We must vote, to protect our freedoms and fix our failures
‘Vote of the century opens era of hope”, read The Guardian’s front-page headline in April 1994. As a young anti-apartheid activist at the time, I had never imagined that the end of apartheid would occur in my lifetime — April 1994 was a dream come true. It was a time full of enthusiasm mixed with trepidation for South Africa, stemming from the historic peaceful transition to democracy in a country seeking to build a unified nation rich in its diversity and ready to take up the challenge of building a better society.
South Africa’s journey to democracy was guided by the Freedom Charter and its laudable aspiration of “All shall enjoy equal human rights”, which included several fundamental freedoms such as “The law shall guarantee to all their right to speak, to organise, to meet together, to publish, to preach, to worship, and to educate their children”.
In marking 30 years since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, we have much to reflect on as we witness these rights being trampled in many parts of the world. According to Democracy Tracker, democracy has weakened for several consecutive years, as “more countries experienced net declines in democratic performance than saw advances”, with declines in “credible elections and effective parliament and rule of law ... in every region of the world”.
Distressingly, we are witnessing reprehensible wars in Ukraine and Gaza, with the latter being subjected to mass starvation as a weapon of war in what the International Court of Justice determined to be “plausible” genocide being committed by Israel against the people of Palestine. Press freedom is also under threat; 120 journalists were killed last year, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
I am therefore thankful that South Africa is a country of peace and stability in the midst of growing global instability. Having travelled to dozens of countries over the years, I am particularly appreciative of three core freedoms of South Africa’s democracy — our constitution that entrenches our political freedom, including our right to vote; the independence of our judiciary in protecting our freedoms; and the freedom of our press to expose any attempted erosions of our hard-won freedoms.
On political freedom, I have seen how countries hold sham elections with a forgone conclusion as opposition politicians languish in jail or are killed, as occurred with Alexei Navalny in Russia. South Africa’s upcoming election, in contrast, is being contested by all 14 parties represented in parliament plus 101 new parties and 16 independent candidates, and we are confident that it will be a robust free and fair election. But for this election to truly express the will of the people, we must support and encourage everyone to vote.
On judicial independence, I have seen how the judiciary can become a willing party to suppressing political opposition, like the Pakistani court’s questionable 10-year jail sentence on Imran Khan on conjured-up charges of leaking state secrets. South Africa’s judiciary has not been hesitant to act independently against those in power and has done so fearlessly and consistently.
As an example, the Constitutional Court passed a judgment compelling the Aids-denialist Thabo Mbeki government to overturn its refusal to provide nevirapine to pregnant women to protect their babies from HIV. The court even sentenced a past president to a prison term for refusing to give evidence at a commission of inquiry investigating his role in state capture, a supreme form of corruption. Ironically, while the court may have
intended a jail sentence, the government and prison administration had other plans.
On press freedom, I have seen how governments enact laws to control information flow to the public, allowing only favourable news — like Israel’s disregard of press freedom when it recently passed a law allowing the government to prohibit foreign media broadcasts, such as those of Al Jazeera, so its people only get “sunshine” news.
Looking at the front page of any newspaper in South Africa, it is rare to find no criticism of the government, whether it is about the government’s shambolic handling of load-shedding over more than a decade or corruption involving government officials working in cahoots with private companies and tenderpreneurs to allocate contracts for kickbacks. Even unwelcome news and obnoxious views are well protected in our country. Coming from an apartheid era of oppressive censorship, media houses in South Africa have generally done very well in promoting and protecting press freedom.
While I am impressed at how well we have done in furthering these three freedoms, I hear the voices of concern about violent crime, genderbased violence, poor delivery of services such as water and electricity, overcrowded public hospitals and an uncaring public service. But I am most disappointed about our country’s three key failures: our failure to translate our political freedom into economic freedom, our failure to appoint competent people to effectively translate policies into reality and our failure to contain the corruption plaguing our country.
However, I am optimistic that the recently announced partnership between business and the government “to address key challenges in energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption” will bear fruit.
On competence, the lack of skills and capacity in the government, especially local municipalities, has led to widespread service delivery failures, which affect the poor most. The scale of the incompetence and poor financial management beggars belief — 219 of 257 audited municipalities failed to secure clean audits, according to the auditor-general. The consequence was 2,455 protests in 2022, mostly related to service delivery, according to police statistics — averaging one protest every four hours every day throughout the year. The collapse of basic service delivery is attributed largely to incompetence at multiple levels in municipalities, especially at senior manager level.
Parliament’s recent impeachment hearing against public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane —a key appointment in protecting the public from government corruption and abuse of power — has highlighted the difficulties of getting rid of incompetent individuals once they have been appointed. Mkhwebane was found to have a limited understanding of the law. Judgments on her reports contained comments such as “... product of a wholly irrational process, bereft of any sound legal or factual basis”. In total, 73 judges have ruled against her in various court cases on her flawed reports. This is but one example of the bigger problem of the widespread ineptitude of individuals being appointed to critically important positions.
On corruption, this affliction is found in every country to a greater or lesser extent. In South Africa, corruption has probably always been around — but it has ratcheted up to epidemic levels in the last two decades because the systems that kept it under some control are no longer functioning properly. Corrupt individuals undermine and destroy accountability pathways as intact checks and balances will expose them. This was clearly evident in the appointments of
Tom Moyane to head the South African Revenue Service, Shaun Abrahams to head the National Prosecuting Authority and Berning Ntlemeza to head the Hawks.
Not only did they hollow out the very institutions that should be fighting corruption, they either facilitated or turned a blind eye to rampant corruption during state capture. The damage they inflicted on their institutions is still reverberating to this day. Tolerance of corruption is evident at the highest levels of government, with individuals who have been fingered for corruption by the Zondo commission on state capture still serving as ministers. We need a zero-tolerance approach to corruption.
To be sure, every country has its fair share of problems. Incompetence and corruption are not uniquely South African problems. Most of the countries I have been to have similar or worse problems than ours.
I remain optimistic on our future. Despite all these challenges and problems, South Africans somehow find a way forward and have been able to turn adversity to advantage — we make a plan! When we stand together, as we have done time and again, including during the Rugby World Cup, we can achieve what seems impossible. We have overcome a multitude of challenges in the past — challenges much greater than our current concerns. To do this, we need to put our country first.
We put our country first when we make the effort to vote. So I will be voting on May 29 as I would like to protect our highly valued freedoms and contribute to remedying our failures. A vote is one small but important step on this path. Every vote counts.