It has become common to hear South African’s lament that they do not know who to vote for. In a country in which 325 political parties and over 1,000 independent candidates contested the 2021 local government elections, it should concern us that so many people are at pains to decide who to give their vote to.
The consequence? More and more SA voters are retreating from the political arena and refusing to engage and participate in democratic processes like voting. From a population of about 40m eligible voters, only 28m were registered by the time the local government elections were held in 2021, and only 12m people in fact voted.
Although there might be a need to debate whether the choice to withhold one’s vote is prudent in a democracy, the decision to not vote should not be reduced to mere apathy. Many citizens have reached a level of disappointment and disillusionment that goes far beyond the failings of one party or another.
People are increasingly losing faith in our democracy and in the calibre of leaders being produced in both the governing and opposition benches. The elephant in the proverbial voting booth is this: it is not only governance failures that have eroded people’s trust in the system, but also the nature of politics and quality of politicians.
In less than 30 years, in the country where Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Chris Hani and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela were the names and faces associated with politics, SA has gone from politics as a source of hope for the people to politics being synonymous with lies, theft, greed and selfish ambition.
SA has reached a stage in which anyone willing to contest for political power is treated with suspicion, and some of the best leaders outside of politics refuse to have their good names tarnished by political associations. The result is that some of the country’s brightest minds and most committed leaders avoid contesting in elections because they do not want to enter the terrain of “dirty politics”.
Does politics have to be a “dirty game” best played by liars and thieves? I suggest that before we fixate on taking one party over another, we should first do the work of redefining what politics means to us. Politics cannot be limited to the parties and the cultures of contestation and leadership that the dominant parties in SA have created.
By centralising parties, it has become the case that political and economic elites have captured the space to contest for state power, to the exclusion of millions of South Africans who yearn for the realisation of the promise that “the people shall govern”.
Changing politics means democratising democracy. Politics in a democracy must be about the power of all people to act towards the creation of a better future and must not be the domain of only career politicians and economic elites. People in local communities, in the business sector, as professionals and activists, should have a legitimate stake in governance, in addition to understanding that their access to democracy can extend beyond voting for the next public representatives to being the next public representatives.
In other countries, people from all walks of life raise their hands for government and political leadership. In the US, Keith Ellison, a lawyer by profession, was a Minnesota senator in 2016. After serving his term, he returned to his position as the state’s attorney-general. By 2020, he was leading the prosecution of George Floyd’s murderer.
Politics is not and cannot be the preserve of a few. It is a vehicle for any person who seeks to bring change to our society through the resources and powers of the state, and a willingness to represent and be accountable to others. It should be common for anyone with a desire to lead a very specific change in society to contest for state power to do that.
If they win, they should be able to affect that change and return to other parts of society to drive change using other forms of power. SA has no shortage of quality leaders, who lead outside of politics and government. If the most prominent political options are not our best choices to govern, maybe it is time we started asking ourselves who we are willing to be led by outside of the current political landscape and convince them to contest in 2024.
Ultimately, if “the people shall govern”, every person willing to participate in governance can contest. Our work should not be limited to choosing among existing politicians and parties. We must also realise that we, as citizens, can contest for state power whether or not we choose to be politicians.
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