Understanding ongoing support for the African National Congress amongst the urban poor in national elections in South Africa: the case of Mlungisi, Queenstown

• Main Author: Makwetu, Ncebakazi
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Rhodes University 2018
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62582

The main objective of the thesis is to understand the ongoing support for the African National Congress (ANC) amongst the urban poor in national elections in South Africa with specific reference to Queenstown. The study involved 50 residents in Mlungisi in Queenstown, the vast majority of whom are shack dwellers. The use of semi-structured interviews allowed for an indepth understanding of why people vote for the ANC. The research participants have always voted for the ANC and have no intentions of voting for any other political party. Since 1994, the ANC has in the main pursued a neo-liberal project with a limited focus on redistribution. Because of this, most blacks living in urban areas continue to live under conditions of extreme poverty. The abject material conditions of people living in Mlungisi does not provide a strong basis for why they would vote almost unreservedly for the ANC. In seeking to offer an explanation, the thesis turns to theories of the post-colony, including the work of Frantz Fanon and Partha Chatterjee, as these theories provide an analysis of the character of the post-colonial state and the ways in which the government engages with its citizens. These macro-level theories are complemented by middle-level theories about voting and voting patterns in seeking to understand why Mlungisi residents vote for the ANC, raising questions of identity, loyalty and clientelism in the process.