Counting the cost of the blank cheque that short-changed us
The coming local government poll must not be another opportunity for unscrupulous politicians to betray the will of the people as they did before, writes Zweli Mntambo
THERE is much unease in the land. And uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. These words have been spoken in difficult and challenging times in the past. And they are apposite because our country is, to say the least, in a state.
We need to look no further than the ashes where schools once stood in Vuwani and the smoke that rises from university buildings to see all is not well with the republic.
Violence and lawlessness are raising their ugly heads and may unravel many of the gains we now take for granted.
Our leaders are divided and are unsure of what to do at a time like this. They tell us that we need not worry too much about the considered findings of the public protector and the 11 judges of the highest court in our land; that we must trust that the republic is in good hands.
But we do have a crisis on our hands. As Raymond Suttner puts it: “What we now confront is an organisation with a leader who is not merely immoral, but impervious to morality. He is amoral. The lawlessness shows deep signs of disrespect for legality.”
The winter of discontent is upon us. The country and its people are restless and we make the mistake of believing that the problem revolves around President Jacob Zuma and his political refuge, the ANC.
It is time to wake up to the reality that we are not only on a spiral to financial downgrades by ratings agencies. We are being pulled into a vortex of corruption, racial division, violence and lawlessness — whether we like it or not.
Those in power are dragging us into this emptiness. And they no longer need our permission to do so. We gave them a blank cheque more than 22 years ago to decide how many billions of rands to squander in our name.
You have to admire politicians. They are masters of their trade. Look at the cheques they are now writing to great applause to “restore” the land that was taken by Paul Kruger.
Chief Operator and Sergeant-atarms at the SABC, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, can dole out 90% local music content at the national broadcaster without properly acknowledging that musicians have been fighting this battle since John Vorster departed.
Watch the war on potholes. They are being filled like there is no tomorrow. But wait until a few drops of rain fall from the heavens. True to what potholes do, they will reappear and become part of our existence after August 3.
The joke is on us because we let this state of affairs repeat itself. It is as if we are entranced by the magic that the political parties perform every five years. We follow the same routine and then complain when we wake up to discover that MOURNING FOR SA: ANC supporters during the ANC Siyanqoba rally at FNB stadium in Soweto shortly before the elections of 2014. The writer says ’we are entranced by the magic that the political parties perform every five years’, only to be disappointed afterwards
We must be the people who elect them and have the power to remove them from office should they forget why they are there
we have been conned by the magicians.
What we must realise is that we chose a weak system of democratic representation. We gave away one of the important keys to power. We just gave it away. A little more than 20 years ago we decided on a very bad system of allocating and distributing power in our democratic system.
We decided — as a matter of convenience at the time — to let political parties draw up lists of the people they wanted to go to parliament. We believed in the myth that the people who struck gold and made it onto these lists were going to represent our needs and aspirations in the hallowed chambers of our legislature, that they would be the representatives of the people.
The reality is that they are not. They know it, and we should too.
The simple explanation for the unabated and shameless corruption is that those in charge of distributing our taxes know very well that there is no guard at the gate.
They know that no one or nothing — least of all parliament — is going to hold them to account for any of their misdeeds.
Which is why Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi is not about to lose his job. Neither will he ever offer to do the honourable thing and resign in the wake of his departWhat ment spending unauthorised millions on the palace at Nkandla.
He is secure in the comfort of the system that makes him an “honourable” member of parliament and cabinet minister.
So, as Vladimir Lenin once asked: “What is to be done?” This is the burning question.
We know now that it is not clever of us to demand that our legislators commit political self-mutilation by sticking their fingers up the noses of the president, ministers and other political heavies.
South Africans must do is to respond to the call for civic duty. We must work to return the power of parliament to the people. We must work to ensure that every lawmaker in this republic is elected through a geographically defined constituency that gives them the mandate to speak and act on behalf of that constituency.
We must elect them and have the power to remove them from office when they forget why they are there.
In short, the system of party lists to determine who goes to parliament to represent us must be scrapped.
The leaders we choose in the 2019 general elections must represent what is good for the people and the country — not the party to which they are beholden.
Only we have the power to pull this country out of the vortex of emptiness, despair, racism, corruption, violence and disrespect for the rule of law.
Mntambo is a businessman and former director-general of the Gauteng provincial government