THE IMPORTANCE OF VOTER PARTICIPATION IN ENSURING DEMOCRATIC CREDIBILITY, LEGITIMACY, AND STABILITY

Abstract

The decline in electoral support for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the 2019 South African general elections has been attributed to public perception linking ANC rule with corruption and incompetence in governance. This decline demonstrates that the political sheen that the ANC had acquired for its role in the struggle for democracy and liberation in South Africa has started to wear off. Against this backdrop, Sibongiseni Mkhize published a political biography of Henry Selby Msimang, a founding member of the ANC, who has been neglected in the grand historical narrative of South Africa’s liberation. Mkhize gives an insightful and impressive account of Msimang's involvement in South African politics and public life for seven decades, in spite of Msimang's political zigzags. These included abandoning the ANC to become a founding member of the Liberal Party in the early 1950s and later turning to Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Inkatha in the 1970s until his death in 1982. Mkhize provides various explanations for these political zigzags, emphasizing the complexity of Msimang's long career in public life