by Vusi Gumbi
In 2022, Prof. Busani Ngcaweni tweeted, “there’s a correlation between rising unemployment & political decline. The former means many look into political office as alternate source of income. As a result political space houses those who would otherwise have been white and blue collar workers. The economy must create jobs!”.
This is why the relationship between South Africa’s unemployment crisis and the growing occupation of political spaces is profoundly unsettling. At a time when millions of people are unable to find work, political activity appears to be expanding, with political organisations increasingly occupying an important place in the economic and social lives of those who participate in them. This raises a difficult question about the changing character of our democracy: has politics, for some, become an alternative economy?
For the 2026 Local Government Elections, the Electoral Commission of South AFrica confirmed that over 540 political parties are contesting in municipalities across the country. The City of Johannesburg, the country’s economic capital offers an interesting point of departure with over 75 political parties contesting for seats in the city. This is a remarkable number, even by the standards of a country with a well-established multiparty constitutional democratic system. While it reflects the constitutional openness of our democracy and the right of citizens to organise politically, it also invites a deeper examination of what sustains the proliferation of political organisations and the economic realities that increasingly shape political participation.
The question is not whether South Africans should form political parties or participate in political processes. They should! Afterall, these are fundamental democratic rights for which many paid the ultimate sacrifice. Rather, the question is whether the mushrooming of political organisations is always accompanied by an expansion of political ideas, ideological conviction and meaningful alternatives to the country’s development challenges. Or are we beginning to witness a situation in which political organisation is increasingly understood as an avenue for accessing employment, positions, influence and economic opportunity?
South Africa’s unemployment figures provide an important context for this. Statistics South Africa reported an official unemployment rate of 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026 – leaving about 8.5 million people unemployed with youth unemployment standing at 47.4%. Over the last 10 years, South Africa’s jobs bloodbath rose from 26.54% in 2016 to 33.6% this year. Compared with other G20 countries, South Africa’s unemployment rate is 5 times higher. These figures represent more than an economic statistic. They are a reflection of a society in which millions of people remain excluded from productive economic participation, with limited prospects of securing stable employment and building sustainable livelihoods.
It is within this environment that the relationship between unemployment and political organisation deserves closer scrutiny.
Not everyone who participates in politics is motivated by material gain. For some, however, political participation has become more than an expression of ideological conviction or a commitment to public service. For those struggling to find opportunities in the formal economy, political structures can become attractive spaces in which to pursue recognition, occupation and economic security. In such circumstances, politics risks becoming an economy in its own right.
This is why we must engage the broader question about the nature of political decline. Political decline does not necessarily manifest in the disappearance of political parties, declining electoral participation or the absence of political activity. It can also manifest in the erosion of political purpose as we have seen in the country. South Africa’s electoral democracy is characterized by hundreds of political organisations, thousands of candidates and an exceptionally competitive electoral environment, yet the country still experiences a decline in the quality of political leadership and the capacity of political institutions to respond to society’s most pressing challenges.
A society like ours should be concerned when political parties begin to appear as more accessible avenues of economic advancement than the productive sectors of its economy. The problem is not that people seek opportunities in politics. The problem is when the political sphere becomes an alternative destination for economic survival, particularly where those opportunities are sustained through patronage.
The challenge is not to discourage political participation or undermine the constitutional right to establish political organisations. It is to restore the distinction between political service and political accumulation; between organising society around ideas and organising political structures around access to opportunities.
South Africa does not need fewer voices simply for the sake of having fewer political parties. It needs political organisations whose existence is justified by the ideas they advance, the communities they represent, the policies they propose and the contribution they make to democratic life.
The ultimate measure of a political organisation should not be how many positions it can distribute, how many people it can accommodate within its structures or how successfully it can secure access to the state. It should be the extent to which it contributes to building a society in which people can live with dignity, participate productively and access opportunities beyond the political arena.
Perhaps the most uncomfortable question raised by Johannesburg’s +75-party ballot is therefore not how many political parties are contesting the city. It is what the growing attraction of political spaces tells us about the condition of our economy and the changing purpose of our politics.
When politics becomes an economy, the danger is that the pursuit of political office gradually replaces the pursuit of social transformation. And when that happens, democracy may continue to expand in numbers while diminishing in purpose.