As the date of South Africa’s general election grows closer, the gloves are coming off in campaigning amongst political parties — even though the outcome of the poll is expected to hold few surprises.
On April 14, the country will vote to elect a new president and government. This will be the third democratic election held in South Africa — and one that has gained special significance from the fact that it coincides with the demise of apartheid a decade ago.
Political commentator Chris Landsberg of the Johannesburg-based Centre for Policy Studies says he is worried by the level of hostility in the campaign.
”I’m struck by how some political parties are obsessed by tension, fear and attacks during the campaign,” he told a workshop in Johannesburg last week.
Landsberg said most opposition parties were deeply fearful of the power wielded by the ruling African National Congress (ANC): ”They believe that the ANC has got a lot of power and therefore must be stopped by forming alliances.”
Most opinion polls have the ANC winning the April elections, repeating its victories in 1994 and 1999. While the party’s most loyal followers are said to be blacks who live in poor rural areas, it also draws support from the urban black population.
These people, says Landsberg, are not preoccupied with whether the ANC has delivered on its previous election promises: they’re voting with their hearts.
”They are going to vote for the ANC because of its identity: it is because the ANC brought them freedom. The ANC is the party that fought apartheid. It is the party that took on racism and injustices,” he says.
Some of the opposition’s wariness about ANC power stems from fears that the ruling party would use a two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend South Africa’s constitution — fears that the ruling party has repeatedly dismissed.
However, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) remains concerned that the constitution could be altered to allow the president to serve three terms in office rather than two.
Although it is running under the relatively benign slogan of ”South Africa Deserves Better”, the DA has also taken aim at what it describes as the ANC’s dubious stance on human rights.
In a speech prepared for National Human Rights Day on March 22, DA leader Tony Leon accused President Thabo Mbeki of adopting a ”flexible” position on human rights that allowed the ANC to ignore abuses on the part of certain leaders.
These included Zimbabwean head of state Robert Mugabe, whose land reform programme and controversial reelection in 2002 have divided South Africans.
President Thabo Mbeki has doggedly pursued a policy of ”quite diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe, arguing that this is the best way to help end the political and economic crisis in the country. But, opposition groups say Harare has interpreted the policy as a licence to continue with human rights abuses.
Leon also included former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Cuba’s Fidel Castro on his list of dictators. Mbeki has described the DA and various other opposition parties as ”silly”.
Although the DA’s largest support base is amongst whites, it is also trying to make inroads in the Indian and so-called ”coloured” constituencies.
”I think he (Tony Leon) has pursued the most interesting campaign. I think there’s somebody in the DA who is advising Leon that South Africa is moving into a two-party state. And the DA believes that it will be that party,” Landsberg said.
Even off-the-cuff remarks can return to haunt politicians.
This week, political parties and women’s groups criticised Mbeki for making jokes about the leader of the African Christian Democratic Party, Kenneth Meshoe, over the past weekend.
Although it was probably intended as a light-hearted jibe, Mbeki’s remark that he would ”beat his sister” if she came home and told him that he had fallen in love with Meshoe has caused a number of people to fume.
They say the remark shows that Mbeki does not take women’s rights seriously, and that he should apologise for the comment.
”You cannot talk about beating your sister in a country where domestic violence is on the rise. Such statements only encourage wife battering,” said E.K. Thoko, a researcher at the University of Pretoria.
In an effort at damage-control, the ANC is claiming that Mbeki did not mention any political leader by name at the rally where the comment was supposedly made. The event took place in Rustenburg, a town on the border with Botswana.
About 142 political parties have registered in South Africa. ”But, only 37 will contest the 2004 elections,” says Khabele Matlosa of the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA). Less than a third will field candidates at both national and provincial level.
Landsberg believes that most of the parties will disappear after the April ballot, while others will be absorbed into the major political groupings.
Of the various parties, one that is being observed with particular interest by South Africans is the year-old Independent Democrats, headed by the outspoken Patricia de Lille. The party leader gained a reputation as a whistle blower when she alleged fraud in a multi-billion-dollar arms deal set up by government.
She is also a tireless HIV/Aids campaigner — an important credential at a time when the ANC continues to come under fire for its tardiness in providing anti-retroviral drugs to people who are living with Aids in South Africa.
Government estimates that about five-million South Africans have contracted HIV — this out of a population of more than 40-million.
”All-in-all, the 1994 and 1999 elections were about reconciliation and allaying the fears of minorities. In the 2004 elections we are going to see the ANC asserting itself as a party with a definite programme that it will pursue aggressively,” Matlosa says.
The ruling party’s platform includes promises to alleviate poverty, create jobs and speed up black economic empowerment. As a result of years of official segregation that saw blacks being denied educational and economic opportunities, the vast majority of them live in poverty.
Still, the notion of a bare-knuckle campaign fails to appeal to all of South Africa’s 20,7-million registered voters.
”It will be a good idea if the politicians concentrate on issues and avoid mudslinging,” says Thoko. – IPS