What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how South Africa's three dominant political parties utilized visual poster advertising, manifestos, and rally speeches to persuade voters during the 2019 general election.

October 5, 2022Communicare Journal for Communication Studies in Africa5 citationsOpen Access

iconography of persuasion

SMShepherd MpofuUniversity of South Africa TMTrust MatsileleBirmingham City University TNTawanda Sydesky NyawashaUniversity of Ulster

Key Points

To examine how South Africa's three dominant political parties utilized visual poster advertising, manifestos, and rally speeches to persuade voters during the 2019 general election.
Qualitative rhetorical and visual analysis of campaign posters, official election manifestos, and pre-election rally speeches from the ANC, DA, and EFF.
Demonstrated that campaign strategies across the ANC, DA, and EFF converged around competing interpretations of lingering, unresolved national questions.
Highlighted how shifts in electoral persuasion strategies mirrored declining support for mainstream parties and the resurgence of ideological polarization.

Abstract

South Africa’s 2019 elections, like others before, will be remembered for the historical significancearound the ANC ruling party’s sharp decline in polls, the surging and re-emergence of theideologically extreme parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Freedom Front Plus(VF+). This election, for the first time since the rebranding of the main opposition, the DemocraticAlliance, saw that party losing its momentum, culminating in the eventual resignation of the party’sfirst black leader, Mmusi Maimane. This study examines how the three dominant parties in SouthAfrica contest with each other in the race to attract potential voters through poster advertising andcampaigns. Going into the 2019 election, the three dominant political parties were – the AfricanNational Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).Specifically, the paper examines messages on the posters, the parties’ manifestos and speechesat different rallies before the elections. Drawing on our analysis, we make a claim in this paperthat the 2019 election in South Africa for the ANC, DA and EFF was largely about “unresolvedquestions”.

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