{"id":1419600,"date":"2022-04-05T09:59:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T13:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1419600"},"modified":"2022-04-05T09:59:58","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T13:59:58","slug":"black-donald-trump-riles-south-african-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/black-donald-trump-riles-south-african-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"&#039;Black Donald Trump&#039; Riles South African Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblack-donald-trump-riles-south-african-politics%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1419600&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">CAPE TOWN, South Africa \u2014 A South African municipal by-election has pitted opposition party titans \u2013 one led by Herman Mashaba, a new entrant on the political landscape who styles himself as a black Donald Trump; and the other the Leader of the Official Opposition, John Steenhuisen \u2013 in a battle for the right to lead the fight against the national ruling African National Congress (ANC).<\/p>\n<p>The Tshwane by-election, in a peri-urban ward of the country\u2019s administrative capital of Pretoria on May 5, comes just as Mashaba\u2019s new part, ActionSA had rocketed its previously untested support to a significant vote share in the metropolitan governments in last November\u2019s municipal elections.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Mashaba, the Trump-styled former mayor of the City of Johannesburg, formed ActionSA after resigning from the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) now led by Steenhuisen, a veteran white politician. The official opposition was thrown into a quandary by the resignation of Mashaba \u2013 widely seen as a future DA leader by the electorate \u2014 after an internal DA fallout. The party leader at the time, Mmusi Maimaine \u2013 the party\u2019s first black leader \u2014 quickly resigned from the official opposition as well.<\/p>\n<p>The by-election is being held after an incumbent city councillor, Alderman Hannes Coetzee, resigned his DA seat and announced he was crossing the floor to ActionSA. He has since been announced as the ActionSA candidate.<\/p>\n<p>The cards appear to be stacked in favour of Alderman Coetzee retaining the seat for the new party against his former political home, taking ActionSA well up from the 11 percent it won in the ward in 2021. ActionSA\u2019s national chairman, Mike Beaumont \u2014 himself a former DA party worker \u2014 says canvassing figures from the ward indicate the DA and ActionSA are \u201cneck-and-neck\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>The by-election is viewed a potential political watershed if ActionSA wins the ward, and could give an indication how the multi-racial electorate in South Africa could move in the national election in 2024. The strength of opposition parties collectively could see the liberation party, the ANC, lose its over-50 percent average in national elections. Significantl,y the ANC dropped below 50 percent in the general municipal poll last year for the first time since democracy in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>Although nominations for the ward have not been registered by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as yet, ANC sources indicate that the national ruling party would not be standing in the race. Owing to the old apartheid Population Registration Act, the area has remained largely an Afrikaans-speaking white area, long after apartheid ended. Only one area polling district in this particular ward has previously shown strength among black African voters for the national governing ANC. This vote could go now to another opposition party, the radical socialist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).<\/p>\n<p>The odds favour ActionSA because Pretoria\u2019s sewerage plant is located in the ward. The DA put out the repairs to tender, and the contract was given to a black-empowered company that failed to stem a leak into the Apies River, which runs through the ward. The acrid smell is now blamed on the DA-led city government, and sparked the resignation of Coetzee from the local ruling party. He is credited with saying he could not get things done through the DA.<\/p>\n<p>The area \u201cstinks,\u201d said Beaumont, rendering property sales in the area almost impossible. He believes voters will blame that disaster on the DA-led Tshwane city government.<\/p>\n<p>Mashaba defended his support for ex-U.S. President Donald Trump while he was still Johannesburg\u2019s mayor. He pointed out that his support was based on allowing the free market to work and to reduce the reach of the state. His position on immigration was also similar to Trump\u2019s: only those who achieved the right number of points for ability should be allowed in from outside, he said.<\/p>\n<p>As mayor, Mashaba came under attack in the local media when he spoke out about illegal aliens during outbreaks of xenophobic violence against immigrants from other African states. He seemed to agree with Trump, who had allegedly referred to \u201csh*thole\u201d countries in Africa. Many locals see foreigners stealing their jobs \u2013 especially in the service sector \u2013 and relate to Mashaba\u2019s message.<\/p>\n<p>Millions of people have illegally entered South Africa from the rest of Africa. Many Zimbabweans, Malawians, Mozambicans, and Zambians have fled across South Africa\u2019s porous borders. Some have lived in South Africa for decades but have failed to obtain permanent residence status. Special refugee status for Zimbabweans is expected to lapse by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The DA candidate in the by-election is Ge\u2019 Breytenbach, a local businessman.<\/p>\n<p><em>Donwald\u00a0P Pressly is a graduate of Rhodes University and was a Spring Menell Fellow at Duke University, North Carolina. He studied journalism and African politics.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE TOWN, South Africa \u2014 A South African municipal by-election has pitted opposition party titans \u2013 one led by Herman Mashaba, a new entrant on the political landscape who styles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1419600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1419600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1419600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1419600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1419600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}