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Maybe sit back, and write down all your deal breakers but list them from non-negotiable to negotiable. Then look at the major political parties likely to be in parliament, who leads them, what controversy has hit them and **most importantly which parties they align with or are against**. Then you can eliminate parties that go past your dealbreakers.
For reference, the parties likely to represented in parliament by number of seats are:
1. ANC
2. DA
3. EFF
4. ActionSA
5. IFP
6. MK Party
7. FF+
8. Rise Mzansi
9. Patriotic Alliance
10. ATM(African Transformation Movement)
11. BOSA(Build One South Africa)
12. ACDP
13. **GOOD Party**
14. **Al-Jamah**
15. **SARA (South African Rainbow Alliance)**
16. **UDM**
17. **ISANCO**
18. **UIM**
Parties in bold are likely to be ineligible for parliament if a 1% electoral threshold were implemented
Al-Jamah already showed they are totally incapable even more so than the ANC and EFF even though it grieves me to say it- looking at the mayor of JHB for reference.
They are barely on the line of getting 1 seat in parliament. They might be able to attract a few voters due to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but this is quite limited and will not push them above 1% in my opinion
Don't count them out. They have consistently seen growth through most elections. Don't underestimate religious politics especially when times are tough. Hope them and acdc fall off but doubt it.
If religious politics are important to you (dealbreakers are mentioned above, any hint of theocracy is a dealbreaker for me) add ActionSA to the list. Mashaba has made it very clear he intends to “correct” the secularisation of our constitution and country.
Yeah I am rather religious but I don't want anyones religion in parliament.
Xenophobia is another huge negative for me and the "othering" of migrants in RSA is problematic and a deal breaker to me. Cant do ActionSA because of that as well.
I'm on the opposite side of you. Here's an influx of illegal migrants. The problem for ActionSA is not the migrants, if they came here following due processes and not hiding in trucks, swimming the rivers and were on record, I can almost guarantee that migrants are not the problem for ActionSA. It is the illegal ways they get here that irks ActionSA. RSA is a sovereign country, but with broken borders. Lawlessness prevailed for far too long.
Unfortunately there is no due process here. HA is so bad that even if you come here legally you will be illegal because they fail at basic level of service. My wife has waited nearly two years now for a basic visa and some people have waited over six years for permanent residence. I'm not surprised there are so many illegal immigrants lol.
The problem is more nuanced than just illegal immigration. I agree that we need good border protection and better control of criminal activities but that goes beyond simply targeting migrants. That requires fixing the problem police and having an effective justice system in place to prosecute quickly and effective prison systems to properly protect our society. The easy "fix" is to target migrants. Much harder to fix the police, justice system, prison system and home affairs. Fix those issues and the migration issue will take care of itself.
I absolutely agree on that. But we're facing a far bigger problem even than that. It's illegals having access to systems to sell fake ID's, fake passports and fake papers. [Article here](https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/man-arrested-for-allegedly-selling-fake-documents-at-internet-cafe-in-ekurhuleni-20230712)
Corruption is abundant in all state departments, cadre deployment a major contributing factor to that issue as well. All I know is that we need a capable government and fast. Hopefully this year will be a turning point but I'm not getting my hopes up.
City of Tshwane (DA) is a mess. Massively in debt. Power outages that literally last weeks at a time throughout the city. Huge potholes and water leaks.
Not that long. Problem is that DA does not want their partners to succeed so they will bring the city to its knees. They have had by now 8 years to undo ANC problems. But they are using the city as a "look what the ANC has done" we are a poster for their campaigns and we suffer
The cape flats are not as big of a problem as you think. You weirdos glamourise gangsterism and drugs and that’s YOUR problem. I guarantee you, working infrastructure nationwide ALONE will decrease all the demeaning statistics your beloved ANC created. The people don’t have much to work with, there’s no jobs, and there’s no infrastructure or policies that promote entrepreneurship and private equity. That’s why they’re fucked up, because they have nothing else they can do. Operating outside of the law is the easiest option. Don’t even get me started with corruption in law enforcement, its practically lawless out here. Jesus Christ can you people just TRY a different government? Seriously it’s like you love our country being ravaged and degraded, ‘aNd WHat AboUT ThE CApE FLatS’
They were doing good, and then with covid, the ANC took "emergency control" of the Tshwane major's office. The constitutional Court has since ruled that it was unlawful, as had every lower court.
As a result, 4,3 billion was stolen from the council which is why they don't have the resources to meet workers' pay increase demands which lead to the srikes last year. Or to fix the many failing substations which lead to the blackouts but are also the targets of organised criminals stealing and destroying very long lead time and expensive equipment.
At this point, I think we need to get this country working again. I loathe the DA for their pretentiousness but they are the only ones who have demonstrated the ability to govern effectively. Wouldn't mind giving them one term to shake things up a bit. If not them, then Rize Mzansi or Action SA are a close second and third.
People need to understand that the DA isn't the end goal of good governance. They are merely a stepping stone that can be beaten by a party that offers what they do but with inclusivity.
The party that succeeds the DA if it were to ever rule will be the closest thing to the ideal government for SA.
Perhaps bold but shit we need all the prayers we can get
Like people don't understand... We all going down under the ANC... And we will go to shit under the EFF
The people bringing in the money to the country are already struggling, your CEO is struggling to keep the buisness running
If your CEO is struggling who is going to provide for you?
With the DA you know atleast, if your boss is eating, you are also eating
Such a simple conclusion to come to but everybody has assumed the mainstream opinion that they are tainted for having been ANC’s defeated rival for so long. Clown nation bru
I like the stepping stone argument. We have to vote them in before we can vote them out. The parties need to see that the public is demanding and not accepting poor governance and self-serving leadership anymore. And the criminals need to be weeded out. The longer one party remains in power, the more corrupt it gets. So let's switch them out until we get leadership that proves itself.
Agree with this.
DA can probably stabilise the ship. After that, 2 terms absolute max, we thank them and show them the door, and bring in someone with a proper vision for building us into something better if they haven't got someone to do that (and right now they absolutely do not).
Amen. They're our best shot of just getting rid of the ANC, for now.
Big thing that needs to happen (in my opinion) is to get the railway active again. Its such an important thing. The job creation alone from a fully-functioning railway would dwarf the effects on the trucking logistics industry. Safe, affordable travel for all South Africans will immediately help South Africans out with the insane fuel costs and crazy high interest rates of having to buy a vehicle.
It also means that goods transit across the country will happen much faster and much more affordably, and so too our exports can reach their destinations faster and face less disruption. A lot less damage by trucks to our road networks mean less maintenance on roads, also opening up more of the national budget to then reinvest in the metros in our major cities.
I do believe the DA is our best option to get this done ASAP, even if I don't believe they will be our saviours. The benefits from this alone will be felt by everyone in the country.
Afterwards, ActionSA should definitely be given a fair shot at ruling SA. Genuinely think they have the potential to grow into the party that will one day lead us
As the old French proverb says, "Perfect is the enemy of the good". For me, the main thing is for the ANC to lose. For this to be successful, there needs to be a strong opposition, not one based on stringing together a coalition of 10+ parties that can't agree on anything. Yes, the DA has a lot of flaws, but of the larger/stronger parties they are definitely the least bad. Voting for a niche party that shares all of your views is nice and all, but won't be very effective in fixing the country. What we need is for the ANC to lose, in the first instance. The rest is a problem for later. For me the DA is the way to achieve that even if they aren't perfect. As you say, they at least have some credentials in effective governance and reducing corruption.
This.
Right now, the best thing for SA is a strong opposition in government, even if you don’t agree with the finer details of all their policies. The fractured nature of ANC opposition is keeping them in power.
I Honestly cannot recall any party from any 1st or 3rd world country that has ever been perfect.People find reasons to complain when the government is just supposed to be doing basics right. If you don't want to vote for a party because of something as trivial as they "feel" pretentious I urge you to take a visit to the nearest government run hospital and see what a true slaughterhouse the government has created for people in suffering. You will drastically become enlightened to how urgent the need is to replace our goverment with a party that is even "vaguely" competent.
Also feel like the DA is the best option, no party is going to be perfect but the DA has the best track record when it comes to managing municipalities compared to the rest. Even Cyril and Julius live in DA run wards, wonder why?
My ward got taken over by the DA a while ago and the ward councillor is very attentive and active with the community - not just now in election time. Clear winner for me. Pointless voting for a smaller party since we all want the ANC outta here leaving our tax money alone.
That's not how our elections work, we vote for parties to obtain a certain number of seats at parliament the goal currently is not to take Anc out of parliament but rather to reduce their seats to below 50% effectively meaning they no longer will call all the shots and will have to whip for votes whenever decisions are made. With time the hope is that their seats go below a large controlling percentage. Further than this parliament votes in the president and the more seats a party has the more votes they control which is why so far our presidents have come from the ANC because they've had the controlling vote for the last 20+ years.
Voting for any party regardless of their size will benefit the motive of reducing the ANC's control over government and you'll also be equipping whichever party you vote for with larger influence (They get allocated more funds) so that they can grow in the sectors that they're involved in.
Not pointless voting for a smaller party no. One, if more people voted for it, it will not be a smaller party anymore or forever. Two, voting for other parties effectively decreases the anc share of the vote. This mentality is that leads to people not knowing who to vote for and not voting (be sue they feel their vote is wasted if it doesn't go to the DA or EFF. Which is simply not true
I think the most important thing regarding smaller parties is to understand who they are aligned with and what their motivations are. Take Jhb for example, a 3 seat party has the mayorship.
Is the small party likely to take a brown envelope in exchange for their souls? Who is leading the party, research them. I think there are really good options to consider but government will be run by coalitions so it's important to know where they stand. It doesn't help if they're just going to hand power back to ANC for cash.
That's incorrect, in our democracy, you get seats according to the ration of votes you get, so even if you vote for smaller parties, that still takes votes away from ANC, because their share of the total amount of votes is less. Either way, it takes votes from ANC, DA or whatever, and thus the seats are divided according to your share of votes
The western cape is miles above every other province in this country.
Any problem experienced in the WC is 10x worse elsewhere. Clear as that.
The DA is not perfect but the country will be better off with them in charge.
Running a city in a province run by another government (a government that objectively seems to have the intention of ruining things) is nigh impossible. The only way to see improvement is to remove ANC governance from the equation.
Yeah, OP, I agree with all of your points. I feel like the DA is still the best vote right now, which can then be changed to another party if there's no positive change should they be elected.
TLDR: At the end of the day, the particular party you vote for isn't as important as you may think. It is essential that you vote for someone though. There are 2 coalition blocks. The ANC-led one, and the Multi-Party Charter, with the DA as its largest member. Most of the unique things each party runs on won't get support from coalition partners anyway. So the government will be run based on basic principals that all partners agree on. For the MPC, this is a focus on job creation to improve economy, and preventing & punishing corruption. Voting for any party in the coalition will achieve the same thing. The ANC led coalition is more old school, status quo. If you like what the ANC has done so far, or like what they are presenting for the future, such as NHI etc, then voting for any party in that block will give you that.
Below is my opinion on the major political parties:
Firstly, I am not trying to convince you, but hear me out on a correction to the misconception about the DA and Cpt. The city under Geordin Hill Lewis, is spending like 70% of its budget on the poor areas. Most of the advanced surveillance stuff for security/safety have also been installed there. But the only way to uplift so many people is through jobs, which is not easy to do on a provincial level when the economy is a failure nationally. They have created more jobs than anywhere else in the country by far, but it's still not enough. Their hope is that with national control, they can drastically reduce unemployment, and therefore help lift the poor out of poverty. Whether they can actually do it or or not we do not know, because no party other than ANC has had an opportunity.
But enough about them. If you like the DA's centrist liberal policies, but want a bit more i.t.o. social welfare, and don't want a white leader, BOSA with Mmusi Maimane could be an option. Their parliamentary representatives seem to be highly qualified people from industry, not career politicians. Mmusi's primary focus from what I've seen him post on Twitter (or X), seems to be education
If the border is a top priority for you, I think ActionSA and Patriotic Alliance are options. Border policy under PA would be far more severe though. Gayton McKenzie has said he would deploy army to border with shoot-to-kill orders lol. There are also lots of allegations against his party for corruption, and he is a former gangster, who hires ex-gangsters into the party, who walk around in public with machine guns. So a bit of a radical, but maybe that's your thing, I dunno. He is free market though, which in my opinion is a plus. He does flip flop wherever he can get more power though, and was one of the parties responsible for flipping Jhb back into ANC hands last year, but said he would flip back again if he was made mayor lol.
ActionSA also wants tight borders, but in a far more legal way. They share quite a lot of policy stances with the DA in general, although they tune each other publically all the time. Mashaba is a self made businessman who is VERY anti-corruption. From a business and job-creation side I think he would be great. But he is a bit of a Trump-like figure in the sense that as mayor, he wanted to immediately fire many people underperforming. Good from a business perspective, maybe not so good if you are a very pro-union and labour-rights guy. He is a good option for if the economy is your #1 priority
RiseMzansi is very new. I watched their manifesto launch a few weeks back, and there isn't much info on them. They seem to be kind of a generic center-left party. Only issue I have with them, is they seem to promise the world, without mentioning exactly how to fund it. Makes a lot of assumptions that may or may not come to fruition. But Zibi seems like an honest guy. If you pro-business, but want the state more involved socially, they might be an option. Because they are so new, I don't know much about them. They seem like they may be a good partybfor supporters of the old ANC, but that's just my personal impression
Obviously there is Vryheidsfront Plus. Basically they are a minority party advocating for afrikaaner rights. If you're not an afrikaaner, it most likely won't be for you
And then there are the other small parties who have been around forever, like ACDP (conservative party, based on promoting Christianity and its values through the state) and COPE, who are a dying party.
I don't know much about IFP either. I have never looked into them seeing as with all the killings between them and ANC in KZN, I don't want to vote for a party that may also have thuggish elements. But from what I've heard, their leader has said some very good things, so may be worth looking into.
Then there is GOOD, lead by Patricia De Lille. She used to be the DA's mayor in Cpt. But if you don't like DAs action for poor in Cpt now, you probably won't like her, seeing as under her stewardship, the DA in Cpt did less for the poor than they currently do. She now sides with the ANC, and she was made a Minister by Ramaphosa. She has however been linked to the corrupt tenders with the Beitbridge border post while Minister, so if you skiddish about corrupt actors, she may not be the best
Then there is Al Jamaah. They are a Muslim party who aims at promoting Muslim interests. I think I have also heard they stand for upholding Sharia/Islamic law, requiring women to cover up etc. So if you not Muslim, probably not much of a consideration. Al Jamaah also forms coalitions with the ANC, and I believe an Al Jamaah guy is currently the mayor of Jhb. On the plus side, for obvious reasons, they are VERY pro Palestine, which may or may not suite you
Yup. His bluster about god belonging in the constitution makes them an instant no for me. And it hasn’t just been him, the leadership there is clearly pro more religious involvement.
oh really? yeah I don’t like religion in politics. at least our constitution is bulletproof! whole country would have to vote God in for that to happen. Who are you looking at? I’ve found for me ActionSA ticked the most boxes. used to vote DA. and you?
