16 May 2011
Johannesburg — ANC Youth League President Julius Malema was on the warpath against opposition parties over the weekend, taking swipes at DA leader Helen Zille and IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
“There is no democracy in the IFP. An old man who is refusing to go on retirement even when he is sick wants to die president of the IFP,” Malema said in Msinga, in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, on Saturday.
He referred to Zille as the “madam” who “moves around doing a monkey dance looking for votes”.
Malema was just one of many politicians trying to garner any votes still on offer just three days before the country goes to the polls in its fourth local government election .
The ANC was a “self-centred and uncaring government,” Buthelezi said on Sunday, adding that the National Freedom Party (NFP) was driven by “personal ambition.”
The NFP is an IFP splinter group led by former IFP national chairwoman Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi.
“The truth is that voting for this new party is no different from voting for the ANC, whose influence and finances in the NFP are there to see for anyone who cares to look. The NFP is a party with not a single credible personality or policy.”
Meanwhile, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal welcomed new members Moses Vandayar and Neville Naidoo, who had defected from the IFP.
In a visit to Mpumalanga on Sunday, Zille told voters that service was getting worse under the ANC rather than better.
“You have no basic services because the people in power have stopped caring about you. They care more about themselves than those they are supposed to serve. It is the same all over South Africa,” she said.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions used the weekend’s last minute electioneering to describe Zille as a “genetically modified individual” who had only realised the values of former president Nelson Mandela in 1999.
In Gauteng, the DA accused the SABC of bias for refusing it live coverage while devoting a two-hour live broadcast to the ANC’s final rally in Johannesburg.
The DA claimed the decision violated the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act (IBAA) because it was not equitable or consistent.
It announced that it would provide real-time coverage of the election results, including analysis and projections, via social networking site Twitter.
President Jacob Zuma joined Twitter just last week, using his first tweet to encourage South Africans to vote. He had more than 600 followers within an hour.
Congress of the People (Cope) congress national committee member and a Western Cape provincial task team deployee, Leonard Ramatlakane, on Sunday assured new party members that it has “cleaned out [its] house and all disputes regarding the party’s direction were over.
“There is only one party, one leadership, one candidates’ list, one headquarters and that there is one hope for this country — in the Congress of the People.”
While Cope’s Johannesburg mayoral nominee, Preddy Mothopeng, thanked opposition parties for making their campaign “more effective”.
“They have made one big mistake and that is to take their constituency, activist and bullies away from the communities, especial in townships such as Soweto, Alexandra, Orange Farm to list a few.”
He said in a statement opposition parties gathered elsewhere on the eve of the elections to “convert the converted”.
The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) on Sunday attacked the ANC’s religious pronouncements, accusing it of blasphemy.
These included the pronouncement that “the ANC will rule till Jesus comes”, “the ANC, SACP and Cosatu Alliance is the holy trinity”, “voting for the ANC is a ticket to heaven” and likening the Freedom Charter to the Bible.
Denying that it was trying to canvass support, the CDP said it was merely asking people to express their disapproval and dissuade the ANC from continuing its declarations.
The government was at pains over the weekend to reassure the public that everything was in place to ensure the elections went smoothly.
The government printing works said more than 100,000 identity documents had been produced and distributed since the end of April, and national police commissioner General Bheki Cele said 50,000 police would be on duty for the elections.
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Ruling Party Youth Leader Goes On Warpath