TESSA DOOMS | Political intentions must be valued higher than political affiliations

There is a growing call in SA for new politics. Many people have undoubtedly lost faith in party politics and democratic institutions. Big man and big party politics is facing a crisis of legitimacy as fewer people turn out to vote and many people reject party memberships. The time has come to ask whether a politics that centres on the party brand and popular personalities is what will animate and increase political participation.

At the beginning of July, the Defend our Democracy Campaign, an activist initiative aimed at defending constitutional order in SA hosted a conference of more than 100 civil society organisations to discuss democratic renewal. The declaration produced by this conference makes a clear call for a new politics.

It reads: “We need new and innovative ways of thinking about politics, mobilising and organising to reignite people’s power. Our point of departure should be based on clear constitutional principles, economic inclusion, values of solidarity, social and climate justice, ethical behaviour, respect, collaboration, and transparency, which must advance participatory democracy and unity. The new politics must change the lived experience of joblessness, a stagnant economy, adverse climate change effects, and indefensible inequality. Similarly, the private sector must be held accountable to the duties and values of the constitution.”

What is most striking about this declaration's characterisation of new politics is that it fails to mention political parties and the state institutions elected party representatives occupy. It does not fixate on cadre deployment or factionalism. It does not make a case for different opposition party tactics. This declaration focuses on people and institutions outside formal party politics as the central focus of a new politics. It is a call to look to and champion “people’s power” rather than the power of political party leaders as the source for politics that will promote democracy. It calls for an action orientation that solves for people’s immediate problems.

It signals values rather than party membership as the starting point for transformative politics. Parties can easily be positioned as divisive, with a “for us or against us” posture, while uniting around values invited people to consider, debate and find common agendas around the things people agree on and can develop plans for collective action regardless of their organisations, communities or diverse backgrounds. Our political intentions must be valued higher than our political affiliations.

There are two seeds of hope for new politics already embedded in SA society. First is micro-political organising. South Africans are engaged in political organising at community levels in at least two ways; as formal and informal civic formations and movements resisting or seeking to influence governance or as small political parties that are focused on single issues or local political representation. In both cases communities are using small-scale collective formations to challenge political ideas and power.

But if we consider that politics is at its most basic level best described as “the power to act”, many people with little to no resources and limited access to state power continue to solve issues such as food security, economic participation, youth development and crime. Local struggles continue to be met with local action, action that if scaled could be a political game changer.

In 2019, a record number of parties contested a national election when 48 parties were on the national ballot and more than 200 parties contested provincially. Last year, 325 parties contested the local government elections. South Africans are showing an appetite for local politics, where they are connected intimately to the collective and the leadership or public representatives are known in their communities. Perhaps a path to a new politics means following people towards a more local, constituency-driven politics.

This is closely connected to the second seed of hope, electoral reforms. We already have on the table an Electoral Amendment Bill that seeks to action the 2020 Constitutional Court judgment that independent candidates should be enabled to contest the elections at national and provincial levels in the 2024 general election.

The bill calls society to a much-needed debate and potentially a referendum on electoral reforms that can give voters more options for how to contest politics and importantly how to hold representatives in parliament, legislatures and even in the office of the president more directly accountable after the vote. As voters we must take the current opportunity and create more opportunities to demand an electoral system that takes power out of the hands of party bosses and puts it firmly in the hands of voters and the people of SA.