4 December 2008
editorial
Johannesburg — AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma's acknowledgment of the importance of the poor coloured vote in Western Cape is a long overdue recognition of the demographics of the province.
According to the 2001 census, coloureds make up 53% of the population in Western Cape, and many are poor.
Yet in the past decade the ANC has paid scant attention to this group, concentrating instead on its traditional Xhosa support base, especially the residents of Khaye-litsha, Gugulethu and Langa, as well as the Muslim middle class coloured minority.
The change of heart signals an end to the narrow racial approach that has long dominated Western Cape politics. This approach, especially in the ruling party, has invariably been at the expense of service delivery, and it is the poor who have suffered most .
If the ANC is serious about the Western Cape coloured vote, it needs to find a provincial leader who is acceptable to them. That person is not Mcebisi Skwatsha, who is considered divisive within his own organisation and who along with his cabal has done much to damage race relations in the province by pushing a narrow Africanist agenda .
It might in any event be too late for the ANC to capture the coloured vote, and even to secure an election win in the province.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has been one step ahead of the ANC for some time, even managing to get arrested while marching with poor coloureds in protest against drug dealers. The new Congress of the People (COPE) is already competing vigorously for the same vote, and indications are it will dent the ANC's support at next year's elections. Perhaps the ANC's sudden awakening to the importance of the coloured constituency in the Cape is a tacit acknowledgement that COPE has already made inroads into its traditional support base. Whatever the reason, the contest for the coloured vote in the coming months will be extremely fierce, and we hope it can all be done peacefully.
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