In a country like South Africa, where political loyalties can run exceptionally old and deep, can you build a new political party in a similar manner to a start-up company?
That’s the bet being taken by former DA leader Mmusi Maimane, via his political party Build One South Africa (Bosa) — which on Tuesday introduced its first 24 electoral candidates to the South African public.
There are few well-known names among them. Anyone could apply for a Bosa electoral candidacy, and still can, by submitting a CV and subjecting themselves to a panel interview if shortlisted — in other words, much like a regular staff recruitment process.
One crucial difference, however: applicants needed 1,000 signatures to confirm their candidacy. As Maimane reminded the public on Tuesday, this is the same number of signatures needed by one political party as a whole to register with the Electoral Commission.
Requiring Bosa candidates to go out and do the work of canvassing support ahead of their candidacy, Maimane said, was a way of ensuring further accountability to communities from these candidates than is normally expected of political representatives.
Bosa draws from corporate sector, civil society, government — and politics
Bosa’s quest in compiling its candidate lists is to “find the best South Africans to represent the people”, Maimane said.
In so doing, the party has deliberately looked beyond the political realm to fill its lists. The reasoning for this, to quote deputy party leader Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster, is that “the right leaders [in South Africa] are not in the positions we need them to be in”.
Bosa’s candidates are leaders in other spheres who are “keeping South Africa moving”, Hlazo-Webster said.
Maimane also pointed out, correctly, the uniqueness of having any political party unveil its candidate lists for general elections so far in advance — the precise date of the 2024 polls has yet to be announced, but looks to be at least nine months hence.
“Here are the candidates: interrogate them, investigate them, do lifestyle audits on them,” Maimane challenged the public on Tuesday.
In at least one case, however, all that is required to bring up dirt on a Bosa candidate is a quick refresher Google: the party will field former DA Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, arguably best known for a sex scandal which effectively ended his DA career, as a National Assembly candidate.
Perhaps Maimane knows something we don’t about what went on behind the scenes in that case. Mokgalapa is by far the best-known Bosa candidate beyond Maimane himself, though there are other former political figures on the list: two others from the DA and two from ActionSA.
The other candidates are drawn from the corporate world, government, law and civil society. There also appear to be two students on the list.
In the (presumably self-submitted) bios of each candidate on the Bosa website, there are some wonderful details. Candidate Emmanuel Munyai is a former street person, who after getting on his feet has consistently donated his “13th cheque to the poor families around me and those who stay on the street”.
Gospel musician Timothy Maluleke, from Limpopo, “personally donated water tanks to the residents of Letaba after noticing that they were drinking valley water with their animals”.
Many of these candidates seem to be individuals of great talent and drive. Elected into office, Bosa is suggesting, they would bring technocratic skills and experience as well as personal integrity. It is, in essence, the opposite of the ANC policy of cadre deployment — and that could be an appealing sell to voters sick and tired of corrupt politicians and nepotistic practices.
Can Bosa translate its ideas into votes?
The trouble with fielding relatively unknown candidates is, of course, self-evident: they are relatively unknown. In a fledgling political party with little in the way of a national footprint compared with longer-established outfits, these candidates will have their work cut out for them over the next nine months in terms of campaigning.
As things stand, Bosa’s greatest asset is probably still Maimane himself, who will run as the party’s presidential candidate. Despite his bust-up with the DA (or perhaps in some cases because of it), Maimane is still widely viewed as a likeable figure — and has taken some interesting steps of late to keep his profile in public view,such as appearing as a contestant in the TV musical competition The Masked Singer.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Mmusi Maimane unveils Build One South Africa’s grand plan to attract voters
Maimane’s original vision was to build a “platform” which would support independent candidates in running for office. That dream has effectively been kiboshed by the disappointing amendments made to date to South Africa’s electoral legislation, which as they stand would make it very difficult for independent candidates to actually win seats in the National Assembly.
Instead, then, Maimane has bowed to the inevitable and accepted the reality of Bosa as an opposition political party candidate in what looks likely to be an exceptionally crowded field. (That said, Bosa still has unusual features — is there any other local political party which has on its organogram a “Business and Religious Coordinator”?)
The question which many will continue to ask in frustration is why outfits like Maimane’s Bosa and Songezo Zibi’s Rize Mzansi, to name just two, cannot join forces to strengthen their electoral prospects — given that the ideological distance at play between them seems absolutely negligible, and given that both parties look likely to struggle in building deep grassroots support nationally without pre-existing infrastructure. Maimane’s attitude towards the DA’s Moonshot Pact, which aims to consolidate arrangements among opposition parties in advance of the elections, has also been highly equivocal.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Meet the leaders behind Rise Mzansi – with eyes set on reviving the spirit of 1994
But if Bosa is truly about effecting leadership change in South Africa, the party may have to trade some of its idealism (or ego) for pragmatism — or be left with very little to show for its efforts. DM