Over the course of the days following the election the media devoted extensive resources, airtime and space to covering and commenting on the historic process. The headlines referred mainly to the extent of the growth or decline of various parties, and the main debate was whether the ANC as the governing party would be able to retain its 60% support among voters. Some media and commentators did make mention of the low voter turnout, but none bothered to provide a contextual analysis of what low voter turnouts may mean for our young democracy. It is surprising and deeply concerning that the entire media establishment, committed as they are to maintaining the status quo or at least ensuring the ascension of Cyril Ramaphosa and his faction to the helm of the presidency, failed to raise in any significant way the enormous elephant that stood in the centre of the results operations centre in Pretoria as the results of the elections were announced. However, the question of legitimacy did ...
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