to vote, or not to vote...that is the question "I wrote this article prior to the 2011 Municipal Election, however I feel this is still relevant in 2013 because apart from Malema and Molanthe being axed from their respective positions, sadly nothing has changed. So in 2014, South Africans will be heading for the booths again in the 5th National Democratic Elections, but my question remains... " To vote, or not to vote, that is the question. And if you feel democratic and you decided to in fact vote, the question changes to: To vote, but for whom? Who to you trust enough to represent your beliefs and hopes, in a national context? Or do you cast your vote to try a build up an opposition? Or do you simple vote because you can? The Media will try and make you believe that everyone needs to vote, because that was what yesterdays Heroes spend years fighting for. So should we just vote, without any personal reason behind our decision? Or do we actually follow a party/leader during the periods between elections? What is your reason for choosing the party to vote for? I believe that Politics make up the back bone of any country, and with good structures in place, everything from economics, education, racial indiscretions, sport, social diversities and even Bafana Bafana can flourish. But, this is where the beautiful political ideology ends and my problem with the Political Parties starts to incline. I absolutely love politics but I am apathetic when it comes to Political Parties. It just seems that now a days it’s a “fashion” statement to create your own Political Party, the “calling” leaders from the past had, has vanished. I might be mistaken but weren’t there almost 120 parties involved in the past election? So together with your miniature Chihuahua and Louis Vitton handbag, you have your own political party. If you suddenly have a picture of a certain Miss Hilton in your mind, that’s exactly what politics has become: No more debating about social and economical issues, but rather a fashionable gathering of the rich and famous. Not to mention the close-to identical IQ’s that the new party leaders share with Miss Hilton. But, the big question rising front the sudden down pour of new political parties is; will there be any Anagrams left, come 2014……… Anyway, the reason for this article is not to get sued, but rather to have a closer look at the main contenders for the National IEC Derby and what criteria do we follow in choosing to vote, or not to vote. ANC If you are betting person, the favorites to defend their title, wearing Green, Yellow and Black trunks, is the African National Congress. With the very favorably betting odds of 1/1. Prior to the 2011 municipal elections, the ANC ask the public to “keep in mind our track record of the last 17 years”. But didn’t the last 17 years mostly consist of in-party fighting, elaborate parties, free yellow t-shirts, corruption allegations, out door toilets, “brothers in arms”, total lack of service delivery and not having any control over their youth league? Does the last 17 years really paint a pretty picture? If yellow is your favorite color, you maybe use the excuse that you know nothing of art, but for the rest of us “art lovers”, this picture should be crystal clear. Just think of a CEO of a company, or anybody in a managerial position, that fails to perform the duties that are expected of him…how long will that person still be employed? In the business world its simple, either do what is expected of you, or you’re fired. So, after 17 years of leading the pack, surely its time for some fresh blood to try and re-paint this picture, with hopefully, a true variety of colors. If logic had anything to do with it, it would have happened a long time ago, but this is Africa, where predictability is only considered a family name. DA Enter the second favorite, the Democratic Alliance, also known in some circles of a Youth League as the Demonic Afrikaners. In principle, every democratic country needs a strong opposition party. Take the USA for example, where there are some Independent parties but, the election is always a two-horse-race between the Democrats and the Republicans. They switch their government almost as often as Oprah switches body types. Of course there is enormous amount of problems, but al least if there is a “guilty” Party; the opposition is strong enough to take the lead, come the next elections. Back to the Helen Zille’s Democratic Alliance. Like I mentioned before, I believe in having a strong opposition party, and unfortunately the DA seems to be the strongest opposition at the moment, but my reason for not voting for them is simple. You cannot implement western politics in a country were 80% of the citizens are African. From that 80% (almost 40 million) at least 50% still live according to their old traditional and cultural customs. Using a Western Approach can only be implemented correctly if/when the majority of the population’s mindsets are according to Western Ideology. Another tick in the box of “not voting for the