Pedestrian results as voters take 'taxi party' for a bumpy ride at the polls

It's back to the drawing board for the leaders of the taxi industry-aligned political party Alliance for Transformation for All (ATA) after a bumpy ride at the polls.

As the Electoral Commission (IEC) updated the election results on Friday, ATA had garnered 0.09% of the national vote. In the race for the bottom, the party was sandwiched between Black First Land First which got 0.10% of the national vote and the South African Capitalist Party (ZACP) with 0.09%.

ATA's aim of taking to the political playing field and tackling the likes of the ANC, DA and the EFF was vague from the beginning.

In a statement outlining some of the party's intentions, its leaders appeared to have had enough of forking out money for traffic violations. According to the statement in March, the party was formed by three taxi associations  - "Cata, Codeta and Ncedo".

"The aim of ATA is to contest the 2019 elections and other elections," the statement read.

"It is also to raise the voice of the industry within the legislature and parliament. As [a] taxi association we felt that there is nothing about us without us, hence we need representation in both the legislature and parliament so that we can influence policies to be favourable to our industry." For example, the party said, issues such as impounding of vehicles and traffic fines.

Speaking from the IEC operations centre in Century City, Cape Town, on Friday, the party's secretary general, Mzoxolo Dibela, stopped short of admitting defeat. He said the party had not won a seat in the Western Cape legislature although the results still had to be finalised.

Dibela attributed the party's pedestrian performance to its infancy.

"The election had a few hiccups in some areas including scanners that did not work properly in voting districts and the IEC running out of ballot papers.

"But generally the elections went well. The one thing that I like is that there was not violence and protests. It paints a bad picture about the elections [if they are] mired by violence and people get injured.

"Our poor performance is related to the fact that people are not yet aware of our party, as well as our aims and objectives," he added.