EISA Election Update: South Africa 2004

ELECTION UPDATE 2004 SOUTH AFRICA number 3 · 1 march 2004 elections and campaign. Our EDITORIAL standard menu applies: first CONTENTS The Independent Electoral we provide our readers with Editorial 1 Commission (IEC) has general information pieces National Perspectives that cover the whole country Parties not People: An Opinion announced that Friday 28 Piece 2 February 2004 is the last day then secondly the province- specific presentations follow. Public Funding of Political for submission of party lists. Parties 4 The deadline was 17h00 on More Analysis on the Manifestos 7 the same and those parties In order to further extend the Provincial Roundup that have not complied by reach of the information Gauteng 10 contained in these issues of NorthWest 15 the set time would not be KZN 17 able to contest elections. At the Election Update, we will soon begin distributing this Free State 22 the time of going to press, Western Cape 28 information in a much more only eight (8) out of about Eastern Cape 30 one hundred and thirty (130) shortened and simplified Northern Cape 33 Mpumalanga 36 registered parties had version to local communities Previous Issue Contents 40 submitted their party lists through the national network and paid their deposits as of community Radios. This required by the law. strategy will assist in ensuring that these useful EISA Editorial Team The submission of party lists debates trickle down to local Wole Olaleye, Jackie Kalley, is a further step in the communities in rural areas Khabele Matlosa, Claude Kabemba, Alka Grobler preparation for the 2004 and is not confined to the privileged elite in urban election by the IEC. And published with the assistance time is ticking as the hour for areas. We will inform our readers and research of OSF-SA and NORAD 14 April 2004 approaches and for good or for worse the associates in due course clock cannot be reversed. when we introduce the Some time next week, Community Radio parties will also sign a code component of this of conduct in advance of the fascinating project. actual electoral contest. In this third issue of the Election Update we interrogate issues around leadership, party manifestos, party funding, electoral participation, media and 1 NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES PARTIES NOT It is quite possible that the proposal for a television PEOPLE ANC’s officials are quite debate with Thabo Mbeki is AN OPINION PIECE sincere in expressing such very much in this vein. The sentiments but their point, though, about these Professor Tom Lodge argument is not altogether personal antipathies and the University of the persuasive. List system PR status they have assumed in Witwatersrand does accentuate party the present contest is this is authority, but because it as much an election about In our electoral system, makes representation so leadership and leaders as it is people vote for parties, not impersonal it tends to about programmes and for personalities. The ballot concentrate attention (and manifestos. To be sure, papers list organisations not authority) around party South African voters still candidates. Voters can find leaders. South African identify strongly with parties out who will represent then elections have rapidly (though to a lesser degree in Parliament by consulting assumed a presidential than was the case ten years the long lists that parties character, and the way in ago) but that does not mean submitted to the IEC last which parties have projected that they are uninterested in Friday but most people are their messages has helped to who will represent them and unlikely to bother. In the last ensure that their competition govern. election, richer parties has a personalised character. advertised their candidates in Portraits of Thabo Mbeki, The ANC’s reluctance to the newspapers but they are Tony Leon and even identify its preferences for under no obligation to do so. Marthinus van Schalkwyk the premierships in advance decorate almost every lamp- of the election may also Constitutionally speaking, post and the acrimonious reflect the organisation’s the ANC is quite right, when invective that these traditional hostility to federal it maintains that there is no individuals or their arrangements. The nine reason why it should inform supporters direct at each provinces were a necessary the electorate whom it will other often has little to do constitutional compromise appoint as premiers in those with the programmatic but very few ANC leaders provinces in which it obtains concerns these politicians attribute to second tier a majority. After all, in embody. Tony Leon in authorities any intrinsic theory, it is not the ANC that particular is the target of merits. A succession of chooses the premiers, it is abuse by representatives of scandals and factional the legislature - all it the two other two parties conflicts detract from any members, after it has been who deride his military prestige that initially might elected. ANC spokesmen service, his class have been associated with this week, informed background, his comparative the premierships. It is still journalists that the ANC youth and his aggressive