Hi there. 🙋🏽♀️
It’s been a whirlwind of a week with SA’s crucial election. We explain why we saw such long queues, and why you shouldn’t panic about that, crappy though it was to be stuck in it. We also unpack the early projections based on votes counted so far, with KwaZulu Natal seeing a shock victory to Zuma’s MK Party and the ANC coming in for a thrashing nationally. The DA is also seeing an alarming decline in the Western Cape and while it will keep it this time round it needs to take urgent action if it doesn’t want to lose the province in the next election. Plus we give you some non-election related news with balloons of trash sent with love from North Korea, an SA opera singer making us proud and more.
So, let’s dive into your weekly update of empowering and easy-to-understand news, brought to you by Verashni Pillay and the explain.co.za team. 😄
Format:
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▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ OUR TAKE: Election day queues sucked, but not for dodgy reasons
We may fondly recall the snaking queues of 1994 as South Africans cast their first democratic vote… but that doesn’t mean we want to experience them again.
Thankfully, since 1994, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has made a name for itself by upping its game every election. Most voting seasons see South Africans emerging with pride in our efficient voting systems.
But Wednesday’s was a miss. Many voters queued for hours more than they usually did and were stuck in the queue hours past 9 PM when voting closed. (Those in the queue are still allowed to vote no matter how long it takes). So what went wrong? There were a number of factors at play:
- Technical issues: The voter management devices that scan a voter’s name against the voter roll didn’t work properly, and officials were slow to switch to a manual system. When they did, they had to manually search through printed lists for each person’s name and cross it out.
- New rules: The commission had to contend with an onerous change just before the election—the courts allowing independent candidates to contest nationally, meaning creating three ballots instead of two for each voter. A rules amendment requiring that you could only vote at the station you registered at added to the stress. All of this conspired to slow down the process, as not enough voter education was done because…
- Budget cuts: Fin24’s Carol Paton reports that the IEC will face a total of about R270m in budget cuts between 2019 and 2026 as the government implements austerity measures due to our poor economic circumstances. Thankfully, the commission was able to dig into previous savings to plug the R30m hole in this year’s budget for the election and associated activities—which came at a price tag of about R2.4bn. But it still meant their capacity to run this election was constrained.
However, one other factor contributing to Wednesday’s inefficient voting is a good one— a higher voter turnout than 2019’s 66% is expected for these elections, according to the IEC. 🙌
Of course, there are those who would suggest something dodgy is at play and forces at work to corrupt the election outcome. Former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party has already made noises in this direction. But this is pure fake news. As journalist Mandy Wiener puts it: “The elections are not being ‘stolen’. The IEC has a highly regarded reputation for running free and fair elections over the past thirty years and there is no reason to impugn that reputation or to assume the worst.”
Getting a population and politics as divided as South Africa to agree on an election outcome is no mean feat, never mind running the election itself in a largely developing country with infrastructure challenges, plus the challenges of voter education. It may not have been the best election, and we’re devastated that so many voters turned around and went home after waiting too long. But well done to all of you who pushed through and made your mark in the country’s most crucial election since 1994. 💪
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ THE BIG STORY: ANC loses majority and ZUMA’S MK Party surges in KZN in early election forecast
Early results paint a dramatic picture of the political landscape in South Africa.
While just a small percentage of the vote has been counted, election projections are available by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a state-owned institution which has called the results based on exit polls pretty accurately since 1999.
Here are its projections as of 1 PM today, the day after voting, with nearly 20% of votes counted.
- For the first time in our democratic history, the ANC will fall below the 50% mark in a national election. According to CSIR’s predictions, the party currently holds 41.8% of the vote, a shock for the ruling party, which had hoped to confound polls predicting that outcome with a typically late-in-season surge in campaigning.
- The DA has declined as predicted in the Western Cape but retains a majority with a projected 51.15% of the vote in that province. This should be a wake-up call to the Blue Party, which achieved nearly 60% of the vote in 2014 and over 55% in 2019. If this trajectory continues, the DA might lose the province soon.
- Nationally, the DA seems to be performing in line with most pre-election surveys. The CSIR projects 21.2% of the national vote, down from their high of 22.23% in 2014 but still higher than the 20.77% achieved under former leader Mmusi Maimane, who was forced out over that result.
- The EFF sits at a dismal 9.1% of the projected vote, far below the 2019 result of 10.8%, with the MK Party eating into its support nationally as expected with a whopping 14% of the projected vote.
