The upcoming national and provincial elections are set to be a showdown, and political parties are already battling it out for dominance in the agricultural province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
Many political parties and independent candidates will square off for the 80 seats of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature on 29 May 2024 when the country will be going to polls for the seventh time. This year will also be 30 years since the dawn of democracy.
Too early to tell
KwaZulu-Natal veteran politician and leader in the sugarcane industry, Hawu Mbatha, said in the coming months leading to elections the province would experience uncertainty which could affect farmers.
“KwaZulu-Natal will have a new premier come June this year, there is no certainty as to where (which political party) the premier will come from. In the meantime this surely causes a stalemate in terms of government support to farmers,” he said.
Mbatha said it is too early to tell which political party might emerge and if that will have any impact on food production in the province. He said policy directions would depend on who wins the elections and KZN, as things stand, is up for grabs which could see new policies on land reform.
He added that any party that will emerge would come with policies that are likely to be favoured or not favoured by farmers. Service delivery is also going to take the back seat as parties focus on campaigning for the elections, Mbatha explained.
Young vegetable farmer Sthembile Ngubane said she is still deciding who to vote for as she wants a party to enhance her farming enterprise but, importantly, render much-needed basic service delivery to communities.
“At the moment none of the political parties are speaking to me as a farmer,” he said.
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No tangible plans for water infrastructure
Watercan executive manager Dr Ferrial Adam said at the moment all the political parties are politicking about their plans to deal with water infrastructure which is a big deal in KwaZulu-Natal, especially after the unrest in 2021 and floods that have taken place over the past years.
“Just looking at their manifestos I do not think they have adequately being able to deal with the matter of water infrastructure. I think they are doing what they are known for, which is political speaking because they are all mentioning it but no real plans as to what they will do to tackle water challenges.
“We are going to see coalition governments in many provinces, however, what is worrying is that in such government we need some level of maturity for it to happen and quite frankly I do not have faith that we have it in the country,” she said.
Adam said she feels collaboration in fixing infrastructure challenges in the country among political parties is lacking and there is a likelihood that problems would remain the same after elections.
The field is wide open
“We need all this political parties to come together, no one party will come and fix the dire state of our water resources, we have to work together and if that does not happen the situations we find ourselves into will be very bad,” Adam said.
Senior lecturer in political science at the University of Free State Ina Gouws said the emergence of uMkhonto Wesizwe, which is supported by former President Jacob Zuma, is set to be the game changer in the province.
“There will always be support for him (Zuma); whether that will translate into votes that is totally something different but we cannot just disregard that they will have an impact because of the Zuma support.
“Also, what is important to note is that many people are not necessarily happy with him, but are not happy enough with the ANC to change their vote. And they are not ready to vote for the Democratic Alliance, they do not want the Economic Freedom Fighters and certainly do not want Inkhatha Freedom Party,” she said.
Gouws said the recent remarks by the premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Nomusa-Ncube-Dube, that the government is going to build a new palace for Zulu king Misuzulu kaZwelithini in Nongoma, is unlikely to get any backlash from any party considering the amount to be used and the timing of the announcement.
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