Eye on Africa| South Africa votes in most crucial election since end of apartheid • FRANCE 24

thanks very much for staying with us time now for eye on Africa with me Georgia Calvin Smith and tonight we have one thing in our sights and that is vote counting being underway in South Africa as millions of people turned out on Wednesday for landmark elections three decades after the end of a parite in a pole that could see the ruling ANC party fighting to protect its three decade long hold on power now South Africa's independent electoral Commission says that it thinks that turnout to Wednesday's Landmark general election May well surpass the 66% scene in 2019 millions of Voters cued for hours to have their say in the most uncertain poll since the end of a parte rule 30 years ago president Z Raposa of the ruling ANC party is hoping to be reelected but it is the most crowded political landscape the country seen since 19 1994 and opposition parties are hoping that could mean a change to the status quo our Anne ventel followed the day for us from Cape Town earlier today the IAC said that at over 90% of the 23,000 voting stations all had gone smoothly but at 6% of stations they were delays due to technical glitches however a source inside the IEC said the snaking cures were much more widespread than that and also largely due to the I self being disorganized using the word mediocre to describe what they had witnessed but South Africans Hungry For Change stood in four hourong cues determined to have some change in their daily lives and after 30 years ofc rule voters want more than they've gotten from the ruling party yeah I think there is some suspense in the election and certain provinces I think more so than others um but it is exciting it's nice to see a turnout and 30 years I have seen nothing thec has just destroyed destroyed and yes there have been challenges over the last 30 years but there's also been many successes there's been opportunities for all the other people in this country I feel like my color people didn't doesn't have that uh opportunity to move forward so I want to see the change in the color communities this election offers a chance at change which may be ushered in by a coalition government rather than thec so it's the country's seventh national elections since it became a multi-racial democracy voters will choose the 400 members of the National Assembly who will then choose a president now South Africa May remain deeply divided on some levels but one thing many voters can agree on is the issues that they're considering when wearing up who to back an afrobarometer survey puts immigration currently at 32.9% in South Africa right at the top of Voters concerns way ahead of the day-to-day inconveniences of long running power shortages and even concerns about corruption now many of these issues have been around for a long time and have led to a potential shift in loyalties that could threaten the comfortable parliamentary majority that thec has long enjoyed he spent 27 years in prison but in 1994 South Africa's most famous Freedom Fighter Nelson Mandela became the country's first black president and thec African National Congress came to power we are going forward the March towards freedom and Justice is irreversible founded in 1912 but outlawed in 1960 the anc's pivotal role in ending the brutally racist IST apite regime earned the party profound Allegiance from black South Africans as they embarked on a new Democratic chapter thec promised to reverse the injustices of white minority rule more jobs better housing education access to land since 1994 there's been some successes more South Africans are going into Education 4 million subsidized homes have been created for low-income families but after 30 years ofc rule South Africa still remains one of the world's most unequal Nations thec says it's still battling historic inequality our struggle to overcome the devastating economic and social Legacy of apartate and colonialism despite the severe challenges we now confront we have the ability as the African National Congress to turn things around already 10 years ago the anc's political Rivals squarely blamed the party for the country's problems if our government was doing its work properly the economy would be growing much faster to create the jobs we need to tackle our biggest problem which is unemployment and poverty South Africa is the continent's top economy and has huge potential it's rich in minerals is a hub for African Innovation and has a growing middle class but the anc's face persistent accusations of mismanagement and endemic corruption some of the most damaging scandals involve for president Jacob Zuma he has been suspended from thec faces criminal charges over an allegedly corrupt 1999 arms deal and has even spent time in prison the Zuma you and your government don't represent me but the anc's former speaker of Parliament and even its Secretary General have also faced charges of CFT and voters have become increasingly frustrated discontent that is found by crippling blackouts and water shortages caused by ailing infrastructure the slow but steady erosion of the anc's reputation means that for the first time since 1994 Nelson Mandela's party risks losing enough popular support to keep its parliamentary majority and may need to form a governing Coalition well more on this I'm joined Now by Asanda angen who's a political analyst joining me now from Cape Town asander so thanks so much for making time to to come on the show on such a big day for South Africa now you know in the runup to this