An unusual deployment is taking place this weekend as the ANC pulls out all the stops to dethrone the DA in the Western Cape.
Smelling blood in the Western Cape ahead of the May 29 election, the ANC is roping in the premier and party chair of the neighbouring Eastern Cape, Oscar Mabuyane, to boost its campaign in the only province not under ANC control.
Mabuyane will be joined by the party’s secretary in the Eastern Cape, Lulama Ngcukayitobi.
This will be Ngcukayitobi’s second campaign in the Western Cape this month.
The pair will be criss-crossing the province targeting predominantly black, coloured and Khoi and San areas.
They will visit areas such as Khayelitsha, the West Coast and Southern Cape towns including George, Knysna and the Overberg regions.
Their campaign will start on Friday and continue on Saturday.
The focus would be on areas that are said to be ignored by the ruling DA in the province.
The two Eastern Cape leaders will join the ANC stalwarts in the Western Cape including its provincial chair Vuyiso JJ Tyhalisisu to reinforce the election campaign in the province among mostly black communities.
Such a collaboration is the first of its kind with the belief that the Eastern Cape and Western Cape are intrinsically connected.
The dominant languages in the two provinces are the same — English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.
Most of the black workers in the Western Cape originate from the Eastern Cape, especially hostel dwellers.
TimesLIVE Premium understands the ANC believes there’s a historical link between the two provinces for many reasons.
So connected are the provinces that there was a plan to create a rail network running between the two provinces so that workers “can leave on a Friday and come late on Sunday”.
“The Western Cape has sent back money from national to upgrade informal settlements, they haven’t released land for RDP housing,” said one of the Western Cape ANC leaders who wished to remain anonymous.
“If you look at Soweto compared to Khayelitsha, Soweto has the hallmarks of a real modern city in many ways as opposed to Khayelitsha.”
The party believes it can now mount a serious challenge to the DA in the province given that, unlike in the previous election, it now has an elected provincial executive committee (PEC).
“I think it’s realising that the two provinces need each other at different levels, in terms of investments in the Eastern Cape, in terms of connections between families, traditional leaders, and also that given the conditions that people are facing under the DA, there’s clearly a need to mobilise and unite around removing the DA from the Western Cape,” said the leader.
The ANC also believes it is time to undermine what they say are attempts by the DA to divide coloured people from blacks, and that this collaboration by the two provinces will go a long way to counter that.
