Frustration and petty arguments were the winners of the day, at summit meant to strengthen democratic practices among the youth.
On the morning of Saturday May 10 2024, a youth summit was hosted by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF) in the New Commerce Building at Wits University.
On the cusp of the 2024 elections, this summit aimed to host constructive political discussions between political party representatives about topics relevant to the more than fifty young attendees. However, said discourse quickly devolved into chaos as tempers flared.
The discussion devolved into a frenzy once Economic Freedom Front (EFF) representative, Nyakallo Mokoena derailed proceedings, by arguing that Anele Mda, an independent candidate, should not be given a platform, because she was late to the summit and “did not respect their time”.
This resulted in rage-filled arguments between Mda and the Mokoena, with representatives from the Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress drawn into the fray.
The summit was only able to continue after groups of the audience began to sing in unison, crossing political boundaries in pursuit of a singular goal – to calm the intense situation and get the summit back on track.
The representatives attending the summit, from right to left: Mark Surgeon (Freedom Front Plus), Nyakallo Mokoena (Economic Freedom Fighters), Henry Masuku (BOSA), Nicholas Nyati (Democratic Alliance), and Phathutshedzo Nthulane (ANC). Independent candidate Anele Mda is absent from the photo due to arriving late. Photo: Tristan Monzeglio
A question-and-answer session followed these discussions, where grade 11 student, Precious Hadebe, stated that the audience was “not here for [the representatives] to throw shots at each other”. She specifically criticised the EFF for providing “no solutions” and for continuing to “attack other parties”.
Mokoena, again interrupted the summit, arguing that Mda’s tardiness was representative of how the country is running out of time to make necessary changes.
This resulted in another extended chaotic interruption, which resulted in the Build One South Africa (BOSA) representative walking out on the summit during the lunch break.
After walking out, BOSA’s Henry Masuku, told Wits Vuvuzela that although he “appreciate[s]” the opportunity to have these sorts of discussions, he is concerned about the political leaders who “deflect questions” and “don’t have a real plan of action”.
According to a media release from the AKF, this summit aimed to help “develop young leaders” who are politically “active” and “conscious” and understand their role in “strengthening democracy in South Africa”.
Despite the disarray, the AKF did achieve its goal and informed the youth about their pivotal role in South African democracy, but not in the way it intended.
The audience’s ability to quell the chaotic bickering that ensued by standing united in song is indicative of how these issues could be solved by the youth in the future: collaboratively and with a singular goal of helping one another in the face of adversity.
FEATURED IMAGE: EFF member holds face of women in the foreground, as audience floods the stage at chaotic Ahmed Kathrada Foundation youth summit. Photo: Tristan Monzeglio
A national dialogue on stabilising coalitions in our democracy was held to find common ground; but was overwhelmingly met with disagreements, walkouts, and boycotts.
Picture this – it is 2026 and South Africa is on its tenth democratic president. Public confidence in the government is at an all-time low shown by well over half of eligible voters not turning out to vote.
Power and water cuts are frequent, wastewater treatment plants are spilling raw sewage into rivers and unemployment, inequality and poverty levels remain on an upward trajectory. Yet, no administration has enough power to implement policy or provide service delivery because another motion of no confidence is around the corner, threatening their tenuous positions in key national departments.
This hypothetical becomes a reality if coalitions at a provincial and national level operate similarly to coalitions in the country’s wealthiest city, Johannesburg.
Since the 2021 local government elections, Johannesburg has seen a revolving door of executives – five administrations in two years. Three of the five have seen partnerships with the African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and other ideologically aligned parties. The other two seeing coalitions with the likes of the Democratic Alliance (DA), ActionSA, the Inkhata Freedom Party (IFP) and other largely anti-ANC and EFF parties.
This is why a dialogue on developing a framework for stabilising coalitions was hosted by Deputy President Paul Mashatile for political parties on August 4 to 5. However, it caused more friction than consensus – with an expert suggesting that a national referendum is needed for people to democratically decide how coalitions function before next year’s election.
Referendums are nothing new to our country in formulating a working democracy, as evidenced by the one in 1992, when (only) white voters indicated whether they supported the negotiations with newly unbanned political organisations, leading to the proposed end of the apartheid system.
In his analysis of the event hosted at the University of the Western Cape, a senior lecturer of political science and governance at Wits University, Dr. Kagiso Pooe, said that the dialogue did not provide a solid framework for stable coalition governments because “power politics was the main game.”
