Analysis of national election manifestos of the African National Congress about service delivery between 1994 and 2014

Abstract

This study analyses the national election manifestos of the African National Congress on the subject of service delivery between 1994 and 2014. One of the arguments advanced in this thesis and corroborated in the theory of democratization by elections is that elections play an important role in the struggle for better governance and democracy. The election manifestos, in this regard, serve as instruments of ensuring accountability to the voters as well as gauging the performance of those in government. The party in government must implement its election manifestos; otherwise it must face electoral consequences through a democratic election process. However, there is a view aptly sustained in the study that elections are at times not a reliable or credible measure of a democratic outcome because many voters do not have the necessary knowledge to make rational choices in order to counteract the effects of poor or lack of implementation of election manifestos regarding service delivery. Therefore, as cautioned in the thesis, conscious public participation will remain an empty slogan if the majority of the electorate is left and forgotten languishing in poverty and arrogance. The sustainability of participation by citizens is hugely compromised in an environment infested with rampant corruption and runaway impunity. The study followed an interpretivist paradigm with a qualitative approach. ANC members in four villages –Duthuni, Tshisaulu, Ha-Mushavhanamadi and Ha-Ratshiedana (ward 35, Thulamela Municipality) were purposively targeted as the research population for the study. For practical reason, not all members of the ANC in the villages were reached to participate in the study. Ultimately, 42 members of the ANC in the villages formed the research sample. Data collection techniques used were face-to-face interviews, semi-structured questionnaire and document review (data triangulation). The rationale for using data triangulation in the study was to ensure that the weaknesses of a single data collection strategy were minimized and to ensure that the strategies complemented and verified one another. A total of 12 interviews were conducted, 30 questionnaires were administered and five ANC national election manifestos were perused. Three qualitative data analysis strategies were adopted, namely, conversation analysis, discourse analysis and content analysis. Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data consisted of words and observations and not numbers or statistics because the researcher did not want to quantify nor generate numerical data for purposes of statistical analysis.