South Africa's Political System

Introduction

In the midst of 1994, South Africans from all walks of life had witnessed the advent of a revolutionary era, which not only transformed the very nature of our country’s legislation and government, but also gave rise to the inception of a new South Africa being formed. This essay will argue that racial and ethnic explanations are not the only decisive factors which led to the unfolding of the 2009 elections. This theory will be supported by additional factors.

The Racial explanations

Electoral politics in South Africa are primarily shaped by the multiplicity of our society, that being, the faces of everyday South Africans, which thus encompasses our country’s varied demographic profile. It can be suggested that the voter behaviours were significantly influenced by distinct racial backgrounds (Hoeane, 2009). This implied that the results of the 2009 elections were predominantly based on the racial support of political parties, that being, white and black. Helen Zille aptly states that the voters choice should be based on the political parties philosophy and not by the racial identity (Hoeane, 2009). These polarised support groups which is prevalent in contemporary South Africa, results in South Africa’s ‘multihued’ democracy being spoiled.

The ethnicity explanation

In relation to the ethnic choice, ethnicity was an imperative factor which helped the ANC defeat the IFP (the ANC’s nemesis) for the very first time since the inception of the new South Africa. During the 2009 elections, Hoeane emphatically states that Jacob Zuma exploited his ethinicity as a ‘Zulu’ to gain more of the Zulu ethnic vote (Hoeane, 2009, p 144). Ethnicity was used by Zuma and the ANC to monopolise the black voters vote. Another reason being that the majority of our nation still feels indebted to this party because of what they represented, ultimately fighting the struggle against the apartheid era, representing the black population. The Congress of the People also came...