The Africa Fund 1John Street * Now York, NY 10038 * (212) 962-1210 Tilden J. LeMelle, Chairman Fax: (212) 964-8570 • E-mail: [email protected] Jennifer Davis, Executive Director From the desk of Dumisani S. Kumalo While You Were Not Watching.... A Report on Local Elections in South Africa When South Africa held its first democratic elections in April 1994, the whole world was watching and celebrating the miracle of witnessing apartheid finally coming to an end. On November 1, 1995 South Africans returned to the polls to elect local officials such as city councillors. This time hardly anyone noticed. The thousands of international observers who flooded South Africa in April 1994 stayed home. At the several polls that I visited on election day, there were no outside observers. Not even the soldiers I remembered from last time were visible. Yet this was a very important election enabling people to choose their local representatives. For the first time they were selecting the men and women who would make the most basic decisions affecting the communities and neighborhoods where they lived - the building of houses, schools, clinics, roads and so on. "We wanted to give Mandela all the people he needs to help improve our lives..." Once the final votes were counted, it was clear that the local elections had produced great changes. Suddenly villages, townships and squatter camps that never had local government representatives had their own elected leaders. Major towns and cities, many that were for decades bastions of white supremacy and wealth, elected Black mayors or representatives. Some of these new leaders still live in the squatter camps which remain home to more than seven million Black South Africans. However the election also demonstrated that two parties dominate in South Africa: the African National Congress (ANC) and the National Party (NP) between them won over 80% of the municipal seats. At the time of the election in April 1994, with 19 parties on the ballot, everyone talked about the many political parties of South Africa. After this election it is clear that the other political parties will have to work hard at convincing people to vote for them if South Africa is to preserve its multi-party system. For a young democracy such as South Africa there is a benefit to having different parties challenging each other over who can best address the cruel legacy of apartheid. Nonetheless, the change of political power at the local level was significant. The ANC now controls the majority of municipal councils. These councils will control local government and select mayors from among their members. A few examples from around the country: 0 Pretoria, the symbol of apartheid and Afrikaner power, and where once Black people were not allowed to walk on the city sidewalks, will have its first ever Black mayor; Establishedby The American Committee on Africa, 1966 Contributionsare tax-deductible * The rural town of Barberton, home of the Neo-Nazi Afrikaner right-wingers, where in March 1994 five Black people were killed on the side of the road for "trespassing." Residents saw their new town council elected with a majority of Black councillors, many living in local villages and squatter camps; * The exclusive Fourways suburbs, north of Johannesburg, where wealthy white residents living in multi-million dollar developments had once hired gun-toting white commandos to chase away Black residents from land they had occupied since 1910 to make room for a golf course. Fourways is now represented by an unemployed Black man who lives in a one-roomed shack. 0 In the Western Cape, where in April 1994 the so-called "Colored" residents had voted overwhelmingly for the apartheid Nationalist Party, President Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) won back these voters and took over the administration of every town in the province except for Cape Town, where elections were postponed. Yet before the voting began, there was as much fear and trepidation as there was hope. There had been great difficulty convincing people to vote for local governments. In fact, before the voting began, the opinion polls indicated that the glowing optimism born of the historic 1994 Mandela vote was being replaced by the reluctant recognition of the reality that it would take a long time to reverse the cruel legacy of nearly 50 years of apartheid. But when the sun rose on the warm morning of November 1, long lines of people had already formed at the polling stations. The high