Another set of vital polls

SOUTH Africa hasn’t finished talking about the municipal elections yet, and it’s unlikely that this conversation is going to end any time soon, such was the explosive impact of the results on our political consciousness.

But we are likely to feel less affected by the polls and results in another series of South African elections this week, although that would be a mistake. Student representative councils around the country are again up for grabs, and the fight predominantly for the votes of especially black future opinion-shapers, intellectuals and professionals is very much on.

There was no way to properly discriminate between university students and other youth during the municipal elections. We forecast and reviewed young people’s voting patterns mostly through their registration. But the SRC elections are entirely different. First of all, they are honed to that particular demographic. Secondly, the voting is almost entirely different to that of the local government ballot.

Students could vote by SMS, online or at a kiosk at regional centres, and so the peculiar pressure attached to a formal voting station was entirely eliminated. It also means votes could be openly discussed among groups of students who could witness each other voting, if so desired. The secretballot idea was cast off.

So, as we examine the results, which will come in separately for each campus – Wits and Unisa will be released this week, for example, while North West University’s Mafikeng campus is only set to vote on Thursday and Friday – that background might provide a different sense of democracy.

At the same time, the DA, which increased its support around the country in these municipal elections, and the EFF, which showed its muscle in its first contestation at local level, will surely be seeing the SRC elections as a test of this generation’s taste for their politics.

The ANC is no longer assured of winning the majority of campuses, and so it too will have to read the results carefully. The landscape is shifting, and the students’ choices really matter.