Speaking of the MK Party, one of the most significant developments is that it’s predicted to take the lead in KwaZulu-Natal with over 43% of the vote! The ANC has been left a distant second with 20.61% predicted and the IFP at just over 18% in its traditional stronghold.
This is a huge deal. KZN has always been a key player in South African elections. Since 1994, it’s flipped between the IFP and the ANC, but this year might see it swing to the MK Party in some sort of coalition, which may be disastrous for the already disaster-stricken province (riots, natural disasters, etc etc). The EFF, again is the most damaged by MK’s emergence, losing their previous gains of over 9% in the province and projected to secure a dismal 2.32% of the projected vote.
Despite its internal battles and Zuma’s exclusion from parliament, the MK Party has resonated strongly with rural and youth voters in KZN, filling a void left by the IFP, which many see as outdated.
Why does this matter? KZN’s votes have been crucial for the ANC in past elections. Under Zuma, the province was a reliable support base, helping the ANC maintain its power even when its popularity dipped elsewhere. If KZN goes to the MK Party, the ANC will have to rethink its strategy big time.
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ Briefs
Kim’s Trash Balloons Hit South Korea
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s trash from North Korea!
The two Koreas are taking trash-talking each other to whole new levels.
South Korea has reportedly found over 260 garbage-filled balloons flown over and dumped on its land by neighbouring North Korea. The balloons contain, among other things, cigarette butts, plastic water bottles, used paper and old shoes. One report says South Korean authorities have even found a balloon containing animal excrement. Talk about a stink bomb! 💩
South Korea has warned its residents not to touch the balloons or the waste that they’re spreading.
This isn’t the first time balloons have been used in the ongoing strife between the neighbours. Both sides have been known to send propaganda leaflets to each other using balloons. But, in 2021, South Korea outlawed the use of balloons to send leaflets, Bible verses or money to North Korea, saying it was just provoking their neighbour (no, duh) and creating trash on their side when balloons didn’t make it over the border.
South Korea has also banned a viral official song that praises North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “friendly father” and “great leader.” They argue that this is part of the “psychological warfare against South Korea.” After listening to it, we can’t help but agree. No songwriting hook should be that bad.
Given the context of this story, a better song reference would be the German 80s classic 99 Red Balloons, in which balloons lead to a nuclear war in Cold War Europe. The song is ultimately an anti-war anthem, warning against a city turned to dust by escalating tensions. Let’s hope North Korea takes a listen to it between obligatory rounds of “Friendly Father” on the turntable.
Gupta Brothers Arrested in India: What It Means For South Africa
The notorious Gupta family is back in the headlines, but this time, the drama has shifted from South Africa to India. Ajay Gupta and his brother-in-law Anil Gupta were arrested last week in Dehradun, India. The arrest is linked to the suicide of a prominent builder whose suicide note accused the Guptas of threats and coercion.
The builder’s family say he was forced to transfer ownership of his construction companies to the Guptas under duress. It sure sounds like the Gupta family. 😒 Helping or causing someone to take their own life is a crime in India, so this Gupta duo are now facing criminal charges for abetment to suicide.
So, what does this arrest mean for South Africa’s attempts to make the Guptas face justice for ruining our economy? In short, not much. The brothers Ajay, Anil, and Rajesh were accused of hijacking the South African government (also known as “state capture”) through their ties to former president Jacob Zuma. They fled South Africa in 2016 when the law finally stepped in and have been spotted in Switzerland and the UAE since.
Atul and Rajesh are the ones specifically wanted in South Africa for their starring roles in the state capture scandal – Ajay and Anil, the main characters in the Indian suicide drama, are not. (Yet.)
The South African government has been trying to extradite Rajesh and Atul from the United Arab Emirates for years, including obtaining arrest warrants and Interpol Red Notices for the pair. Despite this and their arrest in Dubai in June 2022, the UAE rejected South Africa’s extradition request earlier this year. Their current whereabouts are uncertain.
Ajay’s arrest in India adds another twist to this complex saga. The Justice Department is now chatting with their counterparts in India to see if there’s any way to tie this latest drama to their ongoing pursuit of the rest of the Gupta clan.
Makro pricing glitch: The bargain that wasn’t
This past weekend, hundreds of South African shoppers thought they had struck gold in the Makro “Weekend Mania” sale.
The frenzy started when eagle-eyed shoppers noticed prices on high-ticket items like MacBooks, inverters, coffee machines, TVs, and gaming laptops slashed to just R55. Social media lit up with people sharing their incredible finds and some placing multiple orders.
