LET’S THROW OUR JOINT WEIGHT BEHIND CHANGE

WE ARE all South Africans. We were all united to some degree against the curse of racism. It was an effort equal to the eradication of slavery and the fight for voting rights for women.

We did not fight for a party to rule us. We fought to throw out a party that dehumanised us.

The ANC somehow contrived to arrogate the sole place of national rule because of its narrative in the Struggle. The overwhelming number of votes the party received was not based on performance or expertise.

In its 25 years of uncontested numerical dominance, the ANC has yet to show some semblance of good governance. Its stance and claim to rule till Jesus comes is so distasteful, it shocks me that no one has yet taken it to task. The ANC crucified John Lennon when he suggested that, numerically, the Beatles had a greater following than Christ.

We are one nation. Each voter only has one life. We have one shot at happiness free from a recognised evil. Most ANC parliamentarians didn’t come to the polls with years of governing expertise.

Their ascendency was predicated on defiance, violence and then mindless destruction. That is their narrative. That some ministers were well educated and tuned in to what we call the Western capitalist model is because they enjoyed some benefits under the previous inequities.

Democracy is based on the dictum of Vox Populi vox Dei – the voice of the people is the voice of God. Lawyer and political activist James Otis posited that “taxation without representation is tyranny”. Democracy allows us to disagree without sacrificing progress.

Voting nowadays is a mere barometer of how many people are left to tolerate the ineptitude of a failed government.

We pay our taxes in order to bail out failed state-owned entities. The legislation that fiercely guards human rights has destroyed all possibility of intelligent discourse. There are too many rights that enshrine minorities that do nothing to promote an improvement in the human condition.

This column is predicated on the belief that all of us should stop this runaway bus and admit to some truths.

Race might be a colonial construct, but the psychic discomfort should be turned into constructive dialogue.

Rights do not translate into emasculation of tried-and-tested normative social behaviour. This is not an appeal for a return of the bad old days.

Like Lennon, all I am saying is: Give ourselves a chance at happiness. We won’t be here all that long.

We deserve a better government, a better state, better attitudes, better efforts at beauty, peace, understanding. Humanity cannot be legislated into being. It is a state of mind.

Let’s combine our nationhood into an agency for change, not dominance. Let children return to childhood. Let’s normalise.