South Africa’s oldest ward councillor candidate, 90-year-old Notusile Masisa, has failed to win Ward 9 in the Eastern Cape, where the ANC’s Nkosinathi Cetman was elected.
Masisa stood for the African Independent Congress (AIC) in Dr AB Xuma municipality, a candidacy that surprised senior party officials and prompted differing views within its leadership about age and the ability to serve.
AIC mayoral candidate and former speaker Margaret Arnolds was surprised to learn from the Sunday Times before the election that Masisa was one of 14 candidates contesting the ward.
According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) candidate database, Masisa, who celebrated her 90th birthday on October 10, was the country’s oldest candidate.
Arnolds said the party would review guidelines on candidate age and capabilities, explaining that its lists were not drawn up nationally.
“Maybe it has been an oversight from our side as the leadership not to interrogate it and to ask, but guys, why this person?” she said.
Although the party has the prerogative, if they believe the proposed candidate doesn’t belong there, to take them off the lists and put them in another position, it’s the people in the area who decide on who they put forward and where.
She said Masisa could legally be nominated, but the party needed to discuss age and the demands of the job.
“It is not that we are disagreeing with the person that’s on the list. As a political party, we will openly talk about whether we really have to put people of that age on the list. Do we follow the law as the law speaks, or do we as a political party decide? … You have now reached an age where we don’t think you are able to participate or be on a list.”
“Remember officials that work in government or anywhere, retire between 60 and 65. There’s no law that says a politician must retire at a certain age. But it’s also not ideal to see us go into ages where we might not be able to participate well in council or be able to deal with matters the way the younger ones do. If you look at that list, you will also see there are very young and useful people.”
Arnolds subsequently told the Sunday Times she had been told Masisa had been politically active and the branch believed she would represent the ward well.
“I’ve looked at that list. Quite a few of the people fell off because they were either not registered in the municipality or they did not fit the criteria.”
AIC secretary-general Steven Jafta said most parties didn’t consider the needs of older people, but only counted their votes.
He said a candidate like Masisa had a valuable perspective and it was “brave” of the AIC to field a candidate like her.
Jafta said there was a tendency to only consider the 18-35 cohort as valued members of society, with less consideration for the needs of those between 36-59, while those over 60 were considered retired.
“Same applies to … when it comes to voting. We pretend as if there are no old people. We only use them as fodder for voting purposes. We only want them to vote for us but not cater for them. But they still have constitutional rights …”
Despite repeated efforts to track down Masisa, she was not available for an interview. Jafta told the Sunday Times she was not easily reachable.
Cetman was also surprised to learn about Masisa and while campaigning in the ward he had asked several elders about her.
“Nobody had heard about her and I didn’t see her campaigning. I didn’t get hold of her, I guess as she is an old woman and she was not able to go to all our villages while we were busy preparing for the 2026 local government elections.”
He suggested the AIC had merely used her as a figurehead on the ballot. However, before the election, the party had said Masisa was politically active and enjoyed the confidence of her branch.
The AIC was formed in December 2005 in protest against the government decision to include Matatiele in the Eastern Cape rather than KwaZulu-Natal.
The IEC said 136,790 candidates were registered as candidates with women accounting for 38%.
An analysis of candidates by the South African National Editors Forum identified 776 candidates turning 70 or older this year.
Chief executive of the Association for the Aged (Tafta) Femada Shamam said older election candidates should face the same questions about their ability to serve as anyone else.
She said the distinction lies in whether an assessment tests a person’s capacity to fulfil the role before making an assumption about age.
Shamam said an immediate reaction to a person’s age, followed by questions based on that, amounts to ageism.
“People are living longer. So when you think about people who are retiring, they are living way past 60 and you know, 90 or 100, that’s becoming the norm now. So we also have to ask ourselves as a society, are we creating spaces for them to still contribute and still participate?
“So if some 90-year-old candidate can still manage, has influence and can do the things she is supposed to be doing, we should be okay with that. It could very well be that in the rural Eastern Cape where she is from, she is able to bring about what is needed.”
She said the issue extends beyond elections to whether society makes room for older people to remain active participants and if society is creating spaces for them to still contribute and participate.
Yasantha Naidoo
www.timeslive.co.za
