ANC’s election plans laid bare in recording

President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged the ANC top brass to “put their shoulder to the wheel” to ensure the party wins at least 57% — or about 11-million votes — in the May 29 polls, warning the election is “ours to lose’’.

In a leaked recording of an ANC national executive committee (NEC) elections meeting last week, Ramaphosa read the riot act to his fellow ANC leaders, saying there would be consequences if they failed to make a campaigning contribution.

The recording is being circulated in ANC and opposition circles. “We need to add some ‘oomph’ to our election campaign, we need to do much more,” Ramaphosa told the meeting. The recording shines a revealing light on the party’s battle plan, with pre-election polls predicting it could lose its absolute majority for the first time since 1994 and be forced into a coalition with smaller opposition parties. The ANC has polled below 50% in at least five polls in recent months.

Although the president stressed that the ANC was not a “one-person leadership” party, the meeting heard from ANC elections head Mdumiseni Ntuli that the president would lead the campaign, with a special focus on first-time voters. Ramaphosa said it had been reported to the national working committee that “there are a number of NEC members who are not really meeting their commitments”.

“And sometimes, our structures wait and wait and NEC members don’t appear. And that deflates them. We’ve got volunteers around the country, and we need to reinvigorate them. We have to ensure that they really do the real work.’’

Sometimes, our structures wait and wait and NEC members don’t appear. And that deflates them

—  President Cyril Ramaphosa

And we as NEC members [must be] there to support them. As they mobilise our people through their door-to-door, we must be among them. And if we are among them, people on the ground really get motivated, enthusiastic, and in many ways that’s what is needed.”

He said all ANC leaders must put their shoulders to the wheel.

“All of us must be dog-tired through the weekend… We must get up and get into weekdays and be able to commit more time to this campaign. We are not a one-person leadership movement; we are leadership, and we pride ourselves on that. Many voices must be articulating one message.’’

At a campaign event in eThekwini on Saturday, Ramaphosa told a church gathering that it is “God’s will that the ANC governs; after the election I am still going to be president”.

He said opposition parties were “nibbling at the edges, that is all they’ll ever do”.

One of the decisions at the elections meeting last week was that Ramaphosa would campaign in areas where an ANC-led administration had solved a local problem or was in the process of doing so.

Ntuli told the meeting: “We are targeting at least a minimum of 11-million voters …We’ve got 27.6-million South Africans on our voter’s roll. If we assume that the turnout will be around 70%, that will be about 19-million South Africans going out to cast their votes. Of course 57% of those would be 11-million.

The 57% target would match the party’s performance five years ago and would be “decisive victory”. Ramaphosa’s door-to-door activities were helping to win over undecided voters, who then made public statements declaring they would vote ANC, Ntuli said.

These were captured by the ANC communications team for broadcast. Describing party efforts to buff the president’s image, he said Ramaphosa’s campaign programme was crafted to take him to places where service delivery problems were being fixed and to avoid places where angry residents were frustrated with the party’s record.

“Between now and the elections, we do not want to see a situation where the president will appear in the place of a crisis, and a crisis without a solution at hand or without any solution being implemented,” Ntuli said.

The ANC would send its entire NEC leadership to engage communities in the two key provinces where the party’s absolute majority was at risk. They would spend a week in KwaZulu-Natal and then two full weeks in Gauteng. It also emerged that the ANC, in a last throw of the dice to retain power, is preparing to flood the airwaves with adverts from government departments — funded by the taxpayer — boasting of its successes since 1994.

Between now and the elections, we do not want to see a situation where the president will appear in the place of a crisis, and a crisis without a solution at hand or without any solution being implemented

The ANC has not flooded the streets with posters in the same way the main opposition parties have, and it appears to be planning to shift the campaign emphasis onto the efforts of its leaders.

Ntuli presented the strategy to guide the ANC in the last 40 days before the vote. He emphasised the need for “seamless” integration of party activities across all levels, from regional to national, and including the activities of its Cosatu and SACP allies. He singled out transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga as having “done very well” in communicating achievements.

“We need something of a similar nature, where the government is aggressively communicating the success stories, because these are success stories of the people of South Africa.” He asked ministers to file reports urgently“on the work that has been done by the departments or the department they led for the past 30 years”.

Ntuli expressed frustration that the government’s main April 27 Freedom Day event marking the 30th anniversary of the first democratic elections had been scheduled to take place in Pretoria rather than KwaZulu-Natal, where the need to win over voters was greatest.

“If there was a seamless integration between what we’re doing in elections and the government, we would have influenced the government not to have the Freedom Day celebration this coming Saturday in Pretoria. We understand it is late now, and it may not be easy to change it.’’

According to several recent surveys, Jacob Zuma’s MK Party is making deep inroads into ANC support in KwaZulu-Natal. EFF leader Julius Malema told the Sunday Times on Saturday that the ANC was used to abusing state resources. The poor poster visibility was because the party no longer had unfettered access to municipal budgets in the big cities.

“In the past, the municipalities would issue tenders for municipal announcements and for only 20% of the ads to go to the government, with 80% going to the ANC.”

Malema claimed that companies that won tenders to communicate 30 years of democracy campaigns would be expected to provide services and products like T-shirts directly to the ANC.

“Mayor’s official bank cards and garage cards are being used to fill up ANC campaign bakkies with petrol,” he said.

DA leader John Steenhuisen said: “The plan to abuse government departments to amplify ANC successes and the instruction to have these departments coordinate such is ample evidence to back up the complaint I have already made to the Public Protector about the abuse of state resources for political purposes.“

It only goes to show how the ANC are manipulating voters again ahead of the May 29 poll,” he said