ALAN WINDE | Democracies around the world are struggling

In 2024, South Africans joined more than 70 countries, more than 2-billion people, and half of the world’s voting population to make their mark at the ballot box. The overwhelming trend has been of incumbent governments removed by discontented populations that are filled with anxiety about recent and current economic and societal upheaval.

Here in the Western Cape, we bucked the global trend and maintained our majority. This endorsement is one I do not take lightly; if anything, it pushes me to double down even more on our commitment to drive economic growth that stimulates more jobs and builds dignified and safer communities, where our residents thrive. It is also a validation of the daily work and commitment of the 90,000 employees of this government who serve our residents. Many of those staff will be hard at work over the festive season patrolling our provincial roads, keeping residents and visitors safe, caring for those in need in our hospitals, clinics and emergency care facilities and on standby to respond wherever they are needed.

I believe that we also bucked the global trend of defeated incumbents because we are resident-obsessed: from First Thursdays where residents can engage one-on-one with provincial cabinet members; and unannounced visits to our facilities to see for ourselves, we are committed to listening and doing everything we can to make a difference for our residents, where they need it most.

This commitment to being resident-obsessed is also about being honest. While the GNU has bought significant hope and optimism to many South Africans, we must be honest that we have a mammoth workload to address the challenges we face. This is of course difficult because as leaders we want to promise and deliver positive change. But in an increasingly confined economic environment, complex and fragmented world, economic growth and positive social change are not linear.

The bumper 2024 election year has also shown that democracies are struggling to respond to the rapidly changing and increasingly complex spaces that they must navigate. In the days after South Africa’s election results were announced, many of us were worried about the future of our country. Similar anxieties are being expressed elsewhere as dangerously populist positions are taken and the political environment fractures and extreme voices rather than majority views are finding favour.

The GNU is imperfect, in part because we had very little time to establish it. And, if as I believe the trend is moving more towards coalition politics, we must put measures in place to give future coalitions the greatest chance of success. Despite the GNU’s imperfections, I am hopeful that the centre is holding, in large part because I believe that while the parties making up the GNU come from varying ideological backgrounds, at the core of this coalition is the understanding that it must work for and serve the people of South Africa.

While we may be still be filled with GNU-phoria, I am deeply concerned by the number of people who seem to be growing increasingly alienated away from participating in our democracy. Too many South Africans did not vote in our last election. If we are to see our democracy succeed, we must all reflect on why so many of our citizens are not exercising a right that countless people fought so hard for and is at the heart of sustaining and protecting the legitimacy of our democracy and our governments. Of our registered 27.7-million voter population, only 16.2-million cast their ballots. With a democracy as young as ours, we cannot follow the trend of the rest of the world of declining voter participation.

Democracy is not a once-off event of elections — in fact what defines its quality is what happens in between elections and how governments like mine deliver for our residents. It requires relentless work and vigilance.

Many of the challenges of 2024 remain with us and the situation may well deteriorate before it gets better. We must work harder than ever before, taking the lessons we have learnt and implement them with urgency. We must do the work that is necessary to grow our economy, create more jobs, protect the integrity of our budgets through our culture of good governance, and uphold the rule of law and our constitution.

In the Western Cape, we have reason to be hopeful. We will cap off 2024 with an unemployment rate that has dropped below 20% for the first time in a decade. There are also encouraging signs that our collective efforts to combat crime can work. And our initiatives to make the province more energy-resilient are gaining momentum. But all these glimmers of hope come with the knowledge that we are far from done, and we must be honest that we still have much to do.

As we end 2024, let us draw on the insights of the past 12 months so we can enter a new year filled with hope and courage to “byt vas”. We have all worked incredibly hard to make the Western Cape remarkable. And we will work even harder still in 2025 for this province and country.