SA politicians don't 'click'

2008-11-14 09:16

Johannesburg - Most South African political parties do not have the know-how or sense to understand the value of a techno-savvy election campaign, experts say.

If used correctly, political parties could turn around voter apathy especially among the youth, as US president elect Barack Obama did, where recent elections saw the highest voter turnout since 1908.

"I don't think political parties understand the value... even brand managers of traditional brands in South Africa are struggling to deal with digital as a media," says Benon Czornij, technical director and founder of HelloComputer.

Online expert Arthur Goldstuck adds: "You've got to know what you are doing or how to use it and not use the wrong tool for the wrong purpose."

He cites the example of the opposition Democratic Alliance sending up to three sms's to remind people to register to vote during the last registration weekend.

Goldstuck says it was an irritation to many people.

"Clearly, the system wasn't used appropriately.

"They didn't know what they were doing. Their ability to use it was lacking. One must be sure what one is doing otherwise it could be damaging."

But the DA's Anthony Hazel, who is in charge of the party's online campaign, points out that only a handful of people - about 30 - had complained about it being an irritation.

Apathetic youth

Czornij says if a campaign integrating the internet and mobile phones is put together correctly, it could inspire even the traditionally apathetic youth.

"The Obama campaign used multiple channels of digital. It was bigger than just the internet. It's about integrating your campaign, its mobile media, social media, web, traditional billboards, television debates... and then posting that debate online afterwards. It's about reinforcement," says Czornij.

But he adds that local political parties do not seem to be willing to allocate a big chunk of their budgets to such a campaign.

"Obama's message was very well positioned, encouraging the youth to register. The youth are a lot more switched on than people think but you need to inspire them," says Czornij.

The Institute for Democracy in South Africa, quoting figures released in an SABC/Markinor survey, said 44% of those who said they did not want to vote in the last elections fell into the "youth" category -those aged between 18 and 24.

Also, 56% of those who said they did not have a bar-coded identity book fell in the same group.

Cellphones

Goldstuck believes, "Mxit can be a very powerful mobilisation for the youth".

Cellphone penetration in South Africa has been put as high as 29 million out of a population of 48.7 million.

According figures released by the SA Advertising Foundation earlier this year, 67% of the population own or rent cellphones.

But even the percentage of internet users - albeit much lower than cellphone users - should not be discarded.

Matthew Buckland, the general manger of publishing at 24.com, says although South Africa's internet penetration is not comparable to the United States, it would do political parties good to take a look at Obama's campaign.

Buckland, on his blog matthewbuckland.com, describes the Obama website as "paradigm shifting for politics online.

"It's no doubt the most sophisticated political party website ever created... This will be the website political parties around the world will base their online political strategies on."

Low numbers of internet users

He says South African parties should not be put off by the relatively low number of online users.

"I think it is a mistake to dismiss campaigning online because it represents under 10% of the country.

"Five million [internet users] is not an insubstantial number, relative to the number of people that end up voting.

"Also, you don't know how that audience influences opinion," says Buckland. "I think the combined use of internet and mobile is an opportunity for political parties in South Africa. It is not too early for that at all. I think the time is now."

Goldstuck agrees: "By having an online campaign you are reaching a very influential 10% of the population.

"If you have the opportunity to reach that percentage of the population in any other environment, you would not hesitate to do that."

More than 21.6 million South Africans are registered to vote in elections next year.

Different studies on South Africa's internet penetration put the number of internet users at between 4.5 million and 6 million or around 10% the population.

"It might be 10%, but it's probably a big percentage of the voting population and then it becomes very significant," says Goldstuck.

Nowhere online

But just how strong is the online presence of the main political parties in South Africa?

Opposition parties such as the DA, the Independent Democrats and the Freedom Front Plus all have up-to-date websites with some presence on social networking sites like Facebook.

The DA has the most Facebook groups by far, most of them advocating for its leader Helen Zille to become president.

"You need to know how to use this environment. A Facebook profile is not a good vehicle for marketing your party, the appropriate route would be a Facebook group," says Goldstuck.

He says the ruling African National Congress does not use online effectively.

"It's never really been understood by the ANC," says Goldstuck. "They have not used it as a communications and marketing tool, only as a vehicle for their president's newsletter."

ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu says while the ruling party does not "discount the effectiveness of online media", there are other ways to reach people.

"Online media is one of the modern platforms of communication, but it is not the only platform. The ANC has for the past three elections made use of face-to-face communications which is the most effective, which is going to the people, talking to the people.

"If we were to have a look at how many South Africans own computers, you will find that there are very few South Africans, especially those in villages and in the townships, that own computers," says Sokutu.

"So for us, we will continue with our traditional way of communications which has been proven to be very successful."

Plans for 2009

But Hazel says the DA takes the online audience seriously and will be launching a new, more interactive website in the New Year.

"You've got to talk to people where they are. There are 600 000-odd South Africans on Facebook. That's a serious market to go and talk to.

"There's a growing market of people who have access to that technology and you cannot ignore that."

The breakaway party by ANC dissidents, the newly formed Congress of the People, says it is planning to have a strong online presence.

Already, those who wanted to attend its convention in November had to register online otherwise they could not attend.

"We are looking at registering supporters with their cellphones and online," says Eddie Bannerman, COP's communication agent, adding that the new party is in the process of planning its online campaign in more detail.

IEC clogged

The Independent Electoral Commission's website was "clogged" by more than 180 000 visits before the registration weekend.

It also had to increase its capacity to reply to at least 77 000 SMSes from voters, checking if they had been registered.

Its website, which is only accessible via one internet browser, is another example of a "lack of technical expertise", says Goldstuck.

"There's no understanding of user ability.

"It is a badly built site if it can't handle 180 000 visits," adds Czornij.

The IEC website, www.elections.org.za, does state that it is in the process of rectifying its incompatibility with some browsers.

Despite the criticism, the IEC said the youth represented the majority of new voters who registered in November - 77.9%.

"It is very pleasing that young people responded so positively to our registration campaign," said IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam.

- SAPA