Unscrupulous politicians can stir up blood-shedding

We South Africans like to think we're world champions at holding peaceful elections. Even when we are at one another's throats and deep divisions cleave our society, every so often we take a day off to line up in orderly fashion to make crosses. Clever us. Trouble is, we're also good at resting on laurels and complacency.

The brawling at the ANC's Eastern Cape elective conference at the weekend was a reminder that peaceful voting is not a given.

Indeed, political tension in this country would suggest, logically, that violence is quite likely on polling day. Violence lurks in the background of everything we do daily and pops into view often - at service delivery protests, during labour disputes and in the common crime that gets commoner by the day.

A major factor in South Africa's peaceful elections to date has been a pervasive sense that the casting of a vote is a solemn undertaking and a privilege - particularly for people denied it for so long.

But what happens when this serious democratic ritual throws up a political coterie that's less than dutiful to its electorate and abuses trust by stealing from the people? Urges to tear down the establishment structures well up.

And what happens when members of the political hierarchy are running scared of losing office through that hallowed ballot box? Well, the scoundrels might try to disrupt the whole voting process, cause chaos, intimidate voters and delay elections.

Angry, disaffected and poverty-stricken people with little to lose - not to mention those fearing loss of patronage and status - are easily co-opted by unscrupulous politicians. Stirring up a spot of blood-shedding is the next quick, easy step - as aeons of history tell us.

Dare we say that these scenarios do not apply to South Africa? Free and fair elections are the rock on which our beloved country rests. We must be vigilant.