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- The PAC may not be rocking the charts at the municipal elections results centre, but it is feeling optimistic about rejuvenated youth support.
- The party believes its tumultuous leadership crisis is over and it can focus on its Africanist and land ideals.
- It believes larger parties focus more winning an election than than the interests of the people.
A statue of late Pan Africanist Congress of Azania founder Robert Sobukwe faces the entrance of the IEC's results centre in Cape Town while one of its candidates, Siyabulela Ndamane, watches the voting district numbers coming in.
The party was formed in 1959 as a breakaway from the ANC over differences in an Africanist approach to South Africa's future.
But the once strong party, with Patricia De Lille famously setting off the decades-long political turmoil over billions spent on orders for defence upgrades, quickly saw its seats become empty as chaos in its leadership played out.
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De Lille has already done the rounds from the Independent Democrats, which later merged with the DA.
In front of Ndamane is De Lille's latest iteration, the GOOD party, and one of its leader Brett Herron is recovering from a bout of bronchitis after a campaign trail which took him from sewerage swamps to litter-strewn suburbs to get GOOD on the first page of the provincial results boards.
Even though one of Cape Town's major roads is named after the PAC's Philip Kgosana, the screen at the results centre did not reflect the party's deep legacy in South African politics, and the ideological fluency and passion of its supporters at protests and rallies.
A total of 5439 people voted for the party in in the province, according to an IEC update on Thursday afternoon - giving it 0.18% of the total votes cast in the Western Cape vote.
Nationally, they racked up a total of 63,409 - 0.24 %. This compares with the 57,029 votes 0.21%) received by another ANC breakaway party the Congress of the People, who also set off on a strong footing.
For Ndamane, the party's one proportional representation seat in the Drakenstein municipality provides an important voice for the interests they represent.
The party also yielded some votes in Stellenbosch, where a massive land occupation behind Kayamandi played out; in Bitou; in the student heartland of Bellville, with its university campuses; and pockets within voting districts, such as densely population Parklands and Dunoon, giving it some insight into where its voter support is.
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"Most of our candidates are the youth. Sobukwe was a youth at the time [of the party's formation], and the future is for the young people," Ndamane said.
PAC-supporting students were among those bringing youth politics out of its slumber, as it threw its weight behind the Fees Must Fall movement, and continued its call for access to land. Its chants vary between the controversial "one settler one bullet" to "izwe lethu". It is also joined the EFF at the famous Battle of Brackenfell where it was alleged that a matric party excluded white pupils.
"We are happy that many people are coming to the realisation that the PAC was correct from its inception," Ndamane said, referring particularly to the pressing land issues of today.
The party finds it ironic that other parties, such as the ANC, seem to have claimed some of its policies.
Ndamane said that although elections were good for choosing leaders, the interests of the people were not necessarily served by this, and so the Pan Africanists will focus on continued lobbying for land and improving conditions of the poor.
It also wants to fight for improvement in shack settlements set up by the poor that are already well established, to get them proper street alignment for emergency services vehicles, reliable water and electricity, and clinics.
Stay updated with News24's latest coverage, opinion and analysis of Elections 2021. Check out results from the previous municipal elections.
