JOHANNESBURG – I happened to be walking behind one of South Africa's leading politicians, Mvume Dandala, as he rushed out of a press conference last week and prepared to race to the airport for his next campaign event. It gave me a revealing glimpse into South Africa's new political technology.
Mr. Dandala is the former Methodist bishop who is now the presidential candidate of the Congress of the People (COPE), one of the two strongest opposition parties in this election. He was having a last-minute discussion with one of his aides as he dashed into his car.
And what was the final instruction that Mr. Dandala gave to his campaign aide as he raced away? “Look after my Facebook!” he shouted to his assistant.
South Africa's political parties, after 15 years of democracy, are experimenting with all the latest in image-making technology. They all have Facebook sites and chat rooms and websites and forums. They're campaigning by text message. They're offering their campaign songs as ringtones. They're blogging and Twittering and YouTubing.
The ruling party, the African National Congress, is the oldest political party in the country, with a history dating back to 1912. But the ANC is trying to drag itself into the 21st century with new technology and new tactics. It offers a
"myANC" website where voters can engage in debates or upload their own story about the ruling party. The party is courting the youth vote, proclaiming that its “brand” is “cool,” and telling young voters that “the ANC rocks.”
At its final campaign rally today at a huge Johannesburg rugby stadium, the ANC used the giant television screens to tell voters how to send a cellphone SMS message to its leader, Jacob Zuma, or how to download ANC ringtones and campaign songs on the Internet.
Some of these technologies seem less than successful. Last week the ANC held its first-ever
Twitter campaign debate. The party's top spokesperson answered questions from voters in the Twitter format. Many voters found it boring. The debate “offers all the proof you need that it is possible to send someone to sleep in 140 characters or less,” one voter commented on the Twitter site.
In another effort to modernize its image, the ANC recruited a group of scantily attired female singers and dancers to entertain its supporters at its rallies. The group, called “Sexy Sexy”, is supposed to lure interest from younger voters.
The problem is that this contradicts all of the ANC's claims to be a progressive and gender-sensitive party where women represent 50 per cent of the candidates. Listen to the lyrics sung by “Sexy Sexy” in their appearance at the ANC rally today, as translated by a female Zulu interpreter who was appalled by the regressive sentiments of the song:
“We use them (men) while they still have money, then we dump them,” the half-naked women sing as they gyrate on the ANC's stage. “If you do not have what we need, sorry!”
