The edited version was published in TimesLive on 12 November 2024
When the concept of “re
o rata kaofela,” understood as unquestioning loyalty or infatuation with a
leader or party, becomes the dominant force in politics, the traditional
political playbook is disregarded.
A core lesson of
democracy in several world elections that have thus far taken place in 2024 is
that victorious parties and candidates presented to the electorate election
manifestos, translating into programmatic appeals to material concerns beyond
just defending democracy. The saying that politicians should "always bear
in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone's
head. They are fighting to win material benefits, live better and in peace, see
their lives go forward, and guarantee their children's future",
reverberated in voters' minds.
The world saw in the
election year a marked rise of "re go rata kaofela" leaders
irrespective of their commitment to the endurance of the democratic and
constitutional order underpinning the state they will be presiding
over. Freedom, democracy, and the rule of law as established
planks of liberal democracy have triumphed to the extent that the power of
citizen choice could not be stopped, even if the outcome might be a risk to the
continuity of freedom.
In South Africa, the 're
o rata kaofela' syndrome significantly influenced the election outcome, leading
to the ANC's splintering and the MK Party's formation. This marked the
institutionalisation of personalities as critical influencers of voter
behaviour at the polls. Notably, Cyril Ramaphosa, Jacob Zuma, and the late
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi played significant roles in the election outcome,
reshaping KZN as a province and its identity ramifications and votes.
When voters are in a
"re o rata kaofela" trance, they forget the infirmities and
malfeasance or otherwise of those they support. The track records, criminal or
otherwise, of leaders and parties are checked in at the entrance door of the
voting station. Equally, the 2024 elections in the world have been
characterised by societies searching for an alternative narrative of politics
or new leaders or political parties instead of the usual culprits.
The maturation of
anti-establishment politics has also been visible in the wave of leadership or changes
in governing arrangements worldwide. The election outcomes evidence a growing
anger at the status quo in many countries, underscoring the urgency and
importance of this trend. The frustration is with political systems and leaders
perceived as broken and economies that institutionalise rule by the law of the
wealthy.
A growing focus is on
defining national sovereign spaces as components of regional markets by global
governance and multilateral institutions. It's important to stress that
politics are increasingly about what leaders and governments bring to the
proverbial table around which business interests are discussed. The rise of
anti-system politics directly results from the loosening bond between voters
and the representatives they elect. The international agreements these
representatives sign, and the increasing perception that governing and ruling
elites serve themselves and insider interests fuel the anti-status quo voting
patterns that 2024 has and is going through.
While social changes can
explain general voter behaviour, it's crucial to emphasize that economics is
the animating force behind the winds of status quo change. The exuberant
permitting of profit-driven market forces in sovereign economies has weakened,
if not decimated, the welfarist conscience of the state, with high-income
inequalities growing into a global security matter. This economic governance
system is already undermining the global trade system.
In South Africa,
democracy, as in the arrangements in which "we the people" agreed to
govern each other, dictated no absolute power to govern by any political
parties and thus forced a coalition condition. Seismic as this political
arrangement might look, there is no evidence that the "tactical drifts"
by those inside the coalition arrangements, which are embraced by the market,
are driven by a similar 'drift' in public opinion in general, and members of
coalescing political parties in particular. Like everywhere else, the political
and economic elites in charge of the rejected status quo are too few to fail,
but the anti-status quo public is proving too big to fail.
We saw the first wave of “re o rata kaofela" in South Africa when Jacob Zuma percolated its flavour against a managed-to-be stale Mbeki flavour. This was followed by an anti-Jacob Zuma, unfairly impacting Nkosazana Zuma's "Ramaphosa re o rata kaofela" percolation in 2019. There is now again a "re o rata kaofela" MK Party percolation as a Jacob Zuma proxy wave that changes governing fortunes. The common thing about the variously named "re o rata kaofela" waves is that none deal with the true animating force behind them, economics and its templates. The templates of economic domination in South Africa have dramatically influenced the anti-status quo politics of the SADC region. Some SADC countries might be small enough to fail as national policies but too big to fail as components of the SADC region.
The USA Trump win, a "re o rata kaofela" candidate, is too big to be ignored by the world. Putin's "re o rata kaofela was in 2023"; Xi Ping and Modi went past theirs. The truth is that they are all against a similar global status quo with varying interests. The magic question in South Africa is who the next leader is we can all, and in an almost cult-like manner, sing and tell the world through our votes "re o rata kaofela", notwithstanding that leader’s known infirmities and malfeasance. As for the rest of the thinking, we must stick to "re rata Constitution kaofela". CUT
Comments
Post a Comment