THE municipal elections this year are likely to be the most expensive local polls yet. Political parties are seeking more and more money to finance electoral campaigns, increasing the need to attract private funders. This opens up the space for the capture of politics by narrow private interests, a hot topic when it comes to national politics but one that is strangely absent from our discussions of local government and the upcoming elections.Traditional and social media are awash with renewed debate about the relationship between President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family. Amid these discussions there has been much anger. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has gone as far as threatening to drive the family out of the country. The anger stems from the idea that certain leaders and state institutions have been captured by wealthy private interests, and that these interests drive policy and decision-making, rather than the interests of the citizens.The African National Congress (ANC) i...
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