Did you know that South Africa has 1794 registered political parties? 1414 of them are registered at municipal level and 380 are registered at national level.
Does this promote democracy, or merely confuse the voters, while flattering the vanity of hundreds of one-man leaders, their dog, and their mothers?
Potentially, we could have all the recognisable parties, plus several hundred others, plus independent candidates on the ballot paper. A two or three-page ballot paper would, without doubt, confuse many voters and slow down both voting and the eventual counting.
Fortunately, there are some requirements that independents and parties with no representatives in Parliament or the Provinces must meet.
Independents must obtain 1000 signatures. New parties, to contest the election, must obtain 15% of the seat quota in the previous election. This translates into about 15000 signatures for the national list, about 13000 for a regional to national list seat, and less for the Provincial legislatures. This is reduced for smaller provinces, going down to 1919 for a provincial legislature seat in the Northen Cape. Surely this is not too onerous for any serious party or individual?
Roger Jardine, who formed his own party in December, proclaimed that he was available to be the president of SA. Instead of being laughed off the political stage in the beginning, he was taken seriously by important business people, very wealthy donors, and by two weeks of wall-to-wall coverage by the Sunday Times. And then nothing.
He has now withdrawn himself and his party from the election. What an ignominious end to a budding political career. He should have joined a party like the DA, whose policies closely mirror his, apart from his proposal to increase taxation dramatically. He has a contribution to make and should now join the DA and get some relevant experience in modern political organisation. He would receive a warm welcome. Perhaps in the future, he can play an important role.
What many political amateurs believe is that if they have good ideas and fresh faces, someone else, (who?), will do the hard graft of mounting the ground battle to get the party established so that it can canvass millions of voters, put up hundreds of thousands of posters, and man 23000 polling stations for the Special Voting and Election days.
I have had experience in politics since 1950 in the UP, and of building a new party, dating back to 1975. The Reform Party, the PRP, the PFP, the DP, and the DA, in succession, struggled mightily to get where they are today.
In 1994 the DP obtained 1.7% of the votes. Today the DA should poll around 26%, and together with its partners in the coalition known as the MPC, could poll above 36%, matching the ANC, and ending the hegemony of the failing and ailing ANC. The era of coalition politics has arrived.
All the wannabee political leaders must learn that it takes an enormous amount of hard work, years of effort, and above all, staying power, if one wants to attract and retain the support of the voters.
Failing that, most voters know that voting for new parties is a waste of a vote. Several hundred party leaders and many Independents will wake up to the reality of failure the day after the election. And many voters will know that they have wasted their votes and perhaps wasted the opportunity to change SA for the better.
Douglas Gibson is a former opposition chief whip and a former ambassador to Thailand. His website is: douglasgibsonsouthafrica.com
This article first appeared in The Star newspaper.
