Do not Blame The ANC For The Failure of Democracy in S.A This years elections is making 20 years of democracy for our country.This is a milestone in an enviroment and a continent defined by instability,coups and concerted efforts to undermine democracy.The atmosphere towards these elections should be marked with great celebration as we have managed to sustain democracy despite all the challenges we have.Democracy as a concept is subject to debate as it is perceived and defined differently by many people.The question is what is democracy? Does routine elections define this concept? Free and fair elections as we have experienced since 1994 is the hallmark of democracy but not the whole picture of what democracy is.Democracy is built upon many layers of theories and principles.However, central to the concept is competetion. Perfect political democracy can be defined as an institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals endeavor to acquire political office through perfectly free competetion for the votes of a broadly base electorate. One ought to understand and define politics within the contested spheres of limited resources and thus the political power and control over those resources.This definition deals both with the competition itself and the enviroment.Therefore, from the S.African perspective one will have to agree that the enviroment is conducive for a healthy competition. Our constitution not only guarantees but protects peoples rights to ;association,political freedom and freedom of a choice.Then our electoral act guarantees that our elections are free and fair through strong legal stipulations and framework.Looking at how democracy was curtailed and subverted in many countries, we can ask ourselves this question; is democracy indeed under threat in S.A? The answer is categorically,NO!! S.Africans are stil enjoying the fruit of democracy.We are still enjoying media freedom irrespective of how negative the media houses have been on the ANC and the ANC led goverment. In some countries this could have led to the change in constituion and a serious crack down on the media.That has not happened. We have seen civil societies going toe to toe with the goverment on issues they feel strongly about. But there has never been a time where the ANC or the ANC led goverment tried to subvert the rights of the civil society movement. Yes we have seen countless times, the courts of law ruling against the goverment.Yes, there has been shouts here and ther calling the courts anti-revolutionary but that has never been a resolution of any of the ANC conference. The ANC has not flirted nor tempered with the constitution to subvert the principles of democracy.Yes we can talk about the unfortunate incidents of Meqheleng, Marikanna and other places, but we can not accuse the ANC for the incompetency of the police.Therefore the talks of democracy under threat are misplaced and electioneering noises rather than the truth.Throughout our 20 years history of democracy, thers no iota of evidence to show that the ANC tried to infuence the enviroment outside the parameters and provisions of democracy and the constitution. The second element with the definiton is the dynamics of the competition itself.Within the democratic system competition is a reflection of political parties ability to rally the masses around the issues they fell strongly about.It is actually funny how people are talking about the ANC hegemony and its effect on democracy.Hegemony in politics system can be legimitely or illegimitately gained.In an undemocratic enviroment it is gained through banning the opposition or changing the electoral system..In1994, as a country we adopted the current electoral system which is based on party-list proportional representation.It was adopted to help opposition who in any normal circumstances would not even have made it to the ballot paper.Despite all the efforts, that were made to level the playing fields, oppositon parties have failed to assert their presence in S. African politics. If thers anybody to be blamed for the mutation of democracy, it is the opposition parties.Since the advent of democracy we have seen not only the mushrooming of political parties but the death of the tradition of the oppostion parties. We can not blame the ANC for this death.Any succes or failure of a political party is based on their ideological inclination and their ability to sell their policies to the masses.The issue of ideology only does not sell, but sound policies have the ability to draw the masses to you.The question is; have our opposition been able to develop policies that are superior to those of the ANC? The answer is NO! What the opposition have been able to make is an intellectually sounding noise which has and failing to draw the people to them.Opposition parties either dont know how to play politics or they misunderstand their roles in a politics system. Vote ANC on the 7 May!!!!!
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 08:15:20 +0000
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