ANT KATZ

The South African Jewish community has famously played a disproportionately prominent role in the struggle against apartheid – and has continued to do so in every aspect of building the country’s new democracy.

“Old-timers” who were imprisoned or exiled and played an active role after 1994, are now retiring from local government seats, to be replaced by a new wave of Jews as candidates and party workers.

The current crop of Jewish politicians can be found in every facet of politics, spread over most political parties.

One Jewish political stalwart is veteran ANC Johannesburg city councillor Sol Cowan. He recalls the heady days between 1994’s first national democratic election and 2000’s first municipal election. 

Things were moving so fast that South Africa was still penning a Constitution, drawing provincial borders and allocating powers; and municipalities were, for a time, run by transitional councils (TRCs) and substructures.

A large portion of what is today the many constituencies of northern Johannesburg were run as a single entity. The TRC was run out of a shul hall on Louis Botha Avenue next to the Doll House roadhouse.

One of the “new wave” Jewish politicians is Darren Bergman, previously a senior Johannesburg city councillor and now an MP. He says the relatively small Jewish population in Johannesburg “could be the swing vote” in the 2016 election, which he says is “going to go to the wire”.

At the Durban offices of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, Alana Baranov has been running a highly successful election awareness and mobilisation campaign dubbed: “Make Us Count”.

It started as a Jewish-only affair in the 2009 election and was so successful that Baranov, the co-ordinator, expanded the project for the 2014 general election. The 2016 local government election is their biggest “Make Us Count” campaign ever – and their first for a municipal election.

They create awareness and encourage Jews to register. They offer a non-partisan educational campaign, which this year consisted of well-attended debates in Cape Town and Johannesburg with an array of senior party representatives taking part in Q&A sessions.

Then they mobilise – putting together an election observer team – fully accredited with the Independent Election Commission (IEC).

In 2009 the Board only had Jewish members on their team. “In 2014 we included non-Jews,” says Baranov and they fielded over 100 observers. Next week, she says, they will be fielding 120 observers, including Muslims, Hindus, Christians and even refugees who cannot vote.

The observer team includes some of the crème de la crème of the Board’s executive and professional staff. They will mainly be active in the big centres but will include scatterings of the team in places such as Kimberley and Paarl.

LEFT: The eNCA/IPSOS survey for Johannesburg shows the ANC (green) and EFF (red) generally flatlining while the grey undecideds seem to have decided on the DA (blue)

On the day, Baranov co-ordinates by SMS. She can send out a message from the IEC to all 120 team members simultaneously. Observers can take pictures, SMS them to Baranov who will send them to the IEC.

In Cape Town, Jewish councillors such as Stuart Diamond keep the wheels turning. He is a CA and fulltime councillor who chairs the city’s finance portfolio.

Another Jewish Cape Town PR councillor is Errol Anstey of the DA who believes that his party will grow their 62 per cent majority to between 65 and 69 per cent due to the huge growth in black membership.

Initial polls showed huge numbers of “undecided” voters, but the past few weeks have seen that number going down, as the DA’s numbers climb. But too many politicians and pundits have burnt their fingers in the past and many expressed a word of caution about polls.

Related reads on the 2016 election

• Show up or shut up – last week’s VOTER EDUCATION piece by ANT KATZ
• PRETORIA: Can the parties deliver on their promises asks DIANE WOLFSON
• JOHANNESBURG: Keenly-contested City could change hands writes ANT KATZ
• DURBAN: KZN Jewry are raring to go to the polls writes ALANA BARANOV
• CAPE TOWN: Election fever burning hot in ‘cool’ Cape writes TALI FEINBERG
• Jews remain hyper-active in SA politics – ANT KATZ looks at the bigger picture
• Striving towards a free and fair election writes Board national chair JEFF KATZ
• Chabad’s “Vote for Kindness” campaign read about it – by SUZANNE BELLING

“Just look at Brexit, for example,” said one, “or Donald Trump who was given a five per cent chance (to be the Republican presidential candidate in the US) just six months ago.” His message was clear: “Don’t be complacent if you think your ward seat is safe. Even if it is, your PR vote is valuable.”