Opposition politics in Africa often meant the bullet instead of the ballot, and a change of government seldom brought positive changes in governance. It was more often than not just a case of a change of faces at the feeding trough. Fortunately this is changing and in South Africa is leading the way.
With the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, euphoria ruled. Then Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu's "Rainbow Nation" seemed firmly on track, but soon enough the 'rainbow' became monochrome and this bedevilled opposition politics in the country ever since.
The obstacles faced by opposition parties in South Africa are many-fold and complex to address. I will just have a brief look at some of the main ones and at the ways opposition parties deal with them.
First of all the concept of "loyal opposition" is new to South Africa and as such often poorly understood. This is reflected in the huge majority the ruling African National Congress (ANC) have won in the three fully democratic elections since 1994. That is despite their decidedly poor track record in delivering on their election promises.
That is just one of the obstacles opposition parties in South Africa, as elsewhere in Africa, face. This holds true especially in rural areas where traditional leaders have held sway for hundreds of years and opposition to them meant either death or banishment. The idea of a loyal opposition simply did not exist.
Other problems include what I would call the Lure of the Liberation movement and a strong belief in ancestors. These two go hand in hand. It boils down to the following pattern of thought: "I must vote for the liberation movement, because my ancestors fought and died for it, and they would be angry if I voted for someone else."
Then there is a perceptional problem that is unique to South Africa. The official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is perceived as being a party promoting "white" interests. Whether this perception is based on any kind of reality is debatable and quite contentious, but the fact remains that it exists. The ANC realises this all too well and does not hesitate to exploit it to their full advantage.
That was particularly true under the rule of former president Thabo Mbeki who tarnished the legacy of Nelson Mandela by making race central to all his policies. Thus it became easy for him to label all criticism of his government as "racist" and, as such, not worthy of debate. And when the criticism emanated from black quarters the critics were derogatorily called "coconuts" meaning people who are black on the outside and white on the inside. Their criticism could also be dismissed out of hand.
DA MP James Lorimer says that the return to race-based politics under Mbeki was a direct result of the palpable failure of many of his policies to provide the "Better life for all" promised on ANC election posters. In fact Lorimer also blames the race-based approach for many subsequent failures of the ANC government. The appointment on racial grounds of loyal ANC cadres to especially the middle management structures of the public service often meant that the most competent person did not get the job. This led to a blockage of service delivery projects at the very place where they were supposed to take final and effective shape.
Now the question remains: Are these very real obstacles insurmountable? South African opposition parties do not seem to think so and they may just be right.
The DA is especially optimistic that South African politics are escaping from "the straight-jacket of race and ethnicity" in the words of Lorimer. Surprisingly, Lorimer credits the emergence of the Congress of the People (COPE), a break-away party from the ANC, for what he sees as the beginning of of a sea-change in opposition politics in South Africa. He says that COPE, despite its organisational shortcomings, opened the first non-racial debate about opposition in the country and this benefited his party enormously.
Suddenly it was "Okay" to vote for someone other than the ANC. In the 2009 elections, the DA had a nett gain of 20 seats against a nett loss of 33 seats for the ANC. But the majority remains firmly in favour of the ANC. They have 264 seats in parliament against the DA's 67, the 30 seats of COPE and the 18 of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
The remaining 27 seats are shared by smaller parties like the Independent Democrats (ID) with four seats and the Freedom Front + (FF+) also with four seats. The problem these parties face is once again the perception, in their case mostly accurate, that they serve the interests of small or ethnic groupings. Thus the ID is seen as a mainly 'coloured' (mixed race) party of the Western Cape, the IFP as an ethnic Zulu party and the FF+ as a party serving thee needs of conservative Afrikaners. The general feeling is that these parties are likely to disappear gradually as the South African democracy matures.
As for COPE, like many opposition parties in Africa, they face mostly problems of their own making. They started out with much fanfare but even before their first election, they descended into leadership squabbles that cost them dearly. They finally went into the elections with a compromise leader with no political track record. Ever since the election they have been plagued by infighting and organisational disarray. Their future does not look very bright.
In contrast the DA is "keenly looking forward to the next elections," says Lorimer. He says that the Lure of the Liberation movement is fading fast as is witnessed by the number of violent service delivery protests besetting mostly the ANC dominated provinces of the country. Although the Western Cape where the DA rules has also had some service delivery protests, it was nowhere nearly as bad as elsewhere in the country. A fact that the DA hopes would not be lost on the electorate.
To sum up then, opposition politics in South Africa are changing slowly but surely and is likely to mature into a two or three party system in the not so distant future.
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