"We are calling on those smaller political parties who have been upset by five years of DA rule to throw their weight behind us."
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Cape Town - The ANC has called on “smaller political parties” for support as it prepares to win back the DA-led province.
“We do not want to see a situation where the vote is split anywhere,” ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman said at the party’s provincial headquarters in Thibault Square on Monday.
“This is a clear battle between the ANC and the DA. We are calling on those smaller political parties who have been upset by five years of DA rule to throw their weight behind us. It is in all of our interests.”
The ANC Western Cape is to launch its election campaign in Delft on January 18.
Outlining the ANC’s strategy to beat the DA in the province, Fransman said the DA acted in the interests of “privilege” and “white elitism” and its rule had been a five-year “nightmare” for the poor.
Fransman vowed that an ANC government would champion the cause of the poor. The party would address the problems of gender-based violence, the housing shortage, drugs, gangsterism, racial imbalances in education, and property ownership.
ANC Western Cape secretary Songezo Mjongile said: “We have started 2014 on a high. The ANC has had overwhelming support, with many sectors in society approaching our offices and asking us to show leadership.”
Asked to comment on the ANC’s call for support from other political parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and Cope laughed off suggestions that they might consider a coalition or partnership with the ANC.
“Fransman needs a political education,” said Nazier Paulsen, the EFF’s provincial convener.
FF+ leader Pieter Mulder said: “It… is not in the interests of South Africa to strengthen the ANC. We have (formed) a coalition with the DA to ensure we keep the ANC out (of provincial government).”
Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota said his party had formed coalitions with the DA in the Western and Northern Capes because of the “strong position taken by both parties to deal decisively with rampant corruption and maladministration, among many of the failings of the (ANC)”.
AgangSA spokesman Thabo Leshilo said that the party's aim was to put an end to “ANC government corruption that is robbing the country of its development potential”.
“Helping a party that wants to undermine the constitution and do as it pleases to wrestle power in the Western Cape is not our idea of realigning South African politics. Thanks but no thanks. We will contest the Western Cape in our own right.”
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus