OPINION: 2021 LGE showed most effective protest by fed-up South Africans

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With the 2021 Local Government Elections [LGE] now over, there is no doubt that South African voters protested in an altogether different way; by either staying away from the voting booth or by voting for smaller parties at the expense of more-established players such as the African National Congress [ANC] and Democratic Alliance [DA].

Due to the ongoing covid pandemic, South Africa’s Electoral Commission [IEC] was forced to truncate the official timetable, effectively reducing the number of days to organise the election from 82 days to 42 days.

Political parties, too, such as the Economic Freedom Fighters [EFF] and DA were arguably concerned that these elections would not be free and fair due to the restricted campaigning during a pandemic. Parties like the ANC, whose hallmark of door-to-door campaigning, walkabouts and mass rallies, is said to also have suffered from the limited voter contact.

For the political pundits, the 2021 LGE was not only about reporting the events leading to the elections and actual election results; it was about actual grassroots service delivery and the grievances of a fed-up electorate. For example, the communities of the Maluti A Phofung municipality who have gone for years without running water either in their communal taps or homes used these polls to make their unhappiness heard. The Standerton communities in the Lekwa Local Municipality who witnessed the deterioration of their town’s roads and sewage systems which resulted in council being dissolved and the municipality put under administration used their voting right by giving the opposition parties power instead of dwelling in the same ruling party that’s been giving timeless electric cuts.

Another example is the community of Emfuleni in the Vaal, Gauteng who experience daily electricity cuts from Eskom because their municipal council owes the power utility more than R3.5 billion. Moreover, water pressure to their taps has been steadily reduced by 20% because Rand Water is owed more than R1.3 billion by the defaulting council. In Emfuleni particularly, residents registered their grievances by causing an upset to the ruling party, the ANC by forcing it under 50% on Election Day. This was replicated in 69 other municipalities across the country where there were no outright winners – rightly known as ‘hung councils’.

 

HUNG COUNCILS
PROVINCE 2016 LGE 2021 LGE 2016 – 2021
EC 1 3 66.6%
FS 1 4 75%
GP 4 8 50%
KZN 7 21 66.66%
LIM 2 2 100%
MPU 0 3 300%
NC 3 10 70%
NW 1 3 66.6%
WC 8 16 50%
TOTALS 27 70

The 2021 LGE results represent a true reflection of the past five years of failed municipal administration as communities have had enough of failed promises. The ‘gatvol’ factor this time around manifested in probably the most effective service delivery protest when more than half of the country’s 26.2-million registered voters stayed away from the voting booth. As a result, the ANC was pushed below the psychological 50% threshold for the first time since 1994. The DA, too, was dragged down from 26% vote-shared in 2016 to just above 21% in these elections. This protest will not only send a strong message to the ANC and the DA.

If you want evidence of the extent of municipal rot, you need only drill down to the Auditor-General’s reports from a few years back. AG reports in the last four years paint a bleak picture of multiple transgressions and wastage running into billions. Some municipal officials like the mayor of Vhembe District even had the audacity to heap blame on the pandemic for service delivery failures in his council.

Therefore, the November 1, 2021 vote must be taken seriously and be celebrated as one of the watershed moments in our still-developing democracy.

 

VOTER TURNOUT
YEAR 2000 2006 2011 2016 2021
NATIONAL 47.33% 48.40% 57.6% 57.94% 45.87%

 

With national voter turnout dipping from 58% in 2016 to just above 45% five years later should send a clear and very loud message to the political elite; that the days of complacency are over.

 Maswele Ralebona is a Specialist Researcher at SABC News Research

 

 

2 years ago