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Voter apathy in a democracy could stimulate community activism outside of party politics

23 November 2021 | Story Gcina Mtengwane | Photo Supplied

Gcina Mtengwane is a lecturer in the community development programme at the University of the Free State, QwaQwa Campus. He believes democracy is more than just voting. It is the expansion of self-determination opportunities.

Opinion article by Mr Gcina Mtengwane, Lecturer: Community Development Programme, University of the Free State.

Voter apathy has been diagnosed as part of the reason for the low voter turnout in the 2021 local government elections. The turnout was the lowest since democracy the dawn of democracy, with only about 12 million (46%) of about 26 million registered voters casting ballots. Apathy among voters in representative democracies is defined as a lack of interest in voting. Some choose to view this apathy as a threat to South Africa’s democracy. But it may not be the case, as some would like to put it. Instead, it may reflect the evolution of South Africa’s democracy and the expansion of choices available to South Africans outside of the voting principle commonly used to define democracy.

While I am inclined to agree with the view that this voter apathy has some messaging on the state of South Africa’s democracy, I argue that it is only a small part of the big picture. Democracy is, among many other things, the freedom to make choices. One of the permissible choices is the right not to vote. Defining the success or failure of democracy by voting is quite restricting and problematic at least for me.

Local government is about addressing challenges in daily live

Local government is mainly about addressing issues and challenges in our daily lives. It does not require much of an overly ideological stance. Put simply, a community member at an informal settlement or village does not need to know the works of Marx, Fanon, and Biko to know that she or he does not have a road, potable water, or ablution facilities. It takes building materials, not political slogans or party ideology to build a house for those without houses or to provide food for the hungry.

What is more interesting has been the activism of young people outside the banner of political parties. Young people are engaged in issues that affect them in their daily lives. They are also engaged in lending a helping hand to others. They are doing this outside of formal party politics. The writings of Adam Prezowski (2003) identify ‘autonomy’ as the ability to participate in the making of collective decisions, which is a paltry notion of freedom. Prezowski asks whether democrats should value the freedom to choose. He further asks whether people value facing distinct choices when they make collective decisions. In the absence of concrete answers to these questions, Prezowski comments that “true” democrats must be prepared that their preferences might not be realised as the outcome of the collective choice. When many people cannot vote for what they most desire, democracy suffers. The low voter turnout may indicate that none of the political parties offered what most South Africans desire, hence they see no impetus to vote.

Democracy is more than just voting

Democracy is about the expansion of opportunities and choices. Choosing not to vote does not necessarily reflect badly on our democracy. Instead, it speaks positively on the freedom of citizens to choose other arenas through which to have their issues heard. It is the freedom to decide on the relevance or lack thereof of the formal party-political system. The choice not to part take in party politics has allowed young people such as Lonalinamandla Bawuti, who responded to the plight of a young boy from the Eastern Cape living with his grandmother who needed support to go to initiation school. Bawuti appealed for assistance from South Africans to get the youngster to initiation school.

It is the freedom of a group of businesspeople putting money together to create boreholes for a community without access to potable water. It is Nasizo Mndende, a young social work graduate in the Eastern Cape seeing the plight of young rural girls and starting an NGO to educate on sexual and reproductive health rights. It is young people creating crowdfunding for students in need of university registration fees and for students wanting to go to university.

It is many others doing what they can with what they have and their influence contributing to change in communities.

The point I am making is that democracy is more than just voting. It is the expansion of self-determination opportunities. Low voter turnout may not be such a disastrous thing after all. This is because a lot of young people are contributing to making a better South Africa outside of the confines of political party membership.

News Archive

Artistic development at UFS to transform the face of Bloemfontein creatively

2015-07-02

The 7-metre high ‘Urban Fox’ is one of Alex Rinsler's artworks adding a fragment of the wild to the city of Shanghai in China.

Bold, bright, and beautiful public art sculptures are in the inception phase at the university’s Bloemfontein Campus. Manchester-based public artist, Alex Rinsler, of the Programme for Innovation in Artform Development (PIAD)’s forum for artist development, is to install three enthralling sculptures in the city of Bloemfontein.

The PIAD forum for artist development is an initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival, formerly known as the Vryfees, which aims to celebrate art in the Free State by hosting experimental art practices. In its capacity as a PIAD partner, the University of the Free State promotes increased access to, and participation in, culture as a form of human development.

Presenting an artist’s talk titled ‘Urban Safari: Art in public space,’ on the Bloemfontein Campus recently Rinsler introduced himself and his creative ideas to students, staff, and the public at the Johannes Stegman Art Gallery. The talk served as an invitation to the active participation of Bloemfontein citizens in all phases leading to the installations. Dispersed across the Mangaung Metropolitan, the giant sculptures are intended to capture and reflect different aspects of the community’s lived experiences.

As a public artist based in the United Kingdom (UK), Rinsler has exhibited in cities nationally and internationally, with the intention of bringing a touch of the wild to urban lives. His vision is to witness the development of cities into cultural boulevards, and explore “what we can do to bring back the sense of nature, the wild” by adding new symbolism to urban lifestyle.

“I believe in creating work accessible to the public, which stimulates conversation,” said the Clore Leadership Programme Fellow (University of Manchester) and Founder of Pirate Technics - an artistic practice company.

In 2012, he worked with 31 Master’s students from 24 countries on an icon for global peace named “Under the Baobab” in London. The colourful and magnificent Baobab tree made from pieces of fabric representing distinct cultures told the story of migration to London.

Rinsler is determined that the Bloemfontein “project, similar to the London installation, will create imagery that people will remember.”

Dr Ricardo Peach, Director of the Vrystaat Arts Festival and PIAD, hopes the project fosters diversity while producing a “communal cultural product."

“What I know about Alex’s work is that he will be working with what he calls a self-selected community, people who are interested in this, and who want to work together to build these sculptures, as part as a process for them to get a sense of where they belong, and their input into the city. It’s about people telling their own stories.”

The public installations are a way of transforming the landscape, and connecting people of “a place like Bloemfontein where communities are often still so divided,” said Peach.

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