For Which It Stands: South Africa

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s fight for democracy played a pivotal role in inspiring Barack Obama’s involvement in politics, according to his memoir. Now South Africa’s newest political party is drawing inspiration from Obama’s successful presidential campaign.
 
The Congress of the People (Cope) is using methods proven by Obama: making extensive use of the social-networking site Facebook, for example, and raising campaign funds electronically. Its message, too, echoes Obama’s: The party’s slogan calls for hope and change. Its platform renounces negative campaigning.
 

 
Political observers say that Cope, which was formed in reaction to the dismissal of former President Thabo Mbeki by the ruling African National Congress party in September, is unlikely to win this year. The ANC’s formidable political organization all but guarantees its victory. What Cope could do, however, is reduce the ANC’s overwhelming majority and pave the way for a truly multi-party democracy
 
That’s where the lessons of Obama’s historic presidential run come into play.
 
"We say, ‘How can we best take what Obama has done and remodel it for South Africa?’" said Loyiso Tyira, Cope’s information technology coordinator. "I expect SMS, cellular technologies and internet to play a big role."
 
Cope’s Facebook page counts close to 13,000 members — a paltry number compared with Obama’s 3.7 million Facebook friends, but significantly more than the ANC’s 2,000 (Jacob Zuma, who as the ANC leader is widely expected to be chosen as the country’s next president, has about 2,000 individual supporters on Facebook.)
 
Cope uses its Facebook page primarily to communicate with its supporters, but it went one step further by bringing the virtual support into a physical political realm. A "Facebook region," represented by members of the Facebook group, participated in Cope’s inaugural conference in December alongside delegates from South Africa’s nine provinces.
 
Tyira, who designed Cope’s social-networking strategy, said there are also plans for broadcasting messages from the party’s leaders on YouTube and for allowing supporters to donate money directly through the organization’s website.
 
But the internet can only take Cope so far. More than 70 percent of the U.S. population has internet access, but only about 10 percent of South Africans are internet users. In contrast, cell phones are ubiquitous here, with about 40 million mobile phones for nearly 49 million people. That makes the use of SMS messages for campaigning and organizing — another strategy employed to great effect by Obama — particularly handy for Cope.
 
The upstart opposition is also trying to capitalize on the reach of mobile phones for fundraising purposes. Cope was the first to sign up for Pocit Elect, a service set up by a South African company to allow cell phone users to donate money to political parties even if they don’t have a credit card or bank account. The idea for Pocit Elect was inspired by the Obama campaign, said Pocit Chief Operations Officer Oliver Krantz. Six other political parties have signed up for the service, but so far the ANC is not using it, he said.
 
"We decided that to further democracy and to help small parties collect funds because they lack the infrastructure, we would provide our platform at cost," Krantz said.
 
Despite its technological savvy, Cope is facing an uphill battle. From the country’s first democratic election in 1994 to the previous national election in 2004, the ANC has increased its majority to about 70 percent. The ANC’s legacy is tremendous and many voters don’t envisage voting for any party but the one that brought an end to apartheid.
 
One of the biggest challenges for Cope is to portray itself as a force for change while still benefiting from that legacy. Many of the party’s leaders are former ANC leaders. For instance Cope’s president, Mosiuoa Lekota, was chairman of the ANC for 10 years. He resigned as defense minister in September after Mbeki was forced out by the ANC.
 
Anna Starcke, a political risk analyst for Starcke Realities, said South African parties tend to think that an extensive use of mobile phones and Facebook is all that it takes to score an odds-defying victory as Obama did.
 
"It’s some kind of megalomania to compare themselves — which they do — to the Obama campaign," she said. "It’s a fantastic model to emulate and good luck to anybody who can."
 
Starcke said that Cope is light on policies and its leaders are tainted by their ANC past. She said, however, that there is no doubt Cope will make a dent in the ANC majority. The real test for Cope will be whether it can form coalitions with other opposition parties in the aftermath of the elections, she said.
 
"If in the aggregate they can reduce the hegemony of the ANC it will be good for democracy," Starcke said.