STEVEN FRIEDMAN: DA’s tribal vote stampede may be running out of steam
Despite what common thinking would have us believe, voting this way happens in Western countries as well, where people in the same area or background vote for the same party
Will the tribal vote hold up in this election? In this country, the tribal vote conjures up for some pictures of people in rural areas dressed in traditional clothes. In reality, it means suburban voters. Tribal voting happens when voters who live in the same areas or share a background support the same party as a bloc every election. While some in the West associate it with Asia or Africa, it is common in their parts of the world too: there are regions in Europe and the US where the same party has won for decades. Here, it has been common for ANC opponents to claim that people in townships and shack settlements all vote for it unthinkingly. That was never true but, if voting in a bloc for one party is tribal, then this country’s tribal voters are in the suburbs. The DA always wins in the suburbs of the major cities. In the Western Cape, it sometimes does this with majorities Stalin would have loved. Elsewhere, the DA’s tribal vote is slightly hidden by the fact that domestic worker...
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