC’s candidates list.
”Independent of what? Independent of what?” Phosa asked.
”Just because you did not make it on the list, you are now independent, you have got a new party called ‘independent’. Such opportunism we must defeat with our votes.
Phosa continued: ”To those councillors who have been stealing our money, who have been disrupting our mandate, we say to them ‘the honeymoon is over’. We don’t want them on our list.”
But at a rally in Merafong more than 2 000 Khutsong residents rejected an ANC candidates list, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news reported.
It would be impossible for the ANC to win overwhelmingly in Merafong, given the recent row over municipal boundaries, said Nkosiphendule Kolisile, the SACP leader in the area.
”The people of Merafong, [especially those from] Khutsong, have not participated in the list,” Kolisile told SABC radio news.
”I think that is the list that people are not happy about and they are saying no one is going to force them to participate in voting for those people,” he said.
Kolisile said the SACP’s position on the elections was to support the ANC, but ”we have said that it will be difficult” in Merafong.
”There is no way that, even if you want to, we can dream about an overwhelming victory of the ANC in Merafong.
”We have seen the mess that the very ANC government” has created in Merafong, Kolisile said, referring the passing of the law dealing with cross boundary municipalities, which people objected to. – Sapa