Watershed polls the fresh air politics gasp for

It is going to take many more weeks, or months, to digest what happened in the metro council elections this week.

But what is certain is that this week will go down as one of the most momentous ones in South African politics since the 1994 election.

Lest that sound like hyperbole, consider the humorous Tweet by writer and commentator Barney Mthombothi on Monday night: “Apparently Jesus was seen in Ekurhuleni earlier today, and he’s on his way to Durban via Joburg and Pretoria…”

This was a reference to Jacob Zuma’s famous words from a few years ago that the ANC would “rule until Jesus returns”. Given the unprecedented reversals the ANC suffered in the council elections, then that time may well be at hand…

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The ANC lost critical metros – like Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg – when the smaller opposition parties, led by the EFF and ActionSA, galvanised the resistance by deliberately voting for DA candidates in all key positions … shutting the door on the ANC.

Nobody saw it coming – not least of all, the DA itself, which had campaigned in the local government elections of keeping the EFF out and had made known its distaste for ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, who has still, apparently, not been forgiven for leaving the DA ship in 2019.

Now, of course, there are members of the DA crowing that the elections of its office bearers are a victory for democracy, as if the party had any say over the outcome at all.

The political geniuses (whether you love them or loathe them) in this seismic moment in South African politics are the EFF and ActionSA.

The EFF has, effectively, gained itself an influential toehold in coalition governments in those metros. This may well be part of a long game by the party and its true motives may only be revealed over time.

However, there is also the possibility that the EFF has matured and realised its populist politics won’t necessarily equip it to be a governing force any time in the future.

ActionSA, in getting its councillors to vote for the DA – despite the DA’s spiteful campaign against it – has adroitly captured the political and psychological high ground.

Mashaba capitalised on that by saying his party put South Africa ahead of petty party politics and that keeping the ANC away from local government is in the best interests of the country.

The ANC has lost even more ground than it did in the 2016 local government elections and must surely be worried that the opposition – and voters – can, for the first time, “smell blood in the water” as one commentator put it.

And therein lies the importance of what happened this week. This could well be a dry run for the 2024 national elections.

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The opposition parties need to prove to the electorate, between now and then, that not only can the ANC be
taken down by unity of purpose from its opponents, but also that the opposition can form a viable alternative.

Undoubtedly, there will be crisis upon crisis which will threaten to tear apart these fragile alliances – and
no doubt the ANC will do its utmost to sabotage them at every turn.

However, more and more South Africans want effective governance – whether at local or national level – ahead of the dirty and tedious political game all of our parties have been playing for years.

Perhaps this is the breath of fresh air our gasping body politic so desperately needs.