In rural areas there has been a shift towards cultural sentiment or populism post-Covid -- a return to customary practices and cultural identities has been a key feature of local-level strategies of recovery, coping and repair.

In the 2024 general election in South Africa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost its overall majority as the country fractured along regional and ethno-national political lines. The poor election performance by the ruling party was not unexpected as it came on the back of several social, economic and infrastructural crises, including rolling power outages, a hunger crisis and the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In rural areas there has been a shift towards cultural sentiment or populism post-Covid. A return to customary practices and cultural identities has been a key feature of local-level strategies of recovery, coping and repair. The populist shift seems to have been particularly evident in the rural areas with the urban constituency voting in ways more directly aligned with their economic interests.

The rise in support for the Cape Coloured Congress and the Patriotic Alliance in the rural Western Cape, and especially the massive swing away from the ANC to the uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party of Jacob Zuma, which claimed 14% of the national vote, indicate this trend. Many Zuma supporters were based in Zulu-speaking rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal.

At the same...