Published in The Herald (South Africa) on 6 September 2024
By Ntsikelelo Qoyo
South Africans are disillusioned by the gains of democracy and have become less trusting of the system altogether.
What does this mean for the future of the country and using the power of the vote to make a difference?
These were among a host of thought-provoking discussions held at the Boardwalk ICC yesterday at a dialogue unpacking the electoral outcome.
Hosted by the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), in partnership with The Herald and Nelson Mandela University’s Centre for the Advancement of Non-racialism and Democracy (Canrad), the panel of esteemed leaders tackled the topic “The Power of the Vote: The SA landscape 2024”.
Panellists included Ebrahim Fakir, consultant at the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), chief research specialist at the Human Science Research Council Prof Joleen Steyn-Kotze and NMU political science lecturer Dr Ongama Mtimka, with Prof Bheki Mngomezulu facilitating.
Fakir argued that though SA’s parliamentary system was inclusive, diverse and representative, it had delivered limited outcomes.
“Insofar as our vote has a power, it has a power in a limited respect,” he said.
“It has a power in the sense we have the opportunity once every 2½ years due to local government elections [in between the general elections] which is an excellent thing.
“The power of this vote, even though it’s periodic, the reality is it only extends to a choice once every two years and gives us a voice once every two years.
“South Africans turn out to vote in lesser numbers ... which means the power of the vote has in fact diminished and we handed that power to political parties, especially in the aspect of deliberation and participation.
“Over time, we’ve had a crisis of credibility in government and the longer the crisis [lasts, the more] it starts raising questions about the legitimacy of those in power.
“Because of the decline in voter participation, we are licensing political parties to behave with a greater amount of impunity; we’re allowing political parties to behave with a greater amount of unaccountability and [exercise] their power without responsibility.”
Fakir said the power of the vote had not been strong when it came to deliberating and decision-making, and proposed electoral reform.
“We need to have some kind of electoral reform to give a greater amount of power to our vote rather than political parties. We should devise a system where we balance not just the voice and choice aspect of democracy, but incorporate the deliberative, responsible, accountable in our democracy so they are part of public deliberation which needs to happen to give a greater amount of power to the voice.
“The power of the vote will increase if political parties believe they will be restrained by citizen activism if a different system is chosen,” he said.
According to Steyn-Kotze, their research at the Human Sciences Research council revealed for the first time in 2023 that there was increasing pessimism in SA around personal agency, empowerment and subjective wellbeing.
“When we start looking at the elections in 2026 and beyond, the question of agency is going to become increasingly important. We need to look at the question of empowerment,” she said.
“To what extent do South Africans feel they can pursue their life goals under a democratic system?
“While South Africans have demonstrated increasing democratic dissatisfaction for the very first time, we noted an increasing pessimism around personal agency, empowerment and subjective wellbeing.”
Mtimka said the SA voter in the 2024 elections generated conditions for the ANC and DA to find each other on key issues such as their view on foreign policy.
“The system is greater than its constitutive parts.
“The vote is only a part in relation to a bigger role which is a democratic SA.”
‘Over time, we’ve had a crisis of credibility in government and the longer the crisis [lasts, the more] it starts raising questions about the legitimacy of those in power’.