There are nearly seven weeks before the crunch day of the general elections on May 29, which will encapsulate the national and provincial elections, with the governing party pitted against political parties that are throwing every missile to ensure its demise and removal from political power it has enjoyed for the past 30 years.
Some pollsters suggest electoral support for the governing ANC might fall below 50%, ending the grace the party has enjoyed since 1994 when it swept the boards to form the government with a huge majority of slightly more than 62%.
Some say the ANC might still win the elections, however, the possibility of a coalition government or a hung parliament looms, which is to say no political party will have sufficient parliamentary seats to secure a majority.
But 1994 and 2024 differ in many ways. The euphoria of victory over oppression and denial of human rights by the apartheid regime was palpable then, exacerbated four years earlier by the release from prisons of political leaders such as Nelson Mandela and the return of exiles back home after many years in the wilderness and the desire by the restive populace for a just and democratic dispensation to replace the minority rule of the Afrikaner led National Party.
The Nats had been in power for 46 years after they were elected in 1948 on a ticket of separate development and white minority rule, which excluded and denied black people universal suffrage.
Today the ANC is no longer an aura-laden leader of society, a prestige it carried during the liberation struggle. The power and aura of Mandela, Oliver Tambo or Chris Hani has dissipated.
By comparison, what the organisation has become is nothing compared to what it was in the 1990s. Its credibility has waned and with it the veneer of invincibility. Yet we can say the same of opposition parties and their leaders in general terms. The dearth of political superiority with marked presence and aura and substance has overwhelmed the political space, with the cult leadership of populism dominating the political space.
What exactly will happen after the announcement of the results after the May 29 polls is hard to tell. It is difficult to rely on gut feeling, but we know or ought to know, what the general population thinks about the present dispensation.
There has been an outcry about the failures of the government and this attribute includes all tiers of government from the national to the provincial and local spheres of governance, relating mainly to poor service delivery, corruption and looting of state resources.
The Zondo commission, along with other entities of similar authority such as the Nugent commission of inquiry, pointed to malfeasance and corruption perpetrated during the Jacob Zuma presidency and beyond. President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government were probed about issues of poor governance in government and his organisation, the ANC.
The VBS bank scandal implicated leaders of the EFF in alleged wrongdoing; deeds they vehemently deny.
But there is also a sense that the DA has adopted an anti-Palestine posture, seemingly standing on the side of Israel, failing to support the cause perpetuated by the government to have the Jewish state stopped in its tracks in the continued bombardment of the occupied Gaza Strip that has caused immeasurable suffering to the Palestinian people.
But it remains to be seen whether these issues will play any part in what the electorate decides on May 29.
It was the former president of the old Czechoslovakia Tomas Masaryk who asked this important question to his people: “What is happiness?” Answering his own question, he said: “It is having the right to go out onto the main square and to shout at the top of your voice, ‘Lord what a bad government we have’.”
The government people must elect to run their affairs must be a government that is people-centred, caring for the well-being of society. The needs of the people must be central, and so the citizens must be actively involved to direct the path their government must take.
This is only logical: it is the people that must, and this is imperative, give the mandate how they want to be governed, using and enforcing through their voice, what the best human practices possible to run the country are. Then they must ensure through daily action and monitoring that the government of the day does not divert from that path.
The past 30 years of governance has had moments of success but the overall picture of a lived experience is of great disappointment.
Most South Africans will have nowhere to go if their country were to become a failed state. The incoming government, whatever its ilk, must keep that in mind.
Happiness will be, as Masaryk reminds us, that when things go awry on the part of governance, we must all be able to scream, “Lord, what a bad government we have”.
- Mdhlela is acting news editor, an Anglican priest and former editor of the South African Human Rights Commission journals
