DA leader Chris Pappas spoke about the party’s poster message: “Stop MK Party.” (Gallo Images/Rapport/Deaan Vivier)
- From the South Coast to Umhlanga, by-election campaigning will be held in KwaZulu-Natal.
- DA leader Chris Pappas recently sat down with News24 and spoke about the party’s poster message: “Stop MK Party.”
- MK Party leader and axed judge John Hlophe is also expected to make his by-elections campaign debut, while ANC provincial leaders Siboniso Duma and Bheki Mtolo took part in campaigns in the South Coast earlier this week.
Last-minute campaigns and voting are in full swing in eThekwini and on the South Coast in the by-elections in the eThekwini metro, Ray Nkonyeni Local Municipality, and other municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal.
There will be nine by-elections in the province, but the focus has been on Ward 14 and Ward 24 in the Ray Nkonyeni municipality, where the MK Party has deployed heavyweights in their campaign; Ward 33 (Umbilo), 35 (Umhlanga), and 36 (Durban North) in eThekwini.
The MKP is contesting two out of the three wards in eThekwini and both wards in Ray Nkonyeni. In eThekwini, the ANC is contesting all three, as is the DA.
There are also by-elections in the Mpofana, Nkandla, and Umdoni municipalities.
All told, 195 548 voters are registered to vote in 23 wards in 14 municipalities across the country, according to the Independent Electoral Commission of SA’s data on these by-elections.
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In an interview with News24, Umngeni Mayor Chris Pappas touched on the MKP and EFF, and the DA’s message about the MKP, which is now contesting wards in Durban.
There are DA posters in eThekwini with the words “Stop MK”, and they’ve existed ahead of the general elections and they now complement new DA posters that have been put up ahead of the by-elections.
He was asked if the DA won’t need more than that message if it wants to defeat former president Jacob Zuma’s party, which is contesting two wards in eThekwini.
Pappas said:
That message was to illustrate the binary choice that South Africans have. It’s not just MK; it’s also the EFF and that school of thought. And then you have the DA and centrists in the ANC, your ActionSA, Rise Mzansi. It’s not about left wing and right wing. It’s about policy and implementation and the way you govern.
“That [message] was the simplest way to say that. The DA in the past had been way too complicated – 100 different posters and a very confusing message. But the [message now is that the] choice is there: ‘This side or this side.’ And the ANC had to make a choice – this side or this side.”
ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, on the campaign trail in the Tolomane Mnyayiza region in the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality, told a gathering that a renewed ANC will understand that leaders will come and leave.
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Mtolo turned to the Bible as he campaigned in a region where the MKP is building itself.
In an apparent reference to Zuma’s cult-like following, Mtolo said, “My pastor used to say: ‘don’t believe in me. Believe in God. A pastor is a person. Maybe I may get lost in my ways one day, and then I start criticising God’.
“Your mistake would be to take your love and give it to me instead of God. Leave the pastor, come to the church and believe in God.”
He added:
We grew up being led by different leaders. And we’re under different leaders now. Those who lead now won’t be leading tomorrow, but the policies will always be there. We beg you, people of Ward 14, to go out in numbers to vote for the ANC. You’re not voting for [Ward 14 ANC candidate Wonderboy Shinga], you’re voting for the ANC.
Mtolo said a renewed ANC, on a local level, shouldn’t allow itself to be led by drunkards and stock thieves.
“That’s why we all get sworn at and we’re called thieves because we have a few thieves among us. We’ve even did toyi-toyis for others [thieves],” Mtolo said.
ANC provincial chair Siboniso Duma, during his door-to-door campaign, is quoted by the party’s Facebook as saying: “Comrades are energised in Tolomane Mnyayiza region and focusing on the historic mission of the ANC. The ANC was established to build houses, roads, ensure access to quality education, health and jobs.”
Newly-appointed MKP organiser Floyd Shivambu has spent the past few days campaigning on the South Coast.
According to an MKP poster, he was expected to be joined by party MP John Hlophe, who is an impeached judge, in the campaign on the South Coast on Wednesday.
