By: Gareth Hobbs
Inspiring feelings of apathy in a population is never really a great move for politicians, even less so in an election year, and yet this is what the bulk of the South African political parties manage to achieve. Couple this together with the large amounts of hypocrisy and deceit on display and it’s plain to see why it’s difficult to choose someone to vote for. Choosing people to vote against is a lot easier.
As we approach the elections the media overload is going to increase, and much like taking a good song and playing it every 45 minutes, this constant barrage of election news, manifesto’s rallies and debates has a similar effect. Although, while it doesn’t engender hatred, it does cause me to actively avoid any political news and the only way to do that is to avoid the news completely.
The hypocrisy and deceit go hand in hand. The public relations people hired by the political parties have one job to do. That job is to placate the public by using speech that is so convoluted that questions are never answered and the public is left feeling that they just haven’t understood what has been said. This is a particular speciality of the ANC spokespeople, and you can see why it would have to be. Here we have a party that is almost certain to hold a majority after the election that has its leader under investigation for fraud and corruption, and yet, they are also the only political party that fails to mention the tackling of corruption in their manifesto.
But, let’s not just bash the ANC here. Most of the other parties are also at fault. All the plans that I have seen so far just involve more talk - talk about improving education, safety and housing, talk about reducing corruption at the highest levels, even talk about keeping the springbok as the national sports emblem - yet no action is ever taken. And the excuse that they don’t have any power is pitiful at best. Yes, they may not be able to enact laws to ensure changes, but they are just as capable of mobilising communities to be empowered as anybody else, if not more so due to the vehicles they have to hand to broadcast their messages.
So, what can the political parties do to get voters to vote for them instead of choosing them as the lesser evil? It’s time they started to act. I’m waiting for a political party to take its campaign budget and use it to fund a free clinic in the townships, or provide stationary and school supplies to under funded schools. What if the party members volunteered as police reservists, freeing the trained officers to patrol and increase the visible police force without additional budget requirements? That would get people’s attention. And free media coverage.
The fault of apathy lies with us, the general voting public. Have we forgotten that our taxes pay the politician’s salaries? We need to start seeing the country in a business light with the taxpayers as the shareholders and the government as the board of directors. After all, if the board of directors did something that the shareholders disagreed with, they wouldn’t be on the board for long.
It is up to us. We need to start demanding action and not just accepting yet another well written speech. We need to stop the old attitude of “there’s nothing I can do” and start saying “my opinion counts and I demand to be heard.” After all, that is the power and the beauty of a democratic system, anyone can make a difference. Sometimes all it takes is one action, one statement, one person saying “The time for change is now and here’s how we’ll do it” to galvanise the apathetic mob into action.
Inspiring feelings of apathy in a population is never really a great move for politicians, even less so in an election year, and yet this is what the bulk of the South African political parties manage to achieve. Couple this together with the large amounts of hypocrisy and deceit on display and it’s plain to see why it’s difficult to choose someone to vote for. Choosing people to vote against is a lot easier.
As we approach the elections the media overload is going to increase, and much like taking a good song and playing it every 45 minutes, this constant barrage of election news, manifesto’s rallies and debates has a similar effect. Although, while it doesn’t engender hatred, it does cause me to actively avoid any political news and the only way to do that is to avoid the news completely.
The hypocrisy and deceit go hand in hand. The public relations people hired by the political parties have one job to do. That job is to placate the public by using speech that is so convoluted that questions are never answered and the public is left feeling that they just haven’t understood what has been said. This is a particular speciality of the ANC spokespeople, and you can see why it would have to be. Here we have a party that is almost certain to hold a majority after the election that has its leader under investigation for fraud and corruption, and yet, they are also the only political party that fails to mention the tackling of corruption in their manifesto.
But, let’s not just bash the ANC here. Most of the other parties are also at fault. All the plans that I have seen so far just involve more talk - talk about improving education, safety and housing, talk about reducing corruption at the highest levels, even talk about keeping the springbok as the national sports emblem - yet no action is ever taken. And the excuse that they don’t have any power is pitiful at best. Yes, they may not be able to enact laws to ensure changes, but they are just as capable of mobilising communities to be empowered as anybody else, if not more so due to the vehicles they have to hand to broadcast their messages.
So, what can the political parties do to get voters to vote for them instead of choosing them as the lesser evil? It’s time they started to act. I’m waiting for a political party to take its campaign budget and use it to fund a free clinic in the townships, or provide stationary and school supplies to under funded schools. What if the party members volunteered as police reservists, freeing the trained officers to patrol and increase the visible police force without additional budget requirements? That would get people’s attention. And free media coverage.
The fault of apathy lies with us, the general voting public. Have we forgotten that our taxes pay the politician’s salaries? We need to start seeing the country in a business light with the taxpayers as the shareholders and the government as the board of directors. After all, if the board of directors did something that the shareholders disagreed with, they wouldn’t be on the board for long.
It is up to us. We need to start demanding action and not just accepting yet another well written speech. We need to stop the old attitude of “there’s nothing I can do” and start saying “my opinion counts and I demand to be heard.” After all, that is the power and the beauty of a democratic system, anyone can make a difference. Sometimes all it takes is one action, one statement, one person saying “The time for change is now and here’s how we’ll do it” to galvanise the apathetic mob into action.
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