vote for months now I would say the top line into tackling this International at least has been this question of is thec going to be able to hold on to its parliamentary majority um but you actually think that perhaps that risk is is somewhat overblown why so well I think that you know the the ANC is definitely going to drop in terms of the support that it got so in the last um election it got about 57% in the last national election and it's not likely to get that 57% but I do think it'll still hit just over 50% which secures the majority that it needs to govern the country I also think what I think because a lot of people are rightfully upset at thec because of corruption because of crime because of unemployment but a lot of them actually choose to stay home as a protest vote against thec and some even go as far as making the pallot and then spoiling their vote so that thec doesn't get their vote but they feel like this makes a point there are very few South Africans who take the anger and frustration at thec and actually go out and vote for opposition parties and this is where the issue is that although the African National Congress has disappointed a lot of people and a lot of people are upset with it the opposition parties has simply failed to capture the ination of most South Africans and therefore they may not lose their majority and in fact it may actually be that a lot of the new political parties that are coming may be taking votes from the opposition rather than from thec itself so let's say that the the poll suggesting that thec does slip before slip below 50% uh do I are correct what would that mean for thec what would um Coalition having to form a coalition mean for South Africa would that necessarily be a bad thing well in general terms a coalition is not necessarily a bad thing but in in this particular economy that is postco that requires a strong government who can make decisions and be decisive in their actions it's not necessarily a good thing because we've seen in South afria Africa at a municipal level multiple governments that were Coalition governments a lot of them formed by the opposition party the Democratic Alliance which have folded within a year because of infighting and because ideologically a lot of these parties don't actually have a foundational basis upon which to agree and so what then happens is when issues that require ideological alignment come up they can't come to an agreement and that is what we've seen in South Africa multiple Coalition governments at Municipal level or local government level coming together and then folding within a year which has led to a series of lack of delivery across various provinces and municipalities in South Africa because one government comes in has certain priorities and just before they start spending the money towards those priorities a new government then comes in and changes the priorities to its own priorities and just as they about to start implementing a third government or Coalition then comes in which causes a lot of instability in an already kind of precous country in terms of volatility because of youth unemployment and all of the other issues that I've mentioned so we we we focus so much on thec and and what its fate is likely to be um coming out of these these elections um but what about let's any of the opposition parties particularly the main opposition party the Democratic Alliance it's also possibly facing a slide in support as well isn't it yes it is there seems to be you know South Africans seem to be tired of the incumbents and that is the African National Congress at a national level and the Democratic Alliance at a provincial level because they govern the Western Cape and what a lot of people have been saying is that they feel the incumbents are arrogant they feel like they don't listen to the people anymore because they feel like they kind of guaranteed their vote and so a lot of people have gone out to say they want to vote for other political parties that haven't had a chance and see if they can deliver a government that's different to what the incumbents have delivered but the de Democratic Alliance in particular has and will see a decline because they chose to be pro-israel which is against the South African government stance which is to be Pro Palestine and this is something that I think is going to cost them a lot of votes particularly colored votes and and Indian votes and Muslim votes which are the votes that the da relied on in past elections to be able to win because the Democratic Alliance has mainly been a political party of white interest and white people with a smattering of colored people Indian and Muslim people voting for them who now have made public declarations that they will never get their vote again because they do not support genocidal political parties thank you so much for that breakdown as sander anding their political analyst speaking to us from Cape Town as the country goes to vote uh for its general election now on the national ballot paper are 52 parties including the Democratic Alliance that s sander just referred to there but there's also the radical economic freedom fighters the brand new MK party Independence however it is still the anc's record that seems to play the biggest part in shaping what's to come and part of the reason its survival hangs in the balance is a growing sense of Abandonment from Key demographics now our team went to a rural Village and spoke to voters there uh from a small village in the province of Kulu natal uh and they shared their hopes for the future n