But as with all things too good to be true, there was a catch. By Sunday morning, Makro confirmed that these prices were a mistake, citing a technical issue that affected pricing on their websites and app. Furious customers who had already paid were finally informed that their orders were cancelled after a series of mixed and inaccurate messages.
So, can Makro really just cancel these orders? According to the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), yes. Retailers have an out when it comes to “obvious errors” in advertised prices. Makro invoked this clause, explaining that the pricing error was “unintentional and obvious”.
Naturally, X (we used to call it Twitter when it was good) had a field day with this, with savvy consumers citing sections of the CPA they felt supported their right to receive the goods at the price advertised. “We paid, have receipts, and I even have estimated shipping time. We’d like our laptops, not your R50 vouchers please,” tweeted user @TheNextNeo56.
Makro’s parent company, Massmart, has issued an apology, but this incident has thrown the company into crisis management mode. They’ve promised to learn from this debacle to prevent similar issues in the future. This is terrible timing for the Walmart-owned company, as Amazon has just launched in South Africa. Dropping the ball like this will surely have customers shopping elsewhere…
Mthatha’s taxi violence was completely unacceptable
Mthatha, home to one of the Nelson Mandela Museums and the town closest to where he grew up, should have been busy with elections prep this week. Instead, roads were blocked, making entry and exit into the beautiful but poverty-stricken area impossible.
Taxi operators brought the town to a standstill on Monday, preventing teachers and health workers from getting to work and, very alarmingly, negatively affecting special voting. (Most of us voted on Wednesday, but some, like critical healthcare workers, voted on Monday and Tuesday.) The reason? They were protesting police confiscating firearms over the weekend.
Why do taxis have arms, you ask? The taxi associations in the areas hire private guards to protect their bosses and drivers, and a number of operators and guards had pitched up, armed, at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital on the pretext of protecting drivers who were injured during a shootout between rival taxi associations the previous week.
Hospital staff then complained to Eastern Cape police, who confiscated 38 pistols and five rifles from the group.
Shortly after, all hell broke out, with taxi operators making the roads in and out of Mthatha inaccessible and demanding their weapons back.
Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane issued a forceful statement condemning the violence, saying if taxi operators continued behaving as they did on Monday, the government would have no other option but to review their operating licences.
But authorities still caved, giving the firearms back (three were held back by police for possible involvement in the shooting that sparked everything). The protests were promptly called off on Monday afternoon, with one taxi boss saying they “embarked on protest because we felt our safety was compromised after we were disarmed”.
If it all sounds rather lawless, it’s because it is. This was a direct assault on our democracy, which is unacceptable. It’s yet another reason we need a change in government. No private group should take the law into their own hands and disrupt access to health, education and voting.
We’re rooting for SA’s Nkululeko Masuku to win Britain’s Got Talent!
An opera powerhouse from Secunda, Mpumalanga is wowing British audiences.
Nkululeko Innocent Masuku,33, was announced as the first act to advance to the finals of Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) season 17 after performing Hans Zimmer’s Now We Are Free from Gladiator in his semi-final performance.
He’s not just another contestant, though. The tenor was hailed by celebrity judge Amanda Holden as “by far the best opera singer we have ever had” in the 17 years of Britain’s Got Talent. That’s wild!
Masuku first wowed judges in the BGT auditions last month with the spine-tingling 1986 Lucio Dalla song Caruso.
Even usually unimpressed judge Simon Cowell was taken with him after his performance this week. He said: “You were very, very, very good when you auditioned, and tonight you were, I thought, incredible.”
Masuku is one of SA’s rising opera stars. He studied music at the Tshwane University of Technology, spent time with the Cape Town Opera Company, and moved to the UK in 2019 after landing a scholarship with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
He has played Tamino in the Magic Flute, the character Borsa in Giuseppe Verdi’s classic opera Rigoletto, and Crabman in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in Argentina.
The next step in his hopeful path to victory is the finals on Sunday, June 2, where 11 acts will compete for £250,000 (that’s nearly R6m!).
Masuku has previously said he hopes “my South African family around the world will be able to support me and vote”.
You’ve got your assignment, Mzansi. You can catch his previous performances on YouTube and take part in the voting action on itv.com/vote when it opens again. 🎊
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That’s it from us at The Wrap, an award-winning product of explain.co.za – simple news summaries for busy people. 💁🏾♀
The Wrap is sponsored by explain’s agency division. We specialise in content marketing for purpose-driven organisations, often with a pan-African reach. Mail info@explain.co.za for a quote.
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