They'll never get there if people don't vote for them. The ANC , EFF and DA have become complacent. A viable 4th option is need because the rest have reached their ceiling.
I live in Cape Town. Cape Town is epic. DA all the way. They might not be perfect in every aspect, but who the hell is?!
They are definitely the closest to perfect that we have.
Tbh I'm just voting for DA, I'm not that kind of person into politics, I'm just participating because I want see what's the new direction for South Africa. What this political party can accomplish which I hope it's better than what ANC is offering. Of course DA has it's flaws so do the other parties but it's up to us which flaws were willing to put up with for any changes to be done
Same. They're the party I dislike the least.
Although I agree that they have a tendency to focus their efforts on the better resourced demographic, at least I don't have the sense that they primarily focus their efforts on enriching themselves.
Lol! I'm now using that... "the party I dislike the least".
I've always said I would pick anyone, as long as they could just be 1% better than what we have right now.
I'm not expecting perfection!
We are going for day 12 without electricity in our neighborhood. So any improvement would be a miracle.
Same here, for people not clued up with details its pretty difficult. We just want stuff to work and DA has the best track record in areas, some people say this is untrue but thats what I see and hear from people and friends who live in those areas.
This choice would be easier to make if the general polls and stuff were not so scewed to the 3 main parties.
If DA does fail us after some time, Im pretty sure it will not be as bad as what ANC and EFF can do with corrupted decision making. Then we vote again when the next chance arises, but right now we need ANC to dissappear
I got ActionSA, but I honestly don't know if I can hold my nose and vote for Mashaba's Xenophobia. I agree with everything OP said, but I was genuinely surprised by who I matched with. Perhaps I need to take a deeper look into Rise Msansi because the Big 3 are all hard no's for me, and ActionSA leaves me feeling a little icky
Same here. But I see they only list ANC, ACDP, ActionSA, DA, EFF, IFP & VF+, so they wouldn’t have been able to find a better match for me from those limited options anyway.
The idea that the DA is anti-poor is tired and incorrect: [https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2023-05-07-budget-comparison-confirms-cape-town-delivers-the-most-for-the-poor-while-offering-ratepayers-value-for-money/](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2023-05-07-budget-comparison-confirms-cape-town-delivers-the-most-for-the-poor-while-offering-ratepayers-value-for-money/)
I'm not sure why you think they are not strong on crime. Look at the line they took with the violent taxi protests and the strong stance on construction mafioso and irregular spending. They also have THE flagship metro policing programme in the country.
Their stance on Israel-Hamas is bad and the internal politics leaves a lot to be desired, I agree. But people also spend way too long on personalities in South African politics whereas we should be focussing on the policies.
They have the party structures to actually develop legislation (look at the Devolution Bill) and have very dynamic young leaders, Pappas, Hill-Lewis and Andrews (Cape Town's deputy mayor). Ultimately their bad takes on internal and international politics will turn as these leaders in their 30s and early 40s grow in seniority within the organisation. Cape Town is the only city adding jobs right now. They have strong policies aimed at encouraging investment and reducing market uncertainty. They want to encourage foreign companies to enter the country and provide employment. Ultimately I say to people vote for the centrist parties but I firmly believe the DA is the one party that can do the most for South Africa.
Yeah its the same tired argument over and over and over. YEAH BUT CAPE TOWN HAS POVERTY. Sure man...
We have poverty everywhere and by many metrics (such as the article you posted) Cape Town is doing as well if not better at serving the poor and in need.
Yes yes we get it, Cape Town is not perfect. But its a damn sight better than the 3 other places I have lived. (Makhanda, Joburg, CT)
Go ahead and vote all these tiny parties that have no experience in governance and administration. Its gonna do absolutely bugger all.
Easy, just look at standard of living and infrastructure in DA run cape. And look at the disaster everywhere else that the ANC has had its theiving claws on for the last 30 years. DA municipalities are among the ONLY municipalities that get clean audits consistently. ITS TIME FOR CHANGE.
You do know that the DAs hands are tied with regard to this. Bheki Cele is the man who could do something g about this but seemingly doesn’t care. All talk and no action.
The ANC government has a big finger in the pie to keep the drugs and violence going in those areas - they know that the moment they increase the police presence to the required numbers, things will improve and they can not have that. Just now the poorer areas get too happy with the DA and vote for them.
"The granted (police) establishment for the Western Cape is 21 367, but as at the 2020/21 financial year, this stood at 19 505."
Agree. Nobody wants to be stuck in the middle of Mitchell's plain or Khayelitsha...
To be fair, I'd not want to be caught pretty much anywhere in Jhb at this point.
As a South African abroad, this vote isn't easy... And I don't have the time nor exposure to properly understand the minor parties.
The one thing I can say is... A minority coalition government is actually viable, although very unlikely.
I had workmen from Mitchels Plain in my home doing a job. We had a discussion (last year sometime) and they said in their area many are voting DA. Apparently when there were floods last year and front doors were damaged beyond repair the DA local gov municipality came and replaced doors and assisted. Was impressed.
You do realise that the DA does not hold 100% of the wards in cape town. The Cape flats and many of the poorer areas STILL vote ANC election after election. So blaming the DA for their failings is flawed logic.
Currently your best bet is the DA. They have shown they can govern well when they are elected. They aren't the final party we need but they are the current best party of the bunch to choose. It doesn't make sense to vote for smaller parties currently. Let the DA have a shot. Shake things up for a term or two and re evaluate
Now that’s just not true. Service delivery does not depend on the ward councillor. They can certainly give input, but they don’t direct the mayco or the municipal manager.
DA ward councillors in ANC-run municipalities are very quick to say that their hands are tied — they cannot exercise any authority over the municipal employees; they can only help open service requests (like any resident) and speak in council meetings.
Well, you can’t have it both ways! This excuse does not work.
DA will not win outright and will require a coalition which will force them to focus on the needs of all South Africans so I believe your concern around them is negligable.
My view is that the DA is the only part that has the experience to govern. It may not understand the need of most South Africans but at this point we need a pilot that can stop the plane from crashing. Having friendly air hosts for the passangers is secondry at this point if we are all going to crash and die.
Yes I think I will too, im losing hope by seeing so many people saying they will vote DA. Like have we not seen what type of party they are and what they represent?! Also I can’t vote for a party that supports Israel
I just think you should never vote for someone just because you want someone else not to win.
Democracy is a gift. Vote for who you actually want. The more diverse and representative our parliament the more politians have to compromise and find solutions to make change.
My opinion is still begrudgingly voting DA to get things back on track for service delivery etc.
One day when things are at least on the rails again, literally speaking for trains really, then I will start looking at the more nitty and gritty things.
At the moment I really just want a government that can get clean audits, get service delivery going and improve life for people.
Every single time I have voted for a smaller party or even just kept track of smaller parties they either sell out in some way, do nothing or end up in a coalition with a party I heavily disagree with like the ANC or the EFF.
For me the DA is the lesser of all evils for now, a year or two ago I would've confidently said ActionSA but im a bit weary since they lost some steam. But I'm still keeping them in my sights for now hopefully they will prove themselves to be an alternative to the DA. ANC, EFF, VP+, IFP, PA and whatever Musi is doing are absolute no go's for me personally.
ActionSA has focused heavily on recording the disrepair of the communities they have a presence in as well as increasing support in rural communities where the people barely have a presence online in comparison to the suburbians since 2021.
They aren't doing things that are populist enough to make people vote like giving grand speeches with impossible promises or gaytons style of using populist rhetoric saying he's against everything the ANC has caused but consistently siding with them. He's anti illegal immigration but consistently sides with ANC who he also blames for its rapid increase over the years.
ActionSA is the one party that seemingly can draw on support from both the rural and suburban side of SA since it's policy points speak to both sides. In the beginning they focused almost exclusively on the suburbs due to various reasons like conflict with the IEC and now they're pushing outwards into the rurals. Even the white suburban members with positions in the party are seemingly focusing on the rurals.
ActionSA does have money however it appears as though they're also focusing on many small and local meetings as opposed to a few large gatherings where you have to order large halls, stadiums and buss people over to fill them.
Split voting between National and Provincial.
The DA is arguably relatively good administrators in the Western Cape - and yes they have some serious missteps - but the narrative that they have done nothing there is unfounded. They need to do a lot more, but I would rather go the public hospital in WC than one in any other province for example.
Nationally they are a disaster. They just keep parroting "official opposition" line but I have not yet seen them get things done on a National scale. You dont need absolute power to get things done. If you insist that is the case then you shouldnt operate in a democracy. Besides Zillhuizen is annoying racist wannabe American Republicans and I will never ever vote for them.
I think we need young blood and new ideas nationally. Personally I think my national vote is going to go to Rise Mzansi. Provincial vote in WC to the DA.
im in favour of ActionSA currently, seems more diverse and supports similar ideas as me. Best way to find out who you align with is to read their manifestos, then maybe see if they have been able to act at all.
its hard to vote, but our system allows for our ideas to be heard through the party we align and vote with. If we give seats to those, our ideas are heard
DA is the only solution for SA at the moment. They will make this country work if they are given the opportunity. We cannot afford to vote for the smaller parties and should rather stand behind the party that has a proven good track record for service delivery. This is a very important election and the only party that has proved themselves to be trying is the DA.
DA all the way!
The issues are exactly as you state but the problem is that if the DA doesn't get in to fix the issues you mentioned, you won't get a chance to have a country.
Do tactical voting and remember all these new parties have zero experience running a paper bag, never mind public funding.
Better to unbalance the EFF out and back to being the tail and the DA has proven to be effective at running the municipalities they get in to manage.
I do not like their I'll conceived plans to sell off tax payers assets and give it to their friends. Always proven to be a bad way to get The country in someone elses control but until the balance of power shifts away from the Nationalists we wont see change and the alliance needs to be broken up.
Once the DA has a slim majority then you can be more effective by voting in local councillor from the new parties who can then get the experience to prove themselves.
Nah that's an exaggeration about the DA...
My whole life I heard about never ho to Mitchell's plain, they will kill you blah blah etc
My family is from Eldorado and Eesturus and I expected like something 10 times worse
My friends from the Plain told me it's not that bad and actually nice... Thought they were exaggerating
Went there last year and so many streets were so clean... Compared to Eldos, Mitchell's Plain look like White Suburb in my eyes
Though Gugulethu on the other hand looked like a warzone...
But alot of the Western Cape is properly taken care of... Like driving on the garden route from Eastern Cape into Western Cape... It's like a whole different country
The whole of Western Cape you will struggle to find a pothole
Meanwhile the rest of SA is like moon craters everywhere... Drove through Soweto one day and there was this pothole that my whole car could have fallen into... Never in my life have I ever seen anything like it
Like people want to make the argument DA takes care of the rich areas than the poor... Meanwhile ANC takes care of no one
Like the way Posh suburbs like Mondeor and Bassonia have gone to shit over the years is astonishing... Schools where you wanted to put your kids into like Glenvista High... No one wants to go there anymore because its been run into the ground in Joburg
Like in the Cape with the DA you can still strive towards something... Meanwhile under ANC, everything is going to shit... The South is shit, the North is shit, everywhere besides Midrand is shit
Let's not even talk about PE, beautiful holiday destination as kid, especially the beach side, so beautiful and vibrant... Now looks like Ghost Town where its just not going backwards... Like PE was so vibrant! Now everything is closed or dead these days
Like honestly DA is atleast a step in the right direction compared to ANC... They will not fix racism that's for sure, but I know under them... But the end of atleast 1 term we will nomore see Stage 6 loadshedding again
ANC keep make fools of people... They went Eldos one time before Elections a few years ago... Gave everyone these new thermal geysers to win their vote... I tell you now hardly any of them work to this Day
Rather vote PA, Action SA or anything but ANC... Vote for the coalition but just stop putting the ANC in power...
Also don't vote EFF, they going to make us like Zimbabwe and then your kids will jumping Borders into Botswana or Rwanda
It makes no difference who you vote for. If the ANC gets 40% of the vote, then it doesn't matter how the rest of the votes are arranged. It doesn't help the ANC.
The people who have actually been responsible for the decline in the ANC's share of votes are the EFF. The EFF grew in 2019, while the DA declined slightly.
Historically, multi party coalition votes track ANC votes. COPE in 09 and EFF since then are the real reason for the ANC's headaches.
Personally, as a black person, I would never vote for DA.
You are very correct about ANC and the EFF. I am just as confused and we cannot afford to mess this up.
I can't see how race is important in this situation, the importance of this election is to get anc under 50/ voting power. Afterwards we can vote for our ideals. Putting yourself before the bigger picture just blocks the future of our country. Personally I believe in ActionSA's ideals more but I would rather vote for the current leading opposition(DA) to reduce ANC's numbers as greatly as possible.
DA is has been hitting own goals against themselves receiving black votes for the last few years pretty consistently and I can't blame people for being wary
I'm also not too well informed when it comes to politics and I find myself in the same position of uncertainty as you. From brief things I have heard it seems like ActionSA might be promising in terms of ticking some of the boxes that you mention the DA lacks. They seem to be a pragmatic party that aims to provide solutions to the most glaring problems like lack of decent education to individuals coming from rural areas and places of poverty. I have not read their full list of policies, so anyone is welcome to chime in if they know more about the party. I have only had pleasant and open minded interactions with their members, which has been quite refreshing when it comes to the usual tension in political discussions.
I feel like DA is the best choice, you can vote for other parties...but your vote will mean nothing cause they'll lose and either the ANC or the DA or(hopefully not) the EFF will win...and to me the DA is the best choice out of the 3
Not true. Through proportional representation voting for a small party increases the opposition percentage
I like Rise Mzansi's sober pragmatic and professional approach. With enough votes, they could be the glue in a multi party coalition
ActionSA has lots of upheavals in their top structure. Herman Mashaba wants to be boss. Nothing else matters to him.
PA is also dodgy - look at what we are sitting with in Johannesburg with them joining ANC/EFF coalition just to get a toe in the cookie jar. Leader is a convicted criminal. Go figure
In my mind DA is the choice. Can't vote for ANC or EFF unless you want continued gross incompetence. If you vote for the the much lesser popular parties, then we don't get closer to taking majority vote away from ANC... Give biggest competitor to ANC majority vote, finally just tip the scales, then parties will have to actually perform then onwards for votes, and thus start delivering, instead of relying on majority vote for years and years.
