By Norm Dixon
The African National Congress narrowed the gap between it and the National Party in the Western Cape local elections held May 29. Despite the ANC gains, the NP's continuing support from members of Cape Town's predominantly working-class "coloureds" (the Afrikaans-speaking mixed race community) remains a cause for concern.
In 1994, the NP won control of Western Cape provincial government by exploiting fears among coloured voters, almost 60% of the electorate, that an ANC government would discriminate against them. The NP painted itself as the party protecting the rights of "minorities", and 68% of coloured voters opted for the same party that had oppressed them without qualms since 1948.
Under apartheid, the Western Cape was a white and coloured preference area — Africans entered the region as migrants from the impoverished Eastern Cape and were compelled to live in temporary squatter camps which were repeatedly raided by security forces to prevent them becoming permanent. Coloured people were allowed privileges in terms of housing, jobs and education compared to Africans. The NP has blatantly manipulated the defence of these privileges to divide coloured people and Africans.
The ANC was not helped by the national ANC government's plans to retrench teachers in the name of "restructuring" the education system. The NP effectively painted these moves, which fall heavily on coloured teachers unwilling to teach in African townships or move to other provinces, as the fruits of affirmative action.
Another policy that has inhibited support for the ANC from the working-class coloured community has been the South African government's drive to open the economy to international competition.
Former trade and industry minister Trevor Manuel, a former ANC activist from the Cape, supported the slashing of tariffs. This has drastically affected the Cape-based textile and clothing industries, which employ many thousands of coloured workers. These moves so enraged the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union, the largest union in the province, that it marched on the parliament in Cape Town to denounce Manuel.
The NP won control of the overwhelming majority of the municipal councils contested while the ANC vote increased significantly. The ANC won control of rural Hout Bay as well as Cape Town Central, the province's largest council, which has 500,000 voters and a budget of R2 billion (A$500 million).
The ANC boosted its vote to 37.2%, up from 34% in 1994, while the NP's vote dropped to from 56% to 48.2%. Overall voter turnout was 60%. The Democratic Party, which long dominated whites-only politics in Cape Town, and the Pan Africanist Congress were all but wiped out.
The ANC scored its biggest gains in rural seats from the votes of coloured farm workers. The rural ANC vote jumped from just 9% in 1994 to 33%. There were many reports of white farmers refusing to allow the ANC access to farm workers to canvass for votes. On the voting days, there was outright intimidation to ensure farm workers voted for the NP or the far-right Freedom Front.
"People have seen through the lies of 1994 when they were told the ANC would take away their houses, their jobs and even eat their dogs in NP election propaganda", ANC Western Cape leader Chris Nissen told the South African Weekly Mail and Guardian. "... the ANC's Reconstruction and Development Program has provided them with free health for their children, feeding schemes, the extension of municipal services and sport and recreational facilities."
Despite Nissen's optimistic account, the fact that the Cape's working-class coloured population continues to back the NP serves as a warning that the failure of the ANC to seriously challenge South African big business, and its promotion of policies to restructure the economy at the expense of the working class, cannot win it support.
Nor has the NP's victory given it much cause for celebration. The NP's ambition is to build a conservative alliance based on its strong support among conservative Afrikaners and wealthy whites, large sections of the coloured community in the Western Cape, conservative Christians of all races, the emerging black business class, assorted "minorities" and big business, whose interests would be at its core.
But for this alliance to be viable, the NP must a political force nationally. This requires winning over a significant minority of the African majority.
The Western Cape results show the NP to be far from this goal. Over 90% of Africans stuck with the ANC, while the NP's base in the coloured community was eroded.
On these results, the NP's fragile influence seems likely to be restricted to an enclave in the Western Cape. The recognition of this has led to renewed moves within the NP for an alliance with Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party, whose influence is similarly limited to a single region.