Colo Colo is a small isolated Village in the Zulu Province hongi was born here he dreams of De roads but above all a bridge residents have to cross the river which often floods to do their shopping or go to school five people have died here in the past 10 years over 15 years we talking one thing I say we need the bridge to to cross the the river he said okay before were we are putting the the stone here see must after finish to put the stone we can come to put the C to make the bridge we do that still when we never come to cross the river is also dangerous for the elderly this mother and grandmother no longer have access to Medical Care the residents meet regularly to organize among themselves but they are alone their ANC counselor resigned a few months before the elections no one has repaired the roof of the crash and there is no running water in the village all that Rems we don't have water the water tankers didn't come and deliver the water and we don't have the the right Road I think you see the road on the side the Vatican can't come here we're trying so many times but nothing happened one has to travel far to the sugarcane fields to find work bongi is SK to introduce us to a family whose only means of survival is social grounds the mother and daughter have three children to feed like half of all South Africans they live below the poverty line very very very cross the people very very very cross I have never voted but this year it's different the people of n coloo have been voting they seem determined not to support the ruling party but to have cast their vote villagers including the elderly first had to cross the river to reach the polling station well just under a fifth of the more than 27 million registered voters in South Africa are younger than 30 Kim chulu Amina is a lecturer and a chief technical officer at a startup in South Africa focused on allowing young people to learn in their mother tongues um Kim thanks so much for for making time to to speak to me um first of all you know there's a lot of of generational divide appar ly in the support of thec young people seem to be particularly aggrieved with the current kind of state of affairs from the work that you do lecturing and working in the field of Education could you give us a bit of an insight as to why that might be hey uh thank you very much first of all Georgia for having me here um well within the work that I do which uh as you mentioned includes you know being a lecturer being involved in education and you know we focus quite a lot on education technology and and trying to ensure that we can provide better education you know starting from the the foundation phase the there are a lot of issues that has contributed and that is still contributing into the Divide as it is currently and some of those issues have been you know based on trying to fix the previous divide but however it is now causing another divide and I think when uh we start speaking about it from your entry level to uh University uh uh you you you you kind of find yourself in a position where what was set as a rule or as a way to have more uh black people to graduate from a certain percentage with mathematics is now turning out to kind of be against them because the percentage that they pass with is now the reason why they can't have access to certain uh uh um high qualifications which are currently playing well in this kind of situation so those are some of the things that you know we're looking at how do we fix it and how do we contribute in fixing them because it is causing definitely um grievance amongs uh young people so more more coherent policies in terms of Education that not only mean that you get more kind of um traditionally disenfranchise South Africans into um into Tech and stem spaces but also in a way that means they continue to progress is that is that the kind of landscape that you're outlining there yeah because we we we we having a huge skills uh skills Gap in the country like it is it is quite it is quite bad and that you know comes from the early stages of not being well prepared but when we progress with that you know unprepared structure we definitely see it as they now move into different uh areas and you know that's definitely one of the foundation of why we wanted to do the work as we do it but there's definitely a need for restructuring the way the current system and process is done to benefit the young people uh in terms of more employment opportunities as well when it comes to employment do you think that the government has been ambitious enough in terms of embracing new opportun unities in terms of creating jobs that come with emerging sectors like Tech uh I would say that uh they have not aggressively done it as we would have expected and again this comes also from some you know some issues where we've got you know we had different layers of issues that we had to solve before we get to to where we are and unfortunately Co also happened and you know the majority of the fund went into certain areas and you know some of them were indicated also to be uh uh you know missing or you know uh used for for other things but there has not been the expectation that we would have had especially after covid where we saw that a lot of emerging Tech uh uh you know businesses or or entrepreneurs or startups were actually growing and booming in other part of the world world that has not been that increased to say now that we see what is happening we can then provide more to this industry because it's definitely what you know we're forced to witness and um there