There is still a long way to go before SA can enter a growth path and buck the trend of a “typical” African state if the recent wards by-elections are anything to go by.
According to the IEC, the ANC was the biggest winner in last Wednesday's 95 by-elections, gaining six and losing only two while the opposition DA was the biggest loser, gaining two and losing a crippling nine wards.
In his recent article “The broken economics of political choices”, accountant and academic Khaya Sithole makes the point that “the question of what really motivates voters to vote either way is the foundation for political analysis”. What are the substantive values attached to the act of voting? In SA these might include fixing the economy, the healthcare system, education, eradicating crime and so on. This is based on the assumption that voters grapple with such issues before making their marks for the party they believe will make good on their aspirations.
In SA it is often asked why voters keep on returning the ANC to power with its dismal failure to deliver services and its corruption track record. It is baffling indeed. Some have likened the masochist behaviour of ANC voters to those of an abused spouse who keeps on going back to the abusive lover with the hope he will change his ways. Ultimately, the poor spouse ends up being killed. One hopes the SA situation has a happier ending.
Voting is like investing with a bank with the hope of the best interest returns. Trust becomes the glue that holds the bank and investor together and once this is broken the relationship becomes untenable. When political parties renege on their election promises, voters should punish them at the next elections by voting for other parties.
A recent article I wrote to a news publication was posted on Facebook with the words “The longer the ANC is in power, the bleaker the prospects for growth. Contrary to its claims of being a caring government, the ANC is a cunning government, interested only in votes to continue its looting project.”
In reply, Mashai Mponeng Johannes wrote with refreshing honesty, “I just vote for the anc just to p**s off whiteness. other than that I have no reason cos I know they r very worse when it comes to service delivery in governance.” This response presented a light-bulb moment to an inexplicable conundrum. For this person, the racial makeup of the political party is what determines his choice despite very low expectation on the party’s capacity to deliver. Race as opposed to governance capacity and performance is used to return a dismally performing government to continue with its destruction of the democratic reconstruction project.
For as long as race is used as a criterion for fitness to govern, the longer it will take for countries to elect capable governments which will translate the aspirations of citizens to reality. The ostracisation of other groups cannot guarantee growth and prosperity. In his book, The Shackled Continent, Robert Guest argues that “railing against outsiders may be cathartic, but it does not achieve much. The politician who makes the most ferocious speeches denouncing Whitey is not necessarily going to be the best at balancing the budget or fixing the drains. More often, the opposite is true: bad rulers often cloak themselves in nationalism to distract attention from their failures.”
For SA to fulfil its potential, we will have to do away with our fixation with race, especially as a motivation for voting behaviour. Our country should strive to live up the philosophy of the PAC founder Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe of living as one human race and Martin Luther King Jr’s dream for an American nation which judges people by the “content of their characters and not the colour of their skins”.
Capacity and not race should and must guide and motivate our voting choices.
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