Mbalula says ANC targeting loyalists who now show apathy

DURBAN - The African National Congress (ANC)'s Fikile Mbalula says it's currently targeting loyalists who have shown apathy and a lack of belief in the culture of voting.

The party’s secretary general has warned that if they don’t go out and vote on 29 May, the former liberation movement will be the hardest hit.

The ANC is facing fierce competition ahead of the seventh general elections. In response, it’s deployed its top brass across the length and breadth of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

Its president Cyril Ramaphosa is also due to take to campaigning in KZN from Friday.

READ: ANC launches 7-day campaign in election battleground KZN

Mbalula has been conducting door-to-door campaigns and holding community meetings in the eThekwini area.

He admitted that their canvassing was slowed down by financial constraints, which he says have been resolved.

Mbalula also insisted that the ANC’s strategy was to only change gears just before the elections.

“We knew that when you play a game and others are coming with Ferraris and Porches, you’ve got to slow them down, we knew that we needed to take off at a particular time and as you can see over the last two weeks we have intensified.”

He has also dismissed talks that the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which is part of the Democratic Alliance (DA)’s Multi-Party Charter could possibly be in talks with the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party in KZN.

The MK Party is an ANC splinter founded by the governing party’s former president Jacob Zuma.

Pundits have suggested the advent of the MK Party will further harm the ANC.

Mbalula said the ANC is not bothered by talks between its opponents.

“We are working flat out for victory, other people are not campaigning, banking on something I don’t know, that the ANC will drop but we don’t see them campaigning hard on the ground, convincing voters to come out in their numbers.”