Quelling the chaos
In May 2023, a conceptual document was created by the Institute of Elections Management Services South Africa (IEMSA). The document identified the dysfunctionality of local government because of coalitions and provided suggestions to stabilise these marriages of convenience to best serve residents rather than party interests.
Instability at the local government level has “resulted in diminishing public confidence, poorer service delivery and allegedly millions of rands squandered.” as said by the author of the document Nkululeko Tselane.
However, coalitions are here to stay. The 2016 and 2021 election results in major municipalities showed no political party emerging with an outright majority. Something the ruling party is alive to, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula admitted: “We are fully confident that 2024 will result in not us or anyone having the outright majority to govern.”
The DA, ActionSA, IFP, Vryheidsfront Plus (VF+) and three other ideologically aligned parties have already signed a pre-election coalition pact with one another, in anticipation of this reality.
Infographic: These are the 2021 municipal results in metropoles of Gauteng, with no outright winner, each municipality was forced into unstable ‘marriages of convenience’ to achieve a 50% + 1 to form a government. Graphic: Seth Thorne
Blame game ensues
Although the consensus from parties was that they believed that the issues of coalitions stemmed from their formation, those hoping for an agreement on the way forward were left bitterly disappointed. This is because political party leaders sought to shift the blame of instability from themselves, rather than meet each other in the middle.
As has been the case at the municipal level, larger parties blamed smaller parties for the instability, and smaller parties pointed the finger right back.
The “[root of the issue is] not about the formation of coalitions, but the reality that politics in South Africa is failing and cooperation is going to be needed,” argued Pooe.
Thresholds and boycotts
The EFF boycotted the initial dialogue citing the “ANC’s involvement in the formulation of the framework… [is an] attempt to protect their fading grasp on power.”
The two current largest parties, the ANC and the DA, are suggesting implementing legislation which would ensure that the party that receives the most votes within a bloc governs the coalition. They also argue that should be a minimum threshold for parties to join any coalition (1%).
Pooe said this is an example of power politics on full display, and “gives insight into the fractured nature of power politics in South Africa, the ANC and DA in one corner and other smaller ones [in the other].”
Parties such as the VF+, Good, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) are strongly opposed to these legislative suggestions. Dr Pieter Groenewald of the VF+ said that these suggestions were “not based on true representative democracy.”
Pooe expected opposition given much of the country’s link to kingmaker politics at the local government level – which is a system where smaller parties generally decide the fate of larger parties. “[The opposition to the threshold] only makes sense [because] parties like them and others would want to negotiate what the new rules of the game might look like.”
It is important to note that these suggestions could inhibit the growth of other parties and arguably prove hypocritical from some of the contributors. “It’s rather odd that had… this proposed action occurred in 1994, there would be no DA today,” said Pooe.
The horse has bolted
Backlash arose when Cooperative Governance minister Parks Tau revealed that a bill on coalition governments was already in the process of being developed and is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Pooe believes that this lies at the heart of the problem.
Some parties are accusing the ANC and DA of sidelining contributions from smaller parties and using these dialogues as a coverup of a preexisting deal between the two largest parties in the country.
However, both parties refute this. Mashatile criticised the accusations from opposition parties arguing that “inputs saying that the ANC and DA have a grand deal… there is no deal.” Meanwhile, DA leader John Steenhuisen responded on social media saying “[The DA] want to build an opposition majority that will unseat the ANC, not keep (them) in power.”
In an open letter to Mashatile, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa slammed both the bill and dialogue: “… it is safe to assume that the Bill has, firstly, already taken into account the ANC’s basic ideas and secondly, it does not take into account the majority of opposition parties’ views on most issues, for example on the issue of thresholds.”
A way forward
Pooe believes a referendum is the only way forward. “We have had a multiparty approach, and to change the game so drastically needs a referendum. This referendum should speak to things like thresholds,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the ANC in government has a history of feigning public participation and then simply ramming through policy positions… and given the ANC and DA seem to have a spotted a chance to resolve their failures to map actual coalition talks, it only makes sense for them to create new barriers to entry,” Pooe added.
Coalitions are seemingly here to stay and legislation would shift how our democracy currently operates. With no real consensus amongst parties as to the way forward, maybe it is best for us, the everyday citizen that feel the negative effects of bad coalition deals, to be as decisive as possible at the polls come 2024 to decide how our democracy should operate and function going forward.
Summary of the views of each of the parties represented. Graphic: Seth Thorne
FEATURED: IEC officials alongside political party representatives counting the secret ballot votes at the Joburg City Council on May 5, 2023, electing its 5th mayor in two years. Photo: Seth Thorne
A group of South African opposition parties have signed a coalition pact ahead of next year’s elections and promised the electorate an “alternative government”.