DA”, is their Almighty Leader, Mrs. Helen Zille, a.k.a Helen Vuvuzille, GodZille, Botox, the wicked witch of the west and other nicknames that I cannot use, that was given to her by an opposition Youth League, is the way she always seems to publicly attack President Zuma. Know normally I find public signs of hatred rather humorous, but when you’re whole campaign consist of speeches and slogans that’s aimed at discrediting the National President, it becomes more like an episode of Jerry Springer than a credible election campaign. Please don’t get me wrong, sometimes it is to your advantage to “humiliate” your opponent, but what happens to the serious issues that needs to be raised during the campaign? Or do they simple forget about it like they forgot that toilets actually need walls around it? However, all is not lost, My future voting decision may depend on a small ray of light at the end of the political tunnel, and it may well be in the form of Lindiwe Mazibuko, an intelligent and charismatic member of the Divas Alliance. My praise may or may not be related on how she got stuck in to Debra Platta on live television. IFP Oh how the mighty has fallen. The once infamous Inkatha Freedom Party has transformed from a fit young Impi warrior to an overweight 60 year old Sheppard assistant. The Pride of the Zulu Nation has faded. And it’s sad, because even a couple of years ago, the IFP were seen as the only real opposition to the ANC stranglehold, especially in Kwa-Zulu Natal. I have always had a lot of respect to their leader, Mongusotho Buthelezi. Apart from Madiba, he looked like the only politician that actually could be human. He was always smiling, and goodness alone knows, that you need a good sense of humor in politics. But, suddenly he has just disappeared from the public eye, only to reappear a couple of weeks before election time. The saddest thing however is that he was considered the 20th Century Chaka Zulu, but to prevent him from being remember as “Dingaan”, I think in is time for him to step down, and bring in new blood with fresh ideas with some of the “impi warrior” attitude. To make things worst, a lot of the IFP stall wards, have left and formed the break away party, The NFP. Which seems to be getting stronger and stronger, and good be a real contender in Kwa-Zulu Natal, come 2014. COPE The Congress of the People: the Party who brought new hope, but who couldn’t cope. When Cope broke away from the ANC under the leadership of Terror Lekota, there was suddenly new hope in the political air. Both black and white, suddenly felt that their was a multi racial party that they had the South African public’s best interest at heart, because the Cope leaders (along with most rational thinking South Africans) grew tired of the consistent and constant corruption and mismanagement from the ANC government………………………………… However the White population, as ever, were divided in to three sets of opinion: Firstly, you had your right wingers, who still would not vote for anybody who’s not pale in comparison or wears long green socks with brown leather shoes. Secondly, and sadly this was the majority of my race, there were those who did like the idea of a Party like Cope, but was to afraid to vote for them, because maybe the whole idea behind Cope, was to “trick” the whites into voting for COPE, and as soon as they did, COPE would merge-back with the ANC, and the ANC would have stolen their votes and had their two third majority. Meaning the ANC would chase all the Whites into shark infested waters. So again white-paranoia has stuck out its head and prevented them from uniting. Thirdly, there were some of us that were so exited to be part of a multi racial party. I loved the idea, but I was mostly surprised by Mr Lekota singing, in self interpretable Afrikaans, the folk song, “Suikerbossie”. To make things better, Mr. Lekota’s son was married to a white woman. So that could have been the closest any white person could have been to the president in a very long time. But the best part was, hopefully we were going to have a President with the nickname of “Terror”. Just imagine Barrack Obama and David Cameron standing at a function, and suddenly our President walks up and introduces himself as “Terror”, President of the South Africa. Unfortunately, the hope died soon after the 2009 election, with a lot of senior members leaving because of in party fighting and other members probably started google-ing some George W Bush speeches, because suddenly the other members of COPE, declared a “War on Terror”. The hope was gone. The reason I can’t vote for COPE anymore, simple said is; how can a party cope with the pressure of running a country, if they can’t even cope with each other? (please excuse the over use of the word “cope” and the rhyming with “hope”) VV+ (FF+) Although this horse will not even have a podium finish, I feel it is important to look at the last remaining Afrikaner Party. Gone are the days of the great white hope, where a Afrikaans speaking Moses will lead all Pale-Africans in to