Helen Zille: One of the best post-Election newspaper articles (translated)

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I agree with much of what Biznews blogger Clive Simpkins writes for the site. But by no means everything. I think he erred in yesterday’s piece suggesting that DA Leader Helen Zille’s tweeting cost her party votes. For me she is a blast of social media fresh air, exposing herself daily through her personal thoughts, ideas and convictions. And, unlike so many other big names, Zille’s tweets have authenticity because they come from her own fingers. Whatever critics may claim about her political views, Helen is an original. She has the integrity which comes from having long lived a public life. And the courage of convictions which stem from deep knowledge of self. She is NOT among those whom Scott Peck describes as People of the Lie – the unfortunate self-absorbed sub-species attracted to politics like flies to horse-dung. As a former political correspondent at the Rand Daily Mail in the 1970s and 1980s, Zille knows good reporting when she sees it. And as her tweet below reflects, she was impressed with a piece that appeared in today’s Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Rapport. Once you read it, you’ll see why. As her political opponent Jacob Zuma’s last tweet was on October 6, we have no idea which what his favourite post-Election piece may be. Pity. Herewith Zille’s favourite translated into a more universal language for a wider audience. – AH    


By Jacob Red in Rapport*

(This article has been translated from Afrikaans – to access the original article click here) 

The shame of Nkandla, anger over e-tolling and disgust over endemic corruption were not enough to significantly impact the ANC at the polls. But behind the ruling party’s 62.15% victory hides its hammering by the DA and EFF in Gauteng, staggering losses among black voters in villages of Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal and the largest consolidation of minority support since 1994.

Gauteng, with 6 million registered voters, was the biggest prize in last week’s general election. It has only just remained in ANC hands with 53.59% of the votes. But provincial party bosses were humiliated by the 10% the EFF took and especially the 1.35 million votes for the DA. For the first time Gauteng, rather than the Western Cape, is the province with the largest number of DA voters.

The DA’s 30.78% of provincial votes in Gauteng was due to a 103% rise on 2009’s DA votes in Johannesburg (to 508,362) and 44.5% more votes in Tshwane (to 354,403). Altogether 32% of DA voters nationwide now live in Gauteng versus 30.5% in the Western Cape, where the DA strengthened its hold to 59.38% of provincial votes against 51 46% in the previous general election.

The new 1.1 million votes the DA drew nationwide, an increase of 33.7%, was thanks to 760,000 votes of black South Africans – more black support than the IFP and three smaller black opposition parties attracted combined.

“20% of our votes came from black South Africans,” says DA leader Helen Zille. While only 0.8% of black voters voted DA in 2009, according to the DA’s numbers it reached 6% this year.

Sources of votes was not only from major metros: At St. Faith’s School in Umzimlthulu in KwaZulu-Natal , the DA last week attracted 60.6% of the vote (245) compared to only 0.3% (1 vote) in 2009. The ANC’s support of 94.2% dropped to 38,1%.  DA votes in the province rose 53.6% turning the party into the KZN’s official opposition.

Near the Water Office polling station in Mahikeng in North West , the DA got only 1.1% of the vote in 2009, but 57.6% this year. Again, at the cost of the ANC, which is down to just 20.1% in this area. DA support in the province increased 54%.

In Limpopo , where the ANC with a massive 78.6% conquered the EFF with 10.74% of the votes to become the official opposition in the legislature, the DA’s vote nonetheless rose 82.7% this year. At a primary school west of Burgersfort the DA in 2009 got 1 vote , the ANC 383. This year it was 133 for the DA and the ANC’s majority of 91.2% was down to 61.9%.

Dirk Kotze of Unisa says the DA focused on the right areas and did well by launching its manifesto in Polokwane and closing it through the DA’s premier candidate for Gauteng, Mmusi Maimane, in Kliptown, Soweto.

But there are dangers, Kotzé warns: Compromises on controversial policy issues such as affirmative action and land reform is almost inevitable, and traditional white and colored voters can feel neglected: “They have started looking for alternatives. The FF+ thought they would get more votes from this disaffection, but it did not happen,” says Kotze. “But it is still dangerous, as the ANC in the Western Cape found: when they started focusing on black voters, brown voters felt neglected.”

Minorities have become more united than ever behind the DA. The party’s support among Indians has grown from 53.7% to 61%; among colored voters from 55.5% to 67.7% and among white South Africans from 83.9% to 92.8%, says Zille.

“The first elections were like a racial census,” said Mari Harris of researchers Ipsos to City Press. “But now it has changed gradually. This time the DA managed to get support from all groups. It’ll probably be a generation before we can truly have a non-racial party.” Harris said voters’ solidarity began to change once they are “in the middle class”.

* This article appears in Afrikaans in today’s edition of the Sunday newspaper Rapport. It has been translated for the Biznews.com audience. For the original article, click here. 

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