South Africa
Cape Town- South Africa enters the final days of campaigning ahead of the local government elections on Wednesday, 18 May 2011. The Independent Electoral Commission has reported that 55,864 candidates and 121 electoral parties will be contesting for seats in metropolitan councils, local councils and district councils. Many political analysts have described the election as a watershed in the history of South Africa. Despite the increase in numbers of candidates and political parties this election is being seen as a two horse race. The two leading parties being the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA).
The DA, the Friedrich Nauman Foundation’s (FNF) partner, has been proactive in launching its party machinery to run an effective and positive campaign (We deliver for ALL ). The campaign has focussed on telling the success stories of where the DA has governed locally. The Cape Town story is the show case that is being used on the campaign trail, together with lesser-known success stories [pdf], all of which demonstrate the party’s readiness to rule.
The ANC, on the other hand, has been racked by internal party turmoil. The frustration of many ANC members at the ANC’s manifestly rigged candidate selection process as well as the ANC’s inability to nominate mayoral candidates are only two of the turmoil’s manifestations. This has limited their ability to campaign effectively. Besides many internal issues, not a single day passes by without the media reporting on a corruption scandal involving ANC public representatives or ANC officials. Sicelo Shiceka, Minister for traditional affairs and co-operative governance, which overseas local government has also been accused of corruption. The ANC blames Mr Shiceka, who has been on prolonged sick leave, for failing to put in place a turn-around strategy to remedy the poor state of municipal management largely under ANC rule. “Together we can build better communities” is the ANC’s campaign slogan but the party has battled to explain their message. They have resorted to negative and disinformation campaigning with the criticisms becoming personal and with racial undertones.
Veteran journalist and political commentator, Allister Sparks describes the campaigning thus: “There has been a curious inversion of election strategies, with the DA running a positive campaign emphasising its successful record as a governing party in Cape Town, the Western Cape and other municipalities it controls. Gone is the old, negative "fight-back" campaign strategy of the Tony Leon era. Now the ANC is running the negative campaign, focusing on denigrating the DA’s performances and launching personal attacks on its leaders — sounding almost like an opposition party belittling a government’s record.”- (Business Day, 11/05/11)
Accompanying the bright posters, television and radio adverts this election has seen a marked shift towards the use of social media by most of the parties. A Nielsen study of social media ahead of the local government elections has found that the Democratic Alliance (DA) is the most talked about party and is leading when it comes to positive sentiment.
The 18 May local government elections will not see the ruling ANC displaced as ruling party. The DA and other opposition parties, through outright majority or coalition, are likely to gain control over more local government councils though. The DA will more than likely gain more support in its non-traditional constituencies, and according to professional polls, the prediction is that the DA will triple the support of black voters. For the ANC, the polls foresee a downward trend in support that was visible in the 2009 elections in eight out of nine provinces (the exception that obscured the picture being President Zuma’s home province KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC ran an unashamedly nationalist campaign entirely aimed at the Zulu-ethnic vote, wiping out Inkatha, which had hitherto been the beneficiary of that province’s penchant for ethnic voting)
This is not all good news; instead of improving their game, the ANC is mooting changes to the rules of the game instead, i.e. neutering local (and provincial) government to the point where it is nothing other than an tool in the hands of the relevant national Minister in Pretoria.
Whatever the outcome on 18 May 2011, the South African political landscape will be different. To some the hope is that this is the beginning of the beginning of the end of the one party dominant state in Africa’s only industrialised country.
by Wayne Alexander, FNF Project Officer, Cape Town
- Website of the Democratic Alliance (DA)
- Website of FNF Africa
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