One-horse party poopers

There are two ways to fail as a citizen on 4 November. The first is not to vote.

The second is to waste your vote on the dizzying array of parties and pseudo-independent candidates.

Reason why people go into politics

While it is true some independent councillors are motivated by the desire to make a local contribution, most of the political minnows are just vehicles to advance the ambitions of their founders.

Yet, in finely balanced municipal councils, they wield power wildly disproportionate to their small electoral support.

With no constituency to answer to and few or no internal constraints on their conduct, their councillors switch allegiances at a whim, swayed by the blandishments of power and lucrative public office.

Their votes are bargaining chips, bought, sold and swapped in the big parties’ perpetual jockeying for executive control.

ANC loses majority

There have been earlier glimpses of the political tail wagging the electoral dog, most notably in Cape Town in 2006, when the DA, despite securing almost 42% of the vote, had to cobble together a succession of precarious governing coalitions with a rag-bag of micro parties.

But it was in 2016 that the phenomenon took on a new and more destructive dimension. Then, for the first time, the ANC lost its absolute majority in key metropolitan councils.

Smaller parties, notably the EFF and United Democratic Movement, suddenly found themselves wielding considerable leverage in the country’s 27 hung councils, ushering in an era of unstable coalitions, shifting allegiances and revolving-door mayoralties.

City of Joburg

In 2021, the phenomenon exploded in both scale and volatility. The number of hung councils more than doubled, with dozens of micro-parties acquiring unprecedented bargaining power.

Mayoralties, speakerships and other lucrative positions became currency in an endless round of political horse-trading.

The most egregious example was Joburg, where Al Jama-ah, with just three seats in a 270-member council – won with just 7 647 of the 923 724 votes cast – nevertheless captured the mayoralty of South Africa’s largest city.

Not once, but twice. The proliferation of political parties has been staggering. In 2006, 97 parties fielded 45 179 candidates.

Mmusi Maimane’s journey

Next month, an eye-popping 547 parties are fielding 136 790 candidates for just 10 526 council seats.

That’s about 13 candidates for every available position. Given the influence of most of these micro-parties, one might expect this to deter wealthy benefactors. Not so.

Take Mmusi Maimane, the lay preacher-turned-politician whom, one hopes, has been more successful at harvesting souls than at garnering votes.

Maimane began promisingly as the DA’s Joburg mayoral candidate in 2011, securing 35% of the vote.

He rose swiftly to become the party’s national leader until he resigned in 2019 and launched the One South Africa Movement, which, in 2021, backed 300 candidates in 12 councils.

Bosa

Only one of its backed candidates won a ward seat. The setback did not discourage Maimane. In 2022, he launched Build One South Africa (Bosa).

According to funding disclosures, Bosa attracted more than R21 million in declared donations during the nine months spanning the 2024 national election.

Yet Bosa secured just 65 919 votes and two seats in parliament. There is growing recognition that our electoral system requires reform.

Its current consequences – rent-seeking councillors and revolving-door coalitions – are obvious.

Achieving those legislative changes, however, will be a protracted process. But voters have an instant remedy.

On 4 November, don’t waste your cross on political no-hopers who want to game the system.