Political analyst, Doctor Lubna Nadvi says political parties need to take time to reflect on the strong message that voters have sent.

This is as South Africans await the Electoral Commission(IEC)’s announcement of the final results of the 2021 Local Government Elections.

Doctor Nadvi says the low voter turnout and the increase in support for smaller parties show that people want service delivery and not political rhetoric.

She says parties must use the next five years to prove themselves to the electorate.

“The people on the ground need services. They don’t need all of this rhetoric that is put out by the political parties. So I think you need to amend the way that service delivery is done to cut down on all the politics,” says Ndavi.

Ndavi says there’s a need for change in how municipalities operate.

If it requires bringing in some professional individuals to make sure that refuse is collected, that is what that municipality should do if it means making sure that the lights and water [are] connected. So I think some degree of evolution of how municipalities are run has to happen,” Adds Ndavi.

Discussion on issues that have affected voter behaviour in SA:

 

Meanwhile, Action SA says it is pleased with its performance in the City of Tshwane in Pretoria. It is currently the fourth-biggest party in the metro with 8,5%  of the 97% votes declared.

ActionSA’s Tshwane mayoral candidate, Abel Tau says the party still wants to be part of the government.

“We are grateful for the results that we’ve got, obviously, no one will say they are ever happy entirely with what they’ve got because everyone aims for the moon, but I think finding ourselves among the stars is really a good place to be at. We are anticipating that with the negotiations that will be happening, we still want to be part of the government. We were very clear from the onset that we were not created to be an opposition party because there’s many of us,” says Tau.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba on his party’s performance in Johannesburg: