Voters eye the independent option
THERE’S been much speculation that in next month’s local elections, independent candidates might break open the two-party logjam of South African politics.
Some are putting their money where their mouth is.
The former great black hope of opposition politics, Mmusi Maimane, has staked what’s left of his political reputation on it.
His One South Africa Movement is backing 300 independent candidates in 12 municipalities on November 1.
At the launch of five of its mayoral candidates this week, Maimane said that these elections were about “uncapturing” local government from the “shackles of political parties”.
OSA sees itself as a future kingmaker. The stated aim is not only to eat into the support of the political parties but to win over the millions of citizens who had given up on voting.
And the movement has it on the button. This election is not so much about parties winning converts as it is about overcoming the disillusionment and apathy of their former supporters.
After all, we have a governing party, the ANC, that is despised even by the shrinking number of people who glumly but loyally turn out to vote for it. We have an official opposition, the DA, that despite its good governance record in the areas it controls induces an involuntary shudder of revulsion among the African voters essential to its growth.
That leaves disenchanted voters with few options. Aside from the KwaZulu-Natal-based ethnically mobilised IFP, only the race-baiting fascists of the EFF managed a meaningful performance in the 2016 municipal election.
Then there are the new kids on the block. There’s the Freedom Front Plus (which drew just under 2.5% of the vote) and the African Christian Democratic Party (less than 1%).
Add in some similarly uninspiring rats and mice: Good (whose leader serves in an ANC Cabinet) and the Congress of the People (which has been shrinking unabatedly ever since its launch).
There are also two wild cards: Action SA and the Cape Independence Party.
The dismal pickings on this electoral smorgasbord make perfectly understandable the sudden enthusiasm for independents.
But there are several arguments against the trend.
First, in South Africa, very few independents get elected, except on the rare occasion when they are en bloc defection of existing councillors. There are considerable advantages to being part of established political organisations in terms of mobilising money and volunteers.
Second, this makes the few independents who are elected vulnerable.
They struggle to make any meaningful contribution in the face of the monolithic voting mandates of the councillors representing parties.
When and if they are kingmakers, it’s to secure a brief interlude in the sun. They are soon ingested by one or another of the parties.
Third, whatever their many faults, political parties play an oversight role that is entirely absent among independent councillors.
There are no sanctions, no threat of expulsion, no spectre of ostracisation by former colleagues.
Maimane tried to address this troubling reality with the slate of candidates he’s backing. If they behave badly or perform poorly, he warned this week, there would be consequences.
“Let me warn you,” he said, “today, we sign a pledge that the people shall live, and the people shall govern ... If you fail those people, we will be the first ones to come and work with the people to remove you.”
This “or else” warning is meaningless. They cannot be suspended or expelled from the OSA because they don’t belong to it. It’s chaos in the making.
Wither the disenchanted voter? The reality is that there are no perfect political parties.
While it’s satisfying to proclaim on social media one’s unalloyed moral virtue by rejecting all the parties as being fatally flawed, in most cases, to vote for independent candidates – even if they have the Pastor Maimane stamp of approval – is a waste of time.