Let’s invite angels to ANC poll

‘You have an angel living in your house,” a friend let me know after I sent her pictures of some of the carpets in my home. “Why, thank you,” I typed back. “Not you,” she replied. “A real angel. Look at the first picture. She stands to the left of the couch.”

I studied the picture carefully. Nothing.

She described the angel. Thin, with a short dress, just above the knee. Short hair with bangs. Elegant, but not one of those old-fashioned 1800s ghosts. A cool ’90s angel. “She’s also in the picture of the upstairs bedroom,” she messaged. “Look, in front of the window.” I saw nothing. “It is upstairs, isn’t it? I can see it by the way she is looking downwards through the window.” Find that scary, dear reader? Probably not as scary as our houses of parliament. There are no angels there.

And, if I look at our situation, the shivers down our collective spine aren’t likely to stop soon.

This month, 500-odd delegates will elect the ANC’s leadership. Although these people represent party branches, it still means most of the citizens of our beautiful country won’t have any direct say in who the likely next president of South Africa will be.

These delegates have all the power in their hands.

Intelligent people, as well as some journalists, would prefer economic policy and growth – the things that drive education, healthcare, service delivery and employment – to be the main points these powerful few use as guidelines to make their decision.

But in the end, the big motivator for many will probably be who wins the keys to the lock on the already frighteningly light treasure chest.

And, naturally, the odd brown envelope.

Junk status? Bah humbug! Junk food status, more likely. Recession? Just move a few steps closer to the captured trough.

If you’ve been hoping the coming conference will free our country, dear reader, you’re dreaming.

We’re naive if we trust a small group to rid our country of corruption.

There is just one group of people we can trust to exorcise our demons: ourselves.

The only way to get an angel to come and live in our fair house, is for us, the citizens, to invite her at the ballot box in 2019 ...