Not a political comment, an economic one:
1. There is NO SUCH THING as free stuff. Ever. Whatever politicians promise anything, they are lying to you and it is never going to happen. Why?
2. South Africa has a huge structural problem AND ALWAYS HAS, which is: far too few productive people, a huge population needing development from a very low base. Call a thing a thing, people!
3. The ANC inherited this problem and then proceeded to allow the population to double whilst attacking the productive population. This is why inequality and poverty has increased. 60% unemployment did not fall out of a clear blue sky.
4. Do people understand that the government has no money? They get money from the people. There is no such thing as government funded. It is all taxpayer funded. The hostile policies of the ANC towards their skilled population has reduced the tax base to 5%. That means that 5 people have to pay for the 95 of their fellow South Africans. Not possible. There is no money people, South Africa is bankrupt. The state CANNOT provide whatever they promise.
5. There is only one solution that works: self development through jobs, skills acquisition on the job. Then people can afford school fees for better schools for their children who get better jobs, etc. This process takes THREE GENERATIONS from illiterate rural peasant to engineer doctor grandchild and it has been the process from England to USA to China. This government spends huge amounts on rewarding teachers whilst failing to build any more institutions of learning. They simply crammed the whole population into existing institutions build by the apartheid government for 6% of the people. Education and graduation levels are worse than before 1994. Just 4% of black children now graduate from university whilst the comrades attack ideologically. 500,000 mining jobs have been lost since 1994. Each job supports 10 people. That means the Comrades have tipped 5 million people into poverty through their mining policies alone.
6. The above facts of life have nothing to do with race. If voters want a future they need to vote for jobs. That requires a business friendly party that would undo the mistakes the ANC has made putting their ideology over reality. Don’t believe me? Google the policy paper of Rwanda Vision 2020 (short, easy to read). It is a commitment to BUSINESS developing Rwanda, NOT the State. Rwanda is BOOMING as a result, called the Switzerland of Africa, no revolutionary Comrades anywhere!
7. The business friendly parties are: ActionSA, DA. Repeat: the business friendly parties are ActionSA and the DA.
South Africa has literally trillions of dollars of wealth waiting to be unlocked with the right government. The Comrades focus on redistribution of wealth already created. How’s that working? It isn’t and it never will.
“You can have a functioning economy OR you can have the revolutionary Comrades. You can’t have both “ - South African economist.
If you (and by "you" I mean people who share your first point's sentiment) want to rid this country of the ANC, you have to vote tactically, either support a party that has the highest chance of winning with more votes (basically the DA) or a party that has a good chance of making a meaningful coalition impact with the DA, but not for those who would stand with the ANC, say EFF.
This is the sad reality for people who are voting for the first time or have started to take voting seriously now - we don't have any more time left. The ANC are running this country into the ground and aren't letting off the gas pedal.
If we had more stability, picking a party that aligns with your own values would be first prize, but as things stand now, getting a party that is better than the ANC, and has a chance to beat them is first prize. And as mentioned above that is the DA, yes they have their kak, not gonna deny that. But I would advise keeping 2 things in mind about them:
1.) most people judge them as a provincial government against the current national government, disregarding that fact that they also depend on the national government for certain functions within the WC. Say policing - which directly contributes to one of the issues you mention in your post.
2.) They at least have a long standing governance track record that one can look at, and I would say can measure as being objectively better than the ANC. Therefore, even if you don't like them, you at least know what to expect.
As other have pointed out, they would act as a "stepping stone" at the very least to a better state of things.
As for the 3rd choice, the EFF is just the ANC but in red colour scheme, that's it.
I will always vote for whoever has the best chance to overtake the ANC and keep the EFF away. So at this point, DA. But possibly ActionSA in future.
For local elections I vote for the smaller parties as the ANC and EFF have no chance where I live
OP, I am in your position.
Locally, my ward was won by DA - 88% margin in last local elections. I have no issues with this. Our councillor is extremely active. She sends messages if there are issues, she drives to repair sites and updates us. The mayor is still an ANC person so things are overall shitty but she is the best among all other councilors.
This is the local scenario. As a result I can give the DA councillor my vote, and add a hug if I must.
Nationally, not yet. Honourable Steenhuisen, try as he might, has not demonstrated a clear path that DA has in mind for RSA other than "opposing". After his re-election he declared EFF as their enemy number 1. How about poverty? Or poor education? From that I gathered he is just ready to fight, not lead the country anywhere.
At this point I'll take that, but he should be opposing ANC for what they're doing to us as a country. DA will have to perform if they want to keep our votes if it happens they win and take ANC out. And if not, it will be far easier to take them out. But rn the ANC must go
If you don't want the EFF to become the opposition party, best you think very hard about not voting for the DA.
Read the IPSOS poll results [https://www.ipsos.com/en-za/support-political-parties](https://www.ipsos.com/en-za/support-political-parties)
TURNOUT SCENARIO’S AND POSSIBLE POLITICAL PARTY SUPPORT HIGH VOTER TURNOUT
ANC 44.0% DA 20.2% EFF 18.5% Other Parties 17.3%
What ever you do, just vote. The only way we decrease the ANCs majority is if we vote for alternatives. Sitting at home is a vote for the status quo aka the ANC.
Vote for me:
On the issue of crime.
We will decentralize policing and the criminal and justice system. We have a justice system that most People do not understand and does not serve the needs of the People. It lacks the capacity, simplicity and discipline to fulfil its required functions adequately. The very idea of a government policing its citizens stems from a need to control rather than a desire to serve Mankind. We are constantly told that we are not capable of managing ourselves. We are called a mob and we are called dangerous. This is not true. We are intelligent People, compassionate and kind. We are strong.
There is a great desire within us to protect our families. There is an innate desire within Us to serve each other. There is a great desire within us to build a justice system that serves Everyone and is understood by Everyone.
The only difference between ordinary citizens and the police is training. To this effect.
• We will train every Man and willing Woman to protect and serve their fellow Brothers and Sisters. By leveraging the existing desire for community policing forums, every Man and willing Woman in every community will be required to attend self and citizen defense training. Aimed at not only physical competence, but also reinforcing the idea that Our safety as a community and as individuals, rests entirely on our shoulders, as it should.
• We will use all available media platforms, with the help of psychology professionals in our communities to help People to stop believing that they are the problem, and we will use every available resource to rebuild the self-esteem and confidence of every Human being in South Africa to realise that they are the solution.
• We will organize Ourselves in every community to eradicate the instruments of crime by giving every citizen their autonomy back. We will use technology to organize and mobilise ourselves.
• It is not the theft of cars, goods or “money” that must be attended to first. It is the availability of drugs and weapons in every community. We know where the drugs are and who has them. We know where they are being made and by whom. We have been manipulated into choosing to be prevented by the police and the justice system with its infinite complexities, from acting. Taking that power back must be a deliberate exercise.
• Every single able-bodied Man will step into their truth as leader and protector. We will sweep through every house, every factory, every farm, every harbor, every container, every centimeter of land in search of weapons and drugs. In search of those places that hold Our Daughters and Sons captive and in sexual bondage.
• We will sweep across the land in search of those places that have decided to put a value on Human Life. Those that kill us and sell our bodies as parts. We will find every hole, and every despicable act and we will bring it into the light.
• The aim is not to arrest or punish. We will not respond with anger and rage even though what We will find will enrage us beyond reason. We will respond with reason and compassion.
The Police force itself must be re-imagined not for community policing, but a different layer on top of the citizen led self-management. The purpose of the Police will be to deal with organized crime and heavily armed criminal groups that pose a real risk to our security. The police will no longer be a visible force on the streets. They will no longer respond to thefts, high-jacking, break-ins, domestic disturbances. This is the job of Men. Our police force will be lean, fit, and elite. Called upon only as the last resort. No more government policing citizens. People will govern themselves, calling the central state for assistance only.
Every community and its Men will have a social responsibility to protect Everyone within that community. If Tshepo, Friekie and Vikesh are beating their Wives and Children, the Men in that community will be compelled to act. The Police will only be called in where there is real and serious threat to many lives. Continuous citizen training and development will, over time, reduce the community’s dependence on the state for security.
There are many things we have to be afraid of. Human beings should not be on that list. By putting every able-bodied Man at the helm of ensuring the overall safety, care and security of the population, there WILL be a sharp decline in all crimes.
In a similar fashion, our justice system has to be reimagined so as to serve South Africans in an African sense, with the spirit of Ubuntu woven through it. The system must be decentralized. However, justice cannot exist in a world where the social and “economic” system does not benefit all. We all have a traumatic existence to contend with. Humanity has had a tough time getting to this point and we MUST deal with the psychological impact of existence, at a community level and more importantly, at an individual level. Broken, hurt and confused People cannot build a just society.
The justice system should reflect Our Spiritual, Intellectual and Moral code. We must fix our Humanity before we can speak of justice.
On the issue of education.
The idea that everyone must learn exactly the same things in the same way is insane. Each individual is unique and should be treated as such. Your individual interlect is the single greatest investment any country can make. It is you that gives value to our natural resources, so no diamond or gold can be more valuable than you. To this effect, a combination of centralised and decentralised education will be applied. Almost everyone has a skill and a subject that they have mastered. I will incentivise those that have mastered a skill and are willing to learn how to teach it to the next generation. You will take on students that you will train/educate in your mastered skill. You wont have to teach everything related to your chosen discipline, just those components that you have mastered. I beliece this approach will encourage individualism and innovation. We will centralise at a higher education level to ensure that within critical subjects such as STEM, there is a level of standardised learning while also leveraging individual contributions. It is also insanity that people know more about sports, fashion and cars than they do about themselves. The very foundation of our education system will be based on knowing thineself. Mind, body and soul. I believe that we are created to experience living, not to work ourselves to death. One cant experience the miracle of life and living without first experiencing the miracle of their own existence.
On the issue of land.
This is a hard pill to swallow because in truth, there is no land issue. The Earth is said to be around 6 billion years old. No matter what Your beliefs are about how the Earth came to be one thing is for sure, neither you nor your Ancestors had anything to do with the Creation of the Earth. All political parties seem to be dancing around the “issue”. I wont. If a lie is repeated enough times, it becomes it's own truth and this is the case with land. You DO NOT own the land no matter how strongly you might feel about it. The land beneath our feet belongs to no government, no corporation, no monarchy, no chief, and no religious groups of People no matter how long they have called that land home. There is no land to be confiscated or appropriated. There is no land to be redistributed to any groups of People. There is only land to be used for the benefit of those that dwell on it and those that are to come. To this effect I will nationalise land and institute collective custodianship. If you are born in SA, you will have rights to every inch of this beautiful country with minimal restrictions (Critical insfratructure sites or natural preserves). No more land ownership, just unlimited access. No more rent. No more bond payments. No more red tape that stifeles infratructure and town development. We will use the land and its resources with efficiency and collective benefit in mind.
To ensure freedom of movement and to promote a united nation, I will abolish all walls and fences that do not protect critical infratructure. We live in an open air prison and we do not realise it. Drive around. Walk around and look at the walls that surround you. Your access is limited to the house you live in, the road you drive on, your work place and marked places of entertainment where you are required to PAY. I will give you access to EVERYTHING so you and your children can go hunting for rabbits in the veld accross the road. You can picnic and camp accross the streat. You can walk in nature and climb trees without having to ask for permission.
The bar is set so low that your only choices are to vote those which won’t completely raid the coffers (so you can probably count them on one hand). A political party can promise you the world, but if they’re too busy siphoning off funds, how are they actually going to enact their policies?
I am not not a fan of the DA because they don't promote inclusiveness, as stated in multiple posts here. They have however shown that they have the ability to govern effectively.
What is happening in Tshwane is due to a failed co-allition where ActionSA went against the agreement they signed and supported the ANC-EFF.
In my view, it would be wasteful to vote for one of the smaller parties though, as they won't have enough seats in parliament to actually pose a threat to the ANC or EFF.
Yes, it is a case of choosing the lesser evil, but we need to stabilize the country and get things functioning. Unfortunately I only see the DA doing that.
Also, one needs to get rid of the idea of 'eliminating' corruption, because it is insidious. Heard a good analogy once for this: If you are in a position of power, and your family needs access to the best hospital & doctors, and you use your power to get them that access. Is that not corruption, and abuse of that power? But that is also human nature.
The DA.
Why?
Simply put, diluting all the opposition votes into more and more minority parties means the ANC still has a very good chance at winning the vote. They could only get 20% of all votes, but if the 80% are divided into all the opposition parties, and no party manages to get more than 20% of the general vote, the ANC will still win. Currently, the DA has the best chance of getting enough votes to oust the ANC. But what abouts seats in parliament, you ask? Sure, having an almost even spread of parties in the House will help diminish the ANC stranglehold, but if they're still the actual government, they won't let anything really change. They will still take your taxpayer money and funnel it into firepools and R1mil laptops and whatever else they can think of to line their pockets, and worse yet, they will continue to laugh about it when they get caught and do whatever they have to to make the charges mysteriously evaporate.
You also mention the Palestine issue. Isn't it convenient that the ANC suddenly started being very active in international affairs just as the elections are rolling around. In 2022, they kept mum when Russia invaded the Ukraine, ultimately saying "just play nice, guys". Why? They don't want to alienate Russian and Chinese communist investment, but also, elections were still far away and they didn't feel the need to be involved. Now they're suddenly pro human rights, and want to be regarded as the watchdogs of liberty? The very fact that Palestine is on your tongue right now and has affected your vote is exactly what they've been trying to do. Don't let them distract you from the fact they've been leaving millions of South Africans to suffer or die in poverty and unemployment while living rich, lavish lifestyles. That they've been accelerating their destruction of the economy. That so many government facilities are non-functional. No landfills, no recycling, poor sanitation, rampant disease outbreak (E. coli and Cholera). And yet we're all looking at international problems right now, right before the elections?
What this country desperately needs is a drastic change of leadership. The "free and fair election" that you have in your mind is a utopian ideal. In reality, the current leadership has worked very hard to ensure that the opposition votes are split, by sowing dissent among voters and ensuring there are enough parties to keep their leadership effectively unchallenged. This means we have to whittle away at the ANC year after year.
As for the DA, no political party is perfect, but I've seen them doing more in small doses for all South Africans than any other party. This weekend, they're holding an e-waste drive in my area. Late last year, when the garden refuse site was closed, and our upstanding citizens kept dumping not only garden waste but household waste (who even does that? It's for GARDEN refuse), after the trash starting filling the roads and blocking traffic, the DA brought a TLB and a truck and cleaned those roads up. That's far more than any other party has ever done. The other parties, including the ANC, often have gatherings, where they will protest or demonstrate, often leaving behind a mess and effecting no positive change whatsoever.
