KAIZER NYATSUMBA | Most of SA’s political parties are not democratic

A growing number of political parties that contest elections in our democratic dispensation are not democratic themselves. These are owner- or founder-led parties that, it would be no exaggeration to say, are the “properties” of their founders. I call them this because they have only ever been led by their founders.

Before 1994, organisations that were properties of their founders included the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) and the Inkatha Freedom Party, which were founded and led by Eugene TerreBlanche and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, respectively.

The former led the AWB from 1973, when he formed it, until his death in 2010. Although remnants of the AWB still exist, for all intents and purposes the AWB, as a viable organisation, died with TerreBlanche.

Buthelezi launched Inkatha in March 1975 and led it for 46 years, when he stepped down as president in August 2019. Therefore, in its 53 years of existence, the IFP has had only two leaders: Buthelezi and current incumbent Velenkosini Hlabisa.

Slightly younger than the IFP was the National People’s Party, which was formed by Amichand Rajbansi in 1981. It was the vehicle through which he served in the tricameral parliament of 1984, which excluded black South Africans. It also served as the vehicle that enabled him to participate in the multiparty negotiations that took place from December 1991. On November 1 1993, the wily Rajbansi relaunched his party as the Minority Front and contested the 1994 elections through it.

He led that party until his death in December 2011, with his widow, Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi, inheriting the organisation’s presidency in January 2012. Rajbansi’s first wife, Asha Devi Rajbansi, and her son Vimal, initially disputed Thakur-Rajbansi’s inheritance. To this day, Thakur-Rajbansi remains the leader of the Minority Front and is its candidate for the position of mayor of eThekwini metropolitan municipality in the 2026 elections.

The AWB did not bother to hold electoral conferences at all, but at least the IFP and the Minority Front gave a nod to fake internal democracy, which saw elections held periodically. Throughout the 46 years and the 30 years, respectively, though, it was understood that the IFP and the Minority Front and its predecessor were Buthelezi and Rajbansi’s fiefdoms, and nobody dared to challenge them for the parties’ presidencies.

Ironically, during the democratic era the number of proprietary parties has grown alarmingly. At the top of that list must be Bantu Holomisa’s UDM, which will be 30 years old in September next year. Throughout its existence it has been led by Holomisa, and that is likely to remain the case for as long as he remains alive or in politics. During the democratic era the IFP and the UDM had good company in the form of the EFF, which is owned by Julius Malema, who has led it since its formation in July 2013. Malema, too, is assured of the EFF’s leadership for as long as he remains in politics.

Ironically, during the democratic era the number of proprietary parties has grown alarmingly. At the top of that list must be Bantu Holomisa’s UDM, which will be 30 years old in September next year.

When she left the PAC Patricia de Lille launched the Independent Democrats in 2003. Needless to say, she was that organisation’s owner-leader until 2014 when she merged it with the DA. When she fell out with the DA four years later, she and Brett Herron launched another vehicle – the GOOD party – that would take them to parliament. Yet again she is the president of that party, which scored her positions in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinets both in 2019 and in 2024.

To their credit, the IFP, UDM, EFF and GOOD do hold regular electoral conferences. Yet in those organisations there is an unwritten rule that is known to all members: you may contest any position in the organisation, as long as you know that the ultimate leader will always remain the founder.

Launched in the same year as the EFF was Gayton McKenzie’s PA, which is only two months younger than the EFF. Since its formation the PA has been led by its owner, McKenzie, with his friend and fellow former prisoner Kenny Kunene as his deputy. I am not aware of the PA ever having held an electoral congress.

In August 2020, former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba launched ActionSA. He has been its president ever since, with his former Johannesburg chief of staff, Michael Beaumont, as the party’s chairman. Not once since its formation has ActionSA held an elective congress – and there is no indication that it is about to do so soon.

Then there is Jacob Zuma’s MK Party, launched in November 2023. That party simply takes the cake when it comes to its non-democratic credentials. Armed with nothing but Zuma as its lifetime president and its anti-Ramaphosa grievances, MK went on to confound sceptics and political observers by obtaining the most votes in KwaZulu-Natal and the third-highest in the country.

Unlike all of the other parties though, MK has made no secret of its dictatorial tendencies. Only Zuma’s word counts for anything in the party, and he has not hesitated to appoint and unappoint people to and from different positions with gay abandon. Most of those who were on the party’s initial parliamentary list were discarded and replaced with his favourites at the moment.

The biggest irony is that for a party that has no regard for the country’s constitution or the judiciary, MK has probably been the most litigious party during its short existence. It is most disturbing that a democratic South Africa finds itself with an official opposition party that does not even believe in the country’s constitution.

How can a party that has no internal democracy be committed to a real democracy in the country? It seems there is reason for us to worry about what would happen if South Africa ever found itself governed by such parties. I do not think this bodes well for our democracy. I worry that the proliferation of small, founder-owned political parties is a danger to the country and weakens our democracy. When all else is considered, the ANC, DA and PAC in the current parliament are about the only parties that practise genuine internal democracy.

Is it not about time that the Independent Electoral Commission required that all parties that seek to participate in our democratic process must themselves practise internal democracy? After all, the registrar in the department of employment and labour has similar stipulations for unions and employer organisations.

• Dr Nyatsumba, a turnaround strategy expert, is a business rescue practitioner, chartered director and MD of KMN Consulting.