An uncomfortable reality that is often unspoken is that most South Africans still vote along racial lines. Black parties are largely supported by black communities, with a small trickle of non-black voters.
While white parties are largely supported by white communities, with a small portion of non-white voters. It is a fact that more than 26 years after the first non-racial democratic elections, SA has not completely moved away from past racial dynamics.
Service delivery, which should be uppermost in people’s minds during elections, takes a backseat amid racial divisions. While not oversimplifying complex and multi-faceted decisions that inform voting patterns that are shaped by historical and present considerations, racism is still a trump card that serves as a form of scaremongering that “apartheid will return if you don’t do the right thing”.
This is enough to jolt the gullible to repeatedly return to office those that let them down. Genuine racial integration remains a distant vision, seen in the continuation of apartheid spatial segregation, with so-called black, white, coloured and Indian areas still voting along racial lines.
This is a status quo that will remain for a long time as some political parties benefit from it, even though they will vehemently deny it.
Physical distance feeds into a psychological fear and negativity towards the other side. The ballot box becomes a tool to hit back against real or imagined injustices against the other side. We still look at other races as sides.
Everyone wants their side to win elections, sometimes at great costs or against their own self-interests. It’s not uncommon to hear on township street corners what the latest surveys do not even begin to fathom, “I would rather vote for the corrupt than vote for the racist. Racism is the worst form of corruption. After all it's our taxes that are going into the pockets of our brothers and sisters.”
The defacement of a mural bearing archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu’s face, the Clicks hair saga, Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at some historically white tertiary institutions, lack of transformation in private corporation boardrooms and many other incidents, while denied by some as insignificant in voting patterns, drive voting decisions to the detriment of crucial service delivery considerations.
Racists deny they are racist because no bully likes their faults to be pointed out, especially by people that they consider to be inferior to them. From this angle one can see that racism (and those that exploit racial divisions for their own self-interest) is definitely holding back the march towards non-racial democracy, with no visible leadership in sight to end this impasse.
Perceptions of political parties that represent either corruption or racism contribute to voter apathy. Growing voter apathy in my township, especially among the younger generation, can be attributed to those who don’t see the point of choosing between “two devils”, because such relations often do not end very well. Growing rates of apathy are denying the victors the legitimacy that a high voter turnout provides, and undermine trust in democratic elections as a vehicle to a better future.
This piece highlights a hard fact that when a significant portion of voters are seemingly caught between political parties that are perceived, justly or unjustly, either as corrupt or racist, future elections will not generate the type of confidence that service delivery will improve. Proof of better service delivery, especially at local level, must be the main criteria that must be used to vote the best candidate into office, and not the colour of a candidate’s skin.
• Sitshange is a Sowetan reader
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