'Both DA and ANC use us as a path to corruption'

THE stereotype of Cape Town is that race determines its politics.

Readers from the other eight provinces will recall their shock when the 1994 elections results came in - the citizens of Cape Town had voted back into power the same apartheid party the rest of the country had just voted out!

Cape Town is the only metro city in South Africa where black people are in the minority. White and "coloured" people make up 67percent of the city's population.

Black people number less than 32percent. Statistics South Africa's mid-year estimates last year showed that 94600 people had moved to Cape Town since 2006. But even if all were black, they would not come close to becoming a majority in the city.

The city is still sharply segregated and the 2009 election results showed that votes in mainly white or "coloured" areas went largely to the DA. Votes in the townships went to the ANC or Cope.

Only five people voted DA at the Vusamanzi Primary School voting district in Khayelitsha. At the mainly coloured Mitchells Plain library voting district, 166 people voted ANC, while 1347 (77percent) voted DA, indicating that Capetonians vote by race.

So with blacks in the minority in Cape Town, is it a done deal that the DA will win the city in the May 18 local elections?

Two coloured and two black residents of Blikkiesdorp spoke to Sowetan about the elections. We chose Blikkiesdorp because it is an area where marginalisation is experienced by both races.

Reacting to government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi's comments that "coloured people are in oversupply" in Western Cape, Evelyn Jacobs, 33, said: "The ANC does not like coloured people" and that she would not vote ANC.

Kenny Williams, 49, said he wouldn't have voted anyway because both the DA and ANC "manipulate coloureds".

"Coloureds are the majority here but we are poor. Both parties make us a stepladder to corruption," he said.

Black residents Sindiswa Hewu, 28, and Lulamile Yawa, 41, gave similar responses.

Hewu said: "The ANC is blemishing itself with these racial remarks and it is not the same organisation as during Mandela's time. But I don't trust the DA because it only needs black people's votes and then it goes. It doesn't care about us.".

Yawa said "I don't like the DA. I will vote for the ANC".

So there are people who trust neither the ANC nor the DA but who want to vote anyway. With Cope in disarray, the mayoral candidates could make all the difference to these undecided voters.

The DA announced Patricia de Lille as its mayoral candidate this week. The ID didn't fare well in the 1999 elections but as the DA's candidate De Lille's appeal could be boosted in coloured communities. There is also a perception that the DA has brought her on board to secure the coloured vote.

Cosatu's provincial leader, Tony Ehrenreich, former public services minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and deputy speaker of parliament Nomaindia Mfeketo are said to be in the running for the ANC mayoral candidate post.

Mfeketo has already been mayor and failed to make strides in upgrading townships. Fraser-Moleketi was most recently dubbed Geraldine Fraser-Moeilikheid" (trouble) in 2007 by striking workers annoyed by her "arrogant" bargaining style.

Ehrenreich has mass appeal across all race groups. Workers who might otherwise have voted DA might well vote ANC if Ehrenreich is the candidate. He is also a powerful political figure in the city.

On Tuesday he called in Sbu Ndebele, the Transport Minister, and brokered talks between the provincial government and taxi associations, ending a violent two-day strike. Still living in a ghettoised area, Ehrenreich has been a familiar figure in community struggles for decades on the side of the poor.

The ANC has not yet endorsed him as its mayoral candidate, but Helen Zille and DA MP Wilmot James have voiced concerns that he is the only candidate who can beat De Lille. In doing so, the race-based politics of Cape Town could be forever turned upside down. For now, the ball is in the ANC's court.