'Hatched in Zille's laundry room' January 27 2011 at 11:37am By Deon de Lange ------------------------------ [image: zille_jan 27]
Dumisani Sibeko, The Star Western Cape premier Helen Zille has revealed that the provincial government spent more than half a billion rand on consultants in a year. Photo: Dumisani Sibeko The National Union of Metalworkers of SA has fired a blistering broadside at the SA Institute of Race Relations after it published research that showed that the ANC has lost support at local government level since the previous municipal elections in 2006. Numsa on Wednesday slammed the survey as a plot “hatched in (DA leader) Helen Zille’s laundry room” by the SAIRR, in cahoots with “Afrikanerdom elites” and “imperial sponsors”. Numsa spokesman Castro Ngobese said: “Numsa is incensed and flabbergasted by the reactionary survey done by the (SAIRR) claiming the ANC is losing support…The survey is nothing but a cheap ploy to weaken the dominance and hegemony of the ANC at local government level in favour of the DA.” The survey - based on data freely available on the Independent Electoral Commission’s website - shows that the ANC suffered a net loss of 38 seats in by-elections held between the 2006 municipal elections and August 2010. The Cape Times on Wednesday reported that this figure dropped to 35 when the outcome of by-elections held since August 2010 was factored in. By contrast, the DA had gained 25 seats over the same period. The survey predicted that, although the ANC still controlled the overwhelming majority of municipal councils, it was likely to lose support in the local government elections scheduled for later in 2011. Zille said on Wednesday the by-election results clearly showed a trend of declining support for the ANC and increased support for the DA. “Intemperate rhetoric cannot deny this fact. Instead of emotive and inflammatory propaganda, Numsa should do the arithmetic. Facts are facts,” she said. Ngobese demanded that the SAIRR declare itself an “intellectual think-tank of the DA, which is similar to the Afrikanerbond”. “Which class forces or stratum stand to benefit from this survey? Which domestic and foreign forces funded this survey?” he asked. Ngobese went on to mock other political parties, saying the IFP had been “buried by its own squabbles”, Cope had “imploded and been ravaged by its own external leadership power squabbles” and the PAC and Azapo were now only “monuments at Freedom Park”. SAIRR researcher Marius Roodt on Wednesday noted that his survey was based on IEC figures that were freely available. “There is no agenda behind the survey other than to publicise socio-economic indicators. These statistics form part of a much broader analysis of socio-economic trends and are contained in our annual South Africa Survey,” he said. Roodt said the SAIRR “is well known as an apolitical organisation” and confirmed that the research institute “receives no funding from political parties or political organisations”. He said the local government election outcomes were actually in line with national trends as the ANC had also lost some support between the 2004 and 2009 national and provincial elections. - Political Bureau -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
