The year 2013 has been eventful in so many ways, however the biggest event of all, if indeed it can be referred to as such, was the sad passing of Madiba, Nelson Mandela. His death is a great loss to the people of South Africa and to the world at large.
On 27 April 1994 many South Africans went to the polls and
voted in the first democratic elections, and I remember that day so vividly. On
27 April 2014, South Africa will celebrate 20 years of freedom and democracy,
the democracy which Nelson Mandela and many others sacrificed and dedicated their
entire lives to making it possible. It is even sadder therefore that Madiba
will not be with us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of a free and
democratic South Africa. As we prepare to enter 2014, Madiba’s memory will live
on, from generation to generation and perhaps to eternity.
Nevertheless, life in 2014 has to go without the beloved Madiba.
The year ahead looks set to be an
“interesting” year, especially in South Africa, where the country will stage
the General Elections which are held every five years. What will make the 2014
elections interesting is the possibility of new parties entering the fold. At
the last elections in 2009, there was much interest generated by the entrance
of a newly formed party, the Congress of the People (COPE). At the time, COPE
was led by former ANC stalwart, Mosiuoa Lekota and former trade unionist, Sam
Shilowa. COPE contested the 2009 elections with the aim of triumphing over the
ruling ANC.
After votes were counted by the Independent ElectoralCommission (IEC), the ANC had garnered
65.9% of the votes, the Democratic Alliance was a distant second place
with 16.6% of the ballots won and COPE was an even further third having
collected 7.66% of the votes. The 7.66% was a very small part of the total
votes casted, but looking at this in real numbers, it means that COPE received
1.37 million of the votes cast, not bad at all for a party which was
established less than six months before the 2009 elections.
With the 2014 elections looming, we may have yet another new
party that will generate much interest much like COPE did in 2009, this is in
the form of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by former ANC Youth League
President , Julius Malema. Should the EFF contest the 2014 General Elections, the
question is: will they fair better than COPE and stage a realistic challenge
against the ANC and the official opposition party in the National Assembly, the
Democratic Alliance? My opinion is that the EFF has a strong chance to draw
more votes (in percentage terms) in 2014 than COPE did in 2009 however, I’m not
convinced that the EFF would unseat neither the DA as the official opposition party
in the National Assembly nor the ANC, as the ruling party. To really understand how voters will cast their ballots, we need to first see the election manifesto's of each of the parties contesting the elections and for this we will have to wait until the election date is announced and this will then kick-off the process of proper campaigning, including the launch of the manifesto's b the parties. Let the campaigning
begin!
