The Democratic Alliance (DA) recently launched a national strategy to improve their supporter numbers with a door-to-door campaign in preparation for the upcoming local elections.
According to the Makana DA councillor Xolani Madyo, the local office has identified three wards – 4, 10 and 11 where their membership is the largest.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) recently launched a national strategy to improve their supporter numbers with a door-to-door campaign in preparation for the upcoming local elections.
According to the Makana DA councillor Xolani Madyo, the local office has identified three wards – 4, 10 and 11 where their membership is the largest.
He said that they have enlisted the assistance of four workers to focus on these wards in order to have information available for the election.
This information will be lodged in their database and will assist in determining a number of factors such as membership numbers, to check that DA members appear on the voters roll and finding out whether members require transport to voting stations.
Madyo said that he has advised his staff not to waste time in recruiting people who are not DA members as the strategy involves confirming DA supporters for the upcoming elections.
The DA will pay previously unemployed people for every form completed by a DA member and they are provided with a lunch allowance.
“This is one of our strategies to be well organised and prepared for the elections. We need to start now to improve the percentage of our supporters,” Madyo said.
Some Grahamstown residents have informed Grocott’s Mail that one of these workers is recruiting people by asking them to pay R10 for a membership.
Madyo said that this campaign is different from the usual door-to-door campaign because they are merely approaching known DA member to remind them to renew their membership.
Rhodes Political and International Studies lecturer Richard Pithouse said that this is “usual practice for modern political parties that often do market research in a commodified way.”
Independent political analyst, Dr Somadoda Fikeni, said he viewed this campaign as bordering on what is ethical and what is not.
He looked at it as merely as giving people what they need job opportunities and linking this to the party’s goals.
He added that there is a possibility that the workers will go around their job descriptions and recruit new members as well.
“They are used to penetrate into the areas where the party officials find it difficult to enter,” Fikeni said.
