ANC admits Zuma scandals helped alienate middle class

07 August 2016 - 02:00 By QAANITAH HUNTER
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The ANC has admitted that scandals associated with President Jacob Zuma influenced the middle class to ditch the party, especially in Gauteng metros.

But party leaders were quick to say these scandals were not the only factor, as jostling for positions had paralysed party structures.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said that Nkandla and the Guptas had been sticky issues with middle-class urban voters. The middle class proved not to be "religious" about the ANC and was generally more critical.

"Although national issues are not the main issues in the local government, for the middle class they still are," said Mantashe. "Like the debate on Nkandla, the debate on the Guptas ... for the middle class those are major issues," he said.

Mantashe said that those scandals became political fodder for DA leader Mmusi Maimane, who grew his party's support base in urban areas.

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"When Maimane says 'corruption', [those national scandals] resonate with the narrative in those communities."

Mantashe said the trend among urban voters to reject the ANC was not confined to Gauteng.

"There is something wrong on a national level that we are not paying attention to," he said.

ANC Gauteng leader Paul Mashatile agreed that the opposition had exploited scandals involving the president.

But he would not go as far as saying those scandals had cost the ANC its simple majorities in four Gauteng municipalities.

Deputy Public Administration Minister Ayanda Dlodlo, who is the ANC's go-to person on local government, said it would be disingenuous to put the blame for the ANC's losses at Zuma's door.

But she said the ANC had learned important lessons in this local government election which it would seek to rectify at its conference next year.

"We must use the next conference to discuss these issues we face and then take decisions that will help the organisation," she said.

block_quotes_start There is something we are doing right, and there are many other things we are not doing right block_quotes_end

Dlodlo said that while local government election results might be worrying, this poll's results were not an indicator of how the ANC would do in the 2019 general election.

Mantashe pointed to disarray in ANC structures as contributing to its poor performance.

"If there are no structures the ANC does not work. In Nelson Mandela Bay, there is now REC [regional leadership]. We went into the battle without any commander to command the forces," he said.

The ANC had a temporary structure in place in Nelson Mandela Bay after it disbanded the regional leadership.

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Another issue all ANC leaders agreed on was that apathy had damaged the party's support. But Mantashe denied that he was attacking black voters when he said there was a real sense of apathy among traditional ANC voters.

"If we fight in the ANC in a particular area, the first threat by that branch is, 'We are not going to vote.' Every time that happens, I have a sense that [it] says we have not internalised this thing. And if we are not educating our people to take it seriously, we will lose power," he said.

Mantashe, like Mashatile, said thorough analysis as never before was needed to understand the sharp drop in support.

"There is something we are doing right, and there are many other things we are not doing right," he said.

While losses in urban metros were cause for concern, the party was also worried about its showing in rural areas such as Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

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