Now that the elections are over, we must enter a new era of hope and progress. We must enter a period where we bury mistrust, uncertainty, pain and tension, and begin a new chapter of harmony and collaboration. We cannot afford to dwell on the negatives. The August 3rd elections were an extraordinary demonstration of modern democracy in South Africa. There was good and bad for almost all political parties across all the country. A new dawn has already broken over the valleys, people have voted for change.We have gone through a difficult period over few months, with the level of intolerance and protests. it is now time to put it all behind us. We must enter a period in which South Africa reclaims its position and image as a thriving nation, which can overcome all its difficulties, and which is able to put the country first above sectional and party political interests.
During the 2016 local government elections we have seen 204 political parties with more than 66000 candidates contesting elections. The elections signals a turning point in South Africa and redefining the political terrain with ANC and DA highly contesting neck and neck is major metropolitan municipalities and at local municipality wards. We have also seen voters expressed their faith and believe in the smaller opposition parties in wards where the ANC used to rule. In a democracy there is a need for smaller and independent candidates to defuse the absolute powers exercised by the ruling parties in local councils. The role of smaller parties should never be opposition for the sake of opposition but rather they should creatively protect and preserve the democratic freedom by participating in council debates and making sure that people’s values are respected and their demands are delivered. They must also hold the government of the day to account and stay in touch with their constituency and show the relevance of politics to local needs. The opposition parties as minorities also run the risk of seeing decisions taken while they struggle to generate effective debate at the council chambers. To change the position and decision of a collective, opposition parties will have to divide the ruling party. Ward councillors from smaller parties will also find it hard to access or have a say in municipal administration. Although the administrative functions of the government need to be separated from the political functions, in reality the two are still extremely linked in local government. In many municipalities around the country the administrative posts are dominated by staff members loyal to the ruling party hence the need to reform and amend the municipal structural act. Smaller parties in some municipalities do not even have an influence on the budget and allocation of funding for projects in their wards. In some instances the ruling party deliberately influences administration processes so that the municipality end up delaying implementations in a ward run by an opposition as a strategy to incite the community to revolt against opposition party that is running the ward.
South African politics slightly followed the political trend in many African countries like Zimbabwe. More rural areas are staying loyal to the liberation movements for longer while the urban shift to the new parties. Those who suffered under apartheid are likely to remain loyal to the parties that freed them, they make decisions based on the information made available to them by the local party branches. The 2016 local government elections we have seen support base of the ANC in the cities and urban areas clearly turning against Africa’s oldest liberation movement. The opposition parties picking up number of seats traditionally used to be power hubs for the ruling party. This is trending towards the townships and it will reach the rural loyal supporters of the ruling party. The ruling party must be warned that the performance of the opposition parties is on its way to the general elections in 2019. This local government election must be treated as a single largest test of political opinion before the next general elections.
We have seen Democratic Alliance centred its campaigns around the legacy of Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress retaliated by focusing its campaigns on history and liberation while the EEF campaign was centred its campaigns on the frustration of the people and to double everything the ANC promises. The DA emerged victorious by exceeding their own expectations and the EFF stepping to the next to the throne as king makers. The DA saw its victories mostly in cities and urban areas because at the rural its’s still struggling to shift the debate from history and liberation to service delivery. DA finds itself on a difficult platform to convince the rural people because both the ANC and the EFF relate them with the apartheid government of the National Party. Many people do not see apartheid as the defining experience of their lives so they do not vote accordingly. To the ANC it is a great setback to see the metros falling in the hands of the coalitions parties led by the DA and coalitions with the ANC and smaller parties. Tshwane is South Africa’s capital and seat of government. It is home to the highest number of diplomatic missions in the world after Washington. It could be rather unpleasant for the president of the ANC and South Africa and his cabinet to run the country from the union building in a city controlled by the coalition of opposition parties. On the other hand the ANC won Johannesburg at the eleventh hour with 44,55%. Johannesburg is Africa’s economic hub. The world comes to do business with South Africa in Johannesburg, also the headquarters of the ANC Luthuli house is in Johannesburg. The ANC couldn’t afford to loose both Tshwane and Johannesburg. Gauteng tight elections contesting in metropolitan municipalities is a sign that the middle class people are fed up with Zuma’s leadership, the ANC that doesn’t listen to the people, the poor economic management and corruption scandals in government of the ANC. The ANC suffered a big blow in Tshwane metro, now its time for self introspection and blame game. The Gauteng ANC provincial executive committee will direct the blame on Zuma and his leadership, if they succeed we may see the ANC working around Zuma’s exit plan and if they don’t succeed, the NEC may blame them on internal faction, the PEC and REC may be dissolved in order to set up new united committees which will be aligned with the premier league, structured to pave ways for 2017 December ANC national conference. Remember in 2014, Gauteng ANC PEC wanted to reduce Zuma’s appearances on the campaign trail, a move that angered Luthuli house. This year they did the same thing with a style, every time when the President Zuma was campaigning outside Gauteng, they would go around ganging up Zuma’s enemies, all the former ANC leaders who called for Zuma to step down like Tokyo Sexwale, Ahmed Kathrada, Kgalema Motlanthe and former President Thabo Mbeki to help campaign in the metros. All this leaders they did not make it to the final Siyanqoba rally in Gauteng where cde president Zuma was speaking.