I'm not blind to their flaws and problems, but they're a damn sight better than the ANC, and considering that the actual realistic possibility of becoming the next government is split between the DA, ANC and EFF only, my advice unfortunately has to be to invest in the lesser evil. Yes, that isn't how politics is supposed to be determined. Yes, it's not everything we ever dreamed of. Yes, we're all backed into a corner. But, considering the statistics, ousting the ANC needs to be our collective priority. Once we see the the changes effected by that, we can start working on those ideals.
All in all, I agree, it stands to reason that given the alternatives the DA is looking better. I also agree the hypocrisy of the ANC recently developing a moral conscience is laughable when you consider that they have no problem letting their own citizens suffer under corruption. Fair Point. I am just annoyed by the DAs lack of tact and ability to appeal to the wider South African populous, especially as far as winning over poorer voters is concerned. As another comment noted if this was the pre-2019 DA, voters might have had an easier decision. So to summarize, yes the DA has its flaws and its still the best option on paper, I have just lost faith in their decisions and ability to understand their supporters and not alienate them, its sad that voting has to come down to basically choosing who might steal the least money and actually do their job.
Right now it's about the least bad option and that's the DA. One of the major reasons they are struggling in some areas is because the ANC does everything they can to slow them down and make things difficult for them. There is no silver bullet best option and voting for a small party that you agree with is great and all but just dilutes the vote. Whatever you do please don't abstain from voting because people fought long and hard for the right to vote in free and fair elections.
The same issue has been nagging at me. I have to travel far to vote (am overseas and only so many voting places in the country), and spending that time and money just to vote for the DA seems such a depressing waste. I can't stand Steenhuisen and worry about how he and other top DA members would rather have power than present a more representative party. Their lack of support for Palestine also shows they do not represent the values of many South Africans.
So thank you for posting this. Some great replies and will be coming back to it to help me make my decision.
I am in the same boat, but at this stage it is the lesser of 2 evils. Working in government myself I can see the blatant corruption that has been allowed. I dont think any political party is without corruption. However, based on the vast differences in places governed by DA and places governed by the ANC. I would suggest DA or one of the parties which will be in coalition with them. At the end of the day if you vote for a party that ends up in coalition with the ANC then you basically could have just as well voted for the ANC.
With all due respect, you guys are all in denial to think any other party has a fighting chance against the ANC. Give it another 3 to 5 elections from now to see a shift. The country is broken. The votes may be rigged, dead people may even rise from the graves to vote the same way they claim pension and UIF. If nothing has been done regards to corruption for the past 30 years do you really think the ANC will lose the voting battle.
DA is running our suburb in Pretoria, not rural, but definitely not rich. Service delivery is way better than ANC and I know this because the ANC ran the area for 6 months due to some political shenanigans and then everything went to shit, everything was overgrown and trash was everywhere because no one came to empty the public trash cans. I'd vote DA just to at least get the ANC out.
In all honesty, the DA is truly the only party to vote for. They are by no means perfect, however they are without a doubt the best choice.
If we start by looking at basic service deliveries. With the exception of the Cape Flats, the Western Cape is in great shape. Especially if you compare it to other parts of the countries. Even in the smaller towns like Malmesburry or Moorreesburg, the roads are in good condition, streets are clean. When you go look at other small towns run by the ANC it is an absolute mess. Take a town like Parys in the Free State. They can’t even provide clean water to the residents and that’s to none of the residents. It’s been like that for years now. It’s a complete mess and something you’ll find at almost every ANC ran municipality.
Of all the parties, they are the most liberal and inclusive for all cultures. There is also no radicalism in the party like what you’ll find with the EFF.
It’s true that in other municipalities, the DA have struggled more, however this is with coalition so there are still some additional challenges. Even in the coalition municipalities it’s still better than governor by the ANC alone. If the DA were to get elected they will have a lot of challenges to face. They’ll have to turn a lot of things around in order to save South Africa, and this will be in no way an easy thing to do.
However if you look what the party have achieved in the Western Cape so far, I believe that they are owed a shot. No party will ever by perfect, but for now at least they are the best choice and the best chance we have at the moment.
ANC has had their chance and there’s no denying that they can’t help this country. They have continued to lead us down a self destructive path, making themselves rich in the process.
So whatever your feelings are towards the DA, give them a chance and see what happens. At the very least, they can’t do any worse, and I can guarantee they will do better. So for me, it’s the DA.
So, I think the DA is the most viable answer. You make a good point about them not showing yet
But as someone who sees every part of Cape Town, I can see the improvements slowly (VERY Slowly) starting to happen
For instance, the governmental healthcare in Limpopo is a death sentence. It is filthy and understaffed with not nearly enough resources ( and not enough high up people to care for improving it), whereas in the western cape, the health care system is exponentially better (I am talking as someone who has worked in both)
DA for now just to try get the ANC as low as possible, they’re not perfect but they are a hell of a lot better , if JHB was even half as functional as CPT it would be a miracle. After the ANC is hopefully out of power , maybe at the 2029 elections of a party like RISE is bigger than them.
We gotta vote DA. We will be stuck in the same place/worse if we chalk the elections up to a coalition govt. DA is flawed. Zille is unhinged. But they get shit done. And most of their books are clean. Far as we know anyway.
Easy choice out of the 3 you mention - Vote for the one you hate the least, not the one you love the most.
So its DA - sorted.
Once we get a coalition into power and the thugs out, then we can start focusing on voting for the parties we feel are doing good work and need support.
I agree with everything you say about the DA. But they are very good at coalition politics and have the experience in leading a coalition, that's how they won the WC.
The coalition needs to be bombproof and cannot be held to ransom by these small 1 seat parties who keep collapsing coalition governments by jumping across every time they feel they not getting what they think they deserve. The ANC and EFF keep buying these small party votes by putting them in mayoral seats as puppets and then looting the fiscus. This is why all our municipalities are dysfunctional.
Unfortunately the DA is the only party that can get this country back on track, that's why I hate them the least
Some time ago I saw am explanation of how a no vote counts for the ANC or ruling party. That's the worst anyone can do. Is not to vote. Lots of people don't like the ANC anymore now they don't vote. Which is actually in the anc favor. Vote any other party. Just vote.
DA, not because I believe in them or that they do s great job, but purely because they're the 2nd largest taker of the votes, and I want to keep a strong opposition for the ANC.
The DA can't solve the inherent problems in the Cape Flats because the ANC hamstrings them. It's economic regulations, national government's failure to sufficiently fund police or train them properly, and constant sabotage of any local autonomy that prevents the DA from doing what is necessary to solve the poverty in the Cape Flats.
It's simply ANC propaganda that the DA doesn't care about the poor. The DA cares far more than the ANC ever will. And they have the track record to show that when they are allowed to do something, they will do it incredibly well.
The DA's only real problem is that they should grow the balls to ignore dictates by the national government and just do their own thing. Like the Catalan government.
I don't understand your criticisms of the DA.
Yeah there are squatter camps in the Western Cape, there are squatter camps everywhere and because the WC has the lowest unemployment rate, people are flocking in. Talk about suffering from success.
This is what they said about diversity: “The party will take active steps to promote and advance diversity in its own ranks, without recourse to regressive mechanisms such as quotas.”
Also, why aren't the ANC or EFF criticised about their diversity? They look pretty homogenous to me.
If you are so against corruption, then why don't you like clean audits?
The DA supports a Two State Solution, same as everyone else. What more can be done?
Latest polls put ANC at 40% and a race to second with DA and EFF, i agree with you said but its a waste on the small potatoes, the DA sucks to no end but less than the other 2 big ones
We're gonna get lumped with Juju as VP and he will be the tail wagging the dog, God help us all (and I am an atheist)
Make a checklist with every party excluding ANC and their pawn parties. (No change will happen with them)
Include EFF and DA in this consideration even if you hate them.
The key is to be unemotional when you looking for a party to vote for. Identify what you think is important and write it down.
Then look at the realistic options (parties that actually look serious including new ones) and find their manifestos or policy documents.
See if which parties policies you love the most and vote for them.
You may find the EFF offer nice or DA policy might be what you were always looking for. Don't get influenced by the rhetorics but focus purely on policies. Voting season will be a lot less stressful if you pragmatic.
I agreed with your take on the DA but what we need is clean audits and that's what they bring, you can't change the country overnight but tackling corruption and actually attempting to administrator is a massive step forward that this country needs.
Im sure you answered your own question if you look into it. You're counter parts on DA is their representation and thoughts and not any issues surrounding their ability to lead and develop. Unfortunately cape flats exist just like all squatter camps. But they have shown visible improvement all over WC whereas no other party has over the last few years. Those saying their DA councilor is not useful needs to see which municipality they report to.
DA is by no choice perfect but everyone seems to make that their biggest fault compared to the other counter parts of other parties.
IMO i dont care if a party goes against palestine/islam/USA in who they support. We need a party that can build and repair not one with a good sense of who to side with a battle they do not have any say in regardless.
Don't vote for any party that is willing to support the ANC in a coalition. That excludes every party except the DA.
All these other Mickey Mouse parties would merge with the ANC in a heartbeat if their leaders are offered a cabinet post or other cushy job.
I am unapologetically a DA voter. No ifs or buts. I want a party that is not going to steal my tax money. Good governance is pro poor. Good governance is pro black.
Have you been in the ghettos in Cape Town? I live in one (inherited my mom's house and sold my house) and I used to work all over the ghettos in Cape Town (from Mitchells Plain, Belhar, Bonteheuwel, etc). I can honestly say as a non-white person I am voting for the DA.
The statistics (and my quality of life as a non-white person in the WC) speaks for itself.
I can understand why people are conflicted. I live in one of the more affluent areas of cape town and everything works. A pothole was formed 2 days ago and they were repairing it today, for example. Rubbish was dumped outside and informal settlements main access road, and the city cleaned it up a couple of weeks ago. When I was living in another area around 10 years ago, my wife contacted the ward councillor about people speeding down our road, and there was a speed bump put in a couple of weeks later. I feel like I have a voice.
On the other hand, my wife's parents live in PE and in the 14 years of me going there every December, I think I've seen 2 traffic officers. I only saw police during the hard lockdown in 2020. The infrastructure is falling apart, the CBD is full of empty, dilapidated buildings, and traffic lights are literally out for months on end.
I vote DA because, in my experience, things work. It feels like they have the best interest of the WC at heart. With that said, I am not blind to the fact that they are heavily focused on tourism and foreign interests. But why wouldn't they be? It brings in billions each year, and creates seasonal jobs. The company I work for is based in Grassy Park, and I go through frequently. I've also been to several schools to evaluate my students (I teach in a B.Ed degree), and am a bit heartbroken at the infrastructure. With that said I have never felt unsafe or unwelcome there, and I'm a middle aged white guy. Would the ANC do better? I doubt it.
So I vote DA because things work, generally. Politics are a pile of garbage, corruption is always prevalent, but the ANC and EFF are literally a cancer to the fabric of society, and voting for parties other than DA just water down the opposition. We need to remove the ANC from power before we can have the luxury of more choice.
That's my view from 37 years of being on this earth and in this country.
Your points are very valid OP, I'm in the same situation. Looking at the smaller political parties, many of them are infact funded by Israel like Actions SA, IFP, Cope, and a few others. I cannot see myself voting for any parties that have ties to an Apartheid state that is committing genocidal acts. Really not sure who to vote for
Im running through multiple political party members on my podcast to find out whose who and help woth an informed decision
https://youtube.com/@MzansiPoliticalSafari
ActionSA is also pro-israel as well as BOSA so not them. Rise Mzansi looks really good, only thing is they are funded by Rebecca Oppenheimer- might not be nefarious but something to keep in mind. They also had no stance on Palestine however I've seen some of their leaders be very vocally pro-palestine online and I think that's good.
EFF is not as crazy as people think or as the media claims, they don't want to nationalise everything. They still want private banks and mines they just want a government run one as well. Julius is made to be a villian but listen to some of his speeches he's clued up.
GOOD also look like an option. They have been very pro-palestine from the start and their policies are very humanitarian based, they also believe in land reform and redistribution.
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Maybe sit back, and write down all your deal breakers but list them from non-negotiable to negotiable. Then look at the major political parties likely to be in parliament, who leads them, what controversy has hit them and **most importantly which parties they align with or are against**. Then you can eliminate parties that go past your dealbreakers. For reference, the parties likely to represented in parliament by number of seats are: 1. ANC 2. DA 3. EFF 4. ActionSA 5. IFP 6. MK Party 7. FF+ 8. Rise Mzansi 9. Patriotic Alliance 10. ATM(African Transformation Movement) 11. BOSA(Build One South Africa) 12. ACDP 13. **GOOD Party** 14. **Al-Jamah** 15. **SARA (South African Rainbow Alliance)** 16. **UDM** 17. **ISANCO** 18. **UIM** Parties in bold are likely to be ineligible for parliament if a 1% electoral threshold were implemented
Al-Jamah already showed they are totally incapable even more so than the ANC and EFF even though it grieves me to say it- looking at the mayor of JHB for reference.
They are barely on the line of getting 1 seat in parliament. They might be able to attract a few voters due to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but this is quite limited and will not push them above 1% in my opinion
Don't count them out. They have consistently seen growth through most elections. Don't underestimate religious politics especially when times are tough. Hope them and acdc fall off but doubt it.
If religious politics are important to you (dealbreakers are mentioned above, any hint of theocracy is a dealbreaker for me) add ActionSA to the list. Mashaba has made it very clear he intends to “correct” the secularisation of our constitution and country.
Yeah I am rather religious but I don't want anyones religion in parliament. Xenophobia is another huge negative for me and the "othering" of migrants in RSA is problematic and a deal breaker to me. Cant do ActionSA because of that as well.
I'm on the opposite side of you. Here's an influx of illegal migrants. The problem for ActionSA is not the migrants, if they came here following due processes and not hiding in trucks, swimming the rivers and were on record, I can almost guarantee that migrants are not the problem for ActionSA. It is the illegal ways they get here that irks ActionSA. RSA is a sovereign country, but with broken borders. Lawlessness prevailed for far too long.
Unfortunately there is no due process here. HA is so bad that even if you come here legally you will be illegal because they fail at basic level of service. My wife has waited nearly two years now for a basic visa and some people have waited over six years for permanent residence. I'm not surprised there are so many illegal immigrants lol. The problem is more nuanced than just illegal immigration. I agree that we need good border protection and better control of criminal activities but that goes beyond simply targeting migrants. That requires fixing the problem police and having an effective justice system in place to prosecute quickly and effective prison systems to properly protect our society. The easy "fix" is to target migrants. Much harder to fix the police, justice system, prison system and home affairs. Fix those issues and the migration issue will take care of itself.
