NICHOLAS WOODE-SMITH: Accentuate the positive

Of the 10 best-run municipalities in SA in 2021, six are run by the DA. Though two are ANC governed, they are in the DA-run Western Cape. While metropoles around the country collapse, the DA-run Cape Town continues to act like a first world city, a feat only possible with honest, skilled and mature administrators.

Even ANC voters seem to recognise that the DA governs well: polls indicate that some even go so far as to desire a coalition of DA governors with ANC representatives. So, whether the DA is a viable governing party is no longer a matter of debate. Yet it is still struggling to lure voters away from the ANC, and even from other smaller opposition parties; not to mention the great, apathetic non-voting masses.

Why? Simply, marketing.

What the DA makes up for in good governance it lacks in marketing strategy. Not always, of course. There has been plenty of decent marketing by the DA in the past. Social media posts by Cape Town’s DA mayor have consistently listed the party’s achievements, while the party’s Twitter and Facebook accounts do a good job of publishing graphics that laud its governance.

But this isn’t consistent. More often than should be necessary, the DA collapses into its ageless strategy of bashing the ANC. And I can understand why; the ANC is an easy target, rife with corruption and incompetence. ANC officials regularly make stupid statements, get embroiled in scandals, and run the country into the ground. The temptation to point this out is difficult to resist for an opposition party.

But resist the DA must, because the decades during which it has followed this strategy have proven it simply doesn’t work. Negative marketing by political parties doesn’t appear to resonate with SA voters. They know the ANC sucks. They know corruption is rife. They don’t need to be told that by the opposition. ANC voters are particularly resistant to this form of marketing. Rather than seeing the DA as a viable alternative, they go on the defensive.

It is the job of journalists to report on negative content. It is the job of commentators like me to hold the ANC accountable by pointing out where it goes wrong, and to whine about the state of our country. The DA’s job is to govern well where it has been elected, and create a tangible and enticing vision of what it could do if it was elected elsewhere.

So here is my proposal for the DA: minimise complaining about the ANC in the media; minimise complaining about any party in the media. Of course, keep up the pressure in parliament; keep hounding ministers and holding them to account.

But when it comes to newspapers, television and social media, all the voters should see from the DA should be posts about what it has accomplished, and what it plans to do if and when it is elected.

Naturally, that doesn’t only apply to the DA. ActionSA is also a big culprit when it comes to whining about the perceived shortcomings of opposing political parties rather than creating a vision for voters to get behind and support.

At times it seems that ActionSA’s entire policy is just to be anti-DA. This is probably due to leader Herman Mashaba’s unfinished business with Helen Zille after his failed tenure as mayor of Johannesburg. But that is no excuse.

ActionSA could become a valuable and powerful opposition party if it stopped the mudslinging, constructed a practical vision for the future, and campaigned not as an alternative to the DA or even ANC, but as a potential governing party.

Political parties need to stop trying to win support based on who they are not. Negative marketing that relies on one’s enemies doing badly does not win elections.

Rather, every party needs to carve out its own identity as if it existed in a vacuum. What can it offer the SA electorate? What is its vision for the future if elected? What policies will it put in place to achieve this? And how will this benefit the people of SA?

Voters are enthused by positive marketing. Any party that focuses on separating itself from the mudslinging and drama and rising above it will be rewarded in 2024.

Woode-Smith is a political analyst, author and economic historian.