- Title
- The ‘Ballot and the Brick’ : protest, voting and non-voting in post-apartheid South Africa
- Creator
- Runciman, Carin
- Subject
- Voting - South Africa, African National Congress, Protests - South Africa
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10210/222884
- Identifier
- uj:22397
- Identifier
- Citation: Runciman, C. 2016. The ‘Ballot and the Brick’ : protest, voting and non-voting in post-apartheid South Africa.
- Description
- Abstract: Over the last decade protest has become an enduring feature of the post-apartheid political landscape. Despite this wave of protest the African National Congress (ANC) has retained its dominant status, securing 62% of the vote in the last national elections held in May 2014. The endurance of the ANC’s electoral support in spite of the high levels of protest has led leading political commentator Susan Booysen to conclude that protests in South Africa form part of a ‘dual repertoire’ of political contestation. She argues that protests are used to signal grievances to the ANC between elections but that, ultimately, people remain loyal to the party of liberation. This article interrogates Booysen’s claim through advancing an analysis of voting district and ward level data in protest hotspots. The article argues that there are weaknesses in the methodological base of Booysen’s thesis. By analysing the support for the ANC amongst the estimated eligible voting age population, this article suggests a different relationship between voting and protesting in post-apartheid South Africa.
- Language
- English
- Rights
- ©2016, authors
- Full Text
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