ELECTORATE NEEDS TO COME TO ITS SENSES AND GIVE THE COMPLACENT, UNCARING ANC THE THUMBS DOWN

It is no surprise that our somnolent ANC, NEC, Cabinet ministers and municipal officials have not registered for the October elections. South Africa is ran by a complacent, incompetent and uncaring party. It is time for a change.

I look at Zambia to our north. What a breath of fresh air to see a young man, Hakainde Hichilema, elected as their new president.

Not only is he young, well educated and determined to see his country forge ahead, but he came from the opposition party!

I do hope our electorate will come to their senses and give this corrupt and inefficient party the thumbs down in the coming elections.

R Calmeyer Leach

In his letter, Time for us numbskulls to remove our dunces caps…, Cliff Buchler hits on the problem described by Greg Mills in his book on Africa.

The populace votes for politicians who are dishonest and incompetent.

This is because of the psychological problem of cognitive dissonance described by Professor [Blake] McKimmie in his lectures on social psychology.

Even Barack Obama saw the ANC as the liberators fighting for the poor and dispossessed. But now, 27 years later, even the least educated among us can see that the local politician lives well without getting up at 5am to get the taxi to work. Unfortunately, this does not change voting behaviour.

The two ideas – the ANC as the fighter for the poor; and the ANC as a criminal organisation – do not match. There is dissonance that causes psychological distress. People solve this by modifying their ideas.

The previous government robbed us. The new president is different.

They can now see where they went wrong and other rationalisations.

There is also the social pressure to conform to voting for the ANC.

This is more so in a society that values the group over the individual.

John Weinkove