South Africa's president bids to win back ANC support in Mandela Bay

April 16, 2016 10:34 AM

Creating jobs and improving service delivery are expected to feature heavily among the ANC's manifesto pledges.

President Jacob Zuma speaks during the official launch of the eChannel Pilot Project of the Department of Home Affairs in Midrand, Johannesburg, April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

South African President

Losing power in Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, a stronghold of the ANC's fight against apartheid and named after its liberation hero, would be a symbolic blow for Zuma and his party nationally.

Zuma has faced calls to resign from within the ANC since a court ruled this month that he breached the constitution by ignoring an order to repay some of the $16 million in state funds spent renovating his private home.

Many South Africans are angry at corruption in the ANC and feel the liberation movement has not done enough to help lift people out of poverty since the late Nelson Mandela swept to power on a wave of optimism in 1994.

"If Madiba was still alive I would have been the first one in that stadium," Patricia Domons, 58, told Reuters at her simple home in Port Elizabeth, using Mandela's clan name.

"Now you find we have a president that steals, people are poor and they don't have jobs. Our country is going down and a hell of a lot needs to change."

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said ahead of the launch that he was "convinced" the ANC would win the Aug. 3 vote and brushed off recent scandals.

The ANC will be relying on loyal supporters who don't see an obvious alternative to a party they still associate with its leading role in ending apartheid.

ANC FOR LIFE

"We are ANC for life," Cumisa Msuthu told Reuters from the Nelson Mandela Stadium where tens of thousands of supporters danced and sang liberation songs.

"The ANC is not Zuma. We have and will always be ANC."

Zuma survived an impeachment vote last week thanks to the ANC's big majority in the 400-seat national assembly and hopes to now put the scandal behind him. He is required by law to step down in 2019 after two five-year terms.

An Ipsos poll late last year suggested a very tight race in Mandela Bay, with the ANC winning only 43 percent of the vote against 42 percent for the combined opposition parties and 15 percent of undecided voters.

In the 2011 local poll in Mandela Bay, where Port Elizabeth is the largest city, the ANC won 52 percent of the vote, against 40 percent for the main opposition Democratic Alliance.

The constitutional court ruling against Zuma and subsequent splits within the ANC may have eroded its support base further since the Ipsos poll was taken, analysts say.

Local governments manage large budgets and will be able to influence voters ahead of a presidential election in 2019.

"This would be an extremely symbolic victory or loss for the ANC," said Joleen Steyn-Kotze, professor at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

"Should the ANC lose, it would send a very strong message nationally that within its own heartland and stronghold, people are losing faith in its ability to deliver."