South Africa: Isolated Violence, Poverty Focus of Election Campaign

Campaigning for South Africa's general elections, to be held next month, has moved into top gear - with politicians scrambling for an endorsement from the country's 20.7 million registered voters. "The parties are now in full-swing campaign mood,” says Khabele Matlosa of the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA). Two of the country's nine provinces are the site of especially heated electioneering. "The major parties seem to have set their eyes on KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape,” notes Matlosa, adding "In the rest of the places, I think it will just be ceremonies, nothing much.”