A personal reflection on the election

By Kelebone Lekunya

Twenty years ago South Africa was ushered into the era of freedom and democracy where old guys like Nelson Mandela voted for their very first time in their seventies. Of course that freedom didn’t come on a silver platter: it was paid with the ultimate price of the blood of martyrs like Solomon Mahlangu. Others had to be imprisoned for decades, while others yet were forced into exile. This isn’t a “nice” history, but it should act as an inspiration to the present generations to not take for granted what others shed their blood for.

It therefore calls for care, respect and dedication from the current crop of citizens and leaders not to piss on the graves of those who fought against the twin evils of colonialism and apartheid.

South Africans will, next week, exercise their hard-won right of electing a political party that shares their view of their country for the next five years. I encourage each South African to think strategically before casting that precious vote.

While more than 20 political parties are registered with the IEC to participate in these elections I believe only three parties have what it takes to appear at the fore. These are the ANC, the DA and the EFF — in that order.

The ANC has ruled this country for the last 20 years and it is contesting this election with the necessary experience and information on what went well and what went not-so-well. It has the political upper hand and is the frontrunner. Several analysts and commentators have predicted that it will score just below 60% of the national vote. It is a time-tested revolutionary movement that has a good story to tell (though it’s a pity they don’t like telling us about the bad story of corruption, Aids denialism and nepotism … ). It fought against colonialism and apartheid. It will emerge victorious because it has historically appeared to care for the poor and disenfranchised African majority. It has had the most charismatic leaders, who largely appeared to be good at listening to the poor people’s needs. But implementation is another thing. Regardless, living in South Africa has changed for the better since 1994 (unless one is a black immigrant from Africa, though … ).

Is this a good story to tell? There are broken promises that make many people bitter. But these developments don’t appear to cast a shadow on the ANC’s prospects of occupying the Union Buildings yet again.

Our second runner-up appears to be the DA. It has historically been described as “the party of the whites”. One survey even found that black youths still believe the DA might bring back apartheid if voted into government (an illusion). It enters this race as a relatively transformed party with a few black faces in front. Its critics have labelled this as a PR stunt dubbed “rent a black leader”. It has traditionally been associated with being a pro-big-business party that doesn’t care about the ordinary poor black people. It is an open secret that most economic power in SA is still in the hands of white-owned big corporations. Its stance on affirmative action has also been questionable and unclear. Its economic policies are neo-liberal and capitalistic. Its governance experience has been in running the Western Cape provincial government since 2009.

My third runner-up is the EFF. While the party is a newcomer with no governance experience, it comes with names such as those of Julius Malema, Dali Mpofu and Mpho Ramakatsa. Its policies are ultra-leftist and socialist but people tend to question the lifestyles of its leaders. The EFF talks the language of the poor and unemployed youth: it appears to them as their last political saviour. It makes a lot of noise about the nationalisation of strategic industries, expropriation of land without compensation and radical industrialisation of the economy — to mention just a few of its propositions. Its critics argue that these aren’t achievable, or if achieved they would derail the economy and chase away the foreign investors (as though this country belongs to the foreign investors). Whether these are achievable doesn’t matter in the mind of the long-abandoned radical youth: at least somebody is talking their language.

These parties are what I think will emerge as the leading horses after the race. The remaining lot are mostly tribal (MF, IFP and FF+), cultural (IFP and others), religious (ACDP and others) or special interest (Patriotic Alliance, Agang SA and others) organisations which are, again, going to dislodge and divide the opposition vote. And thus weaken it.

But they have a right to. Didn’t people die for this diversity? !ke e: /xarra//ke after all.

May the best party win.

Kelebone Lekunya is a 2013 scholar undertaking a master’s in town and regional planning at the University of Pretoria