We may still be two nations, but voting can change that
The 2022 national census shows South Africa is a country of 62-million people — 45-million of whom are over the age of 15. This constitutes a population increase of roughly 10-million since the last census in 2011, and an average annual growth rate of just under 2%.
The census results announcement last month attempted to paint a demographic and socioeconomic picture of our country in the context of having grown by one-fifth over the last decade. Stats SA’s analysis included insights into migration patterns, which showed continued net migration into the country’s most economically active provinces and signalled the continued urbanisation of our country, as well as information on access to government services including education, housing, water and sanitation.
The data on educational enrolment and outcomes pointed to continued racial stratification in both access to and quality of education. And we learned from the data on housing that too many South Africans continue to face limitations on their access to clean water and sanitation, and that 50% of South African households today are headed by women.
The national census is one of an arsenal of analytical tools that enable us to consider what is philosophically referred to as “the national question” — how is South Africa defined and who gets to be a part of this definition of our nation state? In May 1998, during his term as South Africa’s deputy-president, Thabo Mbeki famously delivered a parliamentary address during a debate on reconciliation and nation-building, which has come to be known as the “Two Nations” speech.
In it, he posed the question “what is nationbuilding and is it happening?” before concluding that ours is a country divided into two nations of unequal size and prosperity — the one white and relatively prosperous, the other black and poor.
It would be an understatement to say that Mbeki’s speech made waves.
Critics of his analysis quickly — and predictably — questioned why a leader with a governing majority would indulge in such rumination when his very mandate was to address such challenges.
This was only four years into president Nelson Mandela’s term in office.
Others called the speech an irresponsible and racially divisive piece of invective which would fracture the rainbow nation. A painfully naive response which today’s “ama-2000s” would probably call “rainbowism” of the worst kind.
Today, South Africa’s racialised inequality — which is essentially what Mbeki was describing — is commonly considered the single biggest challenge facing our society. Its origins are deeply rooted in apartheid and the colonialism which preceded it; and its present wickedness has been exacerbated by the moral and governance failures of the former president’s own political party.
There is, however, one aspect of nationhood to which political analysts contemplating the meaning of “South African-ness” rarely devote much consideration. The vote.
Organising and voting offer recourse to citizens who have been failed by leaders drunk with hubris and corruption. Universal suffrage is one of the cornerstones of the modern conception of citizenship, and citizenship is something we are all still able to access — regardless of race, class, gender or economic circumstances. Though electoral processes in some parts of our country are too often marred by political violence and intimidation, access to the infrastructure of electoral democracy remains almost universal.
We may still be two nations, but we are also one democracy.
There are 45-million voting age citizens in South Africa today. By comparison, the South African voters’ roll — on which people are entitled to register from the age of 16 — comprises only 26-million names. About 270,000 people aged 18 and 19 are registered to vote, out of a total of almost 3-million. In our last national elections only 19-million people — or 42% of the voting age population — turned out to vote. In the 2021 local elections, it was a meagre 27% — or 12-million people.
In the face of anger and disillusionment about the leadership failures of South Africa’s political class, citizens can and should better organise themselves politically, using their power to remove incompetent leaders from office and hold the feet of those elected into power to the fire for their full five-year term.
The most important national question we must answer is what kind of citizenry we intend to be. Are we a powerful and organised constituency that those in government fear and are legitimately accountable to? And are we prepared to put in the work of active citizenry necessary to build the unified nation of “democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights” envisaged by our constitution?