“Black people do not appreciate the value of voting.” That’s the opinion of African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Gwede Mantashe on Thursday morning as results from the local government elections streamed in.
Speaking to Radio 702‚ he lamented that black people at “branch level” often threatened to withhold their votes to voice their dissatisfaction‚ while white people used the polls to give voice to theirs.
Mantashe said there was a noticeable difference between the energy with which people in the “suburbs” and people in the “townships” went about things on Election Day.
The former saw long queues forming from the early hours of Wednesday‚ while voters in the townships took their time about getting to the voting stations‚ he observed.
Although early results suggested some losses for the ruling party‚ Mantashe was not worried‚ and said the ANC was “comfortable with the early lead because it’s the most organised areas that send results early‚ particularly the metros and townships results come very late”.
Success‚ Mantashe opined‚ would be the ANC retaining the same number of municipalities it had going into in the local government elections – losing one would be negated by winning another‚ he said.
“If we lose Beaufort West‚ we win Swellendam‚” Mantsahe said by way of explaination.
On the increasingly likely possibility of the ruling party losing the Nelson Mandela Bay metro to the Democratic Alliance‚ Mantashe pointed to progress his party had made in the number of new wards it had won in the city as a measure of its success. –
Black people don’t appreciate the value of voting: Mantashe
Speaking to Radio 702‚ he lamented that black people at “branch level” often threatened to withhold their votes to voice their dissatisfaction‚ while white people used the polls to give voice to theirs.
Mantashe said there was a noticeable difference between the energy with which people in the “suburbs” and people in the “townships” went about things on Election Day.
The former saw long queues forming from the early hours of Wednesday‚ while voters in the townships took their time about getting to the voting stations‚ he observed.
Although early results suggested some losses for the ruling party‚ Mantashe was not worried‚ and said the ANC was “comfortable with the early lead because it’s the most organised areas that send results early‚ particularly the metros and townships results come very late”.
Success‚ Mantashe opined‚ would be the ANC retaining the same number of municipalities it had going into in the local government elections – losing one would be negated by winning another‚ he said.
“If we lose Beaufort West‚ we win Swellendam‚” Mantsahe said by way of explaination.
On the increasingly likely possibility of the ruling party losing the Nelson Mandela Bay metro to the Democratic Alliance‚ Mantashe pointed to progress his party had made in the number of new wards it had won in the city as a measure of its success. –
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