Mary Goby watches as Benoni resident Janes Ladeira greets DA leader John Steenhuisen outside his house at Ward 28 in Benoni, 4 December 2020, during his door to door campaign in the area and also meeting business people in Ward 27. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen had one thing in mind as he campaigned in Ekurhuleni on Friday – to topple the ANC and its tiny coalition partners, reclaim the metro and restore voters’ hope.
He held public meetings and conducted door-to-door visits to woo voters to elect DA ward councillors – but mainly to restore the party’s hegemony in a metro that a DA-led coalition almost won in the 2016 local government elections.
Steenhuisen came with a mission to stop the ANC, minimise any threat from the white right and to outline DA alternatives.
He has good reason to be confident about the DA victory because, in the 2016 election, the DA performed so well in Ekurhuleni, obtaining 91.89% in ward 27. This against the ANC’s 3.50%; Freedom Front Plus 1.98%; Economic Freedom Fighters’s 1.115%; and the African Christian Democratic Party at 0.82%.
Overall ANC won the metro with 48.64% but could not govern until it formed a coalition with smaller parties, beating a DA-led coalition.
Steenhuisen told supporters at a meeting in Cruywagen Park, Germiston, to trust the DA with their votes.
He promised Benoni resident James Ladeira, 65, and others in Farramere that if they voted for the DA’s Mary Goby, she would work for them.
Ladeira is a single man who was retrenched from his job five years ago after suffering a stroke. He had been concerned about the rubbish dumped outside his house, with no action from the ANC-led municipality.
His mother Maggie, who died in September last year, was once robbed at the house in Whitehouse Street.
Steenhuisen promised voters if they voted for candidates like Goby in ward 28 Benoni, and Lornette Joseph in ward 27, they were guaranteed dedicated representatives who would clean the mess caused by the ANC’s five-year reign.
“I came here to see if you are behind us,” Steenhuisen told Ladeira, who was sitting outside his house.
For Steenhuisen, the Ekurhuleni visit was a “dry-run and grounding” for the 2021 local government elections.
He told Germiston and Benoni residents about the alternatives the DA brought.
“The past four years had not been good years for Ekurhuleni, it had been characterised by failing service delivery. There had been water outages, electricity outages, people don’t feel safe and there had been general neglect of infrastructure here. It can’t be like this, it can be changed,” Steenhuisen said.
Asked about his secret weapon for victory in the 2021 local government elections, Steenhuisen said: “We are going to reinvigorate our grassroots activities and back-to-back activism and campaigning by branches. They would deploy well-trained activists to spread the message and campaigns that focus on DA’s alternatives rather than critiquing the [ANC] government.
“We see that the president’s economic recovery plan wasn’t backed by a budget and therefore life is gonna be a lot harder for South Africans by the time that the local government election rolls out. The people are gonna be hungry for a party that will offer the way out of the situation and I think that’s why the DA needs to position itself.”
– ericn@citizen.co.za
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