NOVANEWS
ANC victory with gains for left and right parties
In the most watched South African election since 1994, the African National Congress once again scored a resounding victory, reaping 62 percent of the eighteen million votes cast. Held within the context of rising social unrest inside the country, ten years after the first democratic elections, and in the wake of the death of Liberation leader Nelson Mandela, these recent elections were seen as the first where ANC hegemony faced potential challenge.
Despite their large victory, the ANC fell below the threshold that would allow their parliamentary deputies to amend the constitution; gains by parties on both the left and the right are electoral signs that the underlying contradictions that have been simmering since 1999 are breaking much more fully into the open.
The most obvious and glaring reality in South Africa is that ten years following the dawning of Black political power, the social situation for the majority of Africans remains abysmal. According to the official statistics agency, Stats SA, the percentage of South Africans living on less than $2 a day is 46 percent. Unemployment overall is 25 percent; among those under 35 it is a shocking and shameful 70 percent. Inequality is high and the spatial and racial inequities of apartheid mostly remain meaning the Black poor are trapped in slums surrounding major cities, impoverished mining camps, and relatively isolated rural areas. Service delivery remains at best spotty and at worst scandalous; the South African Police Service routinely treats citizens with brutality—with no fear of using deadly force; and corruption is a serious issue in government.
The African National Congress government is of course complicit in these outcomes. The ANC, and its alliance partners—Congress of South African Trade Unions and South African Communist Party—have followed a more or less neo-liberal economic path since 1994. While the ANC government has made attempts to rectify certain social imbalances, the inability to break from the overall neo-liberal growth model has meant the scale of the reforms have not met the increasingly dire growth of the social problems.
This has caused tremendous unrest inside the ruling alliance, which throughout the Liberation years was one of the most progressive social formations on earth, with its base firmly in the African working class. As such the rising sense of frustration with ANC rule has begun to splinter the alliance on the left and the right. The Democratic Alliance, the primary opposition party, which is more explicitly free-market and pro-capitalist than the ANC, saw a significant increase in their vote share from 16 percent to 22 percent. The DA is historically a “white” party and garnered 95 percent of the white vote, but has made moves to show a more “African” face, even making moves to appeal to township residents seeking to capitalize on their anger at service delivery.
It seems clear that one aspect in the increased DA vote has come from the ranks of those of the ANC right to who defected to the now stillborn Congress of the People (COPE). The general trend is that as the left inside the ANC asserts itself, the DA has emerged as a more viable alternative home for those who seeks to keep South Africa firmly on a capitalist path. Such forces no doubt believe that fractures on the left open up electoral opportunity for the right.
However the DA is still relatively marginal, and the more significant developments are the moves happening left of center. The Economic Freedom Fighters,(led by expelled ANC member, former member of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, a fiery populist who has supported striking miners vigorously and called for rapid re-distribution of land), was able to gain third place in the vote with just over 6 percent of the ballots cast, coming in second in Limpopo province.
The EFF captured a section of disgruntled ANC voters, but also it seems to have cut into the vote total of the two other Liberation parties, the Pan-Africanist Congress and Azanian Peoples Organization. The EFF is forthright, and critiques capitalism, but is more populist than communist with a quasi-military form of organization. While the party has a welcome militancy and touches on important working class issues, some on the left like the SACP have raised trenchant critiques, in particular that their calls for nationalization could (and in the eyes of critics will) serve as a smokescreen for buyouts of Black capitalists whose concessions are deeply indebted, and that nationalization evades the key discussion on how to advance a “socialization” that goes beyond government takeovers to placing capitalists assets under the control of the working class.
Also on the left there were both organized and unofficial abstention campaigns. One such open and loud campaign run by Ronnie Kasrils, former intelligence minister and Liberation leader . It is unclear how much the “Vote No” campaign contributed to spoiled ballots and voters staying away but it appears to have contributed. The National Union of Metal Workers (NUMSA)—a major communist-led labor union which fairly spectacularly broke with the ANC-alliance—while not officially organizing on behalf of any particular election outcome seems to have been the source of abstentions in some places. New socialist formation Workers and Socialists Party (WASP) which has gained some foothold in mass struggles came in with a tiny few thousand votes that nevertheless reflects working class disaffection with the ANC.
Clearly working class unrest will only grow. Strikes in the nation’s strategic mining sector are increasing and are not even remotely uncommon amongst the combative South African workers, there are dozens of township protests everyday and NUMSA is forging ahead with its attempt to create a united front to further coordinate social struggle, most likely leading to a new socialist formation. Nine unions are calling on COSATU to hold a special conference to take up key issues, and debates continue inside the ANC about how (and really if) the government should move in the direction of a “developmental” state, perhaps something akin to what exists in Venezuela as well as about how (and again if) to move towards socialism.
Meanwhile the issue of land reform remains unresolved.
Clearly the Black masses are frustrated with the lack of progress and seek either the promises of the freedom charter, or socialism outright. A small—roughly 6-10 percent of the electorate—are fed up enough with the ANC to seek to renew the Liberation movement outside of its structures. The vast majority continue to back the ANC in massive numbers. The reason is fairly obvious. The ANC has stood the test of time. Established in 1912 the ANC has overcome tremendous obstacles and achieved great feats; undoubtedly significant sections of the working class and rule poor believe it can do so yet again and bring justice and equality to the nation.
As we have argued consistently in our publications, South Africa has no shortage of revolutionaries or working class militancy but lacks revolutionary unity. This is why we welcomed NUMSA’s united front initiative as potentially providing a space for unity in the struggle regardless of party identification, strengthening the bonds of the revolutionary camp. We still hope for such an outcome. Undoubtedly the direction of the struggle over the deepening of the Liberation struggle in South Africa will have tremendous implications for the global struggle against capitalism. The 2014 elections reflect the crossroads the Liberation movement faces. We offer our continued and deep solidarity with the South African working class and rural population in their struggle against capitalist exploitation.
