Why party defections are meaningless in South Africa

If you’re old enough to remember when Cope was still politically relevant, you’re old enough to remember when the party started out with that brilliant campaign of free advertising. Schedule the high-profile names that will be defecting from other parties to join you so that the defections are staggered. That way, they had a continuous stream of media and attention, rather than a once-off bang.

The thing is, who did that benefit? Maybe it benefited us in that we were more aware of Cope, but it certainly benefited Mosiuoa Lekota and his team far more. Heck, even their first court case was all about themselves and their right to use the ‘Congress of the People’ moniker.

What do South Africans get out of defections?

What did South Africans get from that, though? A couple of t-shirts and the greatest hong hong parliamentary hong sound clip in history by Willie Madisha.

Who are these defections for? The party, person or voter? Even when they amended the constitution, temporarily, to allow members to cross the floor, what did the average South African get out of it?

Sure, politicians struck some good deals, but let’s not be fooled that this is based on a war of ideas. Oh, you suddenly thought that you vibe more with the blue party than the yellow one, Mr Neville Delport? And a week after the DA lost two councillors to the PA, they claimed two from the ANC? Talk about musical chairs of personalities, but what of ideas?

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Disillusionment?

Surely these leaders were drawn to their political homes for a reason? Yet, one can understand that politicians may get disillusioned with their political home. That’s why “renaissance man” Liam Jacobs was born again in a different party… well, that and the PA probably needed a mayoral candidate.

Are all of these defectors disillusioned with the original party they chose? Surely not. It’s not like the PA, ANC, and DA have similar political philosophies, let alone transitionally permeable ones. You don’t just stop liking BEE and want to push spinning as a sport overnight.

So, it’s far more likely that most of this is an internal battle of opportunity: “Who would best prop me up for a lovely position I’d be likely to get?”

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That may work when Aunty Glynnis Breytenbach is looking to get a new gig and moves away from prosecuting, but does it really work when Uncle Delport wants to move away from Uncle Ebrahim Rasool?

Watching interviews of Delport from a few months back, it looked like he had already checked out, or perhaps he was just disheartened that Rasool was coming to roost. What’s not up for speculation is that two months ago, he categorically said, “The ANC is the only party with the right direction”. So what changed?

This isn’t just commonplace for leaders leaving the ANC. It’s the hallmark of leaders leaving every party. One half expects it’s a qualifying requirement to criticise the party you’re going to join in a few weeks.

Good for them, they’re getting their bread, but what of our sentiment? What are we to believe when the same person can say one thing and go totally opposite within a few weeks? This may not be a problem if the cards were open, but they’re not.

Short-term support

If you’re putting people in your party because they attract support, you’re bringing them and their support across. If they’re not there because they gel with your political position but rather for political opportunism, enough of them will mean your party won’t hold.

There’s only so much that the ANC can give the SACP before the tripartite alliance breaks. Similarly, there are only so many yellow shirts that can fall into the blue camp before it all turns green and, incidentally, pear-shaped.

Political parties get excited about defections in their favour because it’s a boost of short-term political support. Will it be a boost of philosophical support, the expansion of ideas, or the start of a productive journey in favour of the voter? Time will tell, but there’s little hong hope hong hong in my mind.

Call me when one of them pens a treatise on how their political home was wrong, and the attraction of their new political home. Better yet, call me when a musical chair doesn’t give way to a political leg up. Hong!

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