It is that time of the year; local government elections have once again dawned on us. Metsimaholo municipality in the Northern Free State appear to be the most contested municipality in the upcoming 4th November elections amongst other three municipalities in the Fezile Dabi region.
The sheer number of political parties contesting the elections is a testament that these elections will go to the wire and will be protracted and highly contested one, in the history of this municipality. Astonishingly is the fact that there are 888 aspiring councillor candidates from the 32 political parties that have registered to contest the elections in this municipality. Amongst those political parties are the so-called local civic organizations and the mainstream political parties such as the ANC, DA and the EFF. The current analysis show that of the twenty-three wards being contested, each ward is contested by twenty-five to twenty-six political parties.
The big question one must grapple with, does the proliferation of many of these newly established political parties contesting the elections demonstrate that SA/Azania democracy is evolving? This also bags the question, why after almost 30 years that the ANC has been in power, why this big number? Who is funding these political parties, both the local and national ones? Do these numbers show interest in politics or do they demonstrate that our democracy is maturing?
Perhaps to do justice in answering these questions, why such big number of political parties having registered to participate in the elections since 2024, we can explore the following assumptions:
1. Has private donors became the invincible hand that determine the results of the electoral process in South Africa? This act is succinctly demonstrated by private donors meddling in the internal electoral process of the ANC since 2017 with one billion bounty from private donors favouring the current incumbent faction.
2. Does the huge number of political parties an indication that our electoral process is so open that anyone or some individuals or group of people can contest elections for the sake of contesting without offering nothing tangible to change or make a difference
3. The other assumption may be that people are showing their disgruntlement, disappointment with the ruling African National Congress, that has been running the country since 1994.
4. Lack of basic services, such as water, electricity, roads be the main problem why we have so many political parties. While corruption, at local government level is a factor why many political parties have registered to participate in the elections.
5. Has opportunistic local business or tenderpreneurs enter the fray through funding some of the local political parties wanting to extend their influence in the tendering processes at municipalities.
6. Other analysts point to the fact that there are invincible private hands, that have infiltrated the ANC internal processes of elections, and these powerful private donors are also funding other political parties with the aim and objective of weakening the ANC.
Based on these assumption and theories, Metsimaholo municipality is not immune from this new tendency of the municipal capture. With funded budget sitting at R2,1 billion and infrastructure department allocated a big chunk of this budget.
It goes without saying that Metsimaholo as a catalytic municipality in the Free State is going to receive lot of attention as it seeks to expand its infrastructure projects.
The other question we must ask is, whether will these political parties Manifesto encourage the electorate to go and vote in huge numbers. Are their Manifestos a list of rhetorical issues which cannot be attained and therefore make a difference into the livelihood of our youths and the unemployed.
Few if not none of the current political parties have spelled out how the financial stability of Metsimaholo municipality, will be achieved and how or what type of financial architecture they would employ, in order to sustain the municipality. For instance, the electorate is expecting that political parties will work hard in facilitating job creation while at the same time attempting to grow the local economy of the municipality.
As to how realistic are political party’s manifestos, my observation says many political parties have not been able to convince me that they have real solutions facing this municipality. In conclusion, there will be no outright winner in these elections.
There are some permutations facing some mainstream political parties, especially those that have been affected by defections, those that faced serious internal divisions going into nominations, are the ones who going to be affected.
*Sello Hlasa is the former Executive Mayor of Metsimaholo Local Municipality. He shares views and opinions in his personal capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of this publication.