Seven political parties signed an agreement ahead of the 2024 national election, they pledged to work together to unseat the African National Congress (ANC) and keep the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) out of power.
Party leaders labelled the two-day negotiations held at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park a “great success” as it resulted in the signing of acommon declaration labelled theMulti-Party Charter for South Africa.
This pre-emptive formation hopes to avoid the chaos seen in municipal coalitions across the country.
“If we want to unseat the ANC as a government then there is no other option because there is no single opposition party who on their own will get a majority [of the vote]… we must ensure that we work together [so] that we have a stable coalition,” said Vryheidsfront (VF+) leader Dr Pieter Groenewald.
The DA, IFP, VF+, ActionSA, Independent South African National Organisation (Isanco), United Independent Movement (UIM) and the Spectrum National Party (SNP) agree that this, “alternative government” as IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa put it, would be one that promotes a free-market economy, decentralised power and minimal government interference in business.
Hlabisa argued that the bloc would be decisive on matters of “crime, unemployment, loadshedding…” because the “current government has failed us”.
No red and yellow here
ActionSA president Herman Mashaba signing his party’s declaration of intent to join the multi-party charter next to independent chairperson William Gumede as Emperors Palace on August 17, 2023. Photo: Seth Thorne
Parties are open to broadening the pool of partners in the months to come if they share their governing priorities and values.
Leader of ActionSA Herman Mashaba said that they ruled out any possible working agreements with the third largest party, the EFF because of fundamental ideological differences as they are a party who are self-described as following a Marxist-Leninist school of thought.
When asked if this agreement would push the ANC and EFF to form a coalition agreement of their own, parties shrugged it off, and Mashaba said, “they can do what they want”.
In response, EFF spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys told Wits Vuvuzela that the issues parties want to solve (like unemployment and poverty) are the same, however, their approaches are fundamentally and ideologically different. “We are unapologetically a leftist party [and are] willing to work with parties who would implement similar ideological policies,” said Mathys.
Who rules the roost?
The bloc is in agreement that power would be shared, relative to the proportion of votes counted. The party with the most votes was promised the position of deputy president.
But these candidates have not yet been chosen, Hlabisa said that deciding on a candidate before the elections would “give an unfair advantage to that party.”
Given the highly publicised squabbles amongst party leaders, a professor at the Wits School of Governance and independent chairperson of the convention, William Gumede, said that “[party leaders must] rise above petty squabbles, egos and every decision they make must be in the public interest.”
The ANC lost its overall majority for the first time in the country’s democratic history in the 2021 municipal elections, which gave rise to the idea that no political party will achieve an outright majority alone to govern, following 2024’s elections.
Parties argued that by setting the terms now (should they come to power) they are not left scrambling in the 14 days after the elections to form a united government.
FEATURED IMAGE: A collage of all of the party leaders of the multi-party charter during the closing remarks of the two-day conference at Emperors Palace on August 17, 2023. Photos: Seth Thorne
As the Economic Freedom Fighters celebrated turning double-digits, their party president did not hold back in his criticism of the ruling party during their birthday celebrations. Wits Vuvuzela’s Seth Thorne and Sbongile Molambo were there to watch it all unfold.
“It is not a matter of if, but when we are in government next year” (and variations thereof) were the utterances most echoed by the EFF party leadership on Saturday, July 29 at FNB Stadium in Soweto.
Over 100 000 EFF supporters from across the country traveled in over 1 000 buses, painting the stadium red as the EFF celebrated their 10th anniversary.
Aesthetically, the event was nothing short of a spectacle. The black stage on the pitch was adorned with massive screens, flowers, balloons and later in the day, fireworks, champagne and a birthday cake.
The invitation to the celebration extended beyond EFF members, with traditional leaders, artists and leaders of other political parties present on stage. These party leaders included Bantu Holomisa of the United Democratic Movement (UDM), who called on “opposition parties to unite as the ANC has “eaten the country’s money.” Others on stage included Vuyolwethu Zungula of the African Transformation Movement, Azapo and the Pan Africanist Congress.
EFF leadership from left to right: Omphile Maotwe, Floyd Shivambu, Julius Malema, Marshall Dlamini and Poppy Moilola cutting the birthday cake. Photo: Sbongile MolamboJulius Malema looks into the crowd as high-ranking party members make a toast for the party’s 10th birthday. Photo: Seth Thorne
Born out of need
EFF president Julius Malema’s speech began with the formation of the organisation, describing it as the directive of the community of Marikana following the 2012 massacre. “We listened to the people of Marikana and formed a party,” he said.
