Indian-origin voters move away from ANC in S Africa polls

Though the African National Congress (ANC) has won the just-concluded polls in South Africa, the ruling party seems to have failed to win over the Indian community in the country.
The Indian-origin voters largely deserted the ANC and the Minority Front (MF), which represents interests of the minorities including that of the Indians, in favour of opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).
The DA, which struggled in the 2009 polls to secure even 50 per cent of the ballots in the two largest Indian areas - Chatsworth and Phoenix - secured a huge 73 per cent in the areas to oust the Inkatha Freedom Party as the official opposition to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal Province, home to 70 per cent of the country's 1.4 million Indian-origin citizens.

Analysts blame the exodus on two major events - a leadership struggle in the MF after the death of its charismatic founder Amichand Rajbansi two years ago amid the takeover of the party by his widow Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi; and disillusionment after ANC leader Visvin Reddy's comments last week that Indians should go to India to see how much better off they were under the ANC in South Africa.
Even though the ANC moved swiftly to dissociate itself from Reddy's comments and also suspended him pending a disciplinary hearing, Reddy's remarks angered the Indian community.
Despite an intensive drive in Indian areas in which the ANC even paraded its President Jacob Zuma to woo voters, it appears to have failed to impress them, garnering votes mainly from the higher economic class in the community, analysts say.

"President Zuma failed to address the real concerns of working-class Indians. The Indian vote is not homogeneous," analyst Sanusha Naidu told the weekly Sunday Times Extra.

"There are Indians who have benefited from the ANC government through tenders and they are instrumental in aligning Indians to vote for the ruling party," Naidu added.
Political scientist Imraan Baccus of University of KwaZulu-Natal told the weekly that a party such as the MF, built on an ethnic minority view, was destined to fail among youth who grew up in a democratic South Africa.
Thakur-Rajbansi said the MF went into the election battle only three months before the ballot date after its court battle over leadership ended.

The final results of the elections were announced on Saturday night, with the ANC's 63 per cent national votes returning Jacob Zuma to a second term as President.
The DA will remain the official opposition in the national legislature and also remain in charge of the Western Cape Province, while the other eight provinces were all won by the ANC.