The streets all over Cape Town’s city center were overtaken by political marches and motorcades on Tuesday, our last day of internships and the day before the presidential election in South Africa. While wrapping up projects at the Black Sash all morning, we listened to the chanting and singing echoing down Plein St below our fourth story office. Monday was devoted to similar end-of-internship tasks during the day and end-of-term assignments and studying during the evening, but Tuesday and Wednesday were more remarkable because of their significance to our group and the country, respectively.
Over lunch on Tuesday, Cassidy and I finally had the justification to buy a full-sized chocolate cake from Charly’s Bakery, our midday, midweek mainstay over the past three and a half months. Just after noon, we walked back to the office with the big pink and white cake box, and arrived to find that the office had put together a farewell lunch, celebrating both the end of our internship and the departure of two other staff members for other positions. The entire national office staff gathered around the long table in the kitchen, and after a few formal farewell speeches, we passed around platters of chicken, salad, quiche, and eventually, the Charly’s cake. As many people pointed out, the decadent chocolate confection was almost too pretty to eat. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the National Advocacy Office, as usual, sharing photos and relevant documents with our supervisors and talking about the next day’s events. Black Sash will be teaming up with the Electoral Monitoring Network, where Kevin has been interning for the last several weeks, to help observe at the polls as people vote. The organization will also travel all over the Western Cape giving press statements about socioeconomic policy and voter turnout.
This morning, as South Africans flocked to the polls in the damp, chilly weather, most of 10 Loch Rd remained bundled in blankets and sweats, poring over notes for the Politics of South Africa final exam the next day. Between studying, writing the last of our papers, and making additions to our slides for the trip symposium presentation, we spent most of the day in quiet corners of the house, reaching a level of productivity greater than any the house has yet seen. From time to time we logged onto BBC and other local news sites to keep track of Election Day stories, and Kevin and Jordan (who is interning with the Independent Electoral Commission) spent the day working directly with election officials, organizing incoming data or traveling between polling centers. During a brief afternoon run along the streets near the Commons, I passed a polling station at a local school, where the line of voters wound out the door and around the fence at the edge of the property. No fewer than five police cars roared up the street to the school as I jogged by, and before I turned the corner and lost sight of them, I saw a half dozen policemen jump out of the cars and drag a man out of a pickup truck blocking the road by the polls entrance. I did not want to be caught up in the scene, so I continued my run, but the situation was certainly perplexing.
The polls were slated to close at 9PM, but anyone still in line to vote at that time was allowed to do so. Given that none of the ballots are electronically scanned, the results of the election will trickle in over the next several days, but even so, the outcome of the national election is fairly certain. The ANC will win a majority of the national vote, but for the first time, may not achieve the two-thirds majority it has enjoyed in Parliament for the last fifteen years. If it does not hold two-thirds of the seats, then the party will no longer have the power to single-handedly make Constitutional changes, and as many members of civil society have pointed out, this will strengthen South Africa’s democracy. Additionally, the ANC may not win the presidential vote in all seven provinces, as it has in the last two elections, and in such a case, the party will no longer be able to declare that it represents all parts of South Africa. The Western Cape – routinely the outlier province in political affairs – is expecting a strong showing for the DA (Democratic Alliance), the traditionally white and Afrikaans party led by Cape Town’s mayor, Helen Zille. Of course, it has yet to be seen how much of the opposition vote will go to smaller parties like the ID, UDM, IFP, and the recently formed (and some say “trendy”) ANC splinter party, Congress of the People (COPE).
One thing we do know, however, is that the election season that culminated in today’s vote has been mercifully free of widespread violence or unrest. We all hope that the calm atmosphere sustains even as the parties and their supporters learn of the election results later this week.
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