In a few weeks SA will head into to its fifth local government elections. These were almost derailed by the pandemic, which in the eyes of some political parties has made it impossible to campaign freely and fairly in the traditional manner, which involves door-to-door visits.

For the ANC in particular, whose wide grass-roots footprint benefits from the door-to-door model, the wish to delay the elections was premised on its anxieties regarding what campaigning in this electoral cycle would look like. Ironically, its financial chaos leaves one wondering how it would have financed a national grass-roots campaign to begin with. ..