A gif of three images showing elections in South Africa. One shows a woman, child wrapped around her back, casting a ballot; another shows a poll worker, pouring paper ballots out of a voting box; the third shows poll workers counting votes.

Today, many of us across South Africa will head to the polls to elect district, metropolitan and local municipality leaders.

On the ballot are the candidates responsible for addressing the rising levels of hunger, youth unemployment, and broken infrastructure in communities, townships and cities across our country. And at stake are the social, political and economic issues that have plagued our country for generations and that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

While some party leaders have tried to make these local elections about the ANC and the party's failures to meet the needs of Black and Coloured South Africans, and the millions of migrants who live here without citizenship, these elections are about more than just the ANC. They are about which political party’s vision for South Africa will prevail.

Throughout this campaign season, we’ve seen politicians and party leaders lean on populist narratives to drum up support for their parties. We’ve seen them stoke historic and present-day racial tensions to further divide the country along racial and class lines, all while distracting from the harder work of advancing a fair and equitable South Africa.

This type of politicking over actual policy implementation can be seen in the United States and other countries around the world, but for a young democracy like South Africa the risk is great. Increasingly young people are disengaging from elections as their distrust and disaffection towards political parties grows. The free and fair elections for which our ancestors fought and died continue to be undermined by political violence and attacks on our institutions including the Independent Elections Commission and the judiciary.

As the social upheaval in July demonstrated, we need leaders who can address our basic needs including access to water, lights, utilities and other forms of service delivery. And regardless of how today’s elections turn out, we all must engage in and push for a collective leadership that builds power, holds government officials accountable, and results in the policies, institutions and narratives that meet the needs of all South Africans.

Read below to see how our Fellows are working towards building a South Africa that realises its potential.

Tess Peacock’19 and her colleagues at The Equality Collective are championing important voter education efforts in their local community in rural parts of the Eastern Cape. They also belong to Real Reform for Early Childhood Development, an alliance of organisations urging candidates and political parties to tackle early childhood education as a municipal policy priority.

Brian Kamanzi’18 has written extensively about the history of the energy policy in South Africa and the importance of reimagining those policies so they centre the needs of working-class communities.

Graphic showing a red bullhorn as a head, on a person who stands at a lectern. A wad of cash floats behind them. At the bottom it reads "Political Party Funding" — *Graphic from* *My Vote Counts*

At My Vote Counts, Minhaj Jeenah’20 and his colleagues are pushing for transparency in the funding of political parties and electoral systems that are fair, open and accountable.

Header Images by Ben Curtis/Associated Press; Rajesh Gantilal/AFP/Getty Images; Kim Ludbrook/EFE-EPA.

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What's at Stake as South Africans Head to the Polls