It took over 80 long years of relentless, bloody, and tortuous battle to win the right to vote. But just 27 years later, this right, won at a bitter cost of thousands of lives, families, and destinies, no longer count for much. At the just concluded local government election, only 28 percent of South Africans bothered to vote – the lowest such figures recorded since universal suffrage was adopted in 1994.
What could have led to the level of political apathy in so short a time? Most analysts and journalists will be quick to point to the disappointing performance of current politicians and political parties, especially the African National Congress (ANC). That is true. But there may be a subtler motivation and mindset fuelling the apathy – a sense of entitlement and misconception about the social contract. For most Africans, voting during elections is not a duty and a privilege, but favor to the system and to the politicians and parties. In return, people expect their votes to naturally and automatically translate to better outcomes and raise standards of living. When that does not happen in the first and perhaps the second circle of elections, apathy sets in.
This is more so the case in South Africa where the ANC has come to define the 82-year struggle for black emancipation. Many black South Africans still cannot fathom voting for another party that is not the ANC. And in the face of the disappointment that the ANC has become, staying away from the polls completely appears to be the reflex reaction.
Perhaps it is also time for leaders and elite to rise to the challenge of either genuinely reforming the ANC and refitting it for purpose or creating a genuine alternative to the party.
The degeneration of the ANC from perhaps, the world’s most cohesive and disciplined freedom fighting organization to a thoroughly corrupt and vile organization that has been hijacked by criminals will make a classic case study of the corrupting influence of political power. What the apartheid state with its sophisticated apparatus of repression and the Western world with its severest of sanctions could not accomplish for 80 years and counting (destruction of the ANC), exposure to political power has comprehensively done in such a short time. The way the ANC has so thoroughly mismanaged the developed state it inherited will always remain a case study of how not to govern a state. The ANC seems to be giving voice to the long-held view by the defunct apartheid state and sympathizers that blacks are inherently incapable of governance.
And sadly, corruption in the ANC is not just by a few of its apparatchiks. It is the soul of the party. I argued on this page a fortnight ago that the rise of Jacob Zuma and his influence in the party is not an aberration. It is the real face of the ANC. Zuma only ran into problems after the 2016 local government elections where the polls were largely viewed as a referendum on Zuma’s leadership and the party received an electoral rebuke, losing key strongholds to the Democratic Alliance.
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The election of Cyril Ramaphosa, a Mandela ally, as the leader of the party, was principally to mollify an angry electorate and present an image of a party in transition and reform; a party that is capable of service delivery to the people. But it can be seen from the rank and file of the party membership and the most influential members like the Deputy President and Secretary-General, that the party remains essentially a corrupt organization that has been captured by criminal interests.
So, rather than being a referendum on the leadership of Cyril Ramaphosa, this election – and the ANC bigwigs are aware – is largely a protest against the party. For the first time since 1994, it received less than 50 percent of the total votes cast. It received only 46 percent of the vote. The Democratic Alliance – the White party with a reputation of service delivery – received 22 percent, the left-leaning and chaos-loving Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) got 10 percent, the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) got 6 percent, and both the majority Afrikaner party, Freedom Front Plus and the newly minted Action SA got 2 percent apiece.
The ANC, the DA, and the EFF – three parties that do not see eye to eye on most issues – would now be forced into embarrassing alliances to govern the provinces.
Maybe black South Africans need education in civics. Although democracy and credible elections could lead to superior economic performances and could radically transform the lives of the people, results are not always immediate and automatic. It can take time and it can be frustrating at times. What is more, the people could make mistakes in electing leaders. But the most redeeming feature of democracy is the ability it gives the people to correct their mistakes. Thousands of their comrades did not give up their lives, families, and destinies as martyrs of the struggle only for the living to abandon the cause for which they so valiantly fought and died as soon as the slight onset of challenges.
South Africans have absolutely everything to fight for. Their country is the most developed on the African continent. Its institutions are still strong and working. And despite all the corruption and criminality in the ANC, elections are still conducted efficiently and credibly. These are strong positives not easily obtainable in other African countries. As the freedom fighters would always say, “the prize of freedom is eternal vigilance”, black South Africans must learn to guard these treasures and put pressure on their politicians to be more accountable to them and to improve on service delivery and growing the economy. Besides, the best place to express their dissatisfaction with the quality of governance is at the polls. That is what Mandela and his comrades fought for over 82 years.
Perhaps it is also time for leaders and elite to rise to the challenge of either genuinely reforming the ANC and refitting it for purpose of creating a genuine alternative to the party. The ANC, in true African fashion, has completely abused the trust of its people and nothing short of a surgical reform can stop its slide into oblivion. I strongly feel one of the factors fuelling the impunity in the party is the certainty that the party will continue to hold on to power regardless of what it does. No genuine democracy can function that way. There must be a credible alternative to the ANC.
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