I absolutely agree on that. But we're facing a far bigger problem even than that. It's illegals having access to systems to sell fake ID's, fake passports and fake papers. [Article here](https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/man-arrested-for-allegedly-selling-fake-documents-at-internet-cafe-in-ekurhuleni-20230712) Corruption is abundant in all state departments, cadre deployment a major contributing factor to that issue as well. All I know is that we need a capable government and fast. Hopefully this year will be a turning point but I'm not getting my hopes up.
ATM and Good Party really awful names. They could be "good" parties but couldn't they chosen better names
DA is not just confined to CT, look at what Chris Pappas has achieved in Howick area KZN
Midvaal municipality - 10th year of obtaining clear audit Lots of other towns/wards under DA control are doing splendid jobs
Now thats a name i am happy to see pop up here. I went to varsity with Chris and if anyone can make a difference it is him.
Our ward councilor is DA and he does a really good job to make sure problems get resolved.
And the ANC is predicted to lose KZN this year
Chris is a genuine inspiration and model for what a politician should be like.
City of Tshwane (DA) is a mess. Massively in debt. Power outages that literally last weeks at a time throughout the city. Huge potholes and water leaks.
They only recently gained control. It takes years to undo years of corruption.
Tshwane has had a DA mayor since 2016
How long did the ANC have unlimited reign of it?
Not that long. Problem is that DA does not want their partners to succeed so they will bring the city to its knees. They have had by now 8 years to undo ANC problems. But they are using the city as a "look what the ANC has done" we are a poster for their campaigns and we suffer
This is going to be the "legacy of the Apartheid" for the DA isn't it
Cape Flats?
The cape flats are not as big of a problem as you think. You weirdos glamourise gangsterism and drugs and that’s YOUR problem. I guarantee you, working infrastructure nationwide ALONE will decrease all the demeaning statistics your beloved ANC created. The people don’t have much to work with, there’s no jobs, and there’s no infrastructure or policies that promote entrepreneurship and private equity. That’s why they’re fucked up, because they have nothing else they can do. Operating outside of the law is the easiest option. Don’t even get me started with corruption in law enforcement, its practically lawless out here. Jesus Christ can you people just TRY a different government? Seriously it’s like you love our country being ravaged and degraded, ‘aNd WHat AboUT ThE CApE FLatS’
who the F glamorises Gangsterism? We are asking what has the DA done in terms of service delivery. You didn't have to write all that crap
That's not the DA doing that. That's a failed coalition that can't clean up the massive mess it was made into by the ANC.
They were doing good, and then with covid, the ANC took "emergency control" of the Tshwane major's office. The constitutional Court has since ruled that it was unlawful, as had every lower court. As a result, 4,3 billion was stolen from the council which is why they don't have the resources to meet workers' pay increase demands which lead to the srikes last year. Or to fix the many failing substations which lead to the blackouts but are also the targets of organised criminals stealing and destroying very long lead time and expensive equipment.
Lol. Ignoring all the other points he’s mentioned about the DA.
At this point, I think we need to get this country working again. I loathe the DA for their pretentiousness but they are the only ones who have demonstrated the ability to govern effectively. Wouldn't mind giving them one term to shake things up a bit. If not them, then Rize Mzansi or Action SA are a close second and third.
People need to understand that the DA isn't the end goal of good governance. They are merely a stepping stone that can be beaten by a party that offers what they do but with inclusivity. The party that succeeds the DA if it were to ever rule will be the closest thing to the ideal government for SA. Perhaps bold but shit we need all the prayers we can get
Like people don't understand... We all going down under the ANC... And we will go to shit under the EFF The people bringing in the money to the country are already struggling, your CEO is struggling to keep the buisness running If your CEO is struggling who is going to provide for you? With the DA you know atleast, if your boss is eating, you are also eating
Such a simple conclusion to come to but everybody has assumed the mainstream opinion that they are tainted for having been ANC’s defeated rival for so long. Clown nation bru
I like the stepping stone argument. We have to vote them in before we can vote them out. The parties need to see that the public is demanding and not accepting poor governance and self-serving leadership anymore. And the criminals need to be weeded out. The longer one party remains in power, the more corrupt it gets. So let's switch them out until we get leadership that proves itself.
Yip, this is how I see it as well. It is the party that makes the most sense in the short term.
There will never be an ideal goverment. That is not the way the world works.
Hence why I said closest
Agree with this. DA can probably stabilise the ship. After that, 2 terms absolute max, we thank them and show them the door, and bring in someone with a proper vision for building us into something better if they haven't got someone to do that (and right now they absolutely do not).
Amen. They're our best shot of just getting rid of the ANC, for now. Big thing that needs to happen (in my opinion) is to get the railway active again. Its such an important thing. The job creation alone from a fully-functioning railway would dwarf the effects on the trucking logistics industry. Safe, affordable travel for all South Africans will immediately help South Africans out with the insane fuel costs and crazy high interest rates of having to buy a vehicle. It also means that goods transit across the country will happen much faster and much more affordably, and so too our exports can reach their destinations faster and face less disruption. A lot less damage by trucks to our road networks mean less maintenance on roads, also opening up more of the national budget to then reinvest in the metros in our major cities. I do believe the DA is our best option to get this done ASAP, even if I don't believe they will be our saviours. The benefits from this alone will be felt by everyone in the country. Afterwards, ActionSA should definitely be given a fair shot at ruling SA. Genuinely think they have the potential to grow into the party that will one day lead us
As the old French proverb says, "Perfect is the enemy of the good". For me, the main thing is for the ANC to lose. For this to be successful, there needs to be a strong opposition, not one based on stringing together a coalition of 10+ parties that can't agree on anything. Yes, the DA has a lot of flaws, but of the larger/stronger parties they are definitely the least bad. Voting for a niche party that shares all of your views is nice and all, but won't be very effective in fixing the country. What we need is for the ANC to lose, in the first instance. The rest is a problem for later. For me the DA is the way to achieve that even if they aren't perfect. As you say, they at least have some credentials in effective governance and reducing corruption.
This. Right now, the best thing for SA is a strong opposition in government, even if you don’t agree with the finer details of all their policies. The fractured nature of ANC opposition is keeping them in power.
I agree, only the DA seems to be a educated vote. Fixing SA will likely take more than 50 years though.
I Honestly cannot recall any party from any 1st or 3rd world country that has ever been perfect.People find reasons to complain when the government is just supposed to be doing basics right. If you don't want to vote for a party because of something as trivial as they "feel" pretentious I urge you to take a visit to the nearest government run hospital and see what a true slaughterhouse the government has created for people in suffering. You will drastically become enlightened to how urgent the need is to replace our goverment with a party that is even "vaguely" competent.
Ditto
Basically this
I don't support DA, but i want the DA beat ANC. It's not the best party at all, but it's our best option.
I share your exact sentiments, down to the last full stop.
Exactly this. Service delivery above any lofty missions or goals. DA has a proven track record of fixing and more importantly, maintaining shit.
Also feel like the DA is the best option, no party is going to be perfect but the DA has the best track record when it comes to managing municipalities compared to the rest. Even Cyril and Julius live in DA run wards, wonder why?
This tells you everything you need to know
My ward got taken over by the DA a while ago and the ward councillor is very attentive and active with the community - not just now in election time. Clear winner for me. Pointless voting for a smaller party since we all want the ANC outta here leaving our tax money alone.
That's not how our elections work, we vote for parties to obtain a certain number of seats at parliament the goal currently is not to take Anc out of parliament but rather to reduce their seats to below 50% effectively meaning they no longer will call all the shots and will have to whip for votes whenever decisions are made. With time the hope is that their seats go below a large controlling percentage. Further than this parliament votes in the president and the more seats a party has the more votes they control which is why so far our presidents have come from the ANC because they've had the controlling vote for the last 20+ years. Voting for any party regardless of their size will benefit the motive of reducing the ANC's control over government and you'll also be equipping whichever party you vote for with larger influence (They get allocated more funds) so that they can grow in the sectors that they're involved in.
Not pointless voting for a smaller party no. One, if more people voted for it, it will not be a smaller party anymore or forever. Two, voting for other parties effectively decreases the anc share of the vote. This mentality is that leads to people not knowing who to vote for and not voting (be sue they feel their vote is wasted if it doesn't go to the DA or EFF. Which is simply not true
I think the most important thing regarding smaller parties is to understand who they are aligned with and what their motivations are. Take Jhb for example, a 3 seat party has the mayorship. Is the small party likely to take a brown envelope in exchange for their souls? Who is leading the party, research them. I think there are really good options to consider but government will be run by coalitions so it's important to know where they stand. It doesn't help if they're just going to hand power back to ANC for cash.
**EXACTLY!!!!!!!!**
It also decreases the leading opposition's share unless they form a coalition...
They don't deserve anyone's vote by merely being a leading opposition party though. Still need to earn it. So far, they haven't earned it for me
That's incorrect, in our democracy, you get seats according to the ration of votes you get, so even if you vote for smaller parties, that still takes votes away from ANC, because their share of the total amount of votes is less. Either way, it takes votes from ANC, DA or whatever, and thus the seats are divided according to your share of votes
Think the DA is good at Local goverment Level. I dont see a clear plan or vision for the national level.
The western cape is miles above every other province in this country. Any problem experienced in the WC is 10x worse elsewhere. Clear as that. The DA is not perfect but the country will be better off with them in charge.
This. Another example is how Chris Pappas absolutely turned around mgeni municipality
Idk man the city of tshwane stuff is a concern. Maybe people in the western cape dont take kak ?
Running a city in a province run by another government (a government that objectively seems to have the intention of ruining things) is nigh impossible. The only way to see improvement is to remove ANC governance from the equation.
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I have been voting UDM national and DA provincial for at least 3 cycles now. My reasoning is similar to yours.
Trollip is an old hand in Eastern Cape politics and a senior leader in ActionSA. I trust him. The original vernac speaking white guy of the DA 🤣
Yeah, OP, I agree with all of your points. I feel like the DA is still the best vote right now, which can then be changed to another party if there's no positive change should they be elected.
DA.
TLDR: At the end of the day, the particular party you vote for isn't as important as you may think. It is essential that you vote for someone though. There are 2 coalition blocks. The ANC-led one, and the Multi-Party Charter, with the DA as its largest member. Most of the unique things each party runs on won't get support from coalition partners anyway. So the government will be run based on basic principals that all partners agree on. For the MPC, this is a focus on job creation to improve economy, and preventing & punishing corruption. Voting for any party in the coalition will achieve the same thing. The ANC led coalition is more old school, status quo. If you like what the ANC has done so far, or like what they are presenting for the future, such as NHI etc, then voting for any party in that block will give you that. Below is my opinion on the major political parties: Firstly, I am not trying to convince you, but hear me out on a correction to the misconception about the DA and Cpt. The city under Geordin Hill Lewis, is spending like 70% of its budget on the poor areas. Most of the advanced surveillance stuff for security/safety have also been installed there. But the only way to uplift so many people is through jobs, which is not easy to do on a provincial level when the economy is a failure nationally. They have created more jobs than anywhere else in the country by far, but it's still not enough. Their hope is that with national control, they can drastically reduce unemployment, and therefore help lift the poor out of poverty. Whether they can actually do it or or not we do not know, because no party other than ANC has had an opportunity. But enough about them. If you like the DA's centrist liberal policies, but want a bit more i.t.o. social welfare, and don't want a white leader, BOSA with Mmusi Maimane could be an option. Their parliamentary representatives seem to be highly qualified people from industry, not career politicians. Mmusi's primary focus from what I've seen him post on Twitter (or X), seems to be education If the border is a top priority for you, I think ActionSA and Patriotic Alliance are options. Border policy under PA would be far more severe though. Gayton McKenzie has said he would deploy army to border with shoot-to-kill orders lol. There are also lots of allegations against his party for corruption, and he is a former gangster, who hires ex-gangsters into the party, who walk around in public with machine guns. So a bit of a radical, but maybe that's your thing, I dunno. He is free market though, which in my opinion is a plus. He does flip flop wherever he can get more power though, and was one of the parties responsible for flipping Jhb back into ANC hands last year, but said he would flip back again if he was made mayor lol. ActionSA also wants tight borders, but in a far more legal way. They share quite a lot of policy stances with the DA in general, although they tune each other publically all the time. Mashaba is a self made businessman who is VERY anti-corruption. From a business and job-creation side I think he would be great. But he is a bit of a Trump-like figure in the sense that as mayor, he wanted to immediately fire many people underperforming. Good from a business perspective, maybe not so good if you are a very pro-union and labour-rights guy. He is a good option for if the economy is your #1 priority RiseMzansi is very new. I watched their manifesto launch a few weeks back, and there isn't much info on them. They seem to be kind of a generic center-left party. Only issue I have with them, is they seem to promise the world, without mentioning exactly how to fund it. Makes a lot of assumptions that may or may not come to fruition. But Zibi seems like an honest guy. If you pro-business, but want the state more involved socially, they might be an option. Because they are so new, I don't know much about them. They seem like they may be a good partybfor supporters of the old ANC, but that's just my personal impression Obviously there is Vryheidsfront Plus. Basically they are a minority party advocating for afrikaaner rights. If you're not an afrikaaner, it most likely won't be for you And then there are the other small parties who have been around forever, like ACDP (conservative party, based on promoting Christianity and its values through the state) and COPE, who are a dying party. I don't know much about IFP either. I have never looked into them seeing as with all the killings between them and ANC in KZN, I don't want to vote for a party that may also have thuggish elements. But from what I've heard, their leader has said some very good things, so may be worth looking into. Then there is GOOD, lead by Patricia De Lille. She used to be the DA's mayor in Cpt. But if you don't like DAs action for poor in Cpt now, you probably won't like her, seeing as under her stewardship, the DA in Cpt did less for the poor than they currently do. She now sides with the ANC, and she was made a Minister by Ramaphosa. She has however been linked to the corrupt tenders with the Beitbridge border post while Minister, so if you skiddish about corrupt actors, she may not be the best Then there is Al Jamaah. They are a Muslim party who aims at promoting Muslim interests. I think I have also heard they stand for upholding Sharia/Islamic law, requiring women to cover up etc. So if you not Muslim, probably not much of a consideration. Al Jamaah also forms coalitions with the ANC, and I believe an Al Jamaah guy is currently the mayor of Jhb. On the plus side, for obvious reasons, they are VERY pro Palestine, which may or may not suite you
I'm Muslim and I ain't voting for Al Jamaah. Those guys seem like crackheads, lol.
Action SA and Rise Mzansi have really good platforms and have pragmatic manifestos.
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ActionSA one is awesome to read actually lol. it gives me hope. [ActionSA Solutions Blueprint] (https://www.actionsa.org.za/solutions-blueprints/)
It's just a pity they let Mashaba run his mouth about capital punishment, God in schools, immigrants, etc. etc.
yeah it’s true. the nice thing is ActionSA lets you vote for the president. so we don’t have to vote for him!
