Zuma at the crossroads
Only the ANC didn’t see this result coming
The room was silent. The live broadcast officially announcing the outcome of the 2016 local government elections had begun to roll. All eyes were on President Jacob Zuma as he walked to the podium.
At that moment, the red-clad leaders of Julius Malema’s EFF stood up and began to stride out of the room, led by their general secretary, Godrich Gardee.
Simultaneously, at the front of the hall, four women clad in black stood and raised posters harking back to the victim in the rape case against Zuma (he was acquitted of the charge in 2006).
“Remember Khwezi”, read one of the handwritten signs raised by the women in full glare of cameras, barely a metre in front of the president.
If you’re going to look for a moment that encapsulated the zeitgeist of the 2016 election, in which the ANC posted its worst performance yet, this was it.
In that single moment, the near decade of Zuma’s leadership of the ANC — encapsulating the allegation of rape, the euphoria of his Polokwane victory and the quickening descent of Africa’s oldest liberation movement — came full circle and assumed a crystal-clear focus.
Minutes before, Electoral Commission of SA chairman Glen Mashinini announced the outcome of the 2016 local poll in which the ANC’s support fell by 8% to just 54%.
“The ANC will be out of power in my lifetime,” said Malema, a day before the official announcement of the result.
“In boxing, when your opponent is staggering, punch harder,” said DA leader Mmusi Maimane in an interview.
Maimane was speaking after it emerged that support for the ANC had fallen significantly below 60% — a fate that its secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, described as a “psychological and political turning point”, which will be interpreted as an indication of the “demise of the movement”.
Maimane and Malema, the young leaders benefiting most from the ANC’s dwindling electoral returns, are now at the forefront of charting a new trajectory for politics in SA.
To some extent, it showed we’re a mature democracy. The electorate has moved beyond sentiment and even Zuma hailed the election as a positive step for democracy when he addressed the nation on Saturday.