Campaign posters line streets across South Africa for general elections just one month away, but voters say enduring poverty and poor public services have left them disenchanted with politics.
Nowhere is that sentiment more pronounced that in the Eastern Cape, one of the country’s poorest provinces.
The populous coastal province has helped steer the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to landslide victories since the first all-race election in 1994.
Although the ANC is expected to win the April 22 polls, voters are questioning its track record in fighting poverty in a nation where about 43% of the 48-million population live on less than R20 a day.
Even with corruption charges hanging over ANC leader and presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma, analysts doubt that the dissatisfaction will be strong enough to cost them the election.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) suffers from an image as a party for white South Africans. ANC splinter group the Congress of the People (Cope) is still cutting its teeth, and most smaller parties have little national presence.
In the town of Mthatha, gigantic billboards bearing Zuma’s face tower above rickety mud huts and littered roads — promising a better life for all.
”I see all the hype, but the fact of the matter is that no one cares about us, development has only happened in urban areas. We have been forgotten,” said Maxhoba Lobe.
The majority of the Eastern Cape’s population lives in the countryside where they struggle against poverty, unemployment and non-existent sanitation.
In the picturesque seafront village of Mqanduli, 25km from Mthatha, residents share drinking water wells with donkeys and cattle.
There is no electricity and no roads. The pathways are treacherous, only navigated on horseback. Their image of the rest of South Africa comes from television sets powered by car batteries.
”We had been promised a better life but we only see it on TV. Urban areas like Soweto and other areas in Johannesburg are being developed,” said Bongani Tofile, an unemployed youth.
Nor does he believe Cope will end the plight of the poor any better than their erstwhile colleagues in the ANC.
”They have been governing the country before forming this party. They are part and parcel of the problems we see today,” said Tofile.
Cope’s premier candidate for the Eastern Cape, Wiseman Nkuhlu, has been criss-crossing the province, selling his party to the voters.
He told a group of about 150 supporters gathered at the local chief’s home that Cope would work hard to improve public services by fighting corruption and misuse of funds.
”Corruption is the biggest challenge in government. As Cope we will elect people with uncompromised integrity to positions of power,” Nkuhlu told the crowd. Nkuhlu was former president Thabo Mbeki’s top financial adviser — which does little to dispel the impression that the party is made up mainly of Mbeki loyalists disgruntled by his sacking in September last year.
”The ANC does not appreciate our loyalty … look around here, nothing at all has changed,” Nosisa Nkomfe said after the rally. But the 70-year-old grandmother added: ”I am not sure if can trust this new party.”
”We are still yearning for a better life,” she said.
Mthatha’s mayor Siyakholwa Mlamli says the ANC remains confident of victory.
”We are proud of our 15 years in government and we are confident about the future,” he said.
He blamed the poor service delivery backlog to the former apartheid regime, which neglected development in black areas.
”It is unreasonable to expect the wrongs committed over 300 years of colonialism and segregation to be completely undone in 15 years,” he said.
Freedom Charter ‘gathers dust’
Meanwhile, Cope’s candidate for premier of the Western Cape Allan Boesak accused the ruling party on Saturday of not achieving social equality among all South Africans since the end of apartheid.
”The African National Congress has failed the majority of our people and has become the old regime incarnate,” said Boesak in a speech given in Beaufort West in the Western Cape.
Boesak said the ANC has abandoned the Freedom Charter, which ”gathers dust”.
”The Freedom Charter was a promissory note to South Africans that one day all the people of our country would live together, work together and prosper together.
”The ANC has failed the people and remains ignorant of the mandate set by the people more than half a century ago,” said Boesak.
Boesak accused the ANC of not delivering running water or housing to vulnerable communities, while the elite have benefited.
”The ANC’s policies of black economic empowerment and affirmative action have done little more than enrich a handful of their hangers on.”
Boesak also took a swipe at the DA, accusing it of not prioritising service delivery and employment.
”When the DA talks about human rights, they talk about freedom of speech and a free media — very relevant, but surely missing the point.
”The most basic human right is running water, food on the table and the opportunity to earn an income,” said Boesak.
Zuma says he’ll fire underperformers
Zuma on Saturday promised to clamp down on poor performing members of his party before leading several hundreds of his supporters in a festive song and dance jive in Langa, outside Cape Town.
Zuma, who was in the township to commemorate Human Rights Day, said there was no place in the ANC for people who thought they were more important than others.
”The president, ministers, mayors and councillors all need to set an example and show a work ethic,” he said to loud cheers.
”People who do not work will be fired, because when they are not performing well it is the name of the ANC that is damaged. We want people to work. We don’t want people who think they are more important than others,” Zuma said.
Zuma was marched on to the podium that had been set up for him on a traffic circle on Washington Street by uMkhonto we Sizwe war veterans dressed in military fatigues.
The street is close to where anti apartheid era pass riots took place on March 21 1960.
Human Rights Day was launched in 1996 to commemorate the deaths of 69 people who were killed by the police in Sharpeville while protesting against the apartheid government’s pass laws. Two others were killed and several injured in Langa later that day. – AFP, Sapa