Just before Midnight on Election Day, I abandoned the Count in the Amber Valley, Howick, Voting Station (43870204) which serves primarily, a clutch of Retirement Villages. The DA were recording 98% of the vote so there was no need for this IFP Party Agent to be a hawk-eye there. The IEC Presiding Officer was pleasant and highly competent.
A happy first for me was that she opened the count by handing out candles to each Party Agent and when they were lit there was a short prayer. The one DA Agent, William Urquhart, also prayed and in fluent Zulu. There was a clear commitment to righteousness. My first election day count was in 1972 in the Weenen Town Hall in the Klipriver Constituency Parliamentary by-election. Senator Charles Henderson was the United Party Candidate whom my wife and I were supporting, and Theo Gerdener was contesting for the National Party.
Wednesday this week was an extraordinary and historic Voting Day 30 years after our first and most welcome, democratic election in 1994. Then I was a party agent in the Estcourt and Wembezi Voting Stations.
For me personally, this election was especially meaningful because it was fifty years ago in April 1974 that I was first elected to Parliament as the United Party MP for Pinetown. Since then, in every count, when the ballot boxes are opened and the voters’ ballot papers tumble onto the counting tables, the atmosphere is filled with a breathless excitement which I once again found thrilling. Democracy is at work.
All the people in the locked room know that they are helping to make history. The air is full of tension and the officials are serious and determined. The Party Agents are fiercely committed to protect the votes that are cast for their party. Suspicious glowering is common and occasionally there is overt aggression. A policeman or two are always present for that, happily, rare, eventuality.
The results that have come in from the 29th of May are extraordinary and historic. For the ANC/SACP/COSATU Alliance it is volcanic. Communists have an eschatological “until Jesus comes” belief that when a liberation movement wins power, it can never lose power. Now they are wondering how on earth could Marx and Lenin have got it wrong. The commentariat but especially the left wing and woke journalists have been caught flat footed.
The coalition talks will now have to begin. A helpful insight into various coalitions scenarios is an Article by John Endres and Anlu Keeve of the IRR.
The Multi-Party Charter (MPC) have shown commendable leadership in laying the groundwork and doing planning over the past many months for the two hectic energised and pressurised two weeks from the time of the announcement of the official Election Results until Parliament is called to meet, which the Constitution lays down. Coalition negotiations must be complete, and horse-trading will take on a new meaning especially for all the little “tata-ma-chance” parties.
In Europe and Israel, it usually takes weeks and months to put a coalition together. Of course, the negotiations for the National coalitions and those in the Provinces will have different partners and dramas. The entrance of the MK party and the extent of its voter support has truly set the cat amongst the coalition negotiating pigeons.
The MPC with it’s 30% voter support, must immediately commence coalition negotiations with the ANC but insist that they will not have the SACP and COSATU at the table. The Tri-partite Alliance has three separate components with their own governance. The MPC has made it clear that it will stand for a free market economy.
An affidavit from each of the ANC negotiating team that declares they are not members of COSATU nor of SACP should be requested by the MPC. Concealment and lies are the culture of the SACP. The MPC parties and the ANC - even without its other two members of the Tri-partite Alliance - could have a governing majority coalition in the 7th National Parliament. South Africans may finally have a Parliamentary government which represents the moderate middle ground, which is what the majority of South Africans want from their Government.
Prominent ANC members like those who went to COPE and then returned to the ANC, and many ANC Veterans such as Snuki Zikalala, are likely to be supporters of such an ANC/MPC coalition. COSATU and the SACP would want a “Red Coalition” with the EFF and MK. MPC should have no truck with that.
One cannot but be thankful for our Election Day on 29th May 2024, for the IEC’s professional management but a 59% Voter Turnout with 97% of Voters counted at 7am on 1st June 2024, is disappointing. CEO, Mr Sy Mamabolo, and his team are to be congratulated as well as our thanks to Chairman Mr Mosotho Moepya and his fellow Commissioners.
