2004-2

ELECTIONS

VOTER EDUCATION

articles from 2004

Tannie Evita causes stir at 'fun-raiser'

– Gustav Thiel, 23 January 2004

Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout, the voice of satire in South African politics, went to Cape Town to urge voters to register this weekend, and managed to ruffle quite a few political feathers.

Bezuidenhout, the fictional character embodied by master satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys, welcomed members from a range of political parties at the Metropole Hotel yesterday in a last-ditch effort to get more than 40-million apathetic voters to register for this year's general election.

Said Tannie Evita: "And so, let us with this show of comment here at my fun-raiser encourage and inspire all of those citizens out there to take their ID books on Saturday (tomorrow) and Sunday and go and register."

She invited all political parties to join her effort, and some heavy-hitters arrived to use the occasion to tout their party lines.

These included Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, Western Cape ANC legislator Cameron Dugmore, and Patricia de Lille, the leader of the newly formed Independent Democrats.

"You might be asking," said Evita, "why this is happening. Well, very simply, we're having an election. My old friend Golda Meir always said: 'Evita, before you have a war or an election, invite the leaders of all the political parties together in your kitchen for cake and tea. Start as human beings, because sooner or later everyone behaves like wild animals'."

Uys seemed to have prophecy on his side, because when he called Dugmore "Steve", the ANC's representative lost his cool.

The normally placid Dugmore wasted no time in correcting the name error. He then said he did not "expect from Tannie Evita to join the prophets of doom" by referring to President Thabo Mbeki's frequent trips abroad instead of the achievements of the ANC government.

In fact, said Dugmore, the capability shown by the ANC in spearheading South Africa's decade-old democracy was the best reason for voters to register.

While Leon did not exactly behave like a wild animal, he couldn't help but to start his speech with a comment about Dugmore's "humour bypass operation".

Leon did manage to comment that each vote will count, showing an awareness of the need for every vote for his party.

De Lille brought some sanity to proceedings when she said the major task for South Africans to perpetuate democracy would not be to get people to vote, but to make them understand the importance of voting.

After a quirky display of humour, Cassie Aucamp of National Action said: "Dis mos nie te veel gevra om te stem nie (It is surely not too much to ask people to vote)."

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