The Results Operations Centre has been packed up, election posters hang lopsided on street poles, and political parties are locked in rooms taking stock of what was a tough election. Whether you’re MK or Cope, it was a physically, mentally and spiritually taxing election campaign for us all.
Last month, I bumped into a Cabinet minister at an airport, and when I asked how the campaign was going, he described it as “hectic!” Anyone who says this was an easy ride was not campaigning in earnest.
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I have been part of campaigns since the 2014 national and provincial elections, only skipping the 2021 local government elections because I was just a voter. In all these elections, I was part of an established organisation with resources, infrastructure and institutional knowledge that make an election campaign “easier”.
As a new kid on the block in this election, I was part of a campaign that had had none of these things for very long. After we launched Rise Mzansi just over a year ago, there was no staff complement other than me, and a handful of volunteers to support the political work. We had very little branding material — for example, after the launch, at a community meeting that was in Mdantsane, we printed the Rise Mzansi logo on A3 paper and laminated it in order to brand the room.
We would not arrive at venues that were already set up for meetings. Some of us, including leaders like Makashule Gana and Vuyiswa Ramokgopa, would arrive early to put out chairs and stick up our A3 home-made branding on the walls, which would be taken down to use again at the next meeting in another part of the country.
The meeting in Mdantsane was attended by no more than 80 people. In subsequent meetings across the country, there were similar numbers, at others, there were just 10 people who were willing to listen to what this unknown entity had to say.
All we really had at the time were a few founding documents, a well-covered launch, a small leadership team and t-shirts that professed that “2024 is our 1994”, a tagline adopted and adapted by other political formations and society to describe this election.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Elections Dashboard
The meetings were very different to political meetings I have attended before where there are senior party leaders who would deliver a speech and leave. These meetings were different in that the leaders spoke for five minutes to introduce Rise Mzansi and its political framework, with the bulk of the meeting being led by community members saying what the problems in the community were and what they believed the solutions to be.
These problems and their solutions can, in many instances, be found in our People’s Manifesto. We called it the People’s Manifesto because it contained the voices of the people we met on this ongoing mission.
Our work has always been to give effect to a government for and by the people, not one for and by politicians. At our final People’s Rally and in the build-up to 29 May, candidates for Parliament and the provincial legislatures publicly signed the People’s Contract that committed Rise Mzansi public representatives to being, among other things, busy, accessible and accountable.
The two Rise Mzansi Members of Parliament and one Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, and the leadership of the organisation will fulfil this commitment.
This was never about a single election, it was about laying down a foundation on which to build for 2026, 2029 and beyond. So those who believe that we will fizzle out will be sorely disappointed. We will also democratise the organisation by convening an elective conference before the next election.
By-elections focus
As part of our building, we have already set our sights on looming by-elections now that we have a picture of where our support comes from, and areas where we have potential for growth. Outside of legislative and electoral politics, we will continue our work building a movement in our communities.
In all the election campaigns I have been part of, there is a critical role that support staff play in ensuring that political principals are well briefed and that the organisation is always on people’s minds and visible — in the media, social media and in communities.
The leadership of Rise Mzansi, when it was financially viable to do so, committed to hiring the best professionals. We have an experienced organising head and team; the digital team is young, energetic and experienced; and with more than a decade of experience, I have the privilege of leading a small but effective media and communication team. This matters.
Response to misleading claims
With this in mind, I wish to respond to some unfounded claims made, peddled as facts, and the underground tactics of our political opponents used as an attempt to mute us.
We managed to put up posters in every corner of the country not through numbers, but because we had the professional experience of how to establish structures and create an image of being bigger than we are. We had fewer posters than all the established political parties, we just happened to be the first to put them up and we understood where they should be placed to create an image of scale. Having an experienced organising director made this happen.
Our digital team did some very heavy lifting. They established our presence (and often trended for the right reasons) across Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook and TikTok, while managing multiple accounts and putting out quality content live and timeously, giving the impression that we had a large team.
Much has been said about the media coverage we received. Because of this, there were established politicians who called journalists and asked them “how much is Rise Mzansi paying you?” The answer is zero. Other political leaders laid complaints with editors because of how they covered us.
As the head of the media and communication team, along with the campaign management, we made strategic and tactical decisions that made our work newsworthy. The team are professionals: we work long hours, we answer our phones, we give meaningful responses to media queries, and we make our political principals — who show up on time — available for interviews. We also treat journalists with respect, even when they write stories that we disagree with.
Working with capable professionals matters, especially when you are building something new. I tip my hat to the people in the back room — who are mostly young and women — whose names will not be printed in newspapers and whose faces will not appear in photos and on TV.
Give experts and professionals the space to grow and lead, and you will get the best out of them. That is true at Rise Mzansi and it is what we should seek to replicate in both the private and public sectors. DM