ISSUE 244 - FREE
11
OCTOBER 2019
COMMUNITY NEWS. ORIGINAL - ACCURATE - FIRST
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Political Leaders visit Emzinoni Bosman Grobler, DA Provincial Chairperson with Mmusi Maimane, DA Federal Leader and Jane Sithole, DA Provincial Leader
T
he upcoming by-elections on Wednesday is starting to heat up as all parties have started to flex their muscles. The by-elections on Wednesday will be a hotly contested one. Four parties will be competing in the by-election; The Democratic Alliance (DA), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the African National Congress (ANC). The position was left vacant after the resignation of the previous DA Councillor, Marietjie Fourie. The contest is seen, by most, as a race between two parties: the ANC and the DA. The DA received 45% of the votes during the 2016 elections, whereas the ANC secured 39.99%. Three smaller parties contested the election, the EFF secured 4,19%, an independent candidate secured 4,96% and the FF+
secured 4,93%. Any of the smaller parties would have to be the creators of miracles to topple the two biggest parties. The EFF and ANC’s support bases lay mostly within the Emzinoni side of the ward, whilst the FF+ has a traditional voters base in the Bethal side of the ward. The DA’s support is spread throughout the ward. Parties used all the tricks in the book they could to muster support for their candidate. The Freedom Front Plus’, Pieter Groenewald, held a public meeting on Wednesday. The DA’s Provincial Chairperson, Bosman Grobler, held a public meeting on Thursday. Mmusi Maimane, Federal Leader of the Democratic Alliance visited Emzinoni and Bethal on Saturday. Mmusi went from house to house to learn first-hand about the hardships that the people of Govan Mbeki Municipality and in particular
Emzinoni and Bethal have to face. Speaking to The Bulletin in a private discussion afterwards he said: “This is a two-horse race. Only the DA and the ANC are big enough to win the ward.” “This is a very important by-election. We are in a municipality that ultimately has been stealing money and are incapable of paying Eskom and Rand water. Where corruption levels are so high that they have been spoken about at the Zondo Commission. The DA is for change. The DA is the only party that is big enough to actually remove the corruption of the ANC. The DA is the only party where black people and white people can work together.” Mmusi expressed his confidence in the DA candidate, Ms Terry-Lee Kleynhans. Pieter Groenewald, FF+, addressed the issue of being a smaller party. Pieter said that the FF+ is no longer a small party but one of the big 5. “We make
a difference with twelve members in parliament, two of which are in the National Council of Provinces. We represent minorities of all races.” He also endorsed Mrs Michelle Rademeyer as their candidate. The Bulletin tried to contact the ANC for commentary, but was unable to make contact with Cllr Mtshali, the Chief Whip of Council. The EFF was also contacted and keen to respond, but did not do so at the time of going to press. The Bulletin also planned a debate between the four candidates that would have been broadcasted on our Facebook on Tuesday. The ANC could not be reached and the EFF was still deciding on their participation to voice their opinion and policies for this important by-election. The FF+ did not respond to the email from The Bulletin.