DA, ANC out to exploit anti-gangsterism for Western Cape votes

The battle between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA) for control of the Western Cape could take on a new dimension with both parties exploiting the anti-gangsterism protests to win over voters in the run-up to the 2019 elections.

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said both parties would attempt to outdo each other in moves to stop the violence in the so-called coloured areas.

“If an intervention is successful and it came through the national government, this would favour the ANC.

“But if the DA-led provincial government was trying to find a solution and national government did not come on board, that would favour the DA in the 2019 elections,” Fikeni said.

The ANC is sending its top brass to the violence-torn Cape Flats in Cape Town and Westbury in Johannesburg to engage with communities with a view to finding solutions to the gang violence that has claimed many lives in these areas.

ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule announced this week that the party’s national executive committee was gravely concerned about the gender-based violence, crime and gangsterism in these communities.

“The ANC instructed its deployees in government to take whatever steps necessary to bring gang violence under control, and welcomed the implementation of the Bambanani programme which involves communities in finding solutions,” Magashule said.

Some residents have organised joint protests on social media by requesting that all coloured township residents rise up over the government’s failure to take effective action against gangsters and druglords in their areas.

With the Western Cape being a DA stronghold, the ANC saw the current situation as an opportunity to make inroads into DA constituencies and wrest the province from it.

But Western Cape DA chief whip John Steenhuisen pre-empted the ANC’s strategy when he went on a walkabout on Cape Flats streets on Monday, checking what was being done to counter crime, particularly gangsterism and drug abuse.

He blamed the ANC for failing to save people from criminals in a province run by the DA both at local and provincial levels.

“Under the failing ANC national government, the South African Police Service (SAPS) is not keeping South Africans safe,” Steenhuisen said.

“The ANC government seems to make a concerted effort to keep areas under DA government even more under-resourced than areas under their own governance. In the City of Cape Town, the police-to-population ratio is one SAPS officer for every 560 citizens.”

The DA is so serious about countering the ANC that it has appointed a party task team to visit communities.

But Fikeni said that in cases like this residents tended not to trust the ruling parties to resolve community matters such as gang violence.

“You might see them deciding to register a new community-based party that would articulate their issues to contest the elections. That is a likelihood because people tend not to trust government.

“Alternatively, one of the existing smaller parties in parliament could articulate a strong position against gang violence that satisfies the communities and they then would vote for it,” he said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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