Last week SABC New York City correspondent Sherwyn Bryce Pease and cameraman Aaaron Berger came out to Brooklyn to interview me about the emigrant vote in the April 22 elections. The story was shown on South African public television last night.
Some background: There are approximately 2 million South Africans living outside the country, with at least half a million concentrated in the United Kingdom. I made some comments about how ordinary the idea of an emigrant vote is in many countries around the world (at least 50% of all democracies, including 27 African countries, do it), the factors that may have an impact on the poll (the limited number of polling places, the costs involved–taking a day off, travel costs, for some, and how strongly people feel about the vote and the voting choices on offer). I also speculated on the parties people would most like likely vote for (most likely the DA and the Freedom Front) as well as challenged the conventional wisdom of who emigrants are and why are they outside South Africa.
Most importantly, I stressed that the government’s dislike of people’s political views is no qualification for denying them a vote.
Time constraints mean they had to leave out a lot. But they still did a good job.
Two other people are interviewed: a lawyer who represented some emigrants who want to vote, and Hlonipha Mokoena, an assistant professor of anthropology at Columbia University.
(I know, I am referred to as a “political analyst” which is not a real job and I still dress like I am not qualified to speak. At least Brooklyn gets to be seen on South African public television.)
Sean — what’s up with “Estonia”? You said it like it was a dirty word . . . but seriously, looking good my political analyst brother.
Shouldn’t the government…or Home Affairs…be keeping track of it’s citizens’ whereabouts? It should not be based on specualtion as to whether or not the emmigrant is white, let alone right wing. If they kept record of where SA citizens are living when they are abroad, surely they would know their race – as trivial and irrelevent as that is – to make a better informed judgement. I think, in all honesty, it shows a level of ignorance on their part. Ignorance to the fact that, yes, there are other races that do indeed emmigrate from the country and that they form a significant part of the population living abroad. Many people of colour fled the country during Apartheid and are currently living abroad, so race is a non-factor here. I think it boils down to laziness. We have a terrible and ancient voting system within SA borders. What are the chances that they are going to cater for those abroad if they cannot improve the efficiency of the voting system here? Hmmmm…