The small Eastern Cape town of Peddie is no different from the village in Telkom’s Molo mhlobo wam advert. Its high hills allowed the ANC message to echo across the town’s 112 villages. The movement received 94,56% of votes cast in an area that does not have a single factory. Peddie is one of the towns with the highest rate of unemployment in the Eastern Cape .
“In the last ten years people had to leave Peddie and seek employment in big cities. This is one of the reasons why the ANC’s slogan of creating work and fighting poverty made sense to voters”, says the organisation’s electoral officer, Nomhle Mlotana.
According to Mlotana wherever there was an ANC gathering, people would ask questions on unemployment, roads, poverty, electricity and water. “People came in large numbers to ANC meetings because they saw what the organisation offered South Africa .”
The ANC sub-region has managed to create work opportunities through government agricultural projects. Housing projects have also provided jobs.
The ANC has involved the youth, traditional leaders and church leaders in the campaign.
In the period of the last 10-years there are things to smile about in Peddie. Instead of watching sunrise and sunset, people rush to work these days.