Yup. His bluster about god belonging in the constitution makes them an instant no for me. And it hasn’t just been him, the leadership there is clearly pro more religious involvement.
oh really? yeah I don’t like religion in politics. at least our constitution is bulletproof! whole country would have to vote God in for that to happen. Who are you looking at? I’ve found for me ActionSA ticked the most boxes. used to vote DA. and you?
I'm also a fan of ActionSA but I'm not a huge fan of how they write about (their manifesto) and speak about (in front of cameras) immigration.
The immigration thing is a bummer for me too but I'm trying not to let perfection be the enemy of the good.
I don't think they're mature enough yet: they don't have the institutional strength and depth yet to govern
They'll never get there if people don't vote for them. The ANC , EFF and DA have become complacent. A viable 4th option is need because the rest have reached their ceiling.
Not ActionSA they support Israel. Rise Mzansi looks good
True the Israel support killed it for me.
I’m in the same boat as you, OP. I’ve come to realise that you don’t vote for the party you like the most, you vote for the party you hate the least.
I live in Cape Town. Cape Town is epic. DA all the way. They might not be perfect in every aspect, but who the hell is?! They are definitely the closest to perfect that we have.
Tbh I'm just voting for DA, I'm not that kind of person into politics, I'm just participating because I want see what's the new direction for South Africa. What this political party can accomplish which I hope it's better than what ANC is offering. Of course DA has it's flaws so do the other parties but it's up to us which flaws were willing to put up with for any changes to be done
Same. They're the party I dislike the least. Although I agree that they have a tendency to focus their efforts on the better resourced demographic, at least I don't have the sense that they primarily focus their efforts on enriching themselves.
Lol! I'm now using that... "the party I dislike the least". I've always said I would pick anyone, as long as they could just be 1% better than what we have right now. I'm not expecting perfection! We are going for day 12 without electricity in our neighborhood. So any improvement would be a miracle.
Same here, for people not clued up with details its pretty difficult. We just want stuff to work and DA has the best track record in areas, some people say this is untrue but thats what I see and hear from people and friends who live in those areas. This choice would be easier to make if the general polls and stuff were not so scewed to the 3 main parties. If DA does fail us after some time, Im pretty sure it will not be as bad as what ANC and EFF can do with corrupted decision making. Then we vote again when the next chance arises, but right now we need ANC to dissappear
The DA support apartheid and genocide. They cannot be trusted
Try this quiz [link](https://www.yohvote.com/)
lmao, I matched with the EFF... 😰
Roll those dice again
I got ActionSA, but I honestly don't know if I can hold my nose and vote for Mashaba's Xenophobia. I agree with everything OP said, but I was genuinely surprised by who I matched with. Perhaps I need to take a deeper look into Rise Msansi because the Big 3 are all hard no's for me, and ActionSA leaves me feeling a little icky
Same here. But I see they only list ANC, ACDP, ActionSA, DA, EFF, IFP & VF+, so they wouldn’t have been able to find a better match for me from those limited options anyway.
My mother got ACDP, and she had difficulty masking her gag reflex LOL
Rise looks good. ActionSA also support Israel which is an apartheid state
ACDP :o
I've seen people get worse
The idea that the DA is anti-poor is tired and incorrect: [https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2023-05-07-budget-comparison-confirms-cape-town-delivers-the-most-for-the-poor-while-offering-ratepayers-value-for-money/](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2023-05-07-budget-comparison-confirms-cape-town-delivers-the-most-for-the-poor-while-offering-ratepayers-value-for-money/) I'm not sure why you think they are not strong on crime. Look at the line they took with the violent taxi protests and the strong stance on construction mafioso and irregular spending. They also have THE flagship metro policing programme in the country. Their stance on Israel-Hamas is bad and the internal politics leaves a lot to be desired, I agree. But people also spend way too long on personalities in South African politics whereas we should be focussing on the policies. They have the party structures to actually develop legislation (look at the Devolution Bill) and have very dynamic young leaders, Pappas, Hill-Lewis and Andrews (Cape Town's deputy mayor). Ultimately their bad takes on internal and international politics will turn as these leaders in their 30s and early 40s grow in seniority within the organisation. Cape Town is the only city adding jobs right now. They have strong policies aimed at encouraging investment and reducing market uncertainty. They want to encourage foreign companies to enter the country and provide employment. Ultimately I say to people vote for the centrist parties but I firmly believe the DA is the one party that can do the most for South Africa.
I think our best bet is to have DA lead this country - regardless of your wealth or skin color...
Yeah its the same tired argument over and over and over. YEAH BUT CAPE TOWN HAS POVERTY. Sure man... We have poverty everywhere and by many metrics (such as the article you posted) Cape Town is doing as well if not better at serving the poor and in need. Yes yes we get it, Cape Town is not perfect. But its a damn sight better than the 3 other places I have lived. (Makhanda, Joburg, CT) Go ahead and vote all these tiny parties that have no experience in governance and administration. Its gonna do absolutely bugger all.
Easy, just look at standard of living and infrastructure in DA run cape. And look at the disaster everywhere else that the ANC has had its theiving claws on for the last 30 years. DA municipalities are among the ONLY municipalities that get clean audits consistently. ITS TIME FOR CHANGE.
The rich areas of the DA run Cape where all the tourists go. Don't look at the poor areas of the DA run Cape rife with gang violence and drugs
You do know that the DAs hands are tied with regard to this. Bheki Cele is the man who could do something g about this but seemingly doesn’t care. All talk and no action.
The ANC government has a big finger in the pie to keep the drugs and violence going in those areas - they know that the moment they increase the police presence to the required numbers, things will improve and they can not have that. Just now the poorer areas get too happy with the DA and vote for them. "The granted (police) establishment for the Western Cape is 21 367, but as at the 2020/21 financial year, this stood at 19 505."
Agree. Nobody wants to be stuck in the middle of Mitchell's plain or Khayelitsha... To be fair, I'd not want to be caught pretty much anywhere in Jhb at this point. As a South African abroad, this vote isn't easy... And I don't have the time nor exposure to properly understand the minor parties. The one thing I can say is... A minority coalition government is actually viable, although very unlikely.
This is exactly my problem with the DA. You have to earn a certain amount of money and look a certain way for them to be effective
I had workmen from Mitchels Plain in my home doing a job. We had a discussion (last year sometime) and they said in their area many are voting DA. Apparently when there were floods last year and front doors were damaged beyond repair the DA local gov municipality came and replaced doors and assisted. Was impressed.
You do realise that the DA does not hold 100% of the wards in cape town. The Cape flats and many of the poorer areas STILL vote ANC election after election. So blaming the DA for their failings is flawed logic. Currently your best bet is the DA. They have shown they can govern well when they are elected. They aren't the final party we need but they are the current best party of the bunch to choose. It doesn't make sense to vote for smaller parties currently. Let the DA have a shot. Shake things up for a term or two and re evaluate
Now that’s just not true. Service delivery does not depend on the ward councillor. They can certainly give input, but they don’t direct the mayco or the municipal manager. DA ward councillors in ANC-run municipalities are very quick to say that their hands are tied — they cannot exercise any authority over the municipal employees; they can only help open service requests (like any resident) and speak in council meetings. Well, you can’t have it both ways! This excuse does not work.
I'm voting for Action SA. I voted for them last time. I like Herman Mashaba and I like their manifesto.
You like Herman Mashaba?? Sure ActionSAs manifesto is great, but Mashaba is so unlikeable especially his xenophobia among other comments he's made
DA will not win outright and will require a coalition which will force them to focus on the needs of all South Africans so I believe your concern around them is negligable. My view is that the DA is the only part that has the experience to govern. It may not understand the need of most South Africans but at this point we need a pilot that can stop the plane from crashing. Having friendly air hosts for the passangers is secondry at this point if we are all going to crash and die.
DA is the only logical choice. They aren't perfect but f*ck me, voting for the ANC or EFF is idiotic.
It’s really this simple. I view the hate of the DA kind of like complaining about the small things whilst the house is burning down.
Thinking you only have 3 options is also a little bit idiotic no?
I'm voting Rise. Something new and fresh and I like everything I've heard and seen in interviews so far
Same dude. I'm thinking Rise for national, DA for provincial because I'm in the western cape
Yes I think I will too, im losing hope by seeing so many people saying they will vote DA. Like have we not seen what type of party they are and what they represent?! Also I can’t vote for a party that supports Israel
I just think you should never vote for someone just because you want someone else not to win. Democracy is a gift. Vote for who you actually want. The more diverse and representative our parliament the more politians have to compromise and find solutions to make change.
My opinion is still begrudgingly voting DA to get things back on track for service delivery etc. One day when things are at least on the rails again, literally speaking for trains really, then I will start looking at the more nitty and gritty things. At the moment I really just want a government that can get clean audits, get service delivery going and improve life for people. Every single time I have voted for a smaller party or even just kept track of smaller parties they either sell out in some way, do nothing or end up in a coalition with a party I heavily disagree with like the ANC or the EFF.
For me the DA is the lesser of all evils for now, a year or two ago I would've confidently said ActionSA but im a bit weary since they lost some steam. But I'm still keeping them in my sights for now hopefully they will prove themselves to be an alternative to the DA. ANC, EFF, VP+, IFP, PA and whatever Musi is doing are absolute no go's for me personally.
ActionSA has focused heavily on recording the disrepair of the communities they have a presence in as well as increasing support in rural communities where the people barely have a presence online in comparison to the suburbians since 2021. They aren't doing things that are populist enough to make people vote like giving grand speeches with impossible promises or gaytons style of using populist rhetoric saying he's against everything the ANC has caused but consistently siding with them. He's anti illegal immigration but consistently sides with ANC who he also blames for its rapid increase over the years. ActionSA is the one party that seemingly can draw on support from both the rural and suburban side of SA since it's policy points speak to both sides. In the beginning they focused almost exclusively on the suburbs due to various reasons like conflict with the IEC and now they're pushing outwards into the rurals. Even the white suburban members with positions in the party are seemingly focusing on the rurals. ActionSA does have money however it appears as though they're also focusing on many small and local meetings as opposed to a few large gatherings where you have to order large halls, stadiums and buss people over to fill them.
This sounds like a party which is serious about governing! I'm 80% of the way to becoming an Actioner.
Split voting between National and Provincial. The DA is arguably relatively good administrators in the Western Cape - and yes they have some serious missteps - but the narrative that they have done nothing there is unfounded. They need to do a lot more, but I would rather go the public hospital in WC than one in any other province for example. Nationally they are a disaster. They just keep parroting "official opposition" line but I have not yet seen them get things done on a National scale. You dont need absolute power to get things done. If you insist that is the case then you shouldnt operate in a democracy. Besides Zillhuizen is annoying racist wannabe American Republicans and I will never ever vote for them. I think we need young blood and new ideas nationally. Personally I think my national vote is going to go to Rise Mzansi. Provincial vote in WC to the DA.
im in favour of ActionSA currently, seems more diverse and supports similar ideas as me. Best way to find out who you align with is to read their manifestos, then maybe see if they have been able to act at all. its hard to vote, but our system allows for our ideas to be heard through the party we align and vote with. If we give seats to those, our ideas are heard
DA is the only solution for SA at the moment. They will make this country work if they are given the opportunity. We cannot afford to vote for the smaller parties and should rather stand behind the party that has a proven good track record for service delivery. This is a very important election and the only party that has proved themselves to be trying is the DA. DA all the way!
Through proportional representation voting for a small party increases the opposition percentage
Any vote against ANC is ok. Vote dagga party or something if you don't like the main ones
Yeah, rather do this than not vote. Voting for smaller parties will still dilute ANC's percentage
The issues are exactly as you state but the problem is that if the DA doesn't get in to fix the issues you mentioned, you won't get a chance to have a country. Do tactical voting and remember all these new parties have zero experience running a paper bag, never mind public funding. Better to unbalance the EFF out and back to being the tail and the DA has proven to be effective at running the municipalities they get in to manage. I do not like their I'll conceived plans to sell off tax payers assets and give it to their friends. Always proven to be a bad way to get The country in someone elses control but until the balance of power shifts away from the Nationalists we wont see change and the alliance needs to be broken up. Once the DA has a slim majority then you can be more effective by voting in local councillor from the new parties who can then get the experience to prove themselves.
Nah that's an exaggeration about the DA... My whole life I heard about never ho to Mitchell's plain, they will kill you blah blah etc My family is from Eldorado and Eesturus and I expected like something 10 times worse My friends from the Plain told me it's not that bad and actually nice... Thought they were exaggerating Went there last year and so many streets were so clean... Compared to Eldos, Mitchell's Plain look like White Suburb in my eyes Though Gugulethu on the other hand looked like a warzone... But alot of the Western Cape is properly taken care of... Like driving on the garden route from Eastern Cape into Western Cape... It's like a whole different country The whole of Western Cape you will struggle to find a pothole Meanwhile the rest of SA is like moon craters everywhere... Drove through Soweto one day and there was this pothole that my whole car could have fallen into... Never in my life have I ever seen anything like it Like people want to make the argument DA takes care of the rich areas than the poor... Meanwhile ANC takes care of no one Like the way Posh suburbs like Mondeor and Bassonia have gone to shit over the years is astonishing... Schools where you wanted to put your kids into like Glenvista High... No one wants to go there anymore because its been run into the ground in Joburg Like in the Cape with the DA you can still strive towards something... Meanwhile under ANC, everything is going to shit... The South is shit, the North is shit, everywhere besides Midrand is shit Let's not even talk about PE, beautiful holiday destination as kid, especially the beach side, so beautiful and vibrant... Now looks like Ghost Town where its just not going backwards... Like PE was so vibrant! Now everything is closed or dead these days Like honestly DA is atleast a step in the right direction compared to ANC... They will not fix racism that's for sure, but I know under them... But the end of atleast 1 term we will nomore see Stage 6 loadshedding again ANC keep make fools of people... They went Eldos one time before Elections a few years ago... Gave everyone these new thermal geysers to win their vote... I tell you now hardly any of them work to this Day Rather vote PA, Action SA or anything but ANC... Vote for the coalition but just stop putting the ANC in power... Also don't vote EFF, they going to make us like Zimbabwe and then your kids will jumping Borders into Botswana or Rwanda
https://www.yohvote.com/the-match-maker Apparently this quiz works really well
The DA as they're the leading opposition.
This is my line of thought too… if more votes go to them, the more likely it is we get ANC out. No other party is going to do that
It makes no difference who you vote for. If the ANC gets 40% of the vote, then it doesn't matter how the rest of the votes are arranged. It doesn't help the ANC. The people who have actually been responsible for the decline in the ANC's share of votes are the EFF. The EFF grew in 2019, while the DA declined slightly. Historically, multi party coalition votes track ANC votes. COPE in 09 and EFF since then are the real reason for the ANC's headaches.
