Following results from his party’s modelling, RISE Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi believes that the 'new kid on the block' will be one of the top five political parties in the 2024 national elections.

Rise Mzansi, whose application with the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa to contest as a political party was recently approved, is ready to contest the elections in all nine provinces.

In an exclusive interview with Polity Zibi said his party had an organisational model that targets a certain number of voters and not percentages. He said by targeting certain numbers, one could know how many organisers, volunteers and supporters were needed.

“…And therefore, you have a different conversation with voters about voting on a continuous basis not just at election time. I think if you can look at our social media pages you might see we have lots of young people, they number in the thousands and older people as well…,” he said.

Zibi explained that RISE Mzansi had conversations with people about why they should vote for RISE Mzansi, as opposed to recruiting members.

He noted that if elected President of the country during next year’s elections, he would first focus on fixing government, as he believed that the government machinery had been destroyed.

“And I think the first task in the first six months is to have a smaller, more efficient Cabinet. One of the things we have discussed is making departments work in a certain way. The department of foreign affairs and the department of trade and industry don't need to be different ministries, they can be one,” he proposed.

Zibi promised to hire the “right people in the right jobs”, and said he would put the most vulnerable municipalities under administration.

“Otherwise, companies are going to continue to shut down and leave, retrench people and move to other areas. The administration in the first six months to a year is very important,” he added.

SA’S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

Zibi noted that South Africa’s problem was politics, explaining that the biggest political symbol in South Africa was the African National Congress (ANC). However, he said there was a bigger problem than the ANC.

The country had a political culture which was unhelpful, as it turned people off and valued sloganeering over real solutions. He claimed that about 28-million people did not vote as result.

“Being voters ourselves, we started thinking about how we can change the situation, and you cannot change it without going into politics, or by replicating the same problem that you do not like. Instead, we choose to try to find out why is it that so many people, despite being politically engaged, do not vote, what upsets them, what would make them come back and participate in politics and vote again. And the outcome of that process was RISE Mzansi,” he said.

PEOPLE’S CONVENTION & COALITIONS

Later this week RISE Mzansi will hold its first People’s Convention, a 3-day event to discuss the socio-economic challenges facing the country and how to address them.

“The convention, I really hope, is something which will accommodate more than the 800 delegates that we are going to have and the 1 000 people that are going to be in the vicinity doing arts, civic education, workshops and other things,” Zibi said.

He added that the convention would be using the “world, café style”.

He explained that there were six themes of discussion: family, community, governance, economy, nation-building and climate change.

Zibi highlighted that with RISE Mzansi’s convention everyone would be given a chance to discuss every topic, adding that it was not only members of RISE Mzansi, it would also include representatives of communities and civics and other organisations, as well as private individuals.

Meanwhile, he highlighted that RISE Mzansi was not considering joining the Democratic Alliance-led Multi-Party Charter for South Africa at this stage.

“Together those parties come to around 35%, somebody needs to find the 60% that is going to take the whole arrangement to 50% plus 1. You cannot do that by bringing together the same political parties that 28-million people are not voting for - you not making a new proposition,” Zibi said.

He noted that the coalition that his party was joining was a coalition with civic and national organisations in the national civic and political space and localised political parties.

“Because when you bring those on board it becomes possible to have a coalition government next year, not now,” Zibi said.