not obvious that they would not identify candidate verbal style. Leon is represent a stepping stone to premiers because voters perfectly capable of higher office in the sense were interested in parties and returning such sallies with that US Governorships have issues, and that the election interest and they probably do become in recent decades. should be about issues and him little harm and he is just Mid term dismissals and the principles, not about the as responsible as his rivals tendency of the presidency to shortcomings or strengths of for the presidential tone of over-ride the wishes of particular individuals. the campaigning: his provincial party executives 2 election update 2004 · south africa · number 3 in premiership appointments constitutional two term limit, very powerful: they spend have also helped to weaken party organisation is quite more than half the national the status of the premiers – at deeply fractured. In the budget and employ about least from the point of view Eastern Cape there are also two thirds of the public of party activists. Running deep divisions within the service. They have campaigns around regional party’s provincial following. considerable capacity to personalities, from the make peoples’ lives better ANC’s point of view, might Another consideration that and they can quite easily accentuate a trend towards a may have influenced the frustrate through corruption “federalisation” of the party ANC’s decision not to name and inactivity the social organization, weakening its aspirant premiers may reforms that are conceived in authority at the centre. well be that in certain Cape Town and Pretoria. Though the ANC did provinces there may be good Good leadership is a decisive identify its candidate reasons to keep its options factor in their success and premiers before open. The race in KwaZulu- failure. Eccentric electioneering in 1994 and Natal may be too close to personalities can subvert 1999 they did not assume a call, and it is too early to rule good policies: the current prominent campaigning role: out the possibility of another unevenness between for example their faces were ANC/IFP coalition provinces in the preparations absent from election posters administration. Pragmatic to “roll out” anti-retroviral and other printed publicity. considerations may in the medications is a case in point end prompt the ANC to .It is only fair that people Press commentary on the concede the KZN should know who is likely to ANC’s decision not to premiership to a coalition lead the administrations announce its candidates this partner – but such a before they choose the time around has emphasised concession might be very parties that will predominate the history of conflict within difficult if the provincial within them. In the South the party organisations in organisation had assembled African system, parties and certain provinces. In this itself around a dominant their activist communities context, the decision not to local personality. In the impose a limited kind of appoint such candidates Western Cape keeping the accountability on political makes sense because the issue open until after polling leadership: with this new appointment of unpopular day might help to bolster the embargo that form of personalities might prospects and the morale of accountability is diminished discourage effort from rank the ANC’s junior coalition substantially. and file party workers: this partner, the NNP, as well as time around the ANC is minimising the possibilities This article expresses the personal views of its author and it does not committed to door to door of friction between different represent any position endorsed by the canvassing to obtain sections of the ANC’s Electoral Institute of Southern Africa. maximum turnout within its support base. core constituencies. In at least two provinces, the Free So, from the ANC’s point of State, and Mpumalanga, the view there may be a range of majority of party activists good reasons for keeping would probably favour the silent about who will lead replacement of the the provincial governments incumbent office-holder. In after the election - but it is two others, the North-West poor political practice all the and Limpopo, in which the same. Despite their premiers have served their constitutional limitations, provincial governments are 3 election update 2004 · south africa · number 3 PUBLIC While in some countries FUNDING OF such as Lesotho, public This article sketches out the funding of political parties is modalities for party funding POLITICAL restricted to a modest sum and its political significance PARTIES given to registered parties in South Africa. contesting elections and Dr Khabele Matlosa specifically earmarked for Nature and Magnitude of Electoral Institute of campaign, in others such as Public Funding Southern Africa South Africa, public funding of parties is targeted at State funding of parties in Introduction registered parties represented South Africa is governed by in Parliament for their the Public Funding of In our previous issue institutional development Represented Political Parties (Election Update No.

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