Voters will not dump the ANC because of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala scandal as many South Africans don’t care about the issue.
This is according to ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo, who added that the ongoing power outages would also not affect the governing party’s prospects.
“The people of South Africa don't care about Phala Phala,” he told the Sunday Times this week.
“They will tell you we don’t have water — in my household people are unemployed, the sewer is leaking. Only the ANC speaks about those issues. The opposition speaks about Phala Phala and moonshot pacts; they are not addressing what affects society. Even with the load-shedding, they are drumming a lot. People are not raising it as a key matter — it's unemployment, poverty and the cost of living, and it's only unions that raise the matter of cost of living,” he said.
Ramaphosa stands accused of having concealed a burglary at his Phala Phala farm where stashes of US dollar notes were stolen from a sofa, and that his bodyguards conducted an illegal investigation and tortured alleged suspects. The allegations were made by former spy boss Arthur Fraser. The public protector recently cleared Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing in relation to the scandal. However, there are two ongoing investigations, one by the Hawks and another by the Reserve Bank.
Mtolo was one of Ramaphosa's most vocal critics ahead of the ANC national conference at Nasrec last year. Early in December he told reporters that the party could not afford to go into the elections with the Phala Phala matter still under investigation.
However, he seems to have made a U-turn and now says the scandal won't harm the ANC's chances of re-election.
Pundits are predicting the opposite as Mtolo’s party is expected to dip below 50% even in KZN.
But it appears that Mtolo and his comrades are banking on citizens' experience with shaky coalitions to convince the ANC's traditional supporters to vote for the party in large numbers.
“There are people who may not vote because they believe in the government, but they will vote in the interests of their country. They will say let's keep the ANC above 50 plus one because we have seen what has happened in the metros.
“The consequences of a coalition government are greater than the dissatisfaction we have. [In] 2024 there will be two voters, those who vote for the political party they love, and those who are voting for the stability of their country. Those voters include the white community,” he explained.
Mtolo admitted, however, that his theory may not be sufficient to win provinces where the ANC has been on the decline, but he has a solution for the one he leads, KZN.
That is why Mtolo say he does not think that Luthuli House’s decision to send senior national leaders to assist the party in the province ahead of the elections is a vote of no-confidence in his leadership collective.
“National has no bad intentions against KZN. KZN is among the key provinces for ANC support. For the ANC to keep power, everybody from various provinces knows that if you lose KZN in a big proportion, you may lose the country. Both Gauteng and KZN are key blocs to the ANC because they hold a lot of voting. No sober ANC person will disagree that any reinforcement to win elections must be welcome and supported,” he explained.
Mtolo revealed that the ANC is not worried about an IFP resurgence. He believes it is superficial, and neither is the party's relationship with the DA a cause for concern.
“The IFP is up to 18% and can't run a province. To run a coalition you need a minimum of 45%. The DA and IFP combined can't make 45 — they are so small they can't run a government,” he said.
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