“Polling is probably the most incorrect science we have in our country,” was Natasha Mazzone’s response to a question about opinion polls and the losses predicted for the Democratic Alliance (DA).
The DA shadow minister for Public Enterprises, Mazzone, was speaking at an information sharing breakfast at the Graham Hotel on Friday morning where a group of about 70 people gathered to hear her views ahead of the May 8 elections.
She says the party has its own internal polling and internal campaigning as well as the positive feedback from party events and they all show a different story to those produced by the national polling companies. Only a few days ago, the ANC was polling less than 42% in Gauteng Province.
She said there were massive protests in that province that formed part of the ANC’s destabilisation programme designed to intimidate people. She said that her party had had public meetings that the ANC would normally ignore; however, now they were coming in and “they’re trying to disrupt it because they realise that people are coming to listen to the message of the DA. You can feel it on the ground, change is in the air”.
Mazzone intends making a presentation at the Zondo Commission into State Capture. As spokesperson for the party on the Zondo Commission she has submitted the relevant application and expects to be heard later during the year.
She responded to suggestions that the Zondo Commission lacked teeth. So far there has been a litany of testimonies recounting the many ways that business interests have taken precedence over those of the state. There is a lack of clarity on whether these allegations will lead to prosecutions.
She said it is absolutely key that South Africans take the process seriously, as good governance requires transparency. What these commissions allow “… is not only for people to come and testify and give more information to us, they allow South Africans to become part of the process, and they join the journey”.
Mazzone argues that it is only through bodies such as the Zondo Commission that South Africans can understand the full extent of state capture. She said the only way they had been able to stop state capture was when South Africans united – but they could only do so once they had been given the full picture.
Through the Commission, politicians had not been able “to try and hide or sweep anything under the carpet because it’s so glaringly in the public eye”.
She said that as a consequence of the Zondo Commission, the process of laying charges had already begun and the National Prosecuting Authority, (NPA) had started its own special state capture inquiry to deal specifically with those implicated. Not only was the Zondo Commission giving information to South Africans, but it was also aiding investigations currently taking place.
Mazzone ridiculed the argument that people might be unhappy with the ANC, especially here in Makana, but that they wanted to give Cyril Ramaphosa a chance. She replied, “No one votes for Cyril Ramaphosa except four hundred members of Parliament. So when you vote, Cyril Ramaphosa’s face is not on the ballot paper. It’s the ANC.”
She also suggested that Ramaphosa’s position within the party was somewhat fragile and noted that no ANC president had seen out his term. She said there was a very strong divide within the ANC between the Zuma and the Ramaphosa camps. “If you look at the ANC’s parliamentary lists, you’ll see that the Zuma camp has won out completely.”
https://www.grocotts.co.za/news/saelections-2019-in-makana/
