South Africa’s upcoming election brings small change for now, but presents a giant step forward for the future. Lesley Connolly reports.

22 April 2009 marks the fourth democratic election in South Africa, and one that is somewhat different to the past three elections. There are more voters between the ages of 18 and 25 registered than in previous elections, and they want change. But will it come? Will these elections have any impact on the rest of the world? Ms Cherrel Africa, Gender and Politics lecturer at the University of Cape Town (UCT) thinks not. “People who have lived through the transition to democracy, as I did, feel that since we made it through that, we can make it through anything and it [the April election] is not comparable. We moved from Apartheid to a functioning democracy; this change will be minor if anything at all.” Yet, all things considered, it surely must have some significance in the greater scheme of things, if only for the population group who, though they lived through the transition, didn’t realise its significance at the time, since they’d only just made it into the world. As Roland Hunter, a Masters student at UCT animatedly said, “For the first time I’ll be holding a stick big enough to swing and make a difference.”

Regardless of the changes that may occur after the election, there is one thing that is certain: the ANC will take the election. Yet the political scene has altered somewhat, and there are two major reasons for this. The largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has built upon its reputation for competence by making a substantial move away from its historical positioning as primarily a representative of white interests. What’s stirred up the most interest and raised the stakes in the show, though, is that the ANC faces a challenge from a new party, the Congress of the People (COPE), forged largely out of a bitter struggle within its own ranks.

There is hope that COPE’s emergence might erode the ANC’s political dominance by undercutting its chances of securing the two-thirds majority, the golden egg that allows a party to alter the Constitution. According to Professor John Daniel, retired lecturer at the former University of Durban Westville, now a part of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, this will mean only good things for the politics of the country. Nevertheless, if the ANC garners around 60% of the national votes, as is expected, the fact of the matter is that South Africa still has a long way to go to challenging the international perception of a one-party state. Losing the two-thirds majority would mean that some supporters have become despondent with the ANC over the past 18 months and have changed allegiance accordingly. More strikingly, though, it will highlight the stark reality that the ANC has a huge following that will support them through thick and thin, through swindle and scandal.

The establishment of COPE has certainly given first-time voters something new and exciting to think about, but whether it has managed to win over the youth of Cape Town is something else. Indeed, speaking to students, it seems that COPE has not affected the youth very much at all. Third-year Politics, Philosophy and Economics student at UCT, Bontle Senne, for example, feels that these elections “are not different at all. The problem,” she says, “is that, until COPE has proved that they have any form of staying power, they are as useless to me as the ID or the UDF – the original COPE to me. I have no reason to believe that they are any different to either of those parties.” Amanda Lamont, Psychology Honours Student at the University of Stellenbosch, similarly feels that “COPE wants to talk the talk, but they’re just a chip off the old block. I don’t think that they’ve been around long enough to convince us of why they deserve to be considered as a separate, worthy entity. They’re an entertaining distraction, but not much of a big player in these elections”.

On the outside, the election looks different, with more violence, more rallies and more options to consider. However, to some people it looks exactly the same. As Senne says, “The only guarantee in South African politics is that the ANC will win.” Nevertheless, there are more young people voting, and they are aware of the real ANC, the ANC that is not a liberation party in their mind, but rather a party that has simply governed South Africa for the past 15 years. They are aware of the unemployment, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the lack of education and housing. They are aware of the contemporary issues unaffected by the emotional memories of the past. In the long run, this will mean a stronger democracy and a better country for South Africans. Going to the polls on 22 April 2009 might have no impact internationally, and it might not mean anything to a large portion of the population, but there has been a change that we cannot ignore, and that’s a strengthening of the country’s, and the youth’s, in particular, sense of political involvement and awareness.

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Lesley Connolly is an Honours student in Politics, studying Justice and Transformation.

Photographer Sydelle Smith is in her second year, doing Media Studies and Social Anthropology. She is photo editor at the Cape Town Globalist.