Radical, awake citizens crucial

Voter participation in local government elections has been on the decline in South Africa for some years, but come this August, things may just be different – for two interconnected reasons. 

First, people have recognised that their lack of services is a failure on the part of local authorities. The measure of their dissatisfaction can be seen in the unprecedented number of service delivery protests – about three per day withh some of them violent – happening across South Africa.

Second, with the fragmentation of the ANC as a political silo and the disaffection of many supporters, new parties are enjoying growing support. As a result the country is experiencing the sort of vibrant contestation that is essential to healthy democracy.

The ANC may even get kicked out in key metros outside of the Western Cape.

I am a resident of one of these – Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. The DA certainly has its sights set on governing here and has been hounding many of us with unsolicited calls and messages urging us to “vote for change”.

Added to the mix is the EFF, taking part in local government elections for the first time and therefore an unpredictable factor.

With a manifesto that reads like an insurance policy – covering a person from cradle to grave – the EFF is buoyed by its groundbreaking Constitutional Court victory in the case against President Jacob Zuma, and has positioned itself as a champion of the underdogs.

It is said that competition is good for the consumer and the status of the voter has certainly improved in these elections. Politicians are finally giving us long overdue respect.

I’ll enjoy the attention while it lasts. But I retain my right to be sceptical of the promises being tossed around like confetti.

I admit, I have a reluctant relationship with politicians. I know we have to live with them, but that doesn’t mean we have to trust them.

My cynicism has developed over the years, listening to speeches that are by and large, bereft of substance and aimed to tantalise the ear and demonise any or all opposition.

The current American presidential campaign is described as heralding a “post-truth” era. I imagine that has a wider application than the US.

In countless trust surveys, politicians rate at the bottom of the scale. When it comes to truth telling lawyers have been found to enjoy more trust than politicians.

The fact is, respect follows trust. Not much respect can exist in an environment where trust has been eroded.

The US sage, president Abraham Lincoln was indeed correct when he said that once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you will never regain their trust or esteem.

Take for instance those politicians who defect to other political parties. Are we expected to seriously to believe they are not acting in their own interest, but have all had sudden Damascene experiences with a bright light shining upon each of them out of nowhere?

Amid all this heightened election activity, one of things I honestly hope will begin to shift is what analysts have described as South Africa’s “dependency ratio”.

Certainly our government is required to address the structural problems inherited from apartheid. But there have many warnings about allowing the type of paternalistic relationship to develop between the rulers and the ruled that creates dependency and erodes self-initiative.

In such relationships, the rulers are judged only according to their ability to provide for the immediate basic needs of the ruled. They are never held accountable for policy mishaps, abuse of state power, lack of progress or prosperity – just as long as they continue to placate the ruled with some type of social assistance.

My concern is that this type of arrangement will be the undoing of South Africa.

Politicians presently seem to be everywhere spouting what in large part, is rhetoric. Some of it is viewed as radical. But what we truly need for this country to work is a radical citizenry that is awake to the power it possesses. Politicians might be the ones pursuing us today but after the elections, we need to be the ones pursuing them, holding them to account for how they govern our country.