I won’t change my vote

Investigative report by Robyn Wertheim and Megan Flemmit.

South Africa held the fifth democratic elections in May this year. This election saw newly formed parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Agang enter the race as potential alternatives to the African National Congress (ANC).

Running up to elections an increasing number of comments appeared on social media platforms which reduced the ANC voter and the ANC itself to stupidity. Many of these comments stated that if people, who live in impoverished conditions, continued to vote for the ANC, they only had themselves to blame for the conditions that they find themselves in. The film “I won’t change my vote” is a response to these comments. It is also a response to what seems to be a general lack of understanding that individuals in South Africa have about why people continue to vote for the ANC.
The film briefly speaks about the misconception people have regarding stupidity within the ANC. Mckaiser states that there are more intellectuals within the ANC than what there are in the DA. He says that one of the advantages of being such an enormous political party is that the ANC contains both intellectuals and fools.

By looking at these different aspects of voting the film shows how voting is done within a complex psychological framework. Taking this into consideration it is then not too difficult to see that ANC voters can be as rational as people who vote differently. We should because of this extend the same courtesy to people who vote for different political parties.