Apartheid no excuse
Future of our children more vital
The ANC government should understand that South Africans were more concerned about the future rather than the past.
This was said by Seoka Lekota, who attended the Unisa-Sowetan Dialogues in Pretoria as a member of the public.
“The fight today is not about apartheid anymore but the future of our kids. We need political education in South Africa that would say, regardless of the ANC or whatever political party that will rule this country, we will go and vote instead of abstaining,” he said.
Lekota said that the black middle class, usually referred to in a derogatory manner as “clever blacks”, did not go to vote because the ANC was not addressing their current needs.
“The ANC needs to learn to listen because we are no longer in an apartheid system but we are oppressing ourselves. We now need economic liberation,” he said, adding that he did not vote in the recent elections.
“I abstained because I’m not being listened to despite me being an active member of the ANC.”
Another member of the public, Nkululeko Sibiya, said he had not lost his love for the ANC but was voting for the EFF because he wanted to see progress.
“Young people need progress and they cannot be told stories of what happened years ago. If my municipality bill comes today being R10 000 while yesterday it was R2 000, I am going to vote for something else,” he said.
Lerato Sibisi compared President Jacob Zuma’s family friends, the Guptas, to the Biblical snake in the garden of Eden. “The Guptas came and gave the ANC the fruit and the ANC forgot about serving the people.”
Professor Kealeboga Maphunye, Unisa’ sWiphold Brigalia Bam Research Chair in Electoral Democracy in Africa, said “I am worried about those people who have the power to vote but do not use it positively.”