Malema called the ANC an “organisation of murderers”, who killed miners in “defense of capital” on that fateful day. Malema said president Cyril Ramaphosa belongs “in prison” for the massacre and the Phala Phala scandal.
Malema also made the friends and foes of the EFF aware that if “you are a supporter of a progressive agenda, you are a friend of the EFF”.
In their various ‘happy birthday’ messages, the speakers, including Holomisa and Zungula, all alluded to how the formation of the EFF has changed the political landscape of the country.
An isiXhosa traditional music group making their way to the stage to perform. Photo: Sbongile MolamboEFF supporters make their way onto the soccer field, wanting to be near the stage to see and hear proceedings clearly. Photo: Sbongile Molambo
Looking to 2024
The keynote speech was laden with electioneering talk, as Malema called for land expropriation without compensation, the nationalisation of mines, banks, and other strategic sectors of the economy.
Commenting on crime and corruption in the country, Malema called on the “ground forces [to] go reclaim the streets against criminals.”
Despite being in multiple coalitions with the ANC, he said the party is “corrupt” and should not be trusted with power, as it “has failed to emancipate its people,” he said. “Unlike the ANC, [the EFF do not] bribe voters” but rather attracts people “wanting freedom in their lifetime”.
EFF supporters passing around a coffin with ANC insignia as they are addressed by their party president on July 29. Photo: Seth ThorneAn unemployed university graduate holding a sign asking for government attention to the unemployment crisis. Photo: Seth Thorne
Malema also criticised the Nasi iSpani programme, led by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi. He claimed that applicants were not properly vetted and as such would lose their jobs in no time. He also claimed that the programme is an attempt to bribe votes out of young people.
Various party leaders called for a collective effort to unseat the ANC next year, especially though coalitions. “There is no future in this country if we do not work together… if we do not unite we will not win as the opposition parties next year,” said Zungula.
Mihlali Tyebisa from Wits’ EFF student command said that “the event was mind-blowing for many; it was a clear demonstration of what is to come.”
EFF members showing their support for party president Julius Malema at their 10th anniversary celebrations. Photo: Seth Thorne
EFF supporters dancing on the pitch after leadership called for people to be closer to the stage, to the confusion of security. Photo: Seth Thorne
EFF supporters displaying banner asking for help from the party as they face unfair dismissals by their employer. Photo: Sbongile Molambo
EFF president Julius Malema addressing the crowd of over 100 000 people at the party’s 10th birthday celebrations. Photo: Seth Thorne
UDM president Bantu Holomisa extends his congratulatory message to the EFF at its 10th anniversary at FNB stadium on July 29. Photo: Seth Thorne
Julius Malema hugging ATM president Vuyolwethu Zungula after his speech praising the work of the EFF. Photo: Seth Thorne
EFF’s security force guarding entry points into the pitch. Photo: Sbongile Molambo
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu greeting the masses as party leadership enter FNB stadium on July 29. Photo: Seth Thorne
One of the elderly people that came to support the EFF at its 10th anniversary. Photo: Sbongile Molambo
Sweet voices of Africa from the Eastern Cape opening the official program with the national anthem. Photo: Sbongile Molambo
Former chairperson of the EFF Dali Mpofu and pastor Makgale making their way to the stage. Photo: Sbongile Molambo
Former EFF MP Fana Mokoena makes his way through the crowd of supporters to the stage: Photo: Sbongile Molambo
FEATURED IMAGE:Julius Malema ends his speech with a bang as he is lifted into the air, with confetti and smoke machines going off on Saturday, July 29, as proceedings come to an end. Photo: Seth Thorne
Thousands of permanent Gauteng government jobs were advertised on youth day 2023, and with the ANC holding onto a slim majority of power in the province, they cannot afford to fumble this programme.
FEATURED IMAGE: Screengrab from the explainer video. Photo: Seth Thorne
On May 5, 2023 Al Jama-ah’s Kabelo Gwamanda was elected executive mayor of the country’s economic hub, Johannesburg by fellow councillors. The process for selecting the mayor was nothing short of a rollercoaster ride, this infographic explores some of those twists and turns.
FEATURED: The executive mayor Kabelo Gwamanda reading his oath during the process of being sworn in. Photo: Seth Thorne
Will we ever have peace and friendship within and across our borders? In this episode of We Should Be Writing, the Vuvu team takes on the final promise of the Freedom Charter: There shall be peace and friendship. We unpack how this vision clashes with the growing issue of xenophobia in South Africa today. Our guests […]
