Newly formed political parties need a track record of at least three years before they could contest in the general elections, said North West University (NWU) political analyst, Syssman Motloung reacting to the mushrooming of new political parties ahead of the much anticipated 2024 general elections.
Motloung’s reaction follows the launch of a plethora of new political parties recently ahead of the 2024 National Elections. So far this year four political parties have been launched namely Xiluva, Rise Mzansi, Arise South Africa and the African Independent National Congress (Ainc).
The Ainc, which claims to have over 9 000 members in all nine provinces and is in the process of registering with the IEC after it was formed in February, is what really got Motloung’s goat up.
The Ainc claims to have members from the big political parties such as the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) intend to contest next year’s general elections.
Although the constitution allows multiple parties to contest in elections as long as they meet the criteria set by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), Motloung believes a track record is essential for a political party to survive even before it could participate in any elections.
“In South Africa, we have a multi-party democracy and according to the constitution, everyone has a right to participate or have an association with a political party. In that sense, nothing is preventing them from existing. As long as they meet the minimum requirements of the IEC.
“But when we talk about the possibility of these political parties succeeding, it depends on their extent of engagements with the communities. If you’re a political party and claim to have 9 000 people, in a country that has more than 60 million citizens and you want to contest in nine provinces, how many seats can 9 000 give you? Let’s say all those nine people vote for you. What would be your chances of surviving as a political party?
“That is a very small party. I could call it a weak party. If it has really not engaged a lot of people. Also, note that just because you have 9 000 members doesn’t mean their votes are guaranteed. You can also have followers who will just vote for you. But to have 9 000, that’s a very poor show for a political party, nationally the footprint is very small,” Motloung said.
Motloung said it took years and a lot of work for the big political parties to obtain the seats that they occupy in Parliament adding that we will forever see political parties coming up just ahead of elections and failing to exist after elections.
“Those newly formed parties really don’t have a chance to make a significant dent. Just look at the DA and EFF, how many people do they have? And it’s really difficult to get 15% nationally. It’s really challenging, it’s after the EFF commander-in-chief, Julius Malema had done a lot of work by engaging with communities.
“Now with these parties that just mushroom at the door of the elections, we don’t really see them making a difference in a political system.
“For me the problem of parties emerging in February 2023 and saying we want to contest elections in 2024. Really? What are the chances of that and why do you honestly hope to make an effect nationally in a few months?
“As much as political parties rise for different reasons such as poor service delivery or the poor performance of an incumbent party. Then parties will just emerge and claim to have solutions for the challenges the ruling party has for example.
“The question would be to what extent has the new party campaigned and mobilised before it was formed? Others only do that afterward. But leading to the elections, we ask how successful can you be. You’re just taking advantage of the existing challenges.
“Others could be idealistic and say we bring something new that has not been spoken of in the political system. Others form parties because of factions within their current political homes and decide to start a new party. On the aspect of people losing hope in the existing party, you may want to capitalise on that. But what says the people will have trust in you?” he said.