is still a lot to be done and and I might say there's still a lot to be done for this to be fixed we a country where we've got 90% or so of the population or households that actually have a mobile device in the in the in the household and yet again the way it's being utilized to benefit certain digital uh uh um careers or path or opportunities is not yet at the level that we should have actually been expecting by now and you were saying that you actually directly asked some of the young people that you lecture you know what their plans were going into the election and you were quite surprised at how little engagement there was just just tell us a little bit more about what you encountered when you put that question to them well there's definitely you know a disengaged youth I would say and um that would probably come from you know different angles and and we know that some of them have not yet yet uh experienced what exactly the the world of work is and um I'm I'm I'm under you know an institution where the students there are actually provided with well the majority of the students there are usually provided with a fund uh and support support from the government um and that fund allows them to have education and also allows them to uh um have you know meals for you know and and residents and and things like that which they have to apply for and you have to fit within a particular category for you to then be qualifying for that and when considering all of that it it was quite surprising that in the previous election before the one of today when I engaged with the young people the conversation were very much not promising there was a lot of disengagement and trying to check from them like why are they not voting and you can see that there is a lot of not even a reason to not going because it is not impacting them they just don't think it's going to change anything for them it doesn't it doesn't M it doesn't seem to change anything hence not enough to be done I mean you mentioned yourself the numbers there I mean it we we we we have a huge uh um youth uh population but the fact that they are not taking action into what exactly should determine their uh uh future is is very much is very much it should be alarming and it's something that um I don't think it's been tapped very well from the political party for them to understand uh to to make that an understanding to to the young people the youth that their voice matter in these situation and and that's alarming you so we we don't have very much time but but what I think is interesting is is um the the quite unique take that you and you you've taken in terms of trying to make sure that learning and Young Learners see themselves reflected in some of the tools that um that that you've um put together so it's Ambani it is a I think it's a digital platform whereby um you young young children can from the beginning of their life start learning and and establishing critical thinking skills and and processing information in their mother tongue rather than being thrown into English schools this kind of creativity do you think that have you seen any interest from State institutions to start kind of folding this in better into educational policies uh or or institutions uh listen just you know very very quick probably we've got quite a good number of Institutions higher education institutions in South Africa but I can Lally point you with you know just one hand you know just one or two institutions that have actually actively pushing for a multilingualism approach in terms of how they would be teaching and that's one of the you know institution that we actually having a a project with and we are helping them with our technology in terms of furthering and simplifying how they can actually provide that uh versus a traditional way of of printing many for different languages and it's something that should have been implemented across but even the state I would say state owned uh institutions or you know the institions that definitely Affiliated to the state are not the ones that are enforcing those policies so it's something that definitely has to be looked uh uh at um a lot of the young people a lot of the the kids they have like 8% of the kids are literally only speaking English in the household um in South Africa when they're young but then as soon as they get into V into school they have to now start changing and drafting their way of thinking and their were of processing things in English which causes certain barriers and we definitely thought we could contribute at that early stage to remove those barriers and not create unnecessary gaps when we already have so much from the past so let's allow for uh cognitive development um to just go smoothly and and and and and allow kids to grow and understand concept better so I mean the point there is is really taking a creative creative approach taking advantage of all the tools available to make sure that every aspect of society is being folded in Kim thank you so much for taking the time for sharing your perspective with us thank you all very much for joining us for iron Africa for this South African election special that's all we have time for unfortunately but do join us again if you can till then take care [Music] special event with weekly programs and special guests the opening of the Olympic Games is getting closer destination palace with France 24

Channel: FRANCE 24 English

Views: 2,947

Keywords: South Africa, elections

Id: 7051WQ1yhis

Length: 25min 49sec (1549 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2024