Voter education panel talk to students on Potch campus

A panel of political leaders and analysts addressed Potch students on 4 April as part of an ongoing voter education initiative organised by the Student Campus Council (SCC).

The panel included Tutu Faleni, a member of the North West legislature representing Action SA. He replaced the party’s leader, Herman Mashaba, who was expected to join the discussion.

Other panel members were Nombiselo Susan Sompa-Masiu, (ANC), a member of the North-West government replaced Oageng Molapisi, another ANC representative in the North-West government, HeloÏse Denner, an MP (member of Parliament) representing the VF+, political activist Lawrence Manaka of RISE Mzansi, Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster, co-founder, deputy leader and Gauteng Premier candidate of Build One South Africa, or Bosa, Liam Jacobs, federal leader of the Democratic Alliance Students Organisation (DASO), and Mothusi Montwedi of the EFF, who replaced Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, chief whip of the party in Parliament.

The second voter education session also included political commentators such as Dr Ongama Mtimka, an academic at the Nelson Mandela University in the Eastern Cape.

Sandile Swana (from left), Anda Mbonjeni, Ongama Mtimka, SCC member Reuben Coetzer, and Mike Sham were part of the first voter education meeting that the SCC organised. Image: Inge Kruger

At the first event on 29 March Mike Sham, a political commentator and host of the online programme and podcast State of the Nation, was joined by Mtimka, and Sandile Swana, and ICT entrepreneur and part-time lecturer at the Wits Business School. The panellists covered a wide range of subjects, including coalitions, and trends around the various political parties that will participate in the election.

 “The real importance of this election is for the first time you can honestly say every vote is going to matter,” said Sham.

Swana said on 29 May 2024 [election day] the ANC will have a choice to partner with the DA, EFF or MK party because they will lose the majority.

In the previous election on 8 May 2019, the ANC got 57.50% of the votes nationally, according to the IEC site.

Swana predicts MK will get about 10% of the votes that usually goes to the ANC. He said the Bank of America issued a statement and its assessment is that the ANC is more likely to partner with the DA than with the EFF or MK. Said Swana: “The ANC is [like] a little boy who got himself in the type of trouble that causes little boys to run and hide behind their mothers’ pinafores”.

He said that the problem with any coalition is what the members will do about problems such as sewage systems, ensuring a consistent supply of water and an affordable supply of electricity.

Nhlanhla Mthethwa, a student in public administration and governance said, “It seems like we came into an anti-ANC programme, instead of a student voter education programme”.

Other students shared the same sentiment as Mthethwa. Kananelo Mlangeni, an LLB student said: “Allow me to caution the panel against biasness. Yours is to give trends and allow us to conclude. However, we will forgive you because you are educated”.

But Mtimka, in response to the criticism about the focus on the ANC, said: “In any gathering you go to about South African politics, the primary focus will be on the ANC because it is the governing party”.

Sham ended the session saying that the most important take-away from the event was that many young people interested in politics.

• The voter education events are organised by the SCC’s committee responsible for societies, liaison and international students.
• This news report was updated at 12:51 and at 13:08 on 4 April. A further update was done on 10 April to reflect the changes in the panel’s speakers.