spirits of celebration and joy that filled the voters in April 1994 were replaced by a deadly earnestness and a realization that they had to make the right choices if democracy was to come alive in the shanties and cities across the new South Africa. Some of the challenges voters faced are common technical problems in elections everywhere. People who had registered months earlier didn't find their names on the voters rolls as promised. Some people discovered that their names were listed in different wards than where they lived. Those who actually voted found that to be no easy task. They were required to vote both for a party of their choice and for the individual they wanted to represent them. While the parties were well known, quite often the candidates were just names on the ballot paper because there was limited time set aside for campaigning and an enormous lack of funds for candidates to pay for publicity and campaigning. But despite these glitches, the election was declared a greater success than many had ever hoped. By the time it was over, some five million men and women, more than half of the eligible voters, had cast their votes. The ANC won 66.37 per cent of the vote and 4,360 seats in all the local government throughout the country. As one voter summed up her vote, "We wanted to give Mandela all the people he needs to help improve our lives..." The National Party of Deputy President F.W. de Klerk came second with 16.22 per cent of the vote, equaling 1,123 seats. The right-wing Freedom Front managed to win only 132 seats and the liberal Democratic Party came in with 48 seats. The big surprises were the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) with 24 seats and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) which managed only 10 seats. Local elections were not held in the province of KwaZulu/Natal, where Chief Buthelezi's IFP is considered to have its stronghold. Elections in KwaZulu/Natal and a few other places where elections were not held, such as Cape Town, are scheduled to take place May 1996. Johannesburg November 1995 0 The American Committee on Africa 17 John Street * New York, NY 10038 * (212) 962-1210 William H. Booth. President Wyatt Tee Walker. Vice President David Scott. Vice President Jennifer Davis. Executive Director '4, Wednesday November 8 1995 SOWETAN l and, jobs, scoos&proper houses and dets attackeA clinics. fireaffns. We r Dainfem resdents. who live in evictus and iluxurious developments only metres land. away from the dusty Zevenfontein I told the camp, are unsure how well Say- hold on a litti Supporting African freedom and independence since 1953 • Established The Africa Fund, 1966 S 17 John Street e New York, NY 10038 e (212) 962-1210 ,1 Local elections Nov 1, 1995 Province ANC NP FF DP PAC IFP CP Rate Other (votes cast) % % % % % % % % % Eastern Cape 83 5,6 0,2 1,2 1,3 0,0 0,2 3,3 1,1 (160000) Western Cape 37 45,0 2,8 2,8 0,8 0,0 0,1 4,5 2,6 (320 000) Gauteng 53 22,0 7,9 5,4 1,2 1,4 0,8 1,5 3,6 (500 000) Mpumalanga 68 15,0 4,9 0,5 1,2 0,9 0,8 3,0 1,9 (207 000) Northern Cape 50 30,0 3,9 0,0 0,5 0,0 0,7 2,5 11,0 (37300) North/West 66 8,2 4,1 0,2 1,1 0,1 2,4 4,0 8,6 (218 000) Northern Province 88 4,3 1,7 0,3 2,2 0,0 0,7 0,5 1,6 (594 000) OFS 65 14,0 3,6 0,5 1,7 0,1 2,0 5,2 5,5 (365000) Total 66 17,0 3,8 1,8 1,5 0,4 1,0 2,7 3,6 (2 400000) Results as at 6 Nov • Excludes KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Town metropolitan SOURCE:ELECTION TASK GROUP FINANCIAL MAIL - NOVEMBER.10.1995 • 47 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday Times (Johannesburg), November 5, 1995 Right-wingers dream of a volkstaat lies in tatters By RAY HARTLEY The NP's Roelf Meyer was more direct, CP leader Ferdi Hartzenberg said: 'It is saying: 'The Volkstaat idea has been THE myth of a white homeland was shat a blow for the party and it is a blow for killed." tered this week when the Conservative self-determination." Front suffered ,, While the ANC won many traditional Party and the Freedom Freedom Front leader Constand Viljoen right-wing towns, like Lydenburg, Rusten electoral humiliation in every major town said they claim as part of a Volkstaat. he would send his sprinkling of coun burg and Ventersdorp because of the in The only right-wing victory in the local cillors on a course to teach them "how to clusion of black voters in local elections government elections came in the semi deal as Afrikaners with a situation where for the first time, it was the NP that you are totally overpowered".