As the municipal elections of November 4 approach, many of us are unsure whom we should vote for.
In Ipsos's recent “Pulse of the People” survey, 53% of respondents said “There is no political party that represents my views”, a view shared by 50% of those registered to vote. Meanwhile, a record 546 political parties have registered to take part in these elections.
We won’t offer advice about who you should vote for, of course, but we urge you to make sure you do vote for the party that best represents your convictions, even if imperfectly. Too often, election outcomes are shaped less by citizens’ real wishes than by the proportion of eligible voters who stay away.
How can each of is decide? By being informed. In the video linked above, Politically Aweh interviews party representatives on their climate plans. It’s enormously disappointing that only the ANC mentions moving to a less carbon-intensive energy system, that no others refer even indirectly to the structural causes of climate change − human-induced climate warming, caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels − and that the second strongest answer was planting trees which, while necessary and laudable, cannot on its own curb the climate crisis.
Politically Aweh has produced other Elections Showdown videos interrogating political parties on affordable housing and other election issues, and our Fossil Ad Ban campaign held a webinar on 28 October called “The climate vote: Who will act on the climate crisis?”, facilitated by FAB’s new legal lead Bathandwa Xhallie.
Panellist Anna Weekes, a respected journalist and media activist, noted that climate change is hardly discussed in media narratives about the election, which focus on service delivery and other ways government has failed citizens. Communities’ climate-related experiences are entirely ignored, as are climate-adaptation projects such as mini-forests and engineered wetlands.
Another panellist, Thandile Zonke, a youth commissioner at the Presidential Climate Change Commission, emphasised that political parties’ manifestoes do feature climate change, although not as prominent as they should, and that disaster-management and recovery is organised at the municipal level of government, making these municipal elections very important.
Also at the webinar, Noxolo Mfocwa, from My Vote Counts, described a tool voters can use, called M-PAM (Municipal People’s Analysis of Manifestos), that assesses the promises of the African National Congress, Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and Action SA against community needs.
“If you think about a community that floods whenever there are heavy rains - I think about Umtata - residents there might identify blocked drains as the problem… or repeated damage to roads,” Mfocwa said. “Communities might not describe these as climate issues, but climate risks makes these existing problems worse.”
The same applies to extreme heat, water shortages, unreliable waste collection, and infrastructure problems, Mfocwa said.
Mbali Mluma of Project 90 by 2030 said that after the election, voters should assess local government’s Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) against their communities’ needs, taking political parties’ manifestoes into account. “It is our duty, as voters… to hold decision-makers to account.”
“Communities have better knowledge of the issues affecting them, and municipalities have the obligation to respond.”
Watch the webinar here.
For more pointers, look at Project 90 by 2030’s analysis of various political parties’ climate, energy and gender justice commitments. And for election basics, watch this Daily Maverick’s video explaining where to vote, what the various ballots are for, how votes are converted into council sets, and more.
In 2021, only about three in 10 eligible South Africans voted, the Daily Maverick reported. If you need a little more motivation, watch our recent Instagram video below.
