ANC, DA out of tune with voters

A CURSORY look at the results of by-elections held across the country on Wednesday should worry the ANC and the DA.

In a shock, the EFF managed to take away a seat from the ANC in the Mahikeng Municipality in the North West. With 54% of registered voters in ward 5, on Wednesday the EFF candidate Dedrick Mbali Phetha garnered 69% of the vote.

According to the IEC, voter turnout was only 42% of registered voters, and although by-elections aren’t known for mass voter turnout, anything under 60% should worry the ANC.

We can usually gauge enthusiasm for any political party by its ability to motivate its supporters to vote. As evidenced by Phetha’s emphatic victory, ANC voters resolved to stay home.

If ANC voters are still disinterested in 2024, Cyril Ramaphosa and his party’s leadership might be in for a shock when the ballots are tallied.

While the DA did not lose any ward seats, ActionSA’s performance should be worrying for John Steenhuisen who, judging by his Instagram account, has spent the week posing for pictures in war-torn Ukraine.

While the ANC government has been blundering on many fronts, from high unemployment, the management of SOEs and policing, to its inability to curb corruption, the DA’s response has been tone-deaf.

Instead of compromising with opposition parties, who are part of the DA’s ruling coalition in Johannesburg, some within the party are agitating for the axe to fall on mayor Mpho Phalatse.

The DA’s inability to accommodate smaller parties will only harden attitudes and lead to its demise, and while it retained a ward in Tshwane, worrying for the DA is that, like the ANC, its victory was hardly convincing.

Some might describe ActionSA’s politics as vile, particularly its attack on illegal immigrants, but the party, along with Gayton Mckenzie’s Patriotic Alliance, have touched a raw nerve and are tapping into a populist vein of anger.

While the ANC and the DA might hate to admit it, our politics have descended into a populist contest that will have lasting effects on our democracy and the nature in which citizens engage with their public representatives.