Voters of SA Unite! This is the rallying call for the 2024 election. This weekend I hosted a voter’s caucus at a Johannesburg park. More than 30 voters from different walks of life, overwhelmingly young and many still undecided about casting their vote in the 2024 election, met to make voting a group project.
The voter’s caucus is a call to action for voters to convince each other on the best use of our vote by discussing our voting choices, the issues that should be on the ballot and how to make our collective voice count. Your vote is your secret but how you vote also affects others and how they vote or don’t will affect you.
With less than 10 months to go before the 2024 election, political parties are preparing and, in some cases, already beginning the battle for the hearts, minds and eyeballs of voters. The ANC NEC held an elections manifesto meeting, the DA will host the “Moonshot Pact” meeting in August and newer parties like ActionSA are registering voters. Each political party is hoping to find the right ingredients to win the national and provincial elections.
Notwithstanding all the politicking parties will do, it is ultimately the voters who should win the 2024 election.
It is not only true that the voters who show up most directly determine the outcome of an election, but it is important that no matter who wins the most votes, it must be the voters who win the day. The issues and solutions voters care about must be the ones that drive the electoral agenda. The calibre of representatives the voters want and need should be the prevailing options. The votes cast should be upheld by a credible electoral process free of manipulation, bias and corruption. The elections must be an expression of the will and interests of SA’s people rather than crude aspirations and ambitious of politicians to see their name in lights on the votes leaderboard.
Voters have some odds in our favour to win as the 2024 election approaches. The number of voters who have not registered before or have abstained in the 2019 and 2021 elections far outweigh the number of votes for the ANC, DA and EFF, as the three leading parties. In 2021, out of 40-million people eligible to vote by age, 14-million did not register. A further 14-million registered but did not show up. Only 12-million turned out on voting day, and less than 6-million people cast votes for the ANC. If disaffected voters turned out, the biggest party in the country would be voted out by them.
Voting is a collective action. It’s a numbers game. The numbers in SA are with the people who are most disheartened, angry and unseen by the parties.
Last week, My Vote Counts, an elections advocacy group, hosted a civil society and social movement retreat on strategic voting in the 2024 elections. Dozens of civil society leaders considered options for using the 2024 vote as a tool for advocacy. Committing to campaigns to register communities of people to vote, regardless of who they vote for.
Registration is not only for the decided voter. Undecided voters should register to give ourselves the option of voting assuming we determine a good use of our voting power. The Groundwork Collective, headed by former politician Mbali Ntuli, is leading the way having registered 6,000 new voters in the first 20 days of their X_Change campaign.
At the MVC andvoter’s caucus events, it was clear that registration was not enough. In both gatherings a clear call was made for voters to lead in the setting of a minimum agenda or list of demands for parties seeking to be voted for. We cannot wait for the politicians to set the priorities.
In the words of Peggy Noonan, “Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls.” The voters only win the election if the issues we care about are the in the manifestos and on the to-do-lists of those elected.
It must become the norm that voters convince each other to show up at the polls together, with a winning strategy. The same energy we use to plan protests should be converted into an election strategy to turn our anger and frustration into collective action, be boots on the ground on voting day, present our demands, and follow up with consequences after the vote if demands are not met.
TESSA DOOMS | Beyond politics of parties, the voter should be winner in 2024
No matter who wins the most votes, voters must win the day
Image: Esa Alexander
Voters of SA Unite! This is the rallying call for the 2024 election. This weekend I hosted a voter’s caucus at a Johannesburg park. More than 30 voters from different walks of life, overwhelmingly young and many still undecided about casting their vote in the 2024 election, met to make voting a group project.
The voter’s caucus is a call to action for voters to convince each other on the best use of our vote by discussing our voting choices, the issues that should be on the ballot and how to make our collective voice count. Your vote is your secret but how you vote also affects others and how they vote or don’t will affect you.
With less than 10 months to go before the 2024 election, political parties are preparing and, in some cases, already beginning the battle for the hearts, minds and eyeballs of voters. The ANC NEC held an elections manifesto meeting, the DA will host the “Moonshot Pact” meeting in August and newer parties like ActionSA are registering voters. Each political party is hoping to find the right ingredients to win the national and provincial elections.
Notwithstanding all the politicking parties will do, it is ultimately the voters who should win the 2024 election.
It is not only true that the voters who show up most directly determine the outcome of an election, but it is important that no matter who wins the most votes, it must be the voters who win the day. The issues and solutions voters care about must be the ones that drive the electoral agenda. The calibre of representatives the voters want and need should be the prevailing options. The votes cast should be upheld by a credible electoral process free of manipulation, bias and corruption. The elections must be an expression of the will and interests of SA’s people rather than crude aspirations and ambitious of politicians to see their name in lights on the votes leaderboard.
Voters have some odds in our favour to win as the 2024 election approaches. The number of voters who have not registered before or have abstained in the 2019 and 2021 elections far outweigh the number of votes for the ANC, DA and EFF, as the three leading parties. In 2021, out of 40-million people eligible to vote by age, 14-million did not register. A further 14-million registered but did not show up. Only 12-million turned out on voting day, and less than 6-million people cast votes for the ANC. If disaffected voters turned out, the biggest party in the country would be voted out by them.
Voting is a collective action. It’s a numbers game. The numbers in SA are with the people who are most disheartened, angry and unseen by the parties.
Last week, My Vote Counts, an elections advocacy group, hosted a civil society and social movement retreat on strategic voting in the 2024 elections. Dozens of civil society leaders considered options for using the 2024 vote as a tool for advocacy. Committing to campaigns to register communities of people to vote, regardless of who they vote for.
Registration is not only for the decided voter. Undecided voters should register to give ourselves the option of voting assuming we determine a good use of our voting power. The Groundwork Collective, headed by former politician Mbali Ntuli, is leading the way having registered 6,000 new voters in the first 20 days of their X_Change campaign.
At the MVC andvoter’s caucus events, it was clear that registration was not enough. In both gatherings a clear call was made for voters to lead in the setting of a minimum agenda or list of demands for parties seeking to be voted for. We cannot wait for the politicians to set the priorities.
In the words of Peggy Noonan, “Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls.” The voters only win the election if the issues we care about are the in the manifestos and on the to-do-lists of those elected.
It must become the norm that voters convince each other to show up at the polls together, with a winning strategy. The same energy we use to plan protests should be converted into an election strategy to turn our anger and frustration into collective action, be boots on the ground on voting day, present our demands, and follow up with consequences after the vote if demands are not met.
TESSA DOOMS | People must take back power to fire and hire through our vote at polls
TESSA DOOMS | Many losing faith in democratic promise of a better South Africa
TESSA DOOMS | Rise in echo chambers and cancel culture threatens ideas in our politics
TESSA DOOMS | Road to 2024 elections is paved with debate, expectation, fear and hope
TESSA DOOMS | Leaders are ordinary people willing to take on extraordinary tasks
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