Its dominance has made the ruling ANC too complacent

LIKE most post-colonial states, South Africa has reached a stage where the prospect of a better life for all seems like a pipe dream.

South Africa has seen the birth and reincarnation of many political parties since the dawn of democracy.

The conditions for sustainable democracy in South Africa are good and that is why there are so many political parties. The Bill of Rights protects the rights of citizens to assemble in different formations of their choices.

I want to argue that multipartyism has led to the impoverishment of many post-colonial African countries, and that Millennium Goals such as “halving poverty and hunger” will remain a mirage.

During the struggle for liberation, there is always one dominant liberation movement that resonates with the majority of the citizens.

Angola had the MPLA, Zimbabwe had Zanu-PF, South West Africa (now known as Namibia) had Swapo, South Africa had the ANC, etc.

These popular liberation movements swept to landslide victories in the first and subsequent democratic elections.

Because of the fertile grounds for democracy, these countries have seen the emergence of new political parties all competing for the same electorate.

There have been defections from all political parties, but in most cases the formerly popular liberation movements have been the beneficiaries of these defections.

In South Africa, the ANC has always been the dominant political party, even though it has seen many breakaway groups split from it.

For example, Bantu Holomisa left to form the UDM, Mosioua Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa broke away to form Cope, Julius Malema left to form the EFF. Under normal circumstances, this huge exodus of party membership is supposed to cripple and even destroy political parties, but the reverse is true.

When a new political party is born, it does not only “steal” from the majority party, but it attracts some disillusioned members from the other small parties as well.

This, I admit, does reduce the membership of the majority party, but not to the extent of completely decimating it.

This continued dominance by one political party leads to complacency by party leadership because they realise that the electorate will continue to vote for them for no other reason than loyalty.

The leadership of these dominant political parties continue to show disdain for the electorate because there is no credible alternative or second dominant party. For example, Nomvula Mokonyane in Gauteng could afford to say voters could keep their dirty votes; Helen Zille in the Western Cape called Africans “immigrants” and recently heaped praise on colonialism because they knew that their political parties had huge majorities.

I believe that a two-party democracy would make the government more accountable to the voters because in a two-party democracy there is always a chance that if a party does not perform, the voters will vote for the opposition. Mfezeko Bunu Khayelitsha