Karima Brown
7 January 2009
Johannesburg — AS THE countdown begins to this year's general elections the African National Congress (ANC) has started tightening its grip on its often gaffe-prone leaders, who have been issued with strict instructions not to send confusing messages to the electorate.
Leaders who speak on behalf of the party do so off the back of prepared "briefing notes" and have been told to speak only to "facts". The ANC message of "continuity and change" has often resulted in mixed messages on key policy issues. The organisation's efforts to remain a broad church including business, labour and other social forces have often been cited as factors compounding the mixed messages.
ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte told Business Day that the party had finally honed its key messaging to voters, and that all party members had been told to make "no promises" that had not been put into the election manifesto to be launched at the weekend.
"We will speak to issues in our manifesto because they have been budgeted. Our focus is on service delivery," she said.
Duarte said communities had been telling the ANC that while they were grateful for the advances in, for example, housing, many reminded the party volunteers of the many challenges that still lay ahead.
"People say thank you very much for the houses, but the sewage is not working. What are you going to do about the bucket system?" she said.
Duarte said the ANC had taken a fairly "scientific approach" based on pragmatism and real information. Party volunteers have been told that voters were to be the "centre" of their activity.
The ANC's door-to-door approach remains the main thrust of its public engagements, but the party has also been experimenting with short text messages, online messaging and other innovative communication strategies.
The use of the internet in communicating political support has also dawned on the ANC, often accused by its detractors of remaining in a time warp. "We are talking to a range of people and will be exploring online messaging. Our initial efforts through the My ANC, My Vision campaign have yielded insightful lessons," Duarte said.
The ANC's online efforts got off to a great start.
"We have had 3800 quality hits. These are hits that include very thought-out suggestions. We have of course had many more that simply say 'we wish the ANC well'. We are not counting those," Duarte said.
As the countdown continues, the ANC is likely to increase its contact with its key constituency in the hope of getting record numbers to vote so the party can retain its large majority .
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