The upcoming general elections will hold our country to a standstill on the 7th of May. While a lot of people will take advantage of the statutory public holiday by lazing around, a similarly large amount will be waiting in lines to add their voice in electing the next leading party until 2019.
South Africa is currently experiencing interesting weather in terms of the political climate. The African National Congress (ANC) has ruled for two decades, and in the process has helped quell the fear that black people once had for the oppressor. They carried us into democracy with great aplomb but have since neglected their constituents with an air of complacency. There has been countless corruption charges filed against the ANC yet no visible form of remorse or repentance. Not least of these perpetrators has been our current president, Jacob Zuma, who is in contention to run for another term. His record of being able to get away with multiple corruption charges and sexual offences is nothing short of astonishing. In a land of outlaws, he would be applauded. In the past 6 months, there has been a nationwide uproar against the building of Nkandla, the president’s own residential estate that cost tax payers north of R200 million. This was followed by more siphoning of citizens’ money with the introduction of the e-tolling system. How much longer can the loyal voters of the ANC continue to stand by the party that freed them from mental slavery? It’s difficult to say as most opposing parties lack original policies and would rather opt to harp on eradicating the inefficiencies of the ANC. Considering that, historically, most voters of the ANC are black, impoverished and uneducated, it is not unlikely that they will rule again as this is still quite a large demographic of South African voters. However, the magnitude of this particular electorate has dwindled since 1994. Thank you ANC. Registered voters are more informed and more inquisitive now. Two thirds of the South African population now live in urban areas. It is for this reason that the majority of voters are more ambivalent about voting for the ANC than ever before.
Widely considered as the next best, and current opposition party, is the Democratic Alliance (DA), run by Helen Zille. Being a resident of the Western Cape for over 21 years, it is difficult for me to argue against how they have run the province since 2009. The streets are clean, complaints are generally well handled by the party and until recently, the Western Cape has been the best performing academic province in the country for as long as I can remember. Even this year when the Western Cape came fourth in the provincial academic rankings, Helen Zille had sour grapes. Not the type of sour grapes that one would use to make wine but those that are more commonly used to generate a whine. The problem is that the Western Cape demographic is an outlier when compared to that of the rest of South Africa. The issues that have been attended to by the DA have been aiding the middle class income earners and above. This is opposed to those living in poverty and hardship. Over the past few months there have been incidents of low income earners travelling to the Cape Town CBD, not to look for jobs, but to throw faeces in the face of the provincial ruling party. Their cause: For adequate sanitisation, land redistribution and housing. If these problems are not attended to, who do you think the neglected voters will turn towards when standing over the ballot box? The presence of the DA in informal settlements in the Western Cape can be compared to the presence of vegan tshisa nyamas in the same areas. It becomes a choice of voting for the devil that you know versus the devil that you don’t. I shudder at the thought of how attentively the DA would focus on the needs of the poorest of South Africans if given the opportunity. That said, the people are looking for viable opposition to the current rule.
Smaller parties are trying their utmost to gain votes. By “trying their utmost” I mean selling us dreams. They plan to undo all the years of corruption and general bad governance the ANC have sustained for the past decade or so. The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) proposed to shut down e-tolls, reduce food and petrol prices and basically stop inflation in their manifesto. Another party, the Economic Freedom Front (EFF) has come out with a borderline vigilante approach to their campaign by stating that land reform will be swift and without question under their rule. Congress of the People (COPE) founder, Mbhazima Shilowa merged with United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader, Bantu Holomisa to make an unlikely alliance aligned against the ANC. This was shortly after Agang leader, Mamphela Ramphele availed herself as the presidential candidate for the DA. This union was literally as short lived as a weekend away to Hermanus as the merger dissolved within 72 hours. Uncertainty amongst the smaller parties is too high to gather up anything larger than a negligible resistance against the reigning party. Yet they do provide eccentric avenues for the undecided to place their votes, or for those willing to pay for the dreams they are selling.
Back to the forerunners: There seems to be this misconception that the leaders of these political parties are separate to the parties that they head. Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille are voted for by their respective parties to run them, they are not isolated. The body puts the head in power. Their leadership is a direct result of the interests of those in the rest of the party. When the ANC tribe spoke, Thabo Mbeki reluctantly handed in his torch. This was solely because the party no longer wanted him as a leader. It must be noted that he was nowhere near as corrupt or uncouth as current leader Jacob Zuma. Why does the ANC keep Zuma in power? They want him there. They feel that he has the party’s best wishes at heart. This infers that the rest of the party is just as bad/good as its leader. Helen Zille conceded her position as the presidential candidate for what seemed to be a more welcoming face for black people, Mamphela Ramphele. She too was voted off the island as Zille didn’t seem ready for a long term relationship with a wealthy black lady that couldn’t attract enough donors to the same party that she left.
What to do? Who to vote for? Voters have been placed in the imposition of having to choose to vote between the lesser of two evils. The unwarranted situation of having to decide to vote for something you’re not wholeheartedly behind is something that South African voters are not accustomed to. Those who would like to re-elect the ANC into power are most likely unaffected by, or have flourished under the in-house corruption that has run rampant at the party. These voters are probably terrified of changing power during the embryonic stages of our democracy. Some ANC loyalists just don’t know any better, or just have no inclination to learn. DA voters are likely sick and tired of ANC rule and are looking for a calculated change in government. They probably understand the trade-off between a party that runs well in the background and one that finds it difficult to exact influence over the majority of the populace. These voters are yearning for a viable opposition party, something that can ruffle a couple of feathers. I predict that our people will give the ruling party something to think about. The ANC has never been under this much fire and the voters will leave them second guessing their strategy.