the Promise land, and I’m not talking about the Demonic Republic of Orania. The once mighty National Party, the Afrikaner Weerstand Beweging, the Freedom Front and not to mention Marthinus “garden shed” Van Schalkwyk’s New National Party, all has vanished in to the abyss that is the South African political Archive. The big problem for the so called Afrikaner Parties is that there are no True leaders. There is no Nelson Mandela, no Steve Biko, no Chris Hani and no Eugene Tereblance. If nothing else, all four of the above mentioned leaders had one thing in common: Passion! The passion for their cause. The will to do anything for what they believe in, even go to jail or die for their beliefs. I am not going in to Eugene Tereblance’s leadership qualities, or lack there of, but the only thing I will say is, at least he would stand up for what he thought was right and he could rally people together, even if it was a group of demented Afrikaners. Now a day, the only leaders Afrikaners have, is either the drunks around the “braaivleis vuur” or Steve Hofmeyer with his Pampoen Party. And Although Mr Hofmeyer is a very popular and intelligent person, and has the minimum requirement of children; his whole Eye-for-a-eye philosophy will definitely shake our already fragile racial foundation. So back to the Freedom Front Plus. It just feels that something is missing. The whole time I want to ask the Freedom Front Plus: What? Plus What? What still needs to be added to their name??? I can’t vote for a party that for almost a decade has not yet figured out their name? Now I don’t have a political party, but I would guess that your name is the first thing you have to decide on. The second worrying aspect for the FF+ is that their leader Dr. Pieter Mulder has yet to decide on his role. Is he going to be the Deputy Minister of Agriculture or the “great white hope’s” leader? Even though the FF+ won the student council election at the university of Pretoria (to cause the biggest political surprise since Julius Malema’s family found out that he past matric??? ),My prediction for the FF+ is that in the not so distant future, they will join the other Afrikaner Parties in our political abyss, drinking klippies and coke and munching on koeksisters. So these are the contenders for the richest prize in sub-Sahara Africa. I must admit I really enjoy the optimism shown by the various party members, given the fact that all of them, apart from the ANC, have a snowball’s change in Hell to win any election in the near future. And I will over look the fact that they make the supporters believe their party is going to win by constantly lying to them and giving them false hope. It’s either that, or the leaders actually believe their own lies and seriously lack any form of logic. But none the less, they do put on a brave face and act disappointed when they “lose”. My biggest concern is however, the fact that nobody seems to believe in or remember (South) Africa’s so called “motto” of UBUNTU. Everyone should stand together and united, in order to strive towards reaching a common goal (and I am not talking about nationalizing the Mines). Our political leaders are supposed to be the leaders in the goal of uniting the nation, but for some reason their egos seems to always get in the way of unifying their own parties. Just look at what is going on inside the fragile structures of COPE. I am to afraid to guess what’s going to happen should some of the parties try unite, to form an even stronger opposition. Patricia De Lille, however, has peacefully merged her ID with the DA. Now some might say she sold her soul (and that of her supporters) to the Devil in order to become mayor of the Republic of Cape Town or maybe she decided to “quit while she was ahead” or maybe she does actually mean what she says. The jury is still however out on the real reason for the merger of the now ironic “Independent” Democrats and the Democratic Alliance. Please Note that I couldn’t find any reliable source to back up a certain Youth Leagues’ statement, in which Mrs. Zille is rumored to be the Devil, or any blood relation for that matter. I truly believe that South Africa has the potential to be one of the greatest countries economically as well as socially, but the only way we are ever going to live up to our potential, is if we are able to stand together and unite. Unite as a nation; unite as a society of humans, irrespective of your race, religion or creed. I know the whole uniting the nation is nothing new, but that really is the only way for us to improve the daily lives for ourselves and our neighbors. Starting with our elected representatives, it is time they start to lead by example. When Nelson Mandela loved, we all loved with him. But, for the time-being, the only cross in my future, is going to be when I cross the street, looking both ways of course. “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber” PLATO
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:46:34 +0000
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