Elections in South Africa — A Media Review

Art: Jack Forbes /Courtesy ‑CPJ

Mar 4 2019 — South Africa, one of the media free­dom bea­cons in sub-Saha­ran Africa, will hold nation­al and provin­cial elec­tions on May 8. As the coun­try cel­e­brates 25 years of democ­ra­cy, the press in South Africa faces old and new chal­lenges, includ­ing phys­i­cal harass­ment and cyber bul­ly­ing. The press free­dom envi­ron­ment, includ­ing the safe­ty of jour­nal­ists, will be one of the key indi­ca­tors for the health of the country’s democ­ra­cy and the free­ness and fair­ness of its polls.

Edi­tor’s Note: On May 8 South Africans will go to the polls to elect par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and provin­cial leg­is­la­tors in the coun­try’s Gen­er­al Elec­tions. In this analy­sis, Uni­qua Smith gives us a pre­view of the elec­tions by tak­ing a look at the major par­ties involved, the issues on the bal­lot, as well as how the elec­tion is being framed by the media. 

In South Africa, the Pres­i­dent is elect­ed by the Nation­al Assem­bly through a process of pro­por­tion­al representation.

How the Elections Are Viewed by the Media 

Africa.com, a South Africa-based web­site has list­ed the upcom­ing elec­tions as 4th in its Top 10 Most impor­tant Pres­i­den­tial Elec­tions in Africa This Year. The site states that “This elec­tion is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for pres­i­dent Cyril Ramaphosa to legit­imize his pow­er through the pop­u­lar vote.”  Tech­ni­cal­ly speak­ing, South Africa has a par­lia­men­tary sys­tem of gov­ern­ment, which means cit­i­zens will be elect­ing 400 new mem­bers of Par­lia­ment, and the pop­u­lar vote will come from its constituents.

The Africa Report, a month­ly mag­a­zine that focus­es on African pol­i­tics and eco­nom­ics, thinks the elec­tion is a ref­er­en­dum on the Reformist Poli­cies of cur­rent Pres­i­dent Cyril Ramaphosa, and that may not be far from the truth. While cit­i­zens are cast­ing votes for their new leg­isla­tive body, the sub­text of the elec­tion will be weigh­ing in on whether or not incum­bent leader Ramaphosa has suc­cess­ful­ly run the coun­try fol­low­ing the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer Pres­i­dent Jacob Zuma.

Who Are The Major Players

There are 3 major polit­i­cal par­ties involved: The African Nation­al Con­gress (ANC), The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Alliance (DA), and the Eco­nom­ic Free­dom Fight­ers (EFF). The ANC is the par­ty of incumbent Pres­i­dent Cyril Ramaphosa, the DA is the main oppo­si­tion par­ty to the ANC, and the EFF a far-left polit­i­cal par­ty found­ed by Julius Male­ma in 2013.

The African National Congress — ANC 

The ANC is the par­ty of cur­rent Pres­i­dent Ramaphosa, and of the late Nel­son Man­dela. The ANC has been the gov­ern­ing par­ty since it facil­i­tat­ed the abol­ish­ment of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994 through the help of Nel­son Mandela.

The U.S. Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions (CFR) says the ANC is tar­nished by cor­rup­tion and poor gov­er­nance, and Al Jazeera, the Doha, Qatar-based tele­vi­sion net­work is report­ing a decline in the pop­u­lar­i­ty of the par­ty post-Zuma. Jacob Zuma is the for­mer South African leader who was impli­cat­ed in charges of cor­rup­tion and lat­er forced to resign in Feb­ru­ary 2018.

Bloomberg.com mean­while is paint­ing a dif­fer­ent pic­ture of the par­ty alto­geth­er. Bloomberg.com says the ANC has been mak­ing head­lines for tak­ing on The Cen­tral Bank. British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (BBC News) says Ramaphosa is close­ly being scru­ti­nized for his land reform poli­cies- redis­trib­ut­ing white-owned agri­cul­tur­al land to black South African farm­ers with­out com­pen­sa­tion and with­out apol­o­gy. The land reform laws were enact­ed at the abo­li­tion of apartheid in 1994, and are yet to be enforced. Accord­ing to the Her­itage Foun­da­tion, Ramaphosa’s reformist poli­cies are more akin to enforce­ment policies.

Many South African news web­sites sites are report­ing on the polar­iza­tion and divi­sion being cre­at­ed U.S Pres­i­dent, Don­ald Trump. They cit­ed pro­pa­gan­da and false rhetoric Trump made about the slaugh­ter of White Farm­ers and his tweets which they have denounced.

The Democratic Alliance — DA 

Led by Mmusi Maimane, one of the first issues men­tioned by the par­ty is the impo­si­tion of a manda­to­ry jail sen­tence of 15 years for any­one caught in corruption.

The DA’s cur­rent slo­gan is “Break Through the Media Lens”. On the front page of its web­site, read­ers are implored to read the Man­i­festo for Change for them­selves- per­haps hint­ing at the fact that the media has been por­tray­ing either the elec­tions or the DA par­ty in an unnat­ur­al light. The sec­tion enti­tled “How We’ll Get Things Done” pin­points hot top­ic issues, as well as how the par­ty pro­pos­es to improve com­mon problems.

The Economic Freedom Fighters — EFF 

Accord­ing to the EFF’s own pub­li­ca­tion, “The Eco­nom­ic Free­dom Fight­ers (EFF) is a rad­i­cal and mil­i­tant eco­nom­ic eman­ci­pa­tion move­ment, formed in 2013 with the aim of bring­ing togeth­er rev­o­lu­tion­ary, mil­i­tant activists, com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions as well as lob­by groups under the umbrel­la of a polit­i­cal par­ty pur­su­ing the strug­gle of eco­nom­ic emancipation.

Found­ed and led by Julius Male­ma, the EFF is anoth­er par­ty that has been high­ly crit­i­cized by the Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions. The descrip­tion of the EFF as an “enfant ter­ri­ble” may be well suit­ed because of the harsh rhetoric of its leader, and the tough polit­i­cal stance the par­ty often employs in its activities.

The EFF has tak­en a stand on 7 major pil­lars of Eco­nom­ic Eman­ci­pa­tion and has even issued a free­dom char­ter, includ­ing the expro­pri­a­tion of South Africa’s land with­out com­pen­sa­tion for equal redis­tri­b­u­tion in use, the nation­al­iza­tion of mines, banks, and oth­er strate­gic sec­tors of the econ­o­my, with­out com­pen­sa­tion, as well as the build­ing of state and gov­ern­ment capac­i­ty, which it says will lead to the abol­ish­ment of tenders.