VZCZCXRO5584
RR RUEHDU
DE RUEHTN #0111/01 1351510
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 151510Z MAY 09
FM AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3076
INFO RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 0101
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 6390
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 3272

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAPE TOWN 000111 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/S FOR RMARBURG AND MJAMES 
PRETORIA PLS PASS TO AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/14/2019 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM SF
SUBJECT: WHY THE ANC LOST THE WESTERN CAPE 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary.  On May 14, Poloff met with Chris Nissen, 
who spearheaded the ANC,s political campaign in the Western 
Cape.  Nissen discussed the ANC,s failure to win the Western 
Cape in the recent April 22 elections as well as the ANC,s 
plans for the future in both the City of Cape Town and the 
Province.  Although the ANC,s Western Cape office is 
theoretically spearheaded by Mcebisi Skwatsha, the National 
Executive Committee (NEC) is not happy with Skwatsha and 
therefore asked Nissen to step in and run the election 
campaign.  Nissen, who is the Executive Chairman of 
Boschendal Winery, holds no official role in the ANC, but has 
been a party stalwart for many years.   Boschendal gave him 
four months of paid leave to run the ANC,s campaign.  Nissen 
said the ANC has never been hit so hard by factionism and 
that the ANC has gone down because of it.  He also said the 
ANC lost most of its people to COPE in the Western Cape.  End 
summary. 
 
¶2.  (C)    Nissen said that most of the ANC members in the 
Western Cape who defected to COPE had legitimate reasons for 
leaving the ANC, namely their dislike of Skwatsha and the 
damage he has done to the party in the Western Cape.  All 
branch executive committee leaders in the Western Cape left 
for COPE, &which left the ANC totally dysfunctional in the 
Province.8  Richard Dunkie, Terror Lekota, Marius Fransmann 
and Ibrahim Rasool were all about to jump ship to COPE, until 
Nissen intervened.  In January, Nissen approached each of 
these men and asked them not to leave the ANC.  Nissen had 
the full support of the ANC,s NEC including Gwede Mantashe, 
the ANC Secretary General, but did not have the support of 
the ANC in the Western Cape.  When he took over the election 
campaign in January, the polls showed 18 percent support for 
the ANC in the Western Cape.  However, Nissen worked hard to 
bring back people to the ANC and he was able to increase the 
percentage of the vote to 32 percent on election day. 
 
¶3.  (C)  Nissen said the ANC,s biggest mistake was &it 
didn,t keep its eye on the ball with regards to the 
Democratic Alliance (DA).8  One predominantly colored area 
in the Western Cape, Mitchell,s Plain, didn,t have a single 
functioning branch so how could the ANC be expected to win, 
said Nissen.  Nissen continued by saying there were 50,000 
voters in the Western Cape who voted for the ANC nationally, 
but not in the Province.  He continued by saying there were 
20,000 spoiled ballots in the Western Cape and if the ANC had 
gotten those 70,000 votes the ANC would have deprived the DA 
of winning more than 50 percent of the vote and wining the 
Province. 
 
¶4.  ( C)  Nissen asked the NEC to remove Skwatsha from office 
and asked that the Provincial Executive Committee in the 
Western Cape also be dissolved.  He believes the NEC will 
follow his recommendation.  If so, there will be an interim 
committee, which will work towards building more branches 
since there are currently very few branches in the Western 
Cape.  Nissen continues to work to try and bring people back 
to the ANC from COPE and said the ANC will welcome them back. 
 
¶5.  (C )  When asked about the relationship between the DA 
which leads the Western Cape government and the ANC that 
leads the National government, Nissen said it will be a 
&competitive/love-hate relationship.8  He does not think 
there will be violence, but said people could rise up in the 
townships if they don,t get service delivery and the DA 
Qtownships if they don,t get service delivery and the DA 
would likely blame it on the ANC saying they are not 
receiving enough money from the National government.  Nissen 
added that &Premier Helen Zille was completely out of line 
regarding her recent comments about Zuma being a womanizer, 
but also said Malema (the head of the ANC Youth League) is a 
loose cannon, although Malema has done good things (for the 
ANC) in the poor communities.8 
 
¶6.  (C ) After the elections Nissen drafted a comprehensive 
report to the NEC entitled &Building a platform for the 2011 
local government elections.8  In his report, he explains 
that the colored communities do lack hope for the future and 
he argues that the DA instills fear in these communities 
against the ANC.  (Note:  In a similar vein, the ANC campaign 
in the Wetern Cape accused Zille of wanting to return South 
Africa to white minority rule.  End Note)  He reasons the 
colored people don,t feel black enough to receive the 
benefits of what the ANC has to offer, such as receiving a 
job, and the ANC failed in its duty to instill hope in these 
communities.  Nissen said he would volunteer to work on the 
2011 elections. He also said he knows he can have a prominent 
position within government if he wants it, but it would be a 
hard decision to make since he would have to give up his job 
with Boschendal. 
 
CAPE TOWN 00000111  002 OF 002 
 
 
MAYBERRY