The Rhetoric of Political Election Manifestos: An Analysis of the African National Congress Local Government Elections Manifestos between 1995 and 2011

Abstract

This paper analyses the four (1995, 2000, 2006 and 2011) local government election manifestos of a major South African political party - the African National Congress. The purpose of the analysis is to decode the importance attached to each of the manifesto priorities against local government functions or mandate. The predominant keywords are quantified in ascendency as suggestive of the highest value or priority attachment in the party manifestos. The repetitive use of a specific keyword constitutes message-reinforcement - a technique used in building successful political rhetoric. The analysis finds that state-societal cooperation, also termed working together and employment received the highest priority. The last two priorities, that is, water and electricity provision received the same priority and are the real basic functions of local government while the first two priorities are functions ascribed to all spheres of government. The analysis also reveals that local government election rhetoric does not merely focus on local government functions and services but on other factors that may evoke voting decision sentiments. Because local government manifestos are drafted at a national political party level and campaigning are also run by national leaders, election manifestos messages are disconnected from specific contexts of individual municipalities.

Keywords: elections, Local Government, election manifestos, election campaigns, African National Congress, South Africa