Over the weekend of 3 and 4 February, South African politicians rocked up at voter registration stations across the country to engage potential voters and talk about their vision for the future. Key leaders in the ANC appeared to be pulling out all the stops in Gauteng amid predictions that the ruling party could lose the province in the upcoming election.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reported that by the end of Saturday, more than half a million registrations had been recorded at its more than 23,000 registration stations. By 1pm on Sunday, a further 564,715 registration transactions had been recorded.

During the previous voter registration weekend in November 2023, more than 2.9 million South Africans registered or updated their details on the voters’ roll. On 31 January, the IEC announced that the national voters’ roll had surpassed the 27 million mark for the first time.

The election date has not yet been proclaimed, but in terms of the Constitution, voting needs to take place between May and mid-August. 

ANC drive to woo Gauteng voters

Cyril Ramaphosa during the Voter Registration Weekend Drive in Mamelodi on 4 February 2024 in Pretoria. (Photo: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu)

The top ANC leadership were out and about in Gauteng, including party president Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy president Paul Mashatile and secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Ramaphosa made appearances in Soweto and Mamelodi; Mashatile in Ekurhuleni; and Mbalula in the Sedibeng and Johannesburg regions.

During his visit to Soweto on Saturday, Ramaphosa said his interactions with people in “their homes, in the streets, in the shopping malls” had allowed them to raise various issues of concern with him.

“The young people have been raising issues of education; they want funding for education… [People have] also been raising broader issues of unemployment, which we are alive to, and we’ve told them that we will continue to work on this. Generally, I found the mood very positive – very appreciative of what the government has done,” he said.

Ramaphosa said many young people were registering for elections, adding: “The youth reluctance to register I think is being washed away.”

We’ve spent the morning interacting with residents of Soweto listening to their issues and encouraging them to go out in their numbers this weekend. #RegisterToVoteANC pic.twitter.com/qlvj3poheV

— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) February 3, 2024

While Ramaphosa was doing his rounds in Mamelodi on Sunday, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri spoke to eNCA about why the greater Tshwane region – which includes Mamelodi and Pretoria – was so important to the ANC.

Signage in Cape Town on 3 February 2024 during the final voter registration weekend. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman / Gallo Images)

“Mamelodi, like many parts of South Africa, forms part of a very important constituency for the African National Congress. It is not by accident that the president is here. The people of greater Tshwane, but in particular Mamelodi, do deserve to have that interaction with the president …

“One thing that we know is that the state of governance in Tshwane is horrible. Why do I say this? Look at the various reports of the Auditor General about the state of governance in this municipality … We do want to reclaim Tshwane because when we were governing here, there was a lot of order,” she said.

It has been widely predicted that the ANC may lose its majority in Gauteng in the 2024 election. During the previous general election in 2019, it walked away with a razor-slim majority of 50.19% in the province. This was followed by another major blow in the 2021 municipal elections, when it received just 41% of the vote in the province and lost control of key areas, including Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.

A nationally representative survey conducted by Sabi Strategy and the Brenthurst Foundation, and released in October 2023, indicated that the ANC was likely to win just 37% of the vote in Gauteng in the upcoming election. The Multi-Party Charter and the DA polled at 37% and 24%, respectively, in the survey.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Fresh poll shows ANC dropping to 41% and a path to victory for Multi-Party Charter

DA and EFF fight for KZN

A DA desk in Cape Town on 3 February 2024 during the final voter registration weekend. (Photo: Ashley Vlotman / Gallo Images)

DA leader John Steenhuisen split his time between registration stations in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) over the weekend. In KZN, he was joined by DA premier candidate for the province Christopher Pappas and other local party leaders. They visited the uMngeni, Msunduzi and eThekwini municipalities.

“These are all municipalities which we believe are going to be key to … [getting] a new majority here in the province … particularly given the fact that the ANC is now polling closer to 30%. This is good news for the DA because it means that by uniting behind a strong DA and our premier candidate here, we can bring a new government to the province after the election,” Steenhuisen said.

“That provincial government would also be able to intervene in failing municipalities like Msunduzi and eThekwini, and bring good, clean, accountable government there.”

Daily Maverick journalist Stephen Grootes has predicted that KZN will be a major election battleground in 2024. There is a real possibility that the ANC will drop below 50% from the 54.22% majority it won in the province in 2019, while the DA and IFP appear committed to working together in the region.

The DA and the IFP have signed a KZN service delivery pact, which ensures that where each party holds seats in a hung municipality, they will work together to improve service delivery and better the lives of residents. Both are also members of the Multi-Party Charter, alongside nine other opposition parties. These parties have pledged to share power as a coalition after the 2024 elections if they cumulatively beat the ANC in the polls.

Read more in Daily Maverick: How the Multi-Party Charter could make history at the 2024 polls

EFF Gauteng youth voter registration activities at Maponya Mall in Soweto on 2 February 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Fani Mahuntsi)

EFF leader Julius Malema was also in KZN over the weekend, visiting registration sites across Durban. According to News24, he said the party was going to go all out to win the province in the upcoming election, as he sees the region as the perfect “battleground” on which to weaken the ANC.

News24 quoted Malema as saying: “KwaZulu-Natal has a big voter population and it’s going to be a decider. Remember, if you want to win national elections, you have to win Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. Now [the ANC] knows that Gauteng is gone …

“KwaZulu-Natal is leaving and once it leaves there won’t be an outright winner at the national level. We are confident that we’re going to undermine them here in KwaZulu-Natal, and undermining them here means undermining them all over South Africa.”

City of Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis (centre back) canvasses people in the streets of Kalk Bay during final voter registration weekend at Kalk Bay Civic Centre on 4 February 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / ER Lombard)

New parties aim to make a mark

The 2024 election will see several new parties joining the ballot for the first time. New kid on the block Rise Mzansi – founded in April 2023 – deployed representatives at registration sites across the country over the weekend, with national leader Songezo Zibi making appearances in Gauteng and Eastern Cape.

While in KwaThema, a township southwest of Springs in the district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, Zibi said: “We’ve been talking to South Africans in this area about whether they’re registered … Some people are not registered, some people don’t even have IDs. Others are registered but they’re not intending to vote. 

“It’s an opportunity to talk about politics, to talk about knowledge and change, to talk about Rise Mzansi and why it is important that even if you are angry and unhappy with what’s going on with politics, you still vote.”

Final Voter Registration Weekend at Ridgecrest Family Church in Johannesburg on 4 February 2024. (Photo: Luba Lesolle / Gallo Images)

Zibi has previously expressed his confidence that Rise Mzansi could get as much as 7.5% of the vote in the 2024 election.

Another political newcomer is Build One South Africa (Bosa), which launched in 2022. Leader Mmusi Maimane and deputy leader Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster spearheaded the party’s voter registration drive in Gauteng and the Western Cape over the weekend. 

Maimane urged the 14 million unregistered voters in South Africa to get to registration sites, saying: “If you want a different government and a different future, you need to do things differently and register to vote … If you choose not to vote, you are choosing for things to stay the same. You are choosing not to address high unemployment, corruption, poor education and violence on our streets.” DM