While the country was digesting the politics of statues and the fall-out from xenophobic attacks, a seismic event occurred in the Eastern Cape.
I say seismic because it was an event which revealed how the tectonic plates of politics have quietly been shifting.
What occurred was simply unthinkable even five years ago.
At Fort Hare university, the bastion of ANC intellectualism sitting at the centre of its political heartland, the student representative council (SRC) elections were won by the DA. Not just won. The DA youth obtained 52% of the vote to the ANC-aligned Sasco’s 37%.
That’s a drubbing.
You had to feel for ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane. Dazed and confused by the defeat, he said: “It’s quite disappointing because Fort Hare is our pride. You cannot complete a conversation about the struggle for liberation without mentioning Fort Hare. It is not an easy thing to accept. The institution is a cradle for continental leadership in progressive politics. It’s a very sad moment.”
If this was just an SRC election, perhaps it would be going too far to read wider political implications into its outcome. But it was no ordinary election.
Among those who campaigned on the ANC side at the campus were Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba.
These three ANC leaders represent its best shot of persuading the middle class and youth vote of the party’s bona fides.
They failed to do so spectacularly, sending a strong signal that the party is losing its grip on constituencies it will need to shore up its support in next year’s local government elections.
Ramaphosa addressed the students at an ANC Freedom Charter forum at the end of April.
Make no mistake, his eye was firmly on the SRC prize. He professed himself to be moved by the failure of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to activate the meal cards of students.
To solve the problem, he said he had assigned the premier, Phumulo Masualle to look into finding immediate solutions.
The hall was packed when Ramaphosa spoke. But it was not enough to turn the tide. The message that the provincial government, moribund and mired in corruption for 20 years would sort out the problem was simply not believed.
If Ramaphosa was the ANC’s middle class foil, Mbalula and Gigaba represented its best shot at winning over the youth. They too failed to turn the tide.
The election, it turns out, was not fought over who had the best struggle credentials, or who best represented the student demographic.
It was about the ordinary struggles of students, like their inability to get government’s NSFAS subsidy to work and the conditions under which they were expected to study 21 years into democracy.
The EFF did not contest the election.
So, what made the DA cross the threshold of electability with this constituency of young black students in the rural Eastern Cape?
The first thing is that the DA focused its attention on student issues and not on global politics or celebrations of struggle icons and documents.
The DA’s campaign dealt with the issues of student funding and residence shortages at the university.
The party’s victorious youth leader, Yusuf Cassim was quoted saying: “For us the students’ votes are a mandate that we do not take lightly. We have started with exposing what is taking place at the institution.”
The ANC’s attempts to do the same failed because the students see government as the agent of the problem. They simply don’t believe that it can solve them.
The second factor is that this was the first test of DA electability in the post-Helen Zille era.
The election took place after her announcement that she is vacating the leadership in favour of one of two black candidates – Mmusi Maimane or Wilmot James.
Whatever the chattering classes might or might not say about the significance of this move, there can be no gainsaying that it has challenged “identity politics” – the practise of playing the race card in political contests.
However you look at it, the little SRC election in the Eastern Cape represents a moment where traditional political allegiances have been disrupted.
If I was in the ANC’s local government war-room I would be worried.
Ray Hartley is editor of the Rand Daily Mail
How ANC's defeat at Fort Hare changes the game
I say seismic because it was an event which revealed how the tectonic plates of politics have quietly been shifting.
What occurred was simply unthinkable even five years ago.
At Fort Hare university, the bastion of ANC intellectualism sitting at the centre of its political heartland, the student representative council (SRC) elections were won by the DA. Not just won. The DA youth obtained 52% of the vote to the ANC-aligned Sasco’s 37%.
That’s a drubbing.
You had to feel for ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane. Dazed and confused by the defeat, he said: “It’s quite disappointing because Fort Hare is our pride. You cannot complete a conversation about the struggle for liberation without mentioning Fort Hare. It is not an easy thing to accept. The institution is a cradle for continental leadership in progressive politics. It’s a very sad moment.”
If this was just an SRC election, perhaps it would be going too far to read wider political implications into its outcome. But it was no ordinary election.
Among those who campaigned on the ANC side at the campus were Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba.
These three ANC leaders represent its best shot of persuading the middle class and youth vote of the party’s bona fides.
They failed to do so spectacularly, sending a strong signal that the party is losing its grip on constituencies it will need to shore up its support in next year’s local government elections.
Ramaphosa addressed the students at an ANC Freedom Charter forum at the end of April.
Make no mistake, his eye was firmly on the SRC prize. He professed himself to be moved by the failure of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to activate the meal cards of students.
To solve the problem, he said he had assigned the premier, Phumulo Masualle to look into finding immediate solutions.
The hall was packed when Ramaphosa spoke. But it was not enough to turn the tide. The message that the provincial government, moribund and mired in corruption for 20 years would sort out the problem was simply not believed.
If Ramaphosa was the ANC’s middle class foil, Mbalula and Gigaba represented its best shot at winning over the youth. They too failed to turn the tide.
The election, it turns out, was not fought over who had the best struggle credentials, or who best represented the student demographic.
It was about the ordinary struggles of students, like their inability to get government’s NSFAS subsidy to work and the conditions under which they were expected to study 21 years into democracy.
The EFF did not contest the election.
So, what made the DA cross the threshold of electability with this constituency of young black students in the rural Eastern Cape?
The first thing is that the DA focused its attention on student issues and not on global politics or celebrations of struggle icons and documents.
The DA’s campaign dealt with the issues of student funding and residence shortages at the university.
The party’s victorious youth leader, Yusuf Cassim was quoted saying: “For us the students’ votes are a mandate that we do not take lightly. We have started with exposing what is taking place at the institution.”
The ANC’s attempts to do the same failed because the students see government as the agent of the problem. They simply don’t believe that it can solve them.
The second factor is that this was the first test of DA electability in the post-Helen Zille era.
The election took place after her announcement that she is vacating the leadership in favour of one of two black candidates – Mmusi Maimane or Wilmot James.
Whatever the chattering classes might or might not say about the significance of this move, there can be no gainsaying that it has challenged “identity politics” – the practise of playing the race card in political contests.
However you look at it, the little SRC election in the Eastern Cape represents a moment where traditional political allegiances have been disrupted.
If I was in the ANC’s local government war-room I would be worried.
Ray Hartley is editor of the Rand Daily Mail
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