By Marimuthu Subramoney
(aka Subry Govender)
"Guard our democracy. Vote on 18th of May 2011." This is one of the many jingles that are being used on national radio to encourage people to exercise their democratic right during the local government elections on Wednesday, May 18.
One of the features of the democracy that we attained in 1994 is that it provides an opportunity for South Africans to vote in national, provincial and local government elections on a regular basis. Since 1994, many South Africans, except for some, have grown in political maturity and are no longer "just followers" of the different political parties. They are prepared to confront the issues facing them and to act responsibly.
They have an opportunity again on May 18 to distinguish between the different political parties and individuals who are vying for their votes. The ruling ANC, DA, IFP, NFP, MF, Cope, and a string of minor parties and individuals are making all kinds of promises during their election campaigns. They are all promising that they will provide "a better service" and will "deliver to all the people" at local government level.
The tragedy is that while all the political parties make promises, they fail to deliver on the basics. These are litter free and clean streets; well maintatined sports grounds and recreational facilities, community halls, the roads infrastructure, and traffic lights; a crime-free environment and efficient, hard-working and honest council officials and employees. On all these basics, the councillors - both those in power and those in opposition - have failed the ratepayers dismally. In many instances the CBDs of towns such as KwaDukuza, Shakaskraal, Tongaat and Verulam have degenerated.
Then when you take the conditions of the marginalised who live in informal settlements into account the situation in many areas is shocking and unacceptable. There's no doubt that since 1994, the new Government has done a great deal to provide RDP houses for millions who have been living in shacks. But when one looks at the numerous informal settlements bordering towns and formal townships, it seems that much more needs to be done.
The dignity of these people is being trampled upon when for them running drinking water is a luxury, when decent sanitation facilities are non-existent and when they have to "steal" electricity from street lights to enjoy a football match on television.
The question that boggles the mind is that what have the current councillors been paid handsome salaries for when they have failed miserably to get the eThekwini Municipality and other local authorities over the past decade or so to provide the basics such as cleaner streets and a crime-free environment? They have also failed to take the lead in fighting social evils such as drugs, drug lords, illegal taverns, and drinking houses that are causing so much chaos and disorder in our local communitiies.
Now they are coming around once again to say: "Give us another five years to draw our fat salaries".
The great freedom leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi, once said: "Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep." For us in South Africa, the time has now arrived for the people not to act like "sheep" but to enter into a contract with the people who are asking us for our votes. There's a need to remind the politicial parties and the individual candidates that "democracy", in the words of one of America's greatest leaders, Abraham Lincoln, "is the government of the people, by the people, for the people".
The voters have to remind the political parties that they are not like "sheep" and they cannot take their votes for granted in our democracy.
The voters have also to remind the ruling ANC that it cannot just dictate to the ratepayers and impose high rates and other taxes on every excuse. The ruling ANC, when elected to power once again in eThekwini and other local authorities on May 18, must understand that ratepayers have had enough of exhorbitant rates and other charges.
The ANC cannot just fleece ratepayers and then squander the money through wastage, fraud, bonuses, freebies and corruption.
Political parties are like businesses and the councillors are like directors. The more investors (voters) they can attract, the more the directors(councillors) will be able to pocket for themselves. The only difference is that while in a well-run business, investors can look forward to some returns, in politics the returns are more often than not mere promises.
So what is the solution? In a democracy, political parties and politicians are an absolute necessity but they must be reminded that they act in the interests of the voters (investors).
The voters, for their part, in a democracy must also exercise their right to vote in the hope of influencing councillors and local authorities to work in the "interests of ratepayers". They cannot just sit back and do nothing because this will lead to the slow death of the democracy we had worked and sacrificed for.
An American educator and philosopher, Robert Hutchins, once wrote: "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment."
At the same time voters, while becoming fully involved, should not just be a "followers". They should send a message through their votes that they cannot be compelled, as another great American President, Thomas Jefferson, once said that "to compel a man to subsidise with his taxes the propogation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical".
If all else fails, then the voters can only hope for what a well-known English artist, Edward Langley, once wrote:
"What this country needs are more unemployed politicians." - Subry Govender, Chief Editor
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