KNYSNA NEWS - Next year's national and provincial elections are going to be rough, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said in an interview in Plettenberg Bay last Monday, 28 August.
Winde, who was nominated the week prior as the DA's Western Cape premier candidate for next year's elections, said this is specifically because it will be an election for the ANC to lose.
"When you lose power it becomes very difficult, so that in itself is a message of risk for SA," Winde said. He did say, however, in the Western Cape it was different. The ANC lost power in the province a few years ago and is "very small".
Looking at statistics, Winde said one recent poll indicated that at the end of the election in 2024 the ANC would "probably" be smaller in the Western Cape than the EFF.
He said figures indicated that this would be under 14% for the ANC, which means the EFF would get 15% and the rest of the parties contesting the elections make up the balance.
And what would the DA garner in votes? Winde was asked. "The bottom line is I have to have 51%," he replies. "I want a majority in this province. So that's why we're registering people like crazy. You need to be on the voters roll to be able to vote, so registering is politically my big focus at the moment."
Winde's programme in Plett last week included laying bricks at the Ebenhaezer housing development and inspecting other Plett infrastructure.
It also coincided with the sitting of the Western Cape Premier's coordinating forum that meets at regular intervals as part of the province's governance mechanisms, where his cabinet meets with all Western Cape mayors and municipal managers to thrash out governance issues.
The objectives of the August 2023 Premier's Forum were:
- To receive an update on provincial energy projects
- To engage with the current fiscal environment and understand the implications for municipalities
- To unpack the reasons behind recent protests and discuss how province and municipalities should respond
- To understand the implications of proposed national legislation relating to the district development model of central government and agree on the way forward.
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