It is important for parties to use platforms such as the Daily Dispatch Dialogues to outline their vision so that their constituencies could make informed decisions when casting their vote, said Dr Somadoda Fikeni.
The political analyst and academic was speaking to the Dispatch on Wednesday a few hours before he arrived in East London to moderate the latest Daily Dispatch Dialogue, “The Battle of Manifestos”.
Fikeni said: “It is an opportunity for the parties to advertise what they could offer if they were in government.
“It is important for them to break down these manifestos. That is why some have a booklet and leaflets – just to highlight in one or two pages what their manifesto is about.”
He said while parties longed to occupy the Union Buildings and provincial legislatures, it was important for the smaller parties to be realistic when selling themselves. “The problem is that all the parties speak as if they are in government – none speak about how effective they would be in opposition. The chances of COPE, IFP, or UDM being in government are almost nil,” Fikeni said.
He said the parties that usually garnered smaller numbers of votes should rather strengthen their strategies as opposition parties and present manifestos that would make them effective in this role.
“They say ‘I will deliver this and that’, instead of crafting their manifesto to say ‘as an effective opposition these are the things I would do’. That is the mistake many parties make. Why would the AIC waste time saying my foreign policy will be this, when those are things that are not even in their reach?”
Asked if coalition governments were likely in any of the provinces, Fikeni said: “Only in one or two of the provinces, but it’s not a widespread factor. We already have a sense that ANC is going to win and go back to the Union Buildings. We are debating whether the DA will return with higher or lower numbers.
“We are also debating as to whether you would have the EFF increasing and by what number,” Fikeni said. “Also whether any of the new parties are going to be significant players, such as the ATM.”
He said it would be interesting to see if the churches that were pledging allegiance to the ATM could persuade their members to vote for the party...