Zackie Achmat on the election results and what they mean

South African activist, Zachie Achmat expressed his views at the Hanns Seidel Foundation’s roundtable discussion regarding this year’s election results.

Achmat said the results affirmed the “enormous class and race divide” in our society due to people’s failure to vote. Over 40% of the electoral did not participate in elections.

“The biggest party in all our parliaments, national and provincial, are people who did not vote. That is seriously worrying, over 40% of the electorate didn’t participate in elections. The ANC rules nationally with 38% of eligible voters. The Democratic Alliance was no different in the Western Cape.”

However, Achmat said that despite voter failure in this year’s elections, there is a possibility for better organisational bodies to be put in place.

Despite the ANC’s numerous corruption scandals, statistics show that the party remained relatively consistent compared to the 2009 elections. And, according to Achmat, South Africa “is measurably better off today than it was before”.

“The ANC did not do as badly as people expected but the data was showing that. So if any of the analysts had looked at the data, they would have noticed that the ANC was not going to lose that much. The main reasons are that people have access to medicine - HIV treatment, access to education, many more have access to water, and access to social security.”

According to Achmat, the ANC’s continuous rise to power is a result of the South African people’s dignity to uphold Mandela’s legacy.

“The dignity of black people in many ways have been restored and we are a long way from doing it totally, but that’s what the last 20 years have done and the ANC is largely responsible for that together with the trade union movement. It’s the dignity of what revolutionary truths brought us”.

Achmat is optimistic about future elections and believes that a strong civil society network together with a committed government will lead to increased political growth for the country.

“I think we will do better than the United States and many other places where you have serious crooking in the elections, I think we have a vibrant strong enough civil society, we are strongly organised and I think government is largely committed to having a fair election and the ANC is not going to lose it very soon.”

When asked whether the new government will address civil society issues, Achmat was optimistic in his response and said that despite the inconsistencies in dealing with issues, civil society groups will continue to come together to achieve justice.

“Sometimes government addresses what we do, sometimes we have to protest, other times we have to go to court. I am very optimistic that as long as citizens can get together, we can achieve a lot more between elections.”

Ansha Krishnan, International Intern