This week I had an interesting realisation that the elections are in just over a month. This realisation came from two experiences. The first was interviewing political parties for the purpose of understanding their digital strategies on The Digital Edge and the second experience was seeing Pieter Dirk-Uys’s latest play “Elections and Erections”. In his play Uys takes us through the good, the bad and the very ugly of the past 15 years of democracy and gives what I feel is a very honest view on the incompetence that has been a priority for the first 15 years of a South African democracy. Uys says it perfectly that he never thought in his wildest dreams that a democractic South Africa would be so easy from him to satire.
All of this has gotten me thinking as to which party is actually worth my ballot.
Lets take the ANC: I’ve been highly critical of the ANC on multiple occasions on this blog but I’m starting to wonder if it’s a case of “Better the devil you know that the devil you don’t”. While a Jacob Zuma led government is a scary thought for me the last 15 years have been great in certain regards. While it’s easy to look at crime and corruption and write off the ANC they have done a few things well in their time. Whether the current guard is of the same quality as the last 15 years politicians does still need to be proven. I do think it’s high time for someone else to be given a chance and for the ANC to become a strong opposition. I guess for me it’s the fact that voting for someone who has a standard four education and thinks that a shower can cure them of AIDS seems like a bit of a waste of a vote.
Then there is COPE. I’ve always been extremely doubtful of COPE as someone like Terror Lekota has hardly been the most amazing government minister in the past few years so he’s hardly a person to associate good leadership with. Add to the fact that they’ve chosen someone like Allan Boesak to be their premier candidate for the Western Cape tells me that convicted thieves such as Boesak are welcome in the party. Any thoughts of voting for COPE as a strong opposition to the ANC went out of the window when they announced that Reverend Mvume Dandala would be the president (assuming COPE wins). This is a little bit of a big leap of faith (excuse the pun) for me. Not only has he no political experience but his affiliation to the church is something I don’t want when it comes to running a country. COPE out of the question then I guess.
So that brings us to the last of the big three; the Democratic Alliance. My feelings toward the DA are extremely confused. I’m a white Jew, pretty much the DA’s base of voters. Despite my ethnicity though I have huge issues with the DA and feel that voting for them just based on that ethnic bias would again be a wasted vote. For the past 15 years the DA have whinged and moaned about the ANC without offering tangible solutions to problems. I’ve always said that if the DA complained about ANC stupidity by offering an example of what they would have done I would be much more inclined to vote for them. From what I can see party leader Helen Zille takes a pretty hardline approach in the Western Cape where she is the mayor of Cape Town but does that mean she will be able to take the same approach to the country? I’d vote for the DA were they a strong opposition to the ANC when in fact they don’t actually seem to get much done except write letters. I’d like the DA to win the elections but first they need to prove that they can actually be a decent opposition.
In my mind the other parties are pretty much a wasted ballot. I say this not because they aren’t decent parties or anything like that but because I see no point in not creating a strong opposition.
So here’s my issue with the upcoming elections: There’s no clear party that I feel really deserves my vote or has my best interests at heart. The fact of the matter is I’m confused as to whether even vote. For me it’s the most important right anyone can have, especially in this country but why vote for the sake of voting in mediocrity.
Either way, come the 22nd of April I will make my mind up and I will be voting. I hope everyone else out there manages to make up their mind and vote for the party that will best represent their hopes and dreams.
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I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit of late as well – save for considering the ANC, I see too many problems with helping to strengthen their majority to even consider them.
Zille’s weekly newsletter this week – http://www.da.org.za/newsroom.htm?action=view-news-item&id=6499 – has pretty much convinced me to give the DA my vote in the Western Cape. Now that they have actually put their policies online in a readable format I’m also slowly working through those – so far I like what I’m seeing, but also want to give other parties a chance.
I think that’s what it comes down to – most of the time when the opposition “whinges and moans” they are doing so with good reason, but they have to justify it with viable alternatives – so for me that means good policy and performance when I hear leaders speak and debate. So I’ll try to keep my mind open for as long as possible – but that means listening to everybody.