by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOUTH Africans have snubbed a controversial opposition party that is denounced for dividing locals based on race and nationality as well as supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA), led by former prisoner Gayton McKenzie, received a rude awakening during an event to celebrate its tenth anniversary.
The iconic Orlando Stadium in the South-Western Townships (Soweto) was almost empty, dealing a further blow to the party which is to contest next year’s watershed election.
The bigger opposition, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), rubbed it in.
EFF deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, sarcastically asked: “Why is Orlando Stadium trending (on social media)?”
“What was happening there because I didn’t see any football fixtures allocating Orlando Stadium for any match this weekend?”
The stadium hosts matches of one of the Soweto giants – Orlando Pirates, the local football side.
Unlike PA, the EFF are crowd pullers and its tenth anniversary was a spectacle, with the nearby FNB Stadium, which accommodates over 94 000 spectators, overfilled.
Earlier, McKenzie had tweeted, “We didn’t fill Orlando stadium, we did say we will have a rally in Soweto and we did have one, life will teach you one day what forms a great part of success, doing that which you said you are going to do is the beginning of future success. We are now on stadium level as a party.”
However, locals blamed the PA’s setback on its lack of proper election manifesto while preferring divisions and support of Israel.
Dejected and confused are Patriotic Alliance (PA) leaders Gayton McKenzie (left) and his deputy Kenny Kunene
Mkhululi Mhlanga warned, “Thriving on populist rhetoric has a shelf life.”
“Will the streets of South Africa overflow with milk and honey after all foreigners have left? What will you offer South Africans? Will you start a tribal war that all Zulus must go back to KwaZulu-Natal,” he queried.
Mhlanga was referring to a string of outbursts by McKenzie against foreign nationals living in South Africa.
Shoniwa Takwana reacted, “Politics is not for you Gayton. You have nothing to offer the marginalized.”
Takwana said the opposition’s strategy instead must be around empowering the previously disadvantaged people of South Africa.
Lethal Lentle observed, “We learn from mistakes. But try and grasp knowledge on other real issues such as youth unemployment, health care, safety and policing, rail and transportation, climate change and foreign policy.”
The PA has been widely condemned for his anti-foreigners as a trumpcard ahead of the 2024 polls yet without any appealing election manifesto to lure voters.
– CAJ News