I have been asked by many a friends on whether I would be voting the ANC or not. Some even went to an extent of reading my blog posts to being a sign of my political 'doctrinal' shift, given the personal history some know I have with the ANC. In response to their question I thought I deal with the question on a platform many have come to associate with my opinions outlet.
In my imagination of the time I believe I still have in this world, I did not think I will find myself in a condition where I am governed by a party other than the ANC, Tshwane ANC showed me it is possible. I saw many a miracles in my life time, I saw a lot I thought was impossible like a Black American President, a World Cup in Africa, and Woman President in Africa. Being governed by a party other than the ANC in Tshwane, Gauteng and South Africa has to me fell off the miracle history, it is a reality I have received counselling about. Comrade Kgoši Maepa's sterling performance as leader of the opposition in the Tshwane Metro has actually made me realise we also have opposition party talent in the ANC.
As life and human nature happens as part of an ecosystem, variables I knew little about perpetuated these outcomes, and the events happened. On the question of still voting for the ANC, I made calls to several senior ANC leaders and asked deep questions, whose answers would be used in my mental model to decide 'how to vote' in local government in the unlikelihood of me being cognitively doubtful inside the voting booth come November 1, 2021. It is generally the cognitive me that I prefer to apply of situations, and when I realise it generates responses I do not like, I first check with the historical me just in case my cognitive is wrapped up by a dominant emotion. With the ANC, I also have the nostalgic me to reference with.
Before I share the questions I asked those in the leadership of the ANC, let me share with you the contents of a discussion with an old elder I regularly visit for his wisdom downloads. We incidentally were discussing about voting the ANC. I asked him if he would still vote the ANC, given his unending facts about it having disappointed him.
This is what the old man in his wisdom said, "do you cease becoming who you are because of the mistakes those who lead you make? If your parents do stuff you do not agree with, do you change them? If you still consider the ANC to have been one of the remaining organisations to be voted that sustained the birthing of South Africa as we know it today, then it assumes the role of a parent to the democracy you enjoying. To your question, I am still who I am".
These are the questions I asked,
- Will the ANC in Tshwane be prepared to enter into a coalition if voters react to its request for a mandate to govern like they did in 2016?
- How will the ANC deal with the structural future borrowing it masterminded pre-2016 to make the City liquid enough to deal with bread and butter service delivery matters?
- How is the ANC going to deal with the local state fiscus outside the electricity-based revenue that shaped modern day Tshwane?
- Why is the Manifesto silent on the water and energy security threats facing Tshwane and local government in general
- How is it that the campaign is silent on the development of one national plan anchored on the Municipal Government integrated development planning process undergirded by a functioning intergovernmental relations process?
- How will local government function if its Bulk Electricity and Water Authority status is threatened by the concretising national policy shift on the so-called network industries restructuring program?
- Will the unbundling of these sectors into generation, transmission and distribution safeguard the sustainability of the municipal fiscus, and by extension its mandate to provide democratic and accountable government to local communities?
These and other questions were not adequately answered by 'comrades', save the promise of a discourse on these matters at the 'next policy conference'.
Notwithstanding the no-show with answers by comrades, I went on to ask about the township filth in Tshwane, the dirty water in Hammanskraal, the potholes and 'rivers' on the road infrastructure, the cancelled free WiFi, and the disorganised public transportation system that seems unconnected to other mass transit systems such as the GAUTRAIN.
As comrades were answering me I interrogated the influence of factions on the councillor choices made. How youth unemployment has made politics a career option given the inability of a city economy to absorb them.
I got answers that did not make me content. I then looked at other manifestos and found the EFF rhetoric answering some of the questions, only but in theory. Other parties seem to be in agreement with the doctrinal shift towards SOE wholesaling, despite it removing water and energy from the basic need status.
In the absence of anyone decisively dealing with my questions, my hope that 'sense' will visit ANC leadership on the energy and water security positions they took has become a refuge. The pain of still being governed by the ANC is not acute enough to necessitate a move by me to a new pain.
I will on these basis, still vote the ANC. I will also persuade,where I still can, others to join me.
🤷🏽♂️Ndzi ta vota makwerhu.
🤷🏽♂️Leswi swi fike ka level ya xikhongelo hi ti votes
Doc, how does one vote to be Governed by an organisation that doesn't have answers to these questions?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the trust that "it will be fine" stems from an era where one could associate outcomes with the purposed actions by the organisation.
That era, in my opinion, has come to an end quite some time ago. How long does the "nostalgic me" supercede the "rational me"?
A wise man once told me that a society is only constrained by the imagination of its leaders. What does your organisation's leaders' imagination look like?