Fasten your seat belt, dear reader, things are about to get interesting — not necessarily better — this crucial election year.
In the next few months, South Africans will hear from political parties, big and small, how they will make life better for all, how they’re the most inclusive, how they’re best-positioned to tackle what has become the bane of our existence — load-shedding! Or how only they could reverse the tsunami of corruption engulfing us all.
At the weekend, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa told the nation those who believe the ruling party is on the ropes at the polls are in for a surprise.
The ANC will win the elections even if it did not resolve many of the challenges facing our country today such as unemployment, poverty, crime, load-shedding and so forth. It will win the election because South Africans appreciate that life today is much better than it was under apartheid, Ramaphosa told us. And that is quite a standard to measure one against.
Soon after, the DA will tell the nation how it is home to everyone, despite the exodus of black leaders we have seen in the past few years.
Further, Ramaphosa told the nation that close to 30-million South Africans receive a grant of sorts — from child support to the old-age pension. In this way, he said, the ruling party was alleviating poverty. The point, though, is to eliminate it. We haven’t heard much on that score.
Elsewhere in KwaZulu-Natal, former president Jacob Zuma explained to the Shembe church members why he wanted to go back into politics. “All of you know I was removed before my presidency term ended — before I was done being a president, I was removed because I was trying to solve problems experienced by the poor.
“The manner in which they [the current ANC government] have behaved has motivated me to want to come back, because I want to fix things,” he said.
In short, his old party did not want him to solve problems experienced by the poor.
While Ramaphosa says he is fixing what Zuma broke, explained in several volumes of the state capture report, Zuma too wants to fix what Ramaphosa is breaking!
But it’s about to get even more interesting. Next month, EFF leader Julius Malema will unveil the party’s election manifesto at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in eThekwini. He will tell the nation how his party, another offshoot of the ANC, is the only one that could fix, to use Zuma’s language, our challenges.
Soon after, the DA will tell the nation how it is home to everyone, despite the exodus of black leaders we have seen in the past few years.
While talk is indeed cheap, it would be helpful if the talking heads of our politics actually contributed meaningfully to the resolution of the many real challenges we face today. Much of what our leaders say makes no sense. Many lie for no reason while others make unhelpful comparisons to life under a system meant to destroy the majority of citizens. While Zuma’s new party — Umkhonto weSizwe — seems to be creating excitement on social platforms, Zuma must still answer hard questions about arms deal corruption charges pending against him and his role in state capture.
Much of what will happen in the next few months will amuse and shock but sadly will not help improve the lives of ordinary people.
As our democracy turns 30 years this year, we face a real risk of generating despondency through meaningless, yet amusing and even shocking, chatter in our politics.
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