On 27th April 2019 South Africa entered its Jubilee as a constitutional democracy. In 1994 South Africa chartered new waters with a new dispensation under black majority and stewardship of the ANC after its historic defeat of Apartheid hegemony.
The ascendancy of Mandela to the Union Buildings was an important milestone both symbolically and psychologically. It was a Goosebump moment when Mandela was installed president to a 21 gun salute at the terraces of the seat of the erstwhile apartheid bastion of white domination, the union Building. The defeat of Apartheid was something to behold and celebrate for years to come.
Much has been achieved by the New Democratic state and the lives of the majority seem on the upside but not everything is a bed of roses. Twenty five years later the world is a different place and South Africa is no exception.
The euphoria that came with the novelty of democracy has evaporated. The realities of inequality, unemployment and poverty have surfaced from under and cracks that threaten the very foundations of democracy and democratic order are showing.
The 25th anniversary of the historic elections is subdued by a commission set up to investigate the phenomenon of state capture which has revealed layer upon layer of corruption.
When South Africans stood in the snaky long queues in 1994 to go and vote, it was with a sense of pride. It was more like a right of passage. This after all was a right that the black majority had been denied by Colonialism and Apartheid.
In contrast In this forthcoming election as has shown in the last, people are choosing their democratic rights differently. Many disgruntled South Africans have expressed their intention not to vote to register protests against corruption and poor service delivery in the main.
Indeed voting in the coming elections may not guarantee jobs or success in the combat against poverty. It may not even begin to make a dent in reducing the gap between those who are poor and mainly black and those who are well off and in the main white.
For the workers, voting may not give guarantees that there will be no repeat of Marikana which saw no less than 34 miners killed whilst exercising their right to withhold their labour.
For the students, voting may not give guarantees that there will be smooth registrations and no financial exclusions despite government’s pronouncements on free education.
For the women, voting may not guarantee their safety against abuse and a threat to their person whilst they walk the streets of South Africa merely because they are women an perceived as weak and easy targets for rape.
For the journalist, voting does not guarantee that their cameras will not be snatched or blocked out by overzealous police and politicians alike.It is easy to see why people may find it futile to go and exercise their right to vote.
Some view not voting as a betrayal of the sacrifices made by those who lost their lives in struggle to secure us freedom and the sacrosanct right to vote. It would, however, be disingenuous to reduce the struggle against colonialism and Apartheid to the right to vote. The Struggle against colonialism and Apartheid was not only about enfranchisement of the majority. It was much more than ONE MAN ONE VOTE, it was about reconstruction of our country. It was about transitioning from an undemocratic past to build a new and Just society where everyone can exercise democratic freedoms.
Those who sacrificed their live to usher in a democratic South Africa, stood for freedom of Speech. The Right to choose to VOTE is as important as the Right to Choose Not To Vote. It is in either choice that the people Speak their minds. It is Freedom of Speech. It must be defended with the same vigour as the right to VOTE. However, it will take more to defend the our Democracy. 25 years after our experiment with a democratic dispensation I feel compelled to express my choice to go and VOTE in the next election
South Africa has been in the clutches of Apartheid for about 345 years. Established western democracies such as the US have had more than two hundred years of practice. In comparison our democracy which is a mere 25 years old is a baby that is still finding its feet and needs to be nurtured till it can stand on its own. South Africans and in particular those who were denied their democratic rights are only coming to grips with the culture of Voting and choosing those whom they would like to see representing and leading them.
When things go wrong and we are unhappy we cannot simply sulk and jump ship. To abandon processes such as – voting in a multiparty democracy – a practice that in a young democracy is still is something of a novelty – would be rather premature and ill-advised to boycott the polls because one does not agree with what the system has to offer as the outcome may unwittingly lay the seeds for alternatives that we may not want to fathom.
Since our democracy is still young it may be considered unthinkable for those who are not satisfied with democratic processes to seek alternatives through taking up arms to overthrow governments that they do not favour or agree with since they may find themselves helpless .
The view may seem farfetched but it is only a few years back at the turn of the 20th Century that Africa experienced its own dark ages when our brothers and sisters in Rwanda were butchering each other with pangas and machetes along ethnic lines of Tutsis and Hutus. In the recent past two elections, Democracy in our neighboring Zimbabwe was on tenterhooks and during the previous elections many Zimbabweans were exiled and took refuge here in South Africa. Post the elections there was a news blackout and many were killed and tortured away from the witness of journalist and their cameras.
I believe that these excesses were made possible not because African States are undemocratic or because Africans are not capable of ruling themselves as some may posit. These were made possible by the simple fact we have not had enough time to practice and master western style democracy. We are still fresh out of the womb of colonialism. The umbilical cord has not yet been cut from our colonial past. Western style democratic practices as a legacy of colonialism have not been entrenched on the continent let alone on our psyche.
This does not begin to argue that Africa is not democratic in comparison to the West or even the East. Rather, i would argue that democratic practices, flawed as they may be are intricately entwined in their psyche and with their way of life such that even when an election is stolen as was the case with the second instalment of Bush when he defeated or cheated Al Gore in the US, their democracy was not threatened.
Centuries of practicing in democracy has seen them through. It was more an irritation on the stock markets than a threat to people’s lives. Not for a moment did any political commentator hint possible bloodshed in the US. Bush had stolen the election and that was that. What do you think would be the outcome in post-colonial Africa.
Africans need to reacquaint themselves with African practices of democracy and redefine democracy for themselves. Until then I will keep on going to the polls until I am old and not able to walk unaided. It is a responsibility that I believe every compatriot must undertake if its only about the exercise in democracy for its own sake. Equally I will defend the right of those who choose not to Vote.
It is for that reason that we should respect all institutions of democracy such as the Public Protector and the equality court among others. It is for the same reason that we should jealously protect our Judiciary when under attack by Politicians. Any alternative to democracy is too grim to ponder.
This coming elections on May 8th I will be VOTING for Democracy. We can think of alternatives the day Human Beings no longer need governments and are capable of self-government. When we have attained a world order without rules. That will be the day we may stop worrying about democracy being under threat.
Lets go and Vote and protect our young democracy
Sipho’s reflexions 