Did the ANC just pull an election rabbit out of a hat?
Former Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has been announced as the head of the ANC’s Western Cape elections campaign.
Fikile Mbalula, ANC head of elections, on Monday declared the party’s ambitions to win back the Cape in the 2019 elections.
Mbalula said when Rasool was premier in the province from 2004 to 2008, there was a focus on the poor “unlike with the DA leadership”.
The ANC lost the province to the DA in the 2009 elections when Lynne Brown was premier.
The Western Cape has been facing a water crisis and Mbalula said the ANC would use that as a selling point to voters in the run-up to the election.
The ANC has often criticised the DA for its handling of the water crisis. Mbalula said Rasool had warned the DA about the drought.
“People in the Western Cape have said that the ANC has ignored their cries when it comes to the water crisis. The disallocation of resources from the poor to rich areas is a serious social hazard,” said Mbalula.
The ANC will also focus on the division between black people and coloured people in the province.
Mbalula claims there has been a campaign to divide the two racial groups.
“Rasool will work with a team that will be accountable to the ANC leadership. Black and coloured people must feel like they belong in the province. There is a catastrophe that has pitted races against one another,” he said.
ANC Western Cape secretary, Faiez Jacobs, said the theme for the preparation for the elections is “unity and renewal”.
Rasool, who was present at the press conference, said: “The ANC’s renewal comes at the same time as the DA is imploding. For those who left the ANC, come back. We are calling you for the campaign of your life.”
The former premier quoted opinion polls that stated that the ANC sits at about 51% in the Western Cape. This is a contrast to the 2009 elections where the ANC received only 31.55% in the province.
The DA received 51.46% of the vote share in the province.