Makhura says DA’s hopes of winning Gauteng have been shattered

Premier and ANC Gauteng acting chairperson David Makhura told News24 the party would recover lost votes in the country’s economic hub in next year’s 2019 general elections.

News24 reports Makhura said the ANC had shed votes during the 2016 local government elections because the party’s electorate, angered by “national issues”, had stayed away from the polls.

Makhura is quoted as saying the electorate in the suburbs and townships could no longer identify with the ANC, which was “weak” at the time, and that its members had been irked by the organisation’s failure to deal decisively with corruption, alleged shenanigans in state-owned enterprises and individuals who acted with “impunity”.

The premier told the news website the DA did not stand a chance of taking over the province after next year’s elections, as ANC members who were disgruntled by Jacob Zuma’s presidency had welcomed his successor Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership.

“They [the DA] had prospects before their problems and before the ANC [began] to put its house in order. That hope is shattered […] of them winning Gauteng,” Makhura is quoted as saying.

The ANC lost control of the Tshwane and Johannesburg metros in Gauteng following the 2016 local elections.

EFF leader Julius Malema, however, does not share Makhura’s optimism that the ANC will retain control of Gauteng at next year’s elections.

Speaking on Touch HD earlier this year, Malema said the ANC would lose the province despite the euphoria around Ramaphosa’s ascension to the party’s leadership.

“So Gauteng is gone, the patronage of the ANC in Gauteng is gone. They say there is a Ramaphoria when they explain the Ramaphosa euphoria that Ramaphosa will change things, but Ramaphosa was there when the ANC lost the metros. Ramaphosa doesn’t come from a lucky packet, so what is it that he is going to do differently?

“The good thing with Gauteng people is that they know English, they don’t need interpretation, they don’t need translation, they hear everything that is said, and no one can distort it. That’s why this urban area is in a position to reject the ANC propaganda because they can hear and they can analyse on their own and make a decision,” Malema said during the interview.

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