GARETH VAN ONSELEN: Time for a difficult conversation about ANC voters
We are wilfully ignorant about what really drives the people who vote for the ruling party
During the 2014 elections the DA ran a television advert about Jacob Zuma and Nkandla. You can see it here:In it, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said, "But since 2008, we have seen President Zuma’s ANC. An ANC that is corrupt. An ANC for the connected few. An ANC that is taking us backwards." It was supplemented by other, similar messages. In this television advert, for example, Maimane says, "This is Nkandla, the home of President Jacob Zuma, the place where Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that over R246m of taxpayers’ money was used to build this house. All of this with the co-operation of ANC ministers."That narrative was the culmination of a scandal five years in the making. By 2014, the word Nkandla was ubiquitous. The press had run the story on newspaper front pages ever since it first materialised in December 2009. Madonsela’s report was covered globally. Opinion pieces and radio talk shows relentlessly pursued the issue. All of it, completely damning. "Nkandla". It had becom...
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