‘Scramble for coloured vote’

FIVE years ago in the Western Cape, the DA under Patricia de Lille achieved an election result which arguably will be hard to emulate by any other political leader in this province.

She led the DA to a crushing victory in the Local Government Elections. Out of 24 local municipalities and one metro, which is the City of Cape Town, the DA won 24, and the ANC won in Laingsburg.

A lot has changed since. De Lille, who went on to become mayor of Cape Town, quit the DA under acrimonious circumstances and formed a new party, and the then DA national leader, Mmusi Maimane, has also quit the party.

The political landscape in the Western Cape has changed. The DA has lost control of nine municipalities to the ANC and its coalition partners. The ANC has also won some by-elections, while the DA has been hurt by internal ructions, which include the De Lille fiasco and resignation of Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela.

De Lille has not gone into the political wilderness but has taken her political allies that once were marching with her and her former party, Independent Democrats, into a new party, Good.

Because the Independent Democrats drew a lot of support, if not most of its backing, from the Western Cape’s so-called coloured community, De Lille’s new party is likely to hurt the DA on November 1 – if her constituency has followed her.

And if it has, it will mean the plethora of parties that will contest the Local Government Elections will scramble for the “coloured” vote.

Of course, it cannot be said that this group, like any other group, will as a single, united column vote for a particular party. However, most votes from this group have not gone to the ANC, but to the DA, which under De Lille in 2016 maximised this support.

De Lille wearing a Good cap is something that the DA is likely to rue.

However, the Good party is not the only unit fishing for votes in the “coloured” community. There is the ANC, which has not been able to make massive inroads, and is often accused of following a policy of allowing “coloureds” not to be seen as African and therefore not benefiting from affirmative action as much as those identified as Africans do. This sentiment is probably the main reason why the ANC, particularly in the Cape metro and areas such as Mitchells Plain, has run into a brick wall.

An unambiguous policy statement that “coloureds” are indeed African, and commitment to follow and enforce this policy, may help. As will putting forward a candidate from this group as its mayoral candidate in Cape Town.

Such a person must be credible, have integrity and not be mere window dressing, as Cape Town’s DA mayor Dan Plato has been.

The DA, after using Plato, has jettisoned him and replaced him with a young white male. However, just like the ANC’S “better life for all” has not touched the lives of many, the DA has also been true and faithful to its core constituency, the wealthier white community, which has enjoyed the cream of services, while the Cape Flats has been neglected with appalling housing delivery, poor infrastructure and crime, which fuels resentment.

DA national leader John Steenhuisen has said the party will have to put a lot of money into infrastructure for services in the next five years, “so that everybody continues to receive basic services of a higher standard”.

Just as the general election of May 2019 proved to be Maimane’s burial ground and led to his resignation, November 1 could be damaging to Steenhuisen. The DA may not be able to repeat its 2016 victory margin. So one can expect the DA to increase its level of campaigning in the “coloured” community.

However, here it will run against the Patriotic Alliance, which has been loud about ending the marginalisation of the “coloured” community and has signed up activists who once were prominent in the ANC. It has been very visible on the Cape west coast and could surprise on election day.

The Freedom Front Plus, ACDP and newly formed United Independent Movement are some of the other parties that will take part in Local Government Elections in this province.

But if there’s a party whose name makes no secret of what it stands for, it is the Cape Coloured Congress, which grew out of the Gatvol Capetonians movement.

The CCC says on its website that since 1994 ,“the coloured community as a whole have become even more marginalised than what they were under the apartheid regime. This is due to the coloured community, most specifically in the Western Cape, who have historically voted against the ANC.’’

It adds that “black people from the Eastern Cape moving to the Western Cape are given preferential treatment with regards to housing, jobs, public schools and health care over the coloured people”.

Of the DA and ANC, CCC says: “The ANC does not care about the coloured people. The DA does not care about the coloured people. Therefore our party seeks to open the eyes of the coloured community and make them aware of the injustices we have suffered under both governments.”

November 1 will be a day on which the party whose messages promise the most will win. For the ANC it means getting voters out to vote, for parties such as the DA, CCC, Good and PA, success could hinge on persuading “coloureds” to end their disengagement and trust them with their ballots.