There are three candidates for the Ward 12 by-elections set to take place in Makana municipality on August 7. The candidates are Mzobanzi Nkwentsha for the ANC, Angi Jones for the DA and Simphiwe Mbonda for the EFF.
The by-election in Ward 12, with Rhodes University at its core, was prompted by the resignation of DA Councillor Darryn Brian Holm.
Campaigning has already erupted into fierce words as the DA’s Shadow Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Kevin Mileham, accused Rhodes University of political intolerance. In a letter to the editor of this newspaper, he alleged that the DA’s public meeting on campus was cancelled because former Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba was due to speak in the same building. He suggested that the university supports a “person who had been intrinsically linked to state capture”.
The Marketing and Communications Manager of Rhodes University, Veliswa Mhlope, rejected DA claims of political intolerance and wrote that “political activity on campus is allowed and encouraged under specific rules and guidelines”.
Mileham’s letter and Mhlope’s response can be read on the “Letters to the editor” page. Ward 12 is peculiar because the number of registered voters is greater than the resident population. This is of a course a result of most of the registered voters being university students. It is also explains why the average age of the voters at 20 years of age in the 2016 municipal elections is unusually young. Furthermore, according to a community survey conducted in that year, less than half of voters were originally from the Eastern Cape.
Young people’s growing disaffection with ‘politics-as-usual’ can perhaps also explain why there were 4,141 registered voters in the ward for the 2016 elections but only 3,484 in the national elections held earlier this year.
Comparing results from the 2016 municipal elections with how the people in that ward voted in May this year produces some unexpected twists. In 2016, the DA candidate for Ward 12 won 68.12% of the votes, but in 2019 the ANC received the most votes with 34.31%, the DA 28.95% and the EFF 24.87%
The swing in voting patterns between elections probably explains why the DA has been so proactive in putting out its message to ‘Keep your Ward DA’.
At the time of writing the DA has been far more active in trying to win the by-election than the other parties. It has held meetings, put up posters, handed out leaflets and engaged with potential voters on Somerset Street.
So far the other two parties have kept a low profile.
For next week’s edition of Grocott’s Mail we will read more about the three candidates for the position of Ward 12 Councillor.
