The 2024 South African elections have staged a play in which the greatest number of participants 50 political parties to be exact, even independently candidates has been recorded in the history of our democracy.
Each of the parties competing for ideological recognition from its electorates, have gone out and through various persuasive strategies have been able to win the hearts of many voters.
The South African political landscape has over the years seen the evolving of its political spectrum from a dichotomous participation polarised exclusively along racial lines to its current state which spews maximum participation based on ideological differences.
The outcome of the 2024 elections saw the decline in votes for the ANC which has been the ruling party since the birth of this democratic dispensation.
The ANC has been forced into coalition agreements with various parties among which is the Democratic Alliance, so as to not relinquish its stance as being the ruling party.
Coalitions however always come with a certain degree of compromise. The ANC has always been linked to the Tripartite Alliance. Among the Alliance partners is the South African Communists Party. Their new found partnership with the DA- which is perceived to be a capitalist player poses a concern to many since these two parties have contrasting ideologies. Many fail to see them working within the same political space.
The question then is whether the Alliance will stand or will be forced to disintegrate.
Can the average South African see beyond the confines of a painful past, which has kept them from economic emancipation even within the so called “democratic” dispensation? Economic emancipation has been a foreign concept in the lives of black people with most of the factors of production being in the hands of a few white minorities.
All that can be done is to look on as the theatrics of the day play themselves out, with the hope that there will be a better tomorrow for all South Africans.
Lorraine Moremi
Soweto Sunrise News
