Bring political parties into line

IT IS frustrating to hear people, in 2016, saying they will express their dissatisfaction with the ruling party by boycotting the elections.

This thinking is based on the assumption that only the ANC can represent the majority of the people of South Africa.

In our part of the world demographics implies that the word majority means Africans or “blacks”. So when the ruling party imagines itself as the only representative of the majority, it is, in fact, imagining itself as the sole representative of the “black” majority.

But by doing this it is actually choosing to divide South Africa further along racial lines, even though it may still imagine itself to somehow be correcting wrongs of the past.

This is a major flaw in the thinking of the ruling party. And it causes the ANC to take for granted the very people it purports to represent. It takes for granted “black” people, who it imagines will always vote for it, no matter what. And its attitude towards “white” people is that they can never vote the ANC out because they are in the minority.

Because it does not see either group as capable of displacing it from power, the ANC has little respect for “black” or “white” people.

So the ANC uses “white” people to attempt to garner votes from “black” people. And it has no problem threatening “black” people that apartheid will be resurrected if they do not vote for the liberation party.

The party will also not hesitate to use frustrations expressed by “white” people as evidence of racism, even where none exists.

At the same time, it will not hesitate to use the traditional beliefs of “black” people – the wrath of the ancestors and the fires of hell – to discourage them from daring to give their vote to any other party.

So it has become apparent that the ANC has reduced the importance of the “black” person to the vote he or she can give the ANC.

And if the “black” man’s significance does not extend beyond the vote that they may give to the ANC, then the “black” man is no longer truly important to the ANC.

It is thus conceivable that if the “black” person no longer delivers votes for the ANC, the ANC will have as little regard for them as they do for “white” people.

The sustained effort of playing off different race groups within the nation against each other is designed to achieve one thing: votes to keep the ANC in power.

But this approach is based on still further flawed thinking that has now become standard in the ruling party: the idea that it is necessary to disguise reality with lies in order to gain votes.

The party seems so convinced of the old notion that “politics is a dirty game” that it is blind to the possibility of victory and success on the basis of untainted principle and upfront honesty.

It is as if we have been taken back to the days when winning a girl’s hand meant promising heaven and earth, even when knowing full well that none of one’s promises were likely to come true.

However, truth and a principled stand are the blocks that build a strong bond of trust between people and also between individuals and governments. Truth and a principled stand will always win in the end.

As the parties start canvassing for our votes, it is important to remember that it is not possible for some of us to enjoy liberation while others are excluded. Nor is it possible for an individual to be free if you are owned by a political party.

For this reason, those who canvass should not be allowed to use division and selectivity to gain support from any of us. The fact that we are now free means that any political party can contest, and if they win, they must be held accountable by the people for their leadership.

Finally, our vote must remain our voice. Each one counts. We must use our votes to hold to account those who lead us. This is how we will teach all political parties never to take any of us for granted.