We need government that can deliver

It seems our public discourse is bogged down in party politics so that our livelihood in service delivery has to take a back seat. We are a constitutional democracy driven by the electorate, meaning it is in our power to save or watch SA sink.

We set the agenda. It’s an election year of local governments which are at the coalface of service delivery. That’s where 90% of our deliberations and zeal should be centred. On the one hand, we are in this crisis because of factional conflicts in the ruling party.

Comrades are trying to outwit each other as to “who ate more in their time.” What we certainly know is that everyone has “a small skeleton in the cupboard.” Before his departure from Luthuli House, Gwede Mantashe stated unambiguously that the ANC was imploding. So, what are we waiting for? On the other hand, the three main opposition parties which are ruling or represent voters in considerable numbers elsewhere also failed to give the electorate an alternative.

The ball is in our court to short-list the remaining small parties to two and then vote for them. What we need to do is to keep the checks and balances during their five-year period of reign. If they fail, we vote them out but if they perform well, we vote them in.