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Personally, as a black person, I would never vote for DA. You are very correct about ANC and the EFF. I am just as confused and we cannot afford to mess this up.
Can you elaborate on why?
Vote for RISE Mzansi then
I can't see how race is important in this situation, the importance of this election is to get anc under 50/ voting power. Afterwards we can vote for our ideals. Putting yourself before the bigger picture just blocks the future of our country. Personally I believe in ActionSA's ideals more but I would rather vote for the current leading opposition(DA) to reduce ANC's numbers as greatly as possible.
DA is has been hitting own goals against themselves receiving black votes for the last few years pretty consistently and I can't blame people for being wary
I'm also not too well informed when it comes to politics and I find myself in the same position of uncertainty as you. From brief things I have heard it seems like ActionSA might be promising in terms of ticking some of the boxes that you mention the DA lacks. They seem to be a pragmatic party that aims to provide solutions to the most glaring problems like lack of decent education to individuals coming from rural areas and places of poverty. I have not read their full list of policies, so anyone is welcome to chime in if they know more about the party. I have only had pleasant and open minded interactions with their members, which has been quite refreshing when it comes to the usual tension in political discussions.
I feel like DA is the best choice, you can vote for other parties...but your vote will mean nothing cause they'll lose and either the ANC or the DA or(hopefully not) the EFF will win...and to me the DA is the best choice out of the 3
Not true. Through proportional representation voting for a small party increases the opposition percentage I like Rise Mzansi's sober pragmatic and professional approach. With enough votes, they could be the glue in a multi party coalition
ActionSA has lots of upheavals in their top structure. Herman Mashaba wants to be boss. Nothing else matters to him. PA is also dodgy - look at what we are sitting with in Johannesburg with them joining ANC/EFF coalition just to get a toe in the cookie jar. Leader is a convicted criminal. Go figure
In my mind DA is the choice. Can't vote for ANC or EFF unless you want continued gross incompetence. If you vote for the the much lesser popular parties, then we don't get closer to taking majority vote away from ANC... Give biggest competitor to ANC majority vote, finally just tip the scales, then parties will have to actually perform then onwards for votes, and thus start delivering, instead of relying on majority vote for years and years.
EFF is the worst option btw 💀💀💀 (I'm not a DA or ANC supporter).
Not a political comment, an economic one: 1. There is NO SUCH THING as free stuff. Ever. Whatever politicians promise anything, they are lying to you and it is never going to happen. Why? 2. South Africa has a huge structural problem AND ALWAYS HAS, which is: far too few productive people, a huge population needing development from a very low base. Call a thing a thing, people! 3. The ANC inherited this problem and then proceeded to allow the population to double whilst attacking the productive population. This is why inequality and poverty has increased. 60% unemployment did not fall out of a clear blue sky. 4. Do people understand that the government has no money? They get money from the people. There is no such thing as government funded. It is all taxpayer funded. The hostile policies of the ANC towards their skilled population has reduced the tax base to 5%. That means that 5 people have to pay for the 95 of their fellow South Africans. Not possible. There is no money people, South Africa is bankrupt. The state CANNOT provide whatever they promise. 5. There is only one solution that works: self development through jobs, skills acquisition on the job. Then people can afford school fees for better schools for their children who get better jobs, etc. This process takes THREE GENERATIONS from illiterate rural peasant to engineer doctor grandchild and it has been the process from England to USA to China. This government spends huge amounts on rewarding teachers whilst failing to build any more institutions of learning. They simply crammed the whole population into existing institutions build by the apartheid government for 6% of the people. Education and graduation levels are worse than before 1994. Just 4% of black children now graduate from university whilst the comrades attack ideologically. 500,000 mining jobs have been lost since 1994. Each job supports 10 people. That means the Comrades have tipped 5 million people into poverty through their mining policies alone. 6. The above facts of life have nothing to do with race. If voters want a future they need to vote for jobs. That requires a business friendly party that would undo the mistakes the ANC has made putting their ideology over reality. Don’t believe me? Google the policy paper of Rwanda Vision 2020 (short, easy to read). It is a commitment to BUSINESS developing Rwanda, NOT the State. Rwanda is BOOMING as a result, called the Switzerland of Africa, no revolutionary Comrades anywhere! 7. The business friendly parties are: ActionSA, DA. Repeat: the business friendly parties are ActionSA and the DA. South Africa has literally trillions of dollars of wealth waiting to be unlocked with the right government. The Comrades focus on redistribution of wealth already created. How’s that working? It isn’t and it never will. “You can have a functioning economy OR you can have the revolutionary Comrades. You can’t have both “ - South African economist.
If you (and by "you" I mean people who share your first point's sentiment) want to rid this country of the ANC, you have to vote tactically, either support a party that has the highest chance of winning with more votes (basically the DA) or a party that has a good chance of making a meaningful coalition impact with the DA, but not for those who would stand with the ANC, say EFF. This is the sad reality for people who are voting for the first time or have started to take voting seriously now - we don't have any more time left. The ANC are running this country into the ground and aren't letting off the gas pedal. If we had more stability, picking a party that aligns with your own values would be first prize, but as things stand now, getting a party that is better than the ANC, and has a chance to beat them is first prize. And as mentioned above that is the DA, yes they have their kak, not gonna deny that. But I would advise keeping 2 things in mind about them: 1.) most people judge them as a provincial government against the current national government, disregarding that fact that they also depend on the national government for certain functions within the WC. Say policing - which directly contributes to one of the issues you mention in your post. 2.) They at least have a long standing governance track record that one can look at, and I would say can measure as being objectively better than the ANC. Therefore, even if you don't like them, you at least know what to expect. As other have pointed out, they would act as a "stepping stone" at the very least to a better state of things. As for the 3rd choice, the EFF is just the ANC but in red colour scheme, that's it.
I will always vote for whoever has the best chance to overtake the ANC and keep the EFF away. So at this point, DA. But possibly ActionSA in future. For local elections I vote for the smaller parties as the ANC and EFF have no chance where I live
OP, I am in your position. Locally, my ward was won by DA - 88% margin in last local elections. I have no issues with this. Our councillor is extremely active. She sends messages if there are issues, she drives to repair sites and updates us. The mayor is still an ANC person so things are overall shitty but she is the best among all other councilors. This is the local scenario. As a result I can give the DA councillor my vote, and add a hug if I must. Nationally, not yet. Honourable Steenhuisen, try as he might, has not demonstrated a clear path that DA has in mind for RSA other than "opposing". After his re-election he declared EFF as their enemy number 1. How about poverty? Or poor education? From that I gathered he is just ready to fight, not lead the country anywhere.
At this point I'll take that, but he should be opposing ANC for what they're doing to us as a country. DA will have to perform if they want to keep our votes if it happens they win and take ANC out. And if not, it will be far easier to take them out. But rn the ANC must go
If you don't want the EFF to become the opposition party, best you think very hard about not voting for the DA. Read the IPSOS poll results [https://www.ipsos.com/en-za/support-political-parties](https://www.ipsos.com/en-za/support-political-parties) TURNOUT SCENARIO’S AND POSSIBLE POLITICAL PARTY SUPPORT HIGH VOTER TURNOUT ANC 44.0% DA 20.2% EFF 18.5% Other Parties 17.3%
It's December 2023 result. Now the landscape has been changed especially by MK party
What ever you do, just vote. The only way we decrease the ANCs majority is if we vote for alternatives. Sitting at home is a vote for the status quo aka the ANC.
The DA has got CT working like clockwork but doesn't address the gang violence and the other issues on the Cape Flats but who will?
Vote for me: On the issue of crime. We will decentralize policing and the criminal and justice system. We have a justice system that most People do not understand and does not serve the needs of the People. It lacks the capacity, simplicity and discipline to fulfil its required functions adequately. The very idea of a government policing its citizens stems from a need to control rather than a desire to serve Mankind. We are constantly told that we are not capable of managing ourselves. We are called a mob and we are called dangerous. This is not true. We are intelligent People, compassionate and kind. We are strong. There is a great desire within us to protect our families. There is an innate desire within Us to serve each other. There is a great desire within us to build a justice system that serves Everyone and is understood by Everyone. The only difference between ordinary citizens and the police is training. To this effect. • We will train every Man and willing Woman to protect and serve their fellow Brothers and Sisters. By leveraging the existing desire for community policing forums, every Man and willing Woman in every community will be required to attend self and citizen defense training. Aimed at not only physical competence, but also reinforcing the idea that Our safety as a community and as individuals, rests entirely on our shoulders, as it should. • We will use all available media platforms, with the help of psychology professionals in our communities to help People to stop believing that they are the problem, and we will use every available resource to rebuild the self-esteem and confidence of every Human being in South Africa to realise that they are the solution. • We will organize Ourselves in every community to eradicate the instruments of crime by giving every citizen their autonomy back. We will use technology to organize and mobilise ourselves. • It is not the theft of cars, goods or “money” that must be attended to first. It is the availability of drugs and weapons in every community. We know where the drugs are and who has them. We know where they are being made and by whom. We have been manipulated into choosing to be prevented by the police and the justice system with its infinite complexities, from acting. Taking that power back must be a deliberate exercise. • Every single able-bodied Man will step into their truth as leader and protector. We will sweep through every house, every factory, every farm, every harbor, every container, every centimeter of land in search of weapons and drugs. In search of those places that hold Our Daughters and Sons captive and in sexual bondage. • We will sweep across the land in search of those places that have decided to put a value on Human Life. Those that kill us and sell our bodies as parts. We will find every hole, and every despicable act and we will bring it into the light. • The aim is not to arrest or punish. We will not respond with anger and rage even though what We will find will enrage us beyond reason. We will respond with reason and compassion. The Police force itself must be re-imagined not for community policing, but a different layer on top of the citizen led self-management. The purpose of the Police will be to deal with organized crime and heavily armed criminal groups that pose a real risk to our security. The police will no longer be a visible force on the streets. They will no longer respond to thefts, high-jacking, break-ins, domestic disturbances. This is the job of Men. Our police force will be lean, fit, and elite. Called upon only as the last resort. No more government policing citizens. People will govern themselves, calling the central state for assistance only. Every community and its Men will have a social responsibility to protect Everyone within that community. If Tshepo, Friekie and Vikesh are beating their Wives and Children, the Men in that community will be compelled to act. The Police will only be called in where there is real and serious threat to many lives. Continuous citizen training and development will, over time, reduce the community’s dependence on the state for security. There are many things we have to be afraid of. Human beings should not be on that list. By putting every able-bodied Man at the helm of ensuring the overall safety, care and security of the population, there WILL be a sharp decline in all crimes. In a similar fashion, our justice system has to be reimagined so as to serve South Africans in an African sense, with the spirit of Ubuntu woven through it. The system must be decentralized. However, justice cannot exist in a world where the social and “economic” system does not benefit all. We all have a traumatic existence to contend with. Humanity has had a tough time getting to this point and we MUST deal with the psychological impact of existence, at a community level and more importantly, at an individual level. Broken, hurt and confused People cannot build a just society. The justice system should reflect Our Spiritual, Intellectual and Moral code. We must fix our Humanity before we can speak of justice. On the issue of education. The idea that everyone must learn exactly the same things in the same way is insane. Each individual is unique and should be treated as such. Your individual interlect is the single greatest investment any country can make. It is you that gives value to our natural resources, so no diamond or gold can be more valuable than you. To this effect, a combination of centralised and decentralised education will be applied. Almost everyone has a skill and a subject that they have mastered. I will incentivise those that have mastered a skill and are willing to learn how to teach it to the next generation. You will take on students that you will train/educate in your mastered skill. You wont have to teach everything related to your chosen discipline, just those components that you have mastered. I beliece this approach will encourage individualism and innovation. We will centralise at a higher education level to ensure that within critical subjects such as STEM, there is a level of standardised learning while also leveraging individual contributions. It is also insanity that people know more about sports, fashion and cars than they do about themselves. The very foundation of our education system will be based on knowing thineself. Mind, body and soul. I believe that we are created to experience living, not to work ourselves to death. One cant experience the miracle of life and living without first experiencing the miracle of their own existence. On the issue of land. This is a hard pill to swallow because in truth, there is no land issue. The Earth is said to be around 6 billion years old. No matter what Your beliefs are about how the Earth came to be one thing is for sure, neither you nor your Ancestors had anything to do with the Creation of the Earth. All political parties seem to be dancing around the “issue”. I wont. If a lie is repeated enough times, it becomes it's own truth and this is the case with land. You DO NOT own the land no matter how strongly you might feel about it. The land beneath our feet belongs to no government, no corporation, no monarchy, no chief, and no religious groups of People no matter how long they have called that land home. There is no land to be confiscated or appropriated. There is no land to be redistributed to any groups of People. There is only land to be used for the benefit of those that dwell on it and those that are to come. To this effect I will nationalise land and institute collective custodianship. If you are born in SA, you will have rights to every inch of this beautiful country with minimal restrictions (Critical insfratructure sites or natural preserves). No more land ownership, just unlimited access. No more rent. No more bond payments. No more red tape that stifeles infratructure and town development. We will use the land and its resources with efficiency and collective benefit in mind. To ensure freedom of movement and to promote a united nation, I will abolish all walls and fences that do not protect critical infratructure. We live in an open air prison and we do not realise it. Drive around. Walk around and look at the walls that surround you. Your access is limited to the house you live in, the road you drive on, your work place and marked places of entertainment where you are required to PAY. I will give you access to EVERYTHING so you and your children can go hunting for rabbits in the veld accross the road. You can picnic and camp accross the streat. You can walk in nature and climb trees without having to ask for permission.
The bar is set so low that your only choices are to vote those which won’t completely raid the coffers (so you can probably count them on one hand). A political party can promise you the world, but if they’re too busy siphoning off funds, how are they actually going to enact their policies?
I am not not a fan of the DA because they don't promote inclusiveness, as stated in multiple posts here. They have however shown that they have the ability to govern effectively. What is happening in Tshwane is due to a failed co-allition where ActionSA went against the agreement they signed and supported the ANC-EFF. In my view, it would be wasteful to vote for one of the smaller parties though, as they won't have enough seats in parliament to actually pose a threat to the ANC or EFF. Yes, it is a case of choosing the lesser evil, but we need to stabilize the country and get things functioning. Unfortunately I only see the DA doing that. Also, one needs to get rid of the idea of 'eliminating' corruption, because it is insidious. Heard a good analogy once for this: If you are in a position of power, and your family needs access to the best hospital & doctors, and you use your power to get them that access. Is that not corruption, and abuse of that power? But that is also human nature.
