When you read this, you might be about to vote, you might have just voted, you might be studying the results of the municipal elections, or you might be asking: “What elections?”
On November 4, South Africans are going to their local voting stations to exercise the key democratic right that was one of the main focuses of the struggle against apartheid.
Since liberation, we have had seven elections for national and provincial legislatures and now seven municipal elections: 14 elections in 32 years.
By all the standards of internal and external monitoring, our elections are “free and fair”, with little evidence of corruption, coercion, vote-rigging, vote-buying or ballot stuffing. This should be a great source of pride for South Africans, with particular thanks to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
The “Varieties of Democracy” project calculates a “Free and Fair Elections Index” for every country in the world. At 85%, South Africa has the highest rating on our continent and is one of only four African countries to score over 70%. The population-weighted average for Africa is an embarrassing 29%. (Read more at www.v-dem.net)
But this is not just an African problem. The average for Asia is 30% and, even if other continents do better overall, they all still contain a number of countries with poor democratic records. The likely bickering over the results of mid-term elections in the United States — on the day before our poll — will show that even in a country with a strong electoral heritage, certain loud personalities can still provoke contestation and confusion.
Low voter turn-outs
But I fear that few South Africans reading this will feel much sense of pride. In fact, very likely only a minority will have actually voted. At the time of writing, the expectation is that only one-third of eligible voters will have participated in the November 4 poll. That sits alongside one-third who are entitled to vote but were not registered, and one-third who are registered to vote but choose not to give up one hour of their life to do so — despite getting a public holiday to make it easier for them.
How is it possible that we have fallen so far? Only one generation ago we held our iconic 1994 elections in which millions stood happily in long, snaking lines, waiting patiently to vote, and celebrating their new-found (or newly shared) democratic freedoms. We still have Freedom Day as a public holiday to mark the anniversary, but the spirit of April 27-29, 1994, feels very distant.
Clearly memories of the struggle are also fading. So people who did not fight for the right to vote — or who did not see their friends or family harassed, imprisoned, brutalised and even killed while fighting for that right — are less likely to see its value. This is a shocking reflection of our lack of empathy and failure to learn from the past.
This is why we need to be reminded of why the political process is important to all of us. The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) produced an excellent statement — as the bishops do before all elections. It was reproduced in last month’s issue of The Southern Cross. It is short, punchy, avoids fuzzy platitudes, and quotes from both Scripture and Church teaching.
But how many of us “good practising Catholics” who don’t read The Southern Cross or follow its social media have seen it or read it, let alone taken it to heart? It is possible that your priest has preached on this subject, or that copies were printed out for parishioners, or that it was projected on the church screens for people to read, or that it was put on the parish website or social media page. But I suspect you would be lucky if your parish did any of the above.
Getting homeless to vote
We at the Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) have tried to do our bit to respond to the bishops’ challenge. At every election, we work closely with the IEC to ensure that homeless South Africans in Durban are registered to vote; this year that expanded to a countrywide project through the National Homeless Network. We also held a “town hall” meeting, so homeless citizens could hear from and challenge local politicians.
While the IEC has been admirably cooperative, I am sad to say that the Department of Home Affairs seems to be less conscious of its role in defending democracy. Despite multiple requests, they have not helped us secure the original IDs necessary for homeless people to register and to vote.
Nevertheless, at the DHC — which is a voting station — we will be proud to welcome dozens of homeless voters, alongside the priests who live next door at Emmanuel cathedral and hundreds of our neighbours, to vote side by side, each knowing that their vote counts equally.
It is unfortunate that people have become so apathetic about politics. It is sadder still that the Church — which had not shied away from politics through bishops like Denis Hurley, priests like Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, religious like Sr Bernard Ncube, as well as many lay Catholics and Christians of other denominations — so often now absents itself from the social issues of the day. Statements issued by bishops and placed on a website are an important starting point, but if that is also the end point, little is achieved.
A Mass movement
May I make a last-minute suggestion if it is not too late? Hold a Mass early on November 4 and encourage parishioners to come and pray for the elections. Then walk as a group, en masse, to your nearest voting station and make the act of voting a shared celebration, as it was in 1994.
Some might object: “Oh, but I’m not political!” Cynics might argue that this is exactly what politicians want us to be. Democracy gives them the appearance of respectability while the vast majority of respectable people have left them an open field. This is why we see the rise of extremist parties on all sides, the capturing of local wards by small interest groups, and a severe lack of accountability.
With only one-third of voters actually casting a ballot, a party could win a ruling majority in a municipality with the support of only 16% of the electorate! Since in many cases there will be coalitions, the actual level of popular support for the eventual mayor is likely to be even lower.
Our vote, our money
But whether we are political or not, we all suffer from poor service delivery, from closed libraries, from wasteful local expenditure and from expanding potholes. The bishops’ statement offered the inspiring quote from Deuteronomy 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life.”
Sadly, I think this might be too optimistic for modern-day politics. For many voters, there is no single party that stands out for them as a blessing and not a curse. But since, whether we vote or not, someone will be in power after these elections, and will be spending our money, we can at best vote for the party that we are least likely to curse.
The two-thirds of people who do not vote might claim they are “sending a message to politicians”. They are indeed, but not the message they intend. The message instead is: “Do what you like, I am not interested, I won’t try and stop you, I have given up caring.”
This is exactly what some politicians want to hear. And it is a message completely contrary to the Gospels and to Church teaching.
- Why Our Votes Really Matter - October 28, 2026
- Lessons from the Saints - October 12, 2026
- No Room for Exclusion - September 7, 2026
