South Africa's seminal May 29 general election is a referendum on the governing ANC's performance in government. The 1994 vote was a referendum on South Africa’s apartheid past.
It is critical that voters understand that they are voting on the present performance of the ANC, not on the apartheid past. In general, excusing bad government performance in the present because of a shared past history with current, but failing, government leaders will not deliver effective public services, provide jobs or reduce crime in the present.
A democracy that works for its people, a functioning state and a caring government will never be achieved; neither will we achieve consistent economic growth, inclusive development and healthy societies, unless citizens vote in the present, rather than the past, and vote based on competence, honesty and compassion, rather than on colour, ethnic or struggle solidarity.
Black governments get away with oppressing blacks, being uncaring to blacks and not delivering decent services to fellow blacks, because they know blacks will not hold them accountable, because they share the same colour. Sadly, since the end of African and Caribbean colonialism, black lives often do not matter much to post-independence black governments — because other blacks are not holding them accountable, because they share a skin colour or ethnicity.
South Africa will have to transition from past-based voting to present-day competence voting. And citizens have to transition to vote for people based on their competence, honesty and whether they govern in the widest interest of the country, not based on past, colour, ethnic or group solidarity or interests.
One should not vote for a party or leaders because they are run by predominantly black people, share the same colour with one, share the same experience of apartheid with one, share the same experience of racism, share the same language and share the ethnic group, even if that party and leaders are corrupt, dishonest, incompetent and uncaring.
We should not hide behind racial, ethnic, shared oppression solidarity to support often very undemocratic practices by parties and leaders. The American scholar of race, Cornel West, warns against the pitfalls of what he calls a resort to black ‘authenticity’ politics, whereby issue is reduced to ‘racial reasoning’. He argues rightly we must “replace racial reasoning with moral reasoning, to understand the black-freedom struggle not as an affair of skin pigmentation and racial phenotype, but rather as a matter of ethical principles and wise politics”.
Appeals to black (or white) ‘authenticity’ often demand closing ranks behind very dubious black parties and leaders, endorsing their corruption, undemocratic politics and neglect of its (black) citizens. Redistribution, social justice and empowerment can be delivered to the formerly oppressed by leaders or parties that do not share the same colour, ethnicity, and common past of their voters.
Furthermore, in South Africa — the world’s most diverse society — inclusive democracy, high levels of economic growth and a low-crime society will not be fostered by one ethnic group, one colour or one political party dominating government, and excluding others. It is not possible to tackle South Africa’s intractable societal, political and economic problems, many of which we inherited from previous white governments, and many of which have now been compounded by the sometimes terribly selfish actions of a black-dominated government.
Only by leveraging all of South Africa’s diverse communities in co-governing the country will we achieve a capable state, high economic growth levels and a low-crime society. Unless voters stop voting on the apartheid past, but on the present, South Africa will continue to decline Zimbabwe-like.
Voting based on colour, ethnicity and past solidarity, undermines the agency of the individual voter, the ability to act independently, to exercise their own wills and to make choices in their own interests and so take control of shaping their lives for the better. Voting based on colour, ethnicity and past solidarity, makes citizens passive cogs, whose present and future lives are shaped by the winds of communal actions, which goes against their own best interests.
Finally, a key aspect of voting is for citizens to vote against the parties and leaders they align with, to make these parties and leaders more accountable, more responsive and more honest. Only if voters exercise this powerful aspect of their vote, will they see the change for the better from their governments.
— Gumede is Associate Professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times
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