Low turnout a vote of no confidence

In the 1999 provincial elections, more than 16 million people out of more than 18 million registered voters streamed to polling booths to make their mark for their local government representatives.

This year, seven out of 10 people didn’t make it to the polls. Of just under 40 million eligible voters, only a little over 12 million pitched up, and of them more than 230 000 people spoilt their votes.

In 1999, a little more than 220 000 people spoilt their votes.

Nearly 20 million people voted in what has become Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s “Rainbow Nation” election.

And it’s not looking good for national elections in 2022, said political analyst Daniel Silke.

“In some ways we’ve matured, and in some ways we’ve entered a competitive democracy for the first time in keeping the ANC under 50%, and making the next election even more uncertain.

“Part of that competitive democracy is as a result of the very low voter turnout which has distorted some of the results.”

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Silke said there was great concern SA had not become a more inclusive democracy as participation had gone backwards and it was critical for a country with a democracy as young as South Africa that if an electorate was being alienated enough not to vote, it sowed the seeds of possible future protest action.

“I always say the ballot box is the way to prevent your frustration and if you don’t, you become more susceptible to external pressures,” said Silke.

A sign of “external pressure” would be the July riots, which caused about R20 billion damage by some estimates, and left more than 200 dead following the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma on a contempt charge.

And while 2020 may have seen a small reprieve from the overwhelming number of service delivery protests, it was only due to lockdown regulations.

And the corruption began early in the Rainbow Nation, kicking off with Sarafina 2 in 1996, the 1999 arms deal, which is still ongoing, thanks to Zuma refusing to speak at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, in court, or anywhere else despite promising to on multiple occasions.

Eskom, Guptagate, the SA Revenue Service’s (Sars) “rogue unit” which came frighteningly close to collapsing Sars, VBS Mutual Bank, Digital Vibes – in which Zweli Mkhize, widely hailed to pull SA out of the Covid morass was dismissed in disgrace, Marikana and “the man in the green shirt” Mgcineni Noki – with many more undoubtedly to come.

ALSO READ: Low voter turnout is a sign of a hopeless nation

“There is a danger our democracy is not living up to the expectations of millions of South Africans given this low poll and it is therefore incumbent on all political parties to up their game in terms of service delivery, credibility, honest governance, all those issues to re-invigorate the electorate,” Silke said.

“It’s a really disappointing feature of a watershed election.”

Silke said those who had opted out of the political process had made a statement.

“Our elected representatives must provide better services to the people.”

– amandaw@citizen.co.za