The mushrooming of multiple political parties in South Africa was not against the principle of democracy.

And, the situation is likely to continue for as long as the main parties fail to respond to the aspirations of the people, and people think the electoral process can serve as an instrument to change their lives.

This is according to political analysts after the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reported earlier this week that 472 political parties are currently registered ahead of the 2026 local government elections.

The number dropped from 609 registered political parties in March when the IEC announced its intention to deregister 192 inactive political parties.

University of North West political analyst Professor Andre Duvenage said on Saturday that 472 political parties were a huge number of parties.

“It is without any doubt going to create huge logistical challenges for an organisation like the IEC, but it’s not against the principle of democracy,” Duvenage said.

Independent political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe said the mushrooming of political parties was a testament that South Africans still believed in electoral democracy.

“It reflects that they lost faith in the ANC and the traditional or usual players to bring a better life for all,” he said.

Seepe also said many of the parties were splinter groups, pointing to the failure of parties to resolve internal disputes.

“The worst-case scenario involves instances where the parties are created to sow divisions among mainly black parties. The result is that the majority fails to reach the bare minimum required for parties to be represented in legislatures or municipalities.”

He added that it was evident when one notices that the parties receive support from the same funder.

“In the absence of revolution, the mushrooming of parties will continue for as long as the main parties fail to respond to people’s aspirations,” Seepe said.

Duvenage said it was difficult to identify the motivation for the mushrooming of political parties.

“In most cases, leadership within a party believes that they have the necessary support, and we know that there’s a lot of money involved, so there are a lot of things they are aspiring for.

“But in most cases of the majority of these parties, the expectation is very unrealistic, and it’s highly unlikely that they will qualify.”

However, Seepe said that once there were many parties, they ended up diluting their own effectiveness.

“What one needs also to point out that it is largely the parties that claim to be more in the Left have been disintegrating… but when it comes to black parties, you have a lot of parties contesting against each other, and what is often embarrassing is that the same parties tend to be supported by almost the same funders, almost as if these funders play the role while there is a consolidation of white vote.”

Seepe and Duvenage differed on whether there should be restrictive requirements for registration of parties.

The IEC provides that parties wishing to register at the national level should produce a deed of foundation signed by 1,000 registered voters who support the founding of the party and pay a R5,000 registration fee.

At the provincial level registration, 500 registered voters must support the founding of the party, and a R3,000 registration fee is required, while only 300 registered voters support the founding of the party, and a R2,000 registration fee is the requirement.

Duvenage said the requirement for registering a party was extremely low.

“It’s a very open agenda, and maybe it is time that we made some higher requirements applicable to parties to qualify,” he said.

“I think that is a necessity, not only on a local level, but also on a provincial, as well as a national level… We cannot work with 400-plus parties from a logistical perspective. This is about impossible, so we need to set higher criteria for parties to qualify,” he said.

Duvenage added that there should also be a financial barrier in some way or another to contest elections.

“If a party doesn’t measure up to the criteria, they should be disallowed. I do think we need to put the criteria very high.”

He said the criteria for participation, specifically at the local level, are far too low.

“The process is too open to accommodate too many parties, making democracy not practical due to so many parties competing,” said Duvenage.

Seepe disagrees with this view of strict criteria to register a party and contestation of elections.

“Raising the registration fee (as an example) would undermine democracy by making democratic expression expensive,” he said.

Somehow, Seepe and Duvenage agreed on the unintended consequences of multiple parties.

Seepe said that as more parties come about, the vote splinters even further.

“That means that we might find ourselves with parties that don’t stick around long enough, some new ones coming about, and will sustain themselves through one or two seat allocations in wherever they’re contesting,” he said.

Duvenage said the multiple parties were playing right into the reality of coalition politics. In the 2021 local elections, there were 70 hung councils when there was no party that won an absolute majority.

“I won’t be surprised if that is going to increase drastically, probably going to be double the case. The majority of parties will have an influence, and probably we are going to see grand coalitions at least in certain municipalities and within certain metros.”

He said it was a very negative scenario for coalitions. 

“At this point, we as South Africans haven’t won the art of coalition politics to the extent that it contributes to democratic practices; rather, the opposite is to it undermining effective and legitimate institutions, making it a huge challenge to work effectively and efficiently,” Duvenage said.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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