COSATU statement on local government elections 03-03-06

 

COSATU statement on local government elections

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) congratulates its ally, the African National Congress (ANC), on its massive victories across the country in the local government elections this week. We send our best wishes to all the newly elected and re-elected councillors and pledge our full support in their efforts to implement the ANC manifesto's pledge to provide more, better and speedier services, to create jobs and to reduce poverty and inequality.

The elections once more prove that there is no viable alternative to the ANC and its allies. There will never be a successful challenge to the ANC and Alliance hegemony, in particular from the right. Only leftwing parties can win mass success at polls. The transformation project driven by the ANC and its allies has struck a chord with the overwhelming majority of our people. The election results over the past twelve years show that our people have chosen their weapon to effect the fundamental transformation of our society - and that weapon is the ANC.

The reactionary, cynical rightwing led by the Democratic Alliance will never dislodge the progressive forces in our country, not now and not in the future.

We note that a good number of the Western Cape working class and the poor may have been hoodwinked to vote for the pro-employer, anti-worker DA. Even there, however, the DA's position weakened sharply compared to the 50% it won in the 2000 local government elections. It may take time, but the working class in the Western Cape will surely realise that the DA only seeks to gain their votes in order to promote capital's interests.

We are however concerned about the immediate and long-term implications of the low voter turn-out in these local government elections. More than half of registered voters did not exercise their right to vote. Whilst we know that participation at national elections is much higher, the fact remains that in the 2004 elections a million registered voters did not cast their vote. Moreover, we only have rough estimates of how many South Africans have not even registered to vote.

The level of participation in these elections is consistent with previous local elections and still represents a very high turnout by international standards. But it is not good enough for our young democracy. After all, we only won our inclusive voting system and liberation a mere eleven years ago.

We need more scientific research to understand the low voter turnout, especially for local elections. But it suggests a dangerous trend - that large numbers of our people are starting to disengage from the political system and the transformation process.

One of the values we hold dearly, as part of the liberation movement, is participatory democracy, as against narrow representative democracy that reduces ordinary people into spectators in the theatre of transformation. Bourgeois democracy recognises the importance of our people only at five-year intervals when they are called upon to vote.

We are concerned that we may be seeing the development of a 'stayaway' attitude, where the majority of people draw back from democratic processes. That in turn causes governments and local governments to lose legitimacy. We can see that situation in the USA, where low participation in elections means just 25% of the population can elect a president, and democratic processes are largely discredited.

The ANC and the Alliance must take time to discuss this issue and find ways to engage with the people more systematically, so that legitimate grievances can be addressed and discontented voters drawn back into electoral process and, better still, into active support for the ANC.

COSATU wants to see the Alliance and government at all levels intensifying the war against unemployment, poverty and inequality. These social evils lie at the root of the discontent which leads to both abstentions and street protests. Local councils have an important role to play in this war through the provision of basic services, which do so much to improve the lives and morale of the people.

The last term of local government underscored two tendencies. First, many people elect councillors but never support them through attending ward meetings, which provide a platform to keep them accountable and on their toes. Second, there is a tendency to generalise and make sweeping statements about councillors and corruption which have only helped to reinforce a perception that local government is riddled with bribery.

Our appeal is that our communities should give their councillors backing and support, whilst making them to account all the way and throughout the next five years. That is the only way to counter the trend toward apathy and disillusionment, not with any particular party, but with state power as a force for transformation in general.