JONNY STEINBERG: Politics based on cynicism, not populism, real threat
Maybe some people who have given up on change vote for old parties because they are large
Why are political parties that formed after the end of apartheid so hard to build and grow? Rise Mzansi, ActionSA and Build One SA all did miserably in the 2024 elections. The only exception was the Patriotic Alliance, whose support base grew. Most of those who bothered to vote at all either voted for parties formed during apartheid — the ANC, the DA, the IFP — or for spin-offs from apartheid-era parties such as the EFF and MK party.
Why is this happening? An obvious answer is that SA is not yet sufficiently free of its history to forge new political identities. Nine out of 10 black people who voted did so for the ANC or its spin-offs. Racial minorities voted overwhelmingly for the DA. That the distribution of votes came so close to a racial census speaks to how long a shadow apartheid casts. ..
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