Voters to start calling the shots
CONTRARY to the oft- repeated cliche, the biggest winner in South African elections has seldom been democracy itself. Too many of our polls since 1994 have been racial censuses, while the proportional representation (PR) system has tended to elevate the interests of political parties over those of ordinary voters, especially at the provincial and national levels.
Local government elections have the potential to be different because, although the PR system applies, individuals campaign for specific wards and there is a natural expectation of accountability that is sorely lacking at the other levels of government. It is largely for this reason that last week’s election outcome is so encouraging, and why democracy may just turn out to be the real winner at last.
While there is still considerable evidence of people voting according to identity, for the first time issues pertinent to local government played a prominent, even dominant, role in a municipal election campaign. While some individuals did their best to drag the political discourse into the gutter, it ended up in the sewers instead — unenclosed toilets, to be precise. That is how it should be; it is at local government level that elected officials are most empowered to deliver basic services such as decent sanitation. It is self- defeating for the electorate to choose municipal representatives on any basis other than their commitment to the community and track record of delivery.
Regardless of which parties gained or lost in last week’s polls, they were all sent a clear message: that the free lunch many politicians have enjoyed up to now by emphasising the differences between SA’s racial, cultural and class groups and glossing over their own responsibilities, is over. With more than 62% of the vote, the African National Congress (ANC) continues to dominate throughout the country, with the exception of the Western Cape. But it has lost enough support for it to be clear that its political strategy requires urgent review.
The party ran a largely negative campaign that flirted dangerously with the kind of ugly racism it has historically attributed to the official opposition. Its failure to bring to heel such divisive individuals as Jimmy Manyi and Julius Malema succeeded only in driving minorities into the arms of the Democratic Alliance (DA). There are also indications that the ANC’s failure to address corruption in its ranks and its retreat from its traditional nonracial ethos have alienated many of its own supporters, who may not have switched allegiance en masse anywhere other than in Cape Town but did abstain from voting in places such as Mpumalanga.
The ANC’s official response to the election outcome indicates that it is aware of the problems inherent in the path it has chosen, but some of the comments from individuals in the leadership point to an ostrich mentality that does not augur well for the party come the 2014 national and provincial elections. An internal committee is apparently being set up to investigate the cause of the ANC’s decline in predominantly coloured, Indian and white areas, ensure that initiatives aimed at making councillors more accountable and municipal officials properly qualified go ahead, and to establish why some traditional ANC supporters stayed away from the polls.
The answers to these questions are readily available; some have been mentioned above. It remains to be seen, however, whether the ANC leadership is prepared to face up to the uncomfortable truth — that in its efforts to keep an increasingly fractious party united and retain power it has lost direction, given up the moral high ground and placed SA’s future in jeopardy.
That is not to dismiss the relevance of race, and especially racial inequality, as an electoral issue. The DA has clearly benefited from the fact that service delivery, accountability and quality of governance were top of mind for most voters last week, and consolidating its hold on Cape Town and winning control of a number of new towns can only help the party build on its growing reputation for competence and co-operative governance. However, it will struggle to repeat this performance in 2014 because delivery — or the lack thereof — is far less obvious to ordinary people at the national and provincial level. It is also where issues such as struggle credentials and the government’s role in reversing the injustices of apartheid though legislative intervention are more relevant. It is quite feasible that a black South African who was prepared to vote DA last week in the hope of getting improved access to basic services might still balk at the prospect of a DA president.
That means the DA has as much to think about as the ANC if it wants to avoid being seen as a party for local government and the Western Cape in perpetuity. Much still depends on how the ANC responds, especially with regard to corruption, nepotism, cadre deployment and its tolerance of incompetent officials who abuse their political connections. A business-as-usual approach on the basis of having achieved more than 60% of the vote would play into the DA’s hands.
Assuming, however, that the ANC has got enough of a fright to make meaningful changes, the DA will have its work cut out achieving the same rate of growth in 2014 as it did last week. Fortunately for DA leader Helen Zille, 24% of the national vote gives the party a solid platform from which to attack the ANC nationally, and confers some of the advantages of incumbency.
Chief among these is a broader base of new leaders, especially younger blacks unencumbered by the baggage of apartheid. Holding more wards and controlling more towns means more opportunities to groom future leaders such as DA youth leader Lindiwe Mazibuko and attract middle-class voters across the racial spectrum. By 2014 it will be 20 years, a whole generation, since the advent of democracy. Is it too much to hope that by then the electorate, rather than political parties, will be calling the shots?
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