Matthew Blackman and Nick Dall, Spoilt Ballots: The Elections that Shaped South Africa from Shaka to Cyril (Johannesburg: Penguin, 2022)
THERE are numerous points in this book where it feels as if journalists Matthew Blackman and Nick Dall might be trying to produce a South African version of 1066 and All That. The style of writing becomes highly informal; not what one would expect from a history book. But unlike Seller and Yeatman’s classic parody of schoolchild memory of British history, this book is firmly grounded in solid sources rather than deliberate confusion and it is simply the language that is popularised.
Yet there are humorous asides: Colonel Johannes Kleingeld, a police commander in Soweto on 16 June 1976, had been ‘severely short-changed’ as he had no loudhailer. A slightly risible tone describes the incompetence of the authorities that day; from which momentous consequences were to flow. The account of the break up of the United Party, which had ‘for many years … wandered through Parliament like a bewildered wildebeest’, is sub-headed ‘Grumbles in the jumble’. Irreverent is perhaps the most apt way to describe this approach to history.
The title is also somewhat unorthodox. Although this text is built around elections, except in the case of Shaka and Dingane where methods were obviously more physical, the spoilt ballots are something of a red herring and the main emphasis is upon broader historical turning points. This works well for what turns out to be a comprehensive general history of South Africa aiming at popular appeal. Some of the key issues are the Cape franchise of the nineteenth century and the role of John Fairbairn; the early twentieth century alliance between Afrikaner nationalism and white labour and the subsequent fusion government; the imposition of apartheid and its later modification along tricameral lines; and then the rainbow events of 1994.
Even in a post-colonial and post-apartheid nation, historical mythology is tenacious. But Blackman and Dall do an excellent job in debunking the odious Rhodes whose malign ambitions and politico-economic legacy continue to extract a heavy cost from South Africa. And they also throw cold water over Smuts whose continuously burnished image as an intellectual saviour is totally at odds with his essential racism and record of extreme violence as a way of dealing with conflict.
In spite of an often-flippant approach, these writers pose an interesting and very serious concluding question about the lead-up to our next general election in 2024: will it end with a return to minority government?
In spite of an often-flippant approach, these writers pose an interesting and very serious concluding question about the lead-up to our next general election in 2024: will it end with a return to minority government?