Despite their large victory, the ANC fell below the threshold that would allow their parliamentary deputies to amend the constitution; gains by parties on both the left and the right are electoral signs that the underlying contradictions that have been simmering since 1999 are breaking much more fully into the open.
The most obvious and glaring reality in South Africa is that ten years following the dawning of Black political power, the social situation for the majority of Africans remains abysmal. According to the official statistics agency, Stats SA, the percentage of South Africans living on less than $2 a day is 46 percent. Unemployment overall is 25 percent; among those under 35 it is a shocking and shameful 70 percent. Inequality is high and the spatial and racial inequities of apartheid mostly remain meaning the Black poor are trapped in slums surrounding major cities, impoverished mining camps, and relatively isolated rural areas. Service delivery remains at best spotty and at worst scandalous; the South African Police Service routinely treats citizens with brutality—with no fear of using deadly force; and corruption is a serious issue in government.
The African National Congress government is of course complicit in these outcomes. The ANC, and its alliance partners—Congress of South African Trade Unions and South African Communist Party—have followed a more or less neo-liberal economic path since 1994. While the ANC government has made attempts to rectify certain social imbalances, the inability to break from the overall neo-liberal growth model has meant the scale of the reforms have not met the increasingly dire growth of the social problems.
This has caused tremendous unrest inside the ruling alliance, which throughout the Liberation years was one of the most progressive social formations on earth, with its base firmly in the African working class. As such the rising sense of frustration with ANC rule has begun to splinter the alliance on the left and the right. The Democratic Alliance, the primary opposition party, which is more explicitly free-market and pro-capitalist than the ANC, saw a significant increase in their vote share from 16 percent to 22 percent. The DA is historically a “white” party and garnered 95 percent of the white vote, but has made moves to show a more “African” face, even making moves to appeal to township residents seeking to capitalize on their anger at service delivery.
It seems clear that one aspect in the increased DA vote has come from the ranks of those of the ANC right to who defected to the now stillborn Congress of the People (COPE). The general trend is that as the left inside the ANC asserts itself, the DA has emerged as a more viable alternative home for those who seeks to keep South Africa firmly on a capitalist path. Such forces no doubt believe that fractures on the left open up electoral opportunity for the right.
However the DA is still relatively marginal, and the more significant developments are the moves happening left of center. The Economic Freedom Fighters,(led by expelled ANC member, former member of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, a fiery populist who has supported striking miners vigorously and called for rapid re-distribution of land), was able to gain third place in the vote with just over 6 percent of the ballots cast, coming in second in Limpopo province.
The EFF captured a section of disgruntled ANC voters, but also it seems to have cut into the vote total of the two other Liberation parties, the Pan-Africanist Congress and Azanian Peoples Organization. The EFF is forthright, and critiques capitalism, but is more populist than communist with a quasi-military form of organization. While the party has a welcome militancy and touches on important working class issues, some on the left like the SACP have raised trenchant critiques, in particular that their calls for nationalization could (and in the eyes of critics will) serve as a smokescreen for buyouts of Black capitalists whose concessions are deeply indebted, and that nationalization evades the key discussion on how to advance a “socialization” that goes beyond government takeovers to placing capitalists assets under the control of the working class.
Also on the left there were both organized and unofficial abstention campaigns. One such open and loud campaign run by Ronnie Kasrils, former intelligence minister and Liberation leader . It is unclear how much the “Vote No” campaign contributed to spoiled ballots and voters staying away but it appears to have contributed. The National Union of Metal Workers (NUMSA)—a major communist-led labor union which fairly spectacularly broke with the ANC-alliance—while not officially organizing on behalf of any particular election outcome seems to have been the source of abstentions in some places. New socialist formation Workers and Socialists Party (WASP) which has gained some foothold in mass struggles came in with a tiny few thousand votes that nevertheless reflects working class disaffection with the ANC.
Clearly working class unrest will only grow. Strikes in the nation’s strategic mining sector are increasing and are not even remotely uncommon amongst the combative South African workers, there are dozens of township protests everyday and NUMSA is forging ahead with its attempt to create a united front to further coordinate social struggle, most likely leading to a new socialist formation. Nine unions are calling on COSATU to hold a special conference to take up key issues, and debates continue inside the ANC about how (and really if) the government should move in the direction of a “developmental” state, perhaps something akin to what exists in Venezuela as well as about how (and again if) to move towards socialism.
Meanwhile the issue of land reform remains unresolved.
Clearly the Black masses are frustrated with the lack of progress and seek either the promises of the freedom charter, or socialism outright. A small—roughly 6-10 percent of the electorate—are fed up enough with the ANC to seek to renew the Liberation movement outside of its structures. The vast majority continue to back the ANC in massive numbers. The reason is fairly obvious. The ANC has stood the test of time. Established in 1912 the ANC has overcome tremendous obstacles and achieved great feats; undoubtedly significant sections of the working class and rule poor believe it can do so yet again and bring justice and equality to the nation.
As we have argued consistently in our publications, South Africa has no shortage of revolutionaries or working class militancy but lacks revolutionary unity. This is why we welcomed NUMSA’s united front initiative as potentially providing a space for unity in the struggle regardless of party identification, strengthening the bonds of the revolutionary camp. We still hope for such an outcome. Undoubtedly the direction of the struggle over the deepening of the Liberation struggle in South Africa will have tremendous implications for the global struggle against capitalism. The 2014 elections reflect the crossroads the Liberation movement faces. We offer our continued and deep solidarity with the South African working class and rural population in their struggle against capitalist exploitation.
