Before writing this letter from the editor week in and week out, I am in the habit of catching up with broader news nationwide, especially South Africa’s favourite political narrative.
You know when we set ourselves goals to turn around The BEAT just over a year ago, I was under the impression newspaper readers all-round had lost interest in politics.
Oh boy, how wrong I was.
South African politics became the central narrative, nudged to dizzy heights by one Jacob Zuma’s refusal to resign as president of the country.
This was after the Zulu traditional dancer Msholozi found himself in sixes and sevens, following Cyril Ramaphosa’s rise to the head of the ANC.
For a whole tense week Zuma wanted to know — before he could consider stepping down as the country’s president — “ngenzeni? (what wrong have I done?)”
In response Ramaphosa played his cards to the chest, allowing Zuma to take centre stage, even rambling on during a live TV interview, about how wrong it was to remove a president before
completing his term of office.
And oh: “Even during the removal of the previous president (Thabo Mbeki), I warned people that it was wrong …”
If memory serves me well, before Mbeki was removed, Msholozi led his supporters (among them one Julius Malema) in the singing of the song “uyangi bambezela (you are wasting my time).”
To many South Africans — Zulu-speaking or not — the chant was a clear reprimand to Mbeki to give way for Zuma to take over.
“Even with the previous president …” My foot!
Nearer home, the downright grassroots working class ANC political activist, Boetie Maname, fought against all odds to wrestle Bela-Bela’s Ward 9 from the dominant DA.
The result was a close call though, with the ANC emerging triumphant at 48%, comparable to the DA’s 45%.
I am planning to assign one of the reporters to access the statistics from the by-elections, bisect the whole thing and let’s see how this could inform the 2019 general elections, with
specific reference to the Bela-Bela neighbourhood.
With regards to the ANC, one would wonder out loud as to the impact of Ramaphoria on the results.
Remember the ANC has over elections past been grappling with voter apathy, with the result that the party lost several metros and, nearer home, Modimolle-Mookgophong.
As for the DA, was the party’s performance a direct result of the shenanigans around Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille?
Who among you, dear readers, still remembers a narrative called the Coloured vote? Did the DA lose the Coloured vote in Spa Park and Mountain View?
Then there was the EFF’s Andreas Mwambo at 5%. It has been the political narrative of the EFF in Bela-Bela to occupy land in parts of the town. Is this campaign really resonating with the
voter at the grassroots?
Cope seemingly came into the by-elections on a low-key note.
But again one wonders out loud as to whether party leader, Mosiuoa Lekota’s plans to block off the repeal of the Constitution, to allow the expropriation of land without compensation, does speak to the political understanding of ordinary voters?
— The BEAT
