Eye on the ball(ot) – Bosa uses soccer to score votes

As political parties pull out all the stops to connect with communities and win their favour ahead of the national and provincial elections on 29 May, Build One South Africa (Bosa) is thinking out of the box.

The party’s soccer team (who knew they had one?) will be playing against three sides at a community event in Johannesburg on Saturday.

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Vote with your feet

An invitation doing the rounds on social media invites the public to “come kick a ball around; join the cheerleaders; chill & listen to music; enjoy refreshments; meet our leaders“.

Bukho Bami Youth Centre, Start Football and Diski Xseni will have teams taking part on the day. Proceedings kicking off at 130 Kilburn Avenue, Roodepoort, at 8am.

With two weeks to go to the elections, the soccer ploy is an interesting one but not an uncommon strategy in election campaigning in our sport-mad country.

Last week, IOL reported that a newly-founded political party, the African Movement Congress (AMC) would present a R250 000 sponsorship to a local tournament in Phoenix, a town that is apparently crazy about soccer.

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Goals for the country

Bosa leader Mmusi Maimaine recently said his party’s big plan to build a professional, world-class government, free from corruption, included cutting down on several government departments and changing the law to a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for corruption.

Political experts speaking to The Citizen said these and other major reforms the party wishes to implement should it come to power, may limit corruption and save costs, but are simply promises the party cannot keep.

“It may be true we have too many ministers and departments, but Maimane would not be able to keep the promise,” said political analyst Piet Croucamp.

Additional reporting by Marizka Coetzer.