Now that the political terrain has been redefined, it increases the pressure on the ANC in several ways and on the other hand blinds some politicians who believe that people vote based on loyalty than services to better their lives. As for the ANC , it now cannot continue to make mistakes in government. Contracts cannot continue to be handled so badly, it will not be able to continue wasting tax payers money. More important the ANC governed municipality now has to develop its capacity to improve service delivery. As it has the experience in government , the ANC knows what the people wants , it must be able to make hard and fast policy decisions as solutions to the problems of the people. They must forget about buying off too many factions within the party. Really if one cannot defend the vote of his voters, he is not a leader and can never be a leader and voters will never trust him with their votes again. Let me quote from the former deputy president of the ANC after campaigning in Gauteng, Kgalema Motlanthe said “ after 1994 the ANC was an organisation whose leaders represented South Africa across the board, most of the ANC’s capable leaders had been absorbed into government leaving the organisation exposed” the former president was telling us that the ANC is currently suffering leadership problem. The terrain has been redefined for opposition parties to capitalise on this. Coalitions councils means that opposition parties will watch each other in the councils. The EFF to watch and monitor the DA and the DA to watch and monitor the EFF. To agree on common council goals. This also means that the ANC will be closely watch as the ANC national leadership has given the provincial leaders full powers to negotiate coalitions with any political party. This move gives the ANC Gauteng PEC to initiate negotiations with the EFF as its a public knowledge that the Gauteng leadership does not get along with Zuma’s leadership so the problem may arise if the EFF bring to the table its national policy directions and asked for the removal of Zuma, that will have to go through the national structures of the ANC. In Limpopo the ANC PEC also get its go ahead with the smaller opposition parties in Thabazimbi and Modomille/Mookgopobg municipality which are the only two municipalities in Limpopo where the ANC did not get over 50% votes. They have so far approached the VF plus which got 5.88% in Modimolle/Mokgopong and 2.7% in Thabazimbi. The ANC 45.3% in Thabazimbi and 47.58% in Modimolle/Mookgopong. The ANC’s fall of percentages in Modimolle/Mokgopong is as a results of the service delivery protests that was relaunched early this year on February when mayor Kgaretja Lekalakala’s house nearly burned down. For the ANC they know what went wrong, they know where and what to fix from here. A close analysis in Lephalale municipality, also the opposition parties are making their inroads in the fast developing municipality. This year’s elections the EFF got 5 seats and the DA got 4 seats in the council’s 26 seats. The outcomes tells us that the ANC lost seats to the EFF. We have also seen the ANC and EFF going neck on neck in ward 2, Marapong with the ANC at 50.98% and EFF 45.1%. EFF getting many voters from Medupi temporary housing and part of marapong informal settlement from Thulare park. While Nelsonskop VD trail with traditional ward 2 support base of the ANC.
The integrity of our democracy was again protected. South Africans ensured that elections were free and fair. The peoples voices were heard and respected.
Disclaimer: Ntshebele encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on Ntshebele are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Ntshebele.