SOUTH AFRICAN voters will go the polls tomorrow in a general election expected to confirm the ruling African National Congress as the nation’s first choice.

President Jacob Zuma’s government has come under sustained attack from various forces over a number of issues, including the Marikana police massacre and overspending on the president’s rural home.

There has been popular discontent at the slow progress on promises around housing, jobs and public services.

A campaign by a small but prominent group of former leaders not to vote ANC has also attracted media attention, but the revolutionary alliance headed by the ANC alongside the Communist Party (SACP) and the trade unions is holding firm.

The ANC urges those who have expressed an intention not to vote “not to disenfranchise themselves by staying away.”

It pointed out yesterday that the right to vote was “a coveted prize that was earned under difficult and painful circumstances.”

The SACP has used the example of late leaders Nelson Mandela and Chris Hani in its election campaign, saying: “Do it for Madiba. Vote ANC.”

It points out that ANC-led governments have “built over 3.3 million houses benefiting more than 16 million people, expanded electricity to over 12 million households — 7 million more than in 1994 — and expanded access to potable water to around 92 per cent of our people, compared to 60 per cent in 1996.”

The party recalls that it was under President Zuma that the previous ANC administration’s disastrous decision to withhold antiretroviral drugs from HIV patients was reversed, leading to a huge decline in the number of children born with HIV.

“Let us deliver a decisive blow to the arrogant party of white privilege, the Democratic Alliance, by voting resoundingly for the ANC,” it declared.

Trade union federation Cosatu added its voice to the ANC chorus, saying: “Elections are but another terrain of struggle which must be won by the people’s camp under the leadership of the ANC.

“The right to vote was … a victory for which many were assaulted, imprisoned, tortured and even murdered by the apartheid regime.”