As the day grows closer, the fight intensifies for the control of arguably Africa’s longest standing economy. We carry on with our round up of the activities or lack thereof of the different stakeholders in the 2014 South African Election.
On Saturday, the Democratic Alliance held their final rally at the Coca Cola Dome in Northriding. Several party speakers took turns to elaborate on the good that will come from voting their party into power. Delivering his speech, the party’s Gauteng Premier candidate, Mmusi Maimane, told voters that they should not waste time and their votes on one election wonders in apparent reference to the Economic Freedom Fighters. He further alluded to the fact that parties like these only mushroomed around election times and tended to disappear immediately afterwards. He gave Congress of the People as an example of such parties.
Moving on to his party’s game plan if elected into power, Maimane said that the DA would hold a referendum for the province’s motorists to decide on what needed to happen with the e-tolls. He further added that his government would bring to Gauteng lots of apprenticeships in order to create employment. He backed that promise with the fact that employment was lowest in areas where the DA was in charge. Mmusi also told the attendees of the rally that his party would strive for equality in education by building schools that focussed on the teaching of science, mathematics and technology. Speaking at the same event, DA leader, Hellen Zille told the people that they had the power to fire the government if they were not happy with the level of service delivery.
Speaking on the eve of their final rally, the Economic Freedom Fighters, the party’s spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said that the reason why his party has been encountering problems in holding rallies was because the ANC led government was paranoid and afraid of his party. He attributed the chaos that had led to the near cancellation of their star rally in Attridgeville to the influence of the ANC as they displayed paranoia and lack of acceptance of competition.
Meanwhile, the electoral court has postponed an investigation into the fitness of the Independent Electoral Commission chairperson, Pansy Tlakula to hold office until after the elections. On Friday, Judge Lotter Wepener said the court could not make a decision on her fitness for office by evening on Tuesday and postponed the matter to the 2nd of June. Commenting on this development, the IEC chairperson said while she was happy to hear of the postponement, there was no time to celebrate as there was a lot of work to be done.
