DEMOCRATIC Alliance national leader Helen Zille outlined her party’s election masterplan before a blue wave of supporters during her visit to Butterworth yesterday.
Addressing about 1000 members at a public meeting in the Msobomvu Community Hall , Zille said people should ensure they voted for the DA in next week’s election so that “they can destroy the ANC’s closed crony society for some”.
“The ANC is dividing us but we, as the DA, we are going to unite the country. The ANC is jealous and is scared of the DA,” said Zille in an electioneering speech that was delivered largely in Xhosa.
Zille paid tribute to the party’s constituency leader, Veliswa Mvenya, for “hard work in steadily growing the party’s support across the Transkei area”, in particular for making the Mnquma local municipality area the party’s provincial stronghold among black voters.
Zille took a swipe at ANC leaders under Jacob Zuma for creating a “boetie-boetie” society that promises to make the poor even poorer.
In an attempt to woo more black voters from the area to vote DA, Zille said voters should not look at her skin colour, but look at her heart, which held their best interests.
“I call on all of you to vote for the DA so that you can unite behind the dream of one nation with one future,” added Zille.
While waiting for Zille’s arrival, party supporters – mostly youth dressed in blue T-shirts – sang and chanted, ululating and praising her with songs such as “Yiyo le ndlela, Yiyo iDA, Phantsi nge ANC, Phatha weZille (DA is the way, down with ANC, Zille must take charge now).”
Since 2000 the Transkei has been a phenomenal success story for the DA, where the party says it has launched more branches than anywhere else in the country.
Behind this growth has been its strategy to involve itself in the lives of voters by assisting people with simple functions like obtaining ID books and State grants.
One is Thulani Dubeko, a 35- year-old Msobomvu township resident who described Zille’s attendance as evidence that “the DA is alive and well in the area”.
Zille’s visit is particularly significant, according to the party’s councillor in the area, 60- year-old Nofinish Nqatha.
She said in her ward in the 2006 local government election they lost to the ANC by just 200 votes.
“Our ward consists of 12 villages in the deeply rural areas. That time we got in one ward more than 1000 votes compared to what the party used to get in previous elections in the Transkei region,” said Nqatha.
She stated that they currently had two seats in the Mnquma municipality and they expected more growth come next week’s elections.
“This growth has been mainly because people have seen that we are about truth and integrity, which are qualities that are not there in the ANC,” added Nqatha.
Nqatha said the ANC had taken for granted the plight of the rural poor, and the poor performance of the ANC in the Mnquma municipality had helped the DA’s cause. - By MSIMELELO NJWABANE and AVUYILE MASELWA
