Independent Newspapers
We should put aside old loyalties and other considerations and ask what the countrys biggest problems and challenges are and which party is likely to address those successfully, say the writer.
File photo: Thobeka Zazi Ndabula
We South Africans have voted in only four general elections. With our history we had an excuse to exercise our vote based on emotion, nostalgia, race/ethnicity and/or the personalities of leaders.
But when we vote again in May we should consider the seriousness of the state of our nation and appreciate the value of our vote more.
We should put aside old loyalties and other considerations and ask what the country’s biggest problems and challenges are and which party is likely to address those successfully.
Good governance, crime, education and health are serious issues. But if a party doesn’t have credible policies to address the huge inequality, poverty and unemployment in our society, it won’t be able to manage those problems.
Nineteen years after we achieved political liberation, the stark reality is that most black people believe that not nearly enough has changed in terms of quality of life, dignity and future prospects for them and their children.
White people, in contrast, have on average benefited significantly from the settlement of 1994.
Apart from fears about crime, affirmative action and being marginalised among some, most whites are better off materially and have little to complain about in matters such as education, health (most go to private hospitals) and even employment.
We can simply blame centuries of colonialism and half a century of apartheid for the state of affairs, as ANC governments have done since 1994.
That our ugly past had inflicted great damage and left deep scars is stating the obvious. Colonialism and apartheid were what we had been liberated from, so the challenge to a democratically elected government and governing party was to undo the damage; to build a new, humane society on the ruins of the past.
If a government still uses apartheid as an excuse rather than an explanation after almost two decades, it has failed miserably.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia did not spend his years in the government blaming his failures and mistakes on inheriting a failed state in 1991. He refused to be a victim of the past and spent the next two decades bringing stability and progress to his nation.
The continued inequality and poverty in South Africa are posing increasing dangers to our stability and are leading to a new, crude anti-white nationalism that threatens to disturb our precious but fragile equilibrium.
The government we elect next year has as its main task to halt this downward spiral and put us on a firm new path towards cohesion, development and economic justice.
The only party with a clear vision of how to restructure the economy and empower the powerless is Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). It wants to nationalise mines, banks and industries and expropriate land without compensation.
The DA believes – almost religiously – in the free-market doctrine and is opposed to a bigger role for the state in the economy.
It wants more of the same, just done better and more efficiently with less corruption.
It is not yet clear if Agang will be any different.
The ruling ANC alliance adopted the groundbreaking and ambitious National Development Plan as its blueprint for the next 18 years, but almost immediately downgraded it to a mere discussion document.
The alliance is divided between neo-liberals, social democrats, communists, socialists and workerists and has, in effect, no clear vision of what a new dispensation should look like.
If you think nationalisation and a state-controlled economy will work and promote equality, then you should vote EFF. That is, if you believe a party led by a notorious tenderpreneur and a king of bling will really run a clean government and protect your freedoms.
I have huge problems with Malema and Kenny Kunene’s integrity and their anti-white populism. I think large-scale nationalisation in this era of economic globalisation could be disastrous.
If you think the government should stay out of the economy and that good governance and economic growth are the recipe for a dispensation that would serve most citizens, then you should vote DA or Agang (or Cope or United Democratic Movement).
I think I’ve seen enough proof over 19 years that the status quo with some improvements cannot bring the fundamental change we need for a more stable and equitable society. We need a change in direction, but a well-considered and widely accepted one.
That leaves the ANC.
But which ANC?
The Zuma nationalists, the SACP, the socialists in Cosatu or the small social democrats faction? And should its bad record over the last few years count?
This is what we should do between now and May: We should push the political parties hard to give us answers on what concrete plans they have to bring economic justice and prosperity in a stable society.
* Max du Preez is an author and columnist.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.
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