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Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore how the ANC and the principal parties of opposition campaigned in the 2024 general election in South Africa and argue the limits of populist appeal

Paper long abstract:

Thirty years into democracy, South Africa is experiencing an extended crisis of governance and economy. This has led to predictions that the ruling African National Congress will lose its popular majority in the forthcoming general elections in May (?) 2024. This paper will explore how the ANC and the principal parties of opposition campaigned in the election, and how they sought to appeal to the electorate. Attention will be focused on the rhetoric and style of the campaigns of the ANC and its four major challengers: the Democratic Alliance, the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Inkatha Freedom Party, and how they tailored their messages to different segments of the population – by race, class, and region. The suggestion in advance that the ANC will stress its credentials as the embodiment of the popular will and as the vanguard of the struggle against apartheid. Correspondingly, the role of the opposition is to reverse the verdict of history. In contrast, the opposition parties will argue the decay of the ANC, its betrayal of the legacy of Mandela, its extensive involvement in corruption, and its inability to reform. However, drawing upon analysis to be provided by the latest in the series of books on South African elections co-edited by the author, it will be argued that populist campaigning in contemporary South Africa will come up against serious limits among an electorate among which large numbers are unemployed, most are poor and ever increasing proportion are young for whom appeals to history have limited resonance