The upcoming elections in Makana promise to be exciting, as yet another independent candidate emerges, adding another dimension to local politics.
The upcoming elections in Makana promise to be exciting, as yet another independent candidate emerges, adding another dimension to local politics.
This time it is Rhodes University student Christopher McMichael who is hoping to give students more of a say in the running of the Makana municipality. McMichael is working with a group of students from the newly established campus society, Students for Social Justice, on a self-funded campaign.
He will be contesting the position of councillor for Ward 12, a newly demarcated ward mostly made up of the university's campus. "In theory, we should have student representation, just because the majority of people here are students. "The idea was initially just to have a sort of representative local government councillor – that's how the system is supposed to work – but it doesn't actually work like that in practice," explained the postgradute politics student.
"What you have is two main parties that campaign here, the DA and the ANC. They have all their policies filtered down from the national level." McMichael argued that this was unrepresentative in the strict sense of the word, and said his group would attempt to ensure the standards according to which local government was supposed to function were maintained.
Benjamin Fogel, his campaign manager, said political party appointed candidates ended up being answerable to the party rather than their constituencies. "So the idea behind this candidate in this election, is to have a representative for the area who is free of these party politics and instead is accountable to the students and the people who make up the ward," Fogel said.
The two students downplayed the fact that the only connection McMichael had with Makana was his studies and that he was not a permanent resident. "Nobody for certain knows where they going to be in five years.
Even Jeff Peires, the ANC candidate, doesn't even know where his going to be in five years," said Fogel. He said that at any rate being a councillor was not a full time job. "Normally the person is also working as a businessman or lawyer as well." He said McMichael was here for the foreseeable future.
"To be honest, I don't even want to be doing this much, but I feel I should be," said McMichael. "I am trying to finish a PhD and this is like a totally unbelievable level of stress. I am having anxiety dreams all the time – it is crazy," McMichael said.
