Social media increasingly important in local elections, says Brett Herron - IOL
GOOD Party City of Cape Town mayoral candidate Brett Herron reckons that elections are increasingly being contested in digital spaces.
Ahead of the November Local General Elections, the growing trend of candidates with large social media followings running for public office has sparked criticism online and accusations of political parties “clout chasing”.
Cedric Laguma, who runs the popular Facebook page Uncle Cedric’s House, is contesting Ward 111 as a Democratic Alliance candidate.
Earlier this month, IOL Media reported that the PMC appointed Cape DJ, broadcaster and founding member of Prophets of da City, Ready D, real name Deon Daniels, as its mayoral candidate.
The PMC also named Bradley Bruintjies, a well-known social-media personality and community figure from the Cape Flats known as “Die Hoender Man”, as a ward councillor candidate.
Herron says the GOOD Party has not recruited any influencers or content creators as their candidates to chase votes.
He told IOL Media: “That criticism is entirely valid. The GOOD Party has not gone out to look for social media influencers. Where we have a social media influencer or content creator is a candidate.
“They have come to us and they have made themselves available to be a ward councillor candidate or a candidate in an election, and they’ve gone through the same process that everybody else has gone through.
“They will go through the same training to enable them and to empower them to be effective councillors on behalf of the people they are elected to serve.”
However, Herron believes the growing influence of social media is changing what South Africans expect from political leaders and candidates.
He added: “We do think that elections are increasingly being contested in the digital space, and the digital space is not something that we can ignore.
“And so yes, social media has changed how politicians engage with communities and how politicians are perceived by communities and voters.
“How people conduct themselves on social media is equally important to us because their conduct on social media could also be damaging to the party, our election campaign and the candidate themselves.”
