Mondli Makhanya | The day democracy was stabbed in the belly
This was and will always be THE story of this year’s local government elections. The date November 1 2021 will for long be remembered as the day the people stayed away, the day citizens effectively revolted against the democratic process and made their distrust of the political system known.
For suburbanites two to four hours of Eskom load-shedding is a mini-catastrophe. In the townships however, random blackouts that have nothing to do with generation breakdowns at Kusile, Hendrina or any of the power stations last for days, weeks and even months. Some communities have not had power for years. In many areas where power supply is “stable”, residents have resigned themselves to the fact that it will be intermittent.
They have now taken it a step further and said they do not recognise the process that puts the authorities in office. Nonetheless the DA forged on with trying to project an image of being the custodian of South Africa’s non-racial future. The early fruits of this project were there for all to see in the 2016 local government elections when the party made decent inroads into the ANC’s traditional support base. But then the reality of this future started to scare the party’s mandarins.
The country’s third biggest party has become a carnival of lies, recklessness and buffoonery. The EFF started off as a militant organisation that was going to shake up the political space. The party may still be able to pull off gigantic marches and draw big crowds to rallies but the ballot box is not reflective of the spectacular shows of mass power. Having moved into the double digits, the EFF’s support is stuck at just north of 10%.
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