Factions and Factionalism in South African Party Politics – Appraising (de)Merits

ABSTRACT

Faction is an old age phenomenon world over. The democratic consolidation in South Africa post 1994 is close to three decades but did not escape factionalism. Does faction phenomenon bring about havoc, conflicts, splits, and instability corollaries or strengthen party politics in response to fulfilling the general will? In responding to this question, South African party politics and factional battles within the ruling party and other political formations are discussed as a case study to explore the merits and demerits of factions and factionalism. In doing this, a discourse analysis was undertaken to understand how faction phenomenon brings about complots or a positive change. The discourse analysed arrived to the conclusion that whilst factions are blatantly criticised for rearing havoc and instability in party politics as well as signs of split-offs and threats as demerits in South Africa, there are also inevitable trade-offs to be welcomed as merits to create opportunities to drive positive change within the broader party-political spectrum to strengthen participatory democracy and the multi-party system in South Africa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Accessed April 6, 2016. https://politicalanthro.wordpress.com/factionalism/.

2 Ibid.

3 Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others; Democratic Alliance v Speaker of the National Assembly and Others [2016] ZACC 11, Constitutional Court of South Africa.

4 https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/economic-freedom-fighters-eff Accessed on 20 May 2019.

5 Patricia de Lille: Her new political party is Good, Patricia de Lille: Her new political party is Good. Accessed March 2, 2021. (thesouthafrican.com).

6 New Nation Movement NPC and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others (CCT110/19) [2020] ZACC 11; 2020 (8) BCLR 950 (CC); 2020 (6) SA 257 (CC) (11 June 2020). It is declared that the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens may be elected to the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures only through their membership of political parties. It needs to be emphasised that those who do not wish to participate through the party-political process are not deprived of their democratic political voice.