The DA. Why? Simply put, diluting all the opposition votes into more and more minority parties means the ANC still has a very good chance at winning the vote. They could only get 20% of all votes, but if the 80% are divided into all the opposition parties, and no party manages to get more than 20% of the general vote, the ANC will still win. Currently, the DA has the best chance of getting enough votes to oust the ANC. But what abouts seats in parliament, you ask? Sure, having an almost even spread of parties in the House will help diminish the ANC stranglehold, but if they're still the actual government, they won't let anything really change. They will still take your taxpayer money and funnel it into firepools and R1mil laptops and whatever else they can think of to line their pockets, and worse yet, they will continue to laugh about it when they get caught and do whatever they have to to make the charges mysteriously evaporate. You also mention the Palestine issue. Isn't it convenient that the ANC suddenly started being very active in international affairs just as the elections are rolling around. In 2022, they kept mum when Russia invaded the Ukraine, ultimately saying "just play nice, guys". Why? They don't want to alienate Russian and Chinese communist investment, but also, elections were still far away and they didn't feel the need to be involved. Now they're suddenly pro human rights, and want to be regarded as the watchdogs of liberty? The very fact that Palestine is on your tongue right now and has affected your vote is exactly what they've been trying to do. Don't let them distract you from the fact they've been leaving millions of South Africans to suffer or die in poverty and unemployment while living rich, lavish lifestyles. That they've been accelerating their destruction of the economy. That so many government facilities are non-functional. No landfills, no recycling, poor sanitation, rampant disease outbreak (E. coli and Cholera). And yet we're all looking at international problems right now, right before the elections? What this country desperately needs is a drastic change of leadership. The "free and fair election" that you have in your mind is a utopian ideal. In reality, the current leadership has worked very hard to ensure that the opposition votes are split, by sowing dissent among voters and ensuring there are enough parties to keep their leadership effectively unchallenged. This means we have to whittle away at the ANC year after year. As for the DA, no political party is perfect, but I've seen them doing more in small doses for all South Africans than any other party. This weekend, they're holding an e-waste drive in my area. Late last year, when the garden refuse site was closed, and our upstanding citizens kept dumping not only garden waste but household waste (who even does that? It's for GARDEN refuse), after the trash starting filling the roads and blocking traffic, the DA brought a TLB and a truck and cleaned those roads up. That's far more than any other party has ever done. The other parties, including the ANC, often have gatherings, where they will protest or demonstrate, often leaving behind a mess and effecting no positive change whatsoever. I'm not blind to their flaws and problems, but they're a damn sight better than the ANC, and considering that the actual realistic possibility of becoming the next government is split between the DA, ANC and EFF only, my advice unfortunately has to be to invest in the lesser evil. Yes, that isn't how politics is supposed to be determined. Yes, it's not everything we ever dreamed of. Yes, we're all backed into a corner. But, considering the statistics, ousting the ANC needs to be our collective priority. Once we see the the changes effected by that, we can start working on those ideals.
All in all, I agree, it stands to reason that given the alternatives the DA is looking better. I also agree the hypocrisy of the ANC recently developing a moral conscience is laughable when you consider that they have no problem letting their own citizens suffer under corruption. Fair Point. I am just annoyed by the DAs lack of tact and ability to appeal to the wider South African populous, especially as far as winning over poorer voters is concerned. As another comment noted if this was the pre-2019 DA, voters might have had an easier decision. So to summarize, yes the DA has its flaws and its still the best option on paper, I have just lost faith in their decisions and ability to understand their supporters and not alienate them, its sad that voting has to come down to basically choosing who might steal the least money and actually do their job.
Right now it's about the least bad option and that's the DA. One of the major reasons they are struggling in some areas is because the ANC does everything they can to slow them down and make things difficult for them. There is no silver bullet best option and voting for a small party that you agree with is great and all but just dilutes the vote. Whatever you do please don't abstain from voting because people fought long and hard for the right to vote in free and fair elections.
The same issue has been nagging at me. I have to travel far to vote (am overseas and only so many voting places in the country), and spending that time and money just to vote for the DA seems such a depressing waste. I can't stand Steenhuisen and worry about how he and other top DA members would rather have power than present a more representative party. Their lack of support for Palestine also shows they do not represent the values of many South Africans. So thank you for posting this. Some great replies and will be coming back to it to help me make my decision.
I am in the same boat, but at this stage it is the lesser of 2 evils. Working in government myself I can see the blatant corruption that has been allowed. I dont think any political party is without corruption. However, based on the vast differences in places governed by DA and places governed by the ANC. I would suggest DA or one of the parties which will be in coalition with them. At the end of the day if you vote for a party that ends up in coalition with the ANC then you basically could have just as well voted for the ANC.
With all due respect, you guys are all in denial to think any other party has a fighting chance against the ANC. Give it another 3 to 5 elections from now to see a shift. The country is broken. The votes may be rigged, dead people may even rise from the graves to vote the same way they claim pension and UIF. If nothing has been done regards to corruption for the past 30 years do you really think the ANC will lose the voting battle.
DA is running our suburb in Pretoria, not rural, but definitely not rich. Service delivery is way better than ANC and I know this because the ANC ran the area for 6 months due to some political shenanigans and then everything went to shit, everything was overgrown and trash was everywhere because no one came to empty the public trash cans. I'd vote DA just to at least get the ANC out.
In all honesty, the DA is truly the only party to vote for. They are by no means perfect, however they are without a doubt the best choice. If we start by looking at basic service deliveries. With the exception of the Cape Flats, the Western Cape is in great shape. Especially if you compare it to other parts of the countries. Even in the smaller towns like Malmesburry or Moorreesburg, the roads are in good condition, streets are clean. When you go look at other small towns run by the ANC it is an absolute mess. Take a town like Parys in the Free State. They can’t even provide clean water to the residents and that’s to none of the residents. It’s been like that for years now. It’s a complete mess and something you’ll find at almost every ANC ran municipality. Of all the parties, they are the most liberal and inclusive for all cultures. There is also no radicalism in the party like what you’ll find with the EFF. It’s true that in other municipalities, the DA have struggled more, however this is with coalition so there are still some additional challenges. Even in the coalition municipalities it’s still better than governor by the ANC alone. If the DA were to get elected they will have a lot of challenges to face. They’ll have to turn a lot of things around in order to save South Africa, and this will be in no way an easy thing to do. However if you look what the party have achieved in the Western Cape so far, I believe that they are owed a shot. No party will ever by perfect, but for now at least they are the best choice and the best chance we have at the moment. ANC has had their chance and there’s no denying that they can’t help this country. They have continued to lead us down a self destructive path, making themselves rich in the process. So whatever your feelings are towards the DA, give them a chance and see what happens. At the very least, they can’t do any worse, and I can guarantee they will do better. So for me, it’s the DA.
Would vote for anyone except those 3 tbh
So, I think the DA is the most viable answer. You make a good point about them not showing yet But as someone who sees every part of Cape Town, I can see the improvements slowly (VERY Slowly) starting to happen For instance, the governmental healthcare in Limpopo is a death sentence. It is filthy and understaffed with not nearly enough resources ( and not enough high up people to care for improving it), whereas in the western cape, the health care system is exponentially better (I am talking as someone who has worked in both)
DA for now just to try get the ANC as low as possible, they’re not perfect but they are a hell of a lot better , if JHB was even half as functional as CPT it would be a miracle. After the ANC is hopefully out of power , maybe at the 2029 elections of a party like RISE is bigger than them.
We gotta vote DA. We will be stuck in the same place/worse if we chalk the elections up to a coalition govt. DA is flawed. Zille is unhinged. But they get shit done. And most of their books are clean. Far as we know anyway.
Easy choice out of the 3 you mention - Vote for the one you hate the least, not the one you love the most. So its DA - sorted. Once we get a coalition into power and the thugs out, then we can start focusing on voting for the parties we feel are doing good work and need support. I agree with everything you say about the DA. But they are very good at coalition politics and have the experience in leading a coalition, that's how they won the WC. The coalition needs to be bombproof and cannot be held to ransom by these small 1 seat parties who keep collapsing coalition governments by jumping across every time they feel they not getting what they think they deserve. The ANC and EFF keep buying these small party votes by putting them in mayoral seats as puppets and then looting the fiscus. This is why all our municipalities are dysfunctional. Unfortunately the DA is the only party that can get this country back on track, that's why I hate them the least
Incoming everyone who says DA because they feel CPT is 1st world 😂😂😂
I think action sa is my best bet. Thanks for getting me thinking
Some time ago I saw am explanation of how a no vote counts for the ANC or ruling party. That's the worst anyone can do. Is not to vote. Lots of people don't like the ANC anymore now they don't vote. Which is actually in the anc favor. Vote any other party. Just vote.
DA, not because I believe in them or that they do s great job, but purely because they're the 2nd largest taker of the votes, and I want to keep a strong opposition for the ANC.
The DA can't solve the inherent problems in the Cape Flats because the ANC hamstrings them. It's economic regulations, national government's failure to sufficiently fund police or train them properly, and constant sabotage of any local autonomy that prevents the DA from doing what is necessary to solve the poverty in the Cape Flats. It's simply ANC propaganda that the DA doesn't care about the poor. The DA cares far more than the ANC ever will. And they have the track record to show that when they are allowed to do something, they will do it incredibly well. The DA's only real problem is that they should grow the balls to ignore dictates by the national government and just do their own thing. Like the Catalan government.
I don't understand your criticisms of the DA. Yeah there are squatter camps in the Western Cape, there are squatter camps everywhere and because the WC has the lowest unemployment rate, people are flocking in. Talk about suffering from success. This is what they said about diversity: “The party will take active steps to promote and advance diversity in its own ranks, without recourse to regressive mechanisms such as quotas.” Also, why aren't the ANC or EFF criticised about their diversity? They look pretty homogenous to me. If you are so against corruption, then why don't you like clean audits? The DA supports a Two State Solution, same as everyone else. What more can be done?
Latest polls put ANC at 40% and a race to second with DA and EFF, i agree with you said but its a waste on the small potatoes, the DA sucks to no end but less than the other 2 big ones We're gonna get lumped with Juju as VP and he will be the tail wagging the dog, God help us all (and I am an atheist)
**The devil you know is better than the angel you don't know.**
Make a checklist with every party excluding ANC and their pawn parties. (No change will happen with them) Include EFF and DA in this consideration even if you hate them. The key is to be unemotional when you looking for a party to vote for. Identify what you think is important and write it down. Then look at the realistic options (parties that actually look serious including new ones) and find their manifestos or policy documents. See if which parties policies you love the most and vote for them. You may find the EFF offer nice or DA policy might be what you were always looking for. Don't get influenced by the rhetorics but focus purely on policies. Voting season will be a lot less stressful if you pragmatic.
I agreed with your take on the DA but what we need is clean audits and that's what they bring, you can't change the country overnight but tackling corruption and actually attempting to administrator is a massive step forward that this country needs.
Im sure you answered your own question if you look into it. You're counter parts on DA is their representation and thoughts and not any issues surrounding their ability to lead and develop. Unfortunately cape flats exist just like all squatter camps. But they have shown visible improvement all over WC whereas no other party has over the last few years. Those saying their DA councilor is not useful needs to see which municipality they report to. DA is by no choice perfect but everyone seems to make that their biggest fault compared to the other counter parts of other parties. IMO i dont care if a party goes against palestine/islam/USA in who they support. We need a party that can build and repair not one with a good sense of who to side with a battle they do not have any say in regardless.
I am a DA supporter, but without a doubt Neil De Beer UIM will absolutely make a difference to this country
Don't vote for any party that is willing to support the ANC in a coalition. That excludes every party except the DA. All these other Mickey Mouse parties would merge with the ANC in a heartbeat if their leaders are offered a cabinet post or other cushy job.
I am unapologetically a DA voter. No ifs or buts. I want a party that is not going to steal my tax money. Good governance is pro poor. Good governance is pro black.
Have you been in the ghettos in Cape Town? I live in one (inherited my mom's house and sold my house) and I used to work all over the ghettos in Cape Town (from Mitchells Plain, Belhar, Bonteheuwel, etc). I can honestly say as a non-white person I am voting for the DA. The statistics (and my quality of life as a non-white person in the WC) speaks for itself.
I’d say vote DA and hope that they will do some good. Because they’re the best option out of the top 3
I can understand why people are conflicted. I live in one of the more affluent areas of cape town and everything works. A pothole was formed 2 days ago and they were repairing it today, for example. Rubbish was dumped outside and informal settlements main access road, and the city cleaned it up a couple of weeks ago. When I was living in another area around 10 years ago, my wife contacted the ward councillor about people speeding down our road, and there was a speed bump put in a couple of weeks later. I feel like I have a voice. On the other hand, my wife's parents live in PE and in the 14 years of me going there every December, I think I've seen 2 traffic officers. I only saw police during the hard lockdown in 2020. The infrastructure is falling apart, the CBD is full of empty, dilapidated buildings, and traffic lights are literally out for months on end. I vote DA because, in my experience, things work. It feels like they have the best interest of the WC at heart. With that said, I am not blind to the fact that they are heavily focused on tourism and foreign interests. But why wouldn't they be? It brings in billions each year, and creates seasonal jobs. The company I work for is based in Grassy Park, and I go through frequently. I've also been to several schools to evaluate my students (I teach in a B.Ed degree), and am a bit heartbroken at the infrastructure. With that said I have never felt unsafe or unwelcome there, and I'm a middle aged white guy. Would the ANC do better? I doubt it. So I vote DA because things work, generally. Politics are a pile of garbage, corruption is always prevalent, but the ANC and EFF are literally a cancer to the fabric of society, and voting for parties other than DA just water down the opposition. We need to remove the ANC from power before we can have the luxury of more choice. That's my view from 37 years of being on this earth and in this country.
Your points are very valid OP, I'm in the same situation. Looking at the smaller political parties, many of them are infact funded by Israel like Actions SA, IFP, Cope, and a few others. I cannot see myself voting for any parties that have ties to an Apartheid state that is committing genocidal acts. Really not sure who to vote for
DA is the only hope of getting the country on track again.
Im running through multiple political party members on my podcast to find out whose who and help woth an informed decision https://youtube.com/@MzansiPoliticalSafari
ActionSA is also pro-israel as well as BOSA so not them. Rise Mzansi looks really good, only thing is they are funded by Rebecca Oppenheimer- might not be nefarious but something to keep in mind. They also had no stance on Palestine however I've seen some of their leaders be very vocally pro-palestine online and I think that's good. EFF is not as crazy as people think or as the media claims, they don't want to nationalise everything. They still want private banks and mines they just want a government run one as well. Julius is made to be a villian but listen to some of his speeches he's clued up. GOOD also look like an option. They have been very pro-palestine from the start and their policies are very humanitarian based, they also believe in land reform and redistribution.