Percy Ngonyama, Durban

South Africa’s local government elections — held on March 1 — were neither an expression of the “will” of the people nor a sign that “our democracy is maturing” as President Thabo Mbeki, in collusion with the Independent Electoral commission (IEC), wants us to believe.

Instead, the elections should be viewed in the correct context: an unequivocal message to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) that the country’s poor masses are gatvol (have had enough). Despite the ANC’s victory, a substantial number of voters have rejected the top-down neoliberal policies that have exacerbated the country’s poverty.

The government’s apartheid era-style repressive response to organised election boycott campaigns needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Just two days before election day, the ANC-controlled Durban City Council and the police brutally attempted to prevent a legal march by Abahlali base Mjondolo, the ever-growing movement of the shack dwellers.

Mainstream institutions and “experts”, who are always quick to remind South Africans of how wonderful our “democracy” is, did not condemn this move to suppress freedom of expression, nor the police repression in Khutsong, another poor community that successfully boycotted the poll in protest at the ANC government’s anti-poor policies. These attacks were not condemned by the IEC and all those who have concluded that the March 1 election reflected “democracy in action”.

48% turnout

Despite the IEC’s ambitious and extravagant “Power of X” media campaign, less than 48% of South Africa’s registered 22 million voters cast their vote on March 1 (an estimated 6 million people did even not bother to register). Of those that did vote, around 66% voted for the ANC.

[In the strongholds of Abahlali base Mjondolo around Durban, voting stations recorded record lows, while in the rebel Khutsong township in Gauteng province only 232 of its 29,540 registered voters cast ballots. In Johannesburg, the treasurer of the militant Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee Joyce Mkhonza was elected under the banner of Operation Khanyisa (light) Movement.]

It is therefore puzzling that the ANC response to the outcome is to say it is “humbled” and “grateful”. What the ANC and the government should be asking is why is the South African electorate so disillusioned with the electoral process, only 12 years since the first democratic election in 1994.

The country’s “denialist in chief” Mbeki pronounced at the official announcement of the results that the elections were an “award-winning” expression of the will of the masses, which, like the much talked-about local movie Tsotsi and South African Charlize Theron’s lead role in the film North Country, were deserving of an Oscar.

At the ceremony IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam made the extraordinary assertion that the elections were a sign that “South African voters were satisfied about their new democracy”. The IEC’s chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula expressed gratitude to its big business sponsors Telkom and Johnnic for being “responsible corporate citizens”. However, Mbeki failed to acknowledge the ruling party’s corporate sponsors, whose generous financial contributions ensured that the ANC’s election promises appeared on every billboard and electricity pole.

In the days leading up to the election, the South African Broadcasting Corporation bombarded the public with numerous well-calculated news items describing how effectively the government was “delivering” on services. The evening news increasingly broadcast reports on government ministers and officials opening schools and clinics in indigent parts of the country.

The ANC’s “door to door” election campaign, with fat-cat ministers and parliamentarians arriving in their luxurious chauffeur-driven vehicles to meet and converse with ordinary people, was a desperate attempt to show that the ANC has not lost touch with its grassroots constituents and was willing to communicate its “plan to make local government work better for you”.

This “plan” came against the backdrop of numerous unfulfilled promises. The ANC’s 1994 slogan “A better life for all” remains enigmatic for the majority. The ruling party has also failed to live up to its 2004 promises to create jobs and fight poverty. Unemployment has reached unprecedented levels and despite South Africa’s steadily growing economy the poor continue to suffer.

Pro-rich cost-recovery policies demand service termination and evictions for those too poor to afford commodified basic services. Critics of these insensitive policies have been dismissed as unpatriotic pessimists and racists (where applicable) who want to take the country back to “Egypt” (an analogy between apartheid and slavery in Egypt as told in the bible).

Betrayal

The ANC’s technocratic capitalism dictates that the masses be shifted to the bottom of the government’s priority list. The government’s main priority is to please big business. In the process, the masses are reduced to being mere “rubber-stamps” of unpopular policies. They are never consulted in the formulation and implementation of the ANC’s market-friendly policies, but are expected to put a cross next to a giggling ruling politician’s face ever five years. This is a betrayal of the struggle against apartheid, which prioritised “participatory democracy” and public involvement in decision making.

The elections were also a further indictment to opposition parties. In the midst of electioneering, they portrayed themselves as an “alternative” to the ANC and pledged to fight corruption and poverty. Their failure to acknowledge that it is the top-down capitalist policies of the ruling party that breeds corruption and poverty grossly undermined their claims.

Also, most of their manifestos, like the ANC’s, promised “better” and “efficient” service delivery. The sad reality that the reason the majority of South Africans are denied access to basic services is due to their non-affordability was not mentioned in the manifestos.

While Mbeki has successfully managed to mislead the public by attributing poor service delivery within municipalities solely to “crooked” and “incapable” councillors, the reality is that neoliberalism the world over has not only failed to improve the lives of the poor, but has worsened underdevelopment. While some prefer to think the opposite, South Africa is no exception.

Compelling prospective councillors to take an oath will not solve the problem. What is urgently needed is a serious review of the current top-down structure that breeds, among other things, corruption and poverty. Taking a legally binding “oath” has never hindered thieving parliamentarians, implicated in numerous local scandals, from committing their evil deeds.

Moreover, it is increasingly becoming evident that the only crucial pledge within the ANC these days, is the pledge of loyalty to the “Party”, the “Leader” and his government’s neoliberal anti-poor project. In recent times, many who have dared question the “Leader” have regretted it, while those who have been accused of serious impropriety and corruption have been let off the hook with a “slap on the wrist”, because of their undying loyalty.

While South Africa’s progressive political formations, some of which called for a boycott while others stood against the ANC, might be discouraged by the ANC’s 66% victory in the March 1 local elections, there are certainly indications that the level of dissatisfaction with the ANC’s current “developmental” agenda is growing.

There is an urgent need to educate the poor on alternatives to neoliberalism. The masses need to be made aware that there are alternatives to the current criminal system that forces many to steal, lie, cheat and even sell their bodies to survive.

Indeed, a system that seeks to commodify every aspect of our lives, with dire consequences for the poorest of the poor, must be condemned and fought with the same amount of vigour and rage that characterised the struggle against apartheid.

Social movements and individuals who took a principled decision to boycott the elections have no desire to take the country back to “Egypt”. On the contrary, what is being demanded is radical change that will lift South Africa out of the ANC’s excruciating “Babylon”.

[Percy Ngonyama is a social movement activist based in Durban. A longer version of this

article first appeared on Centre for Civil Society-University of KwaZulu-Natal website at <http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,40,5,950>.]

From Green Left Weekly, March 15, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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