Elections 2024: why the DA Mmusi Maimane, Songezo Zibi and Zackie Achmat failed

ELECTIONS 2024: WHY THE DA, MMUSI MAIMANE, SONGEZO ZIBI AND ZACHIE ACHMAT FAILED

John Matisonn, author, journalist

Thursday 23 January  1.00 pm  COURSE FEES R110; Staff and students R55

The constitutionalist parties got the lion’s share of positive media coverage for more than a year leading up to the election and received generous donations for their campaigns. They were the ‘new generation’ of post- apartheid, post-Mandela, post-Codesa South African leaders. Yet, when the results were in, the DA gained only one percent, which they got back from the Freedom Front; Zibi’s Rise Mzansi and Mmusi Maimane’s BOSA got two seats each, and Zackie Achmat failed to win a seat.

What are the lessons South Africa’s politicians need to learn so that they can prevent more growth in the populist parties – the EFF and MK – in 2029, when Cyril Ramaphosa will no longer head the ANC list on the ballot?

Recommended reading

Matisonn, J. 2020. Cyril’s choices: an agenda for reform. Pretoria: Protea Book House.

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/performance.aspx?itemid=1554791102

John Matisonn is the author of Cyril’s Choices: Lessons from 25 years of freedom in South Africa, and God, Spies and Lies, Finding South Africa’s Future through its Past. He spent 19 months working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, as Chairperson of the Electoral Media Commission for the 2005 parliamentary and provincial council elections, in 2009 as International Adviser to the Electoral Media Commission he established, and in 2010 as Acting Project Manager of the UN’s Election Project. John was a Washington correspondent for six years and writes a weekly column on US politics for news24. He also presents a weekly TV programme, THE FORUM with John Matisonn, on Cape Town Television.