Elections 2024: Being democratically empowered

Author and journalist John Matisonn presented a conversation around the 2024 elections during his Summer School lecture at the University of Cape Town (UCT) on Thursday, 23 January. He used the opportunity to advance a topic which has been close to his heart: how to get rapid growth in the country.

In his lecture, titled, “Elections 2024: Why the DA, Mmusi Maimane, Songezo Zibi and Zachie Achmat failed”, Matisonn proffered that constitutionalist parties got the lion’s share of positive media coverage for more than a year leading up to the election and received generous donations for their campaigns. “They were the ‘new generation’ of post-apartheid, post-Mandela, post-Codesa South African leaders. Yet, when the results were in, the DA gained only 1%, which they got back from the Freedom Front Plus; Zibi’s Rise Mzansi and Maimane’s BOSA got two seats each, and Zackie Achmat failed to win a seat,” he said.

“These elections were a historic chance. The new parties that entered the fray haven’t broken through. The ANC is crumbling, and its leadership is collapsing. This was a missed opportunity. The reason we’re in a coalition government has nothing to do with the DA; what it had to do with was the MK Party. Their result pulled the ANC way below their majority.”

Service delivery

Matisonn continued: “Having spoken to most party leaders, I realised the ANC and DA ran a campaign as a base election. In other words, for both parties it was about saving their base rather than expanding it and trying to get new voters. What you see with parties like Rise Mzansi and BOSA is that their leaders said they have a vision … and that vision, which didn’t catch light, consisted of stopping corruption and free-market privatisation. Those arguments do not speak to someone’s kitchen table issues.”

According to Matisonn, the holy grail of elections and campaigning rests on people expecting their lives to be better, and this is achieved through creating jobs, increased ability to fight crime, a better education system, increased visibility of representatives, and better race relations. “People have nowhere to go to when they have a problem. The simple truth is no one feels democratically empowered and that’s a problem – this is best seen through service delivery protests.”

A deliberate growth charge is needed to create a better life, Matisonn explained. There are four key areas he identified. “When it comes to mining, you need a cadastral system and something needs to be done about the mining charter,” he began. “The next is the green economy, which is not just energy, but includes it. You need to show that the ANC has destroyed our photovoltaic factories. Ten years ago we had factories that start to make various components of solar screens … and they were forced to close because the ANC government made it impossible for their businesses to grow.”

Building a patriotic base is another key consideration: the notion of ‘Buy South African’. “This slogan is in a vacuum and not meaningful and South Africans can see its insincere. Officials buy imported

cars on the taxpayers’ dime. And while it’s not a huge job creator, it’s important in building a patriotic, loyal South Africa. I remember Nelson Mandela was given a brand-new car. It was a red S-Class Mercedes Benz made in the factory in East London. It was a meaningful thing to do, and we must return to that. If you’re on the taxpayers’ dime, buy a taxpayer produced car.”

Lastly, there is the information economy: “Experts have, even before 4IR [Fourth Industrial Revolution] been telling the government that the job creation potential out of the information economy is enormous. The research is there to support this,” he said.

Why then have all these considerations not been at the heart of creating rapid growth? “All these require political will, not money,” Matisonn concluded.