Thread: “Busting the ‘disillusioned youth’ myth” This thread seeks to challenge a common and popular narrative which suggests declining youth registration and voting patterns is best attributed to disillusionment, as opposed to apathy.
Read the rest of this entry »
A thread: “Scenarios: Why it is so difficult to get the ANC below 50%”. This thread looks at approximately 500 national turnout scenarios, with a view to determining how easy or difficult it is the for ANC to get to 50% nationally.
Read the rest of this entry »
A thread: “Why turnout is such a critical factor” The following thread looks at turnout and its relationship to the ANC’s vote share, which I think is a critical factor ahead of the 2024 election, and not properly thought about.
Read the rest of this entry »
SERIES: The instantaneous and dramatic nature of current affairs lends itself to a kind of historical amnesia, one where the captivating nature of those things unfolding today, causes one to forget the bigger picture. From the Archives aims to put forward the odd reminder that, more often than not, history is merely repeating itself. In all likelihood, somewhere, someone has already experienced and commented on those all-consuming issues that appear to have materialised only yesterday. This time, a retrospective on the other important election involving Jacob Zuma: at the ANC’s 1997 general conference Zuma was elected Deputy President and his formal relationship with Thabo Mbeki was first established. How he got elected, and what he had to say about Mbeki, makes for interesting reading.
FEATURE: So Julius Malema has been expelled from the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) and while South Africa reflects on what this all means, it is worth taking a trip back in time, to April 2008, when Malema was first elected President of the league. Why? Well, his election had all the tell-tale signs of what was to follow. And, with the benefit of hindsight, it makes for interesting reading. In the end there were just 187 votes in it but what an important 187 votes those proved to be. Here, then, is a brief re-cap of the ANCYL’s 2008 elective conference, as told by South Africa’s media.
inside politics 