DIGITAL DIVIDE IN AFRICA ERODES ACCOUNTABILITY
TECHNOLOGY and social media have altered many things in society.
Business, science, health and finance are some of the areas that have been changed by technology, for good and bad.
Social interaction has transformed from face-to-face engagement to “spending” time with millions of people that you have never met, that you are unlikely to ever meet, and some reside very far away from you. The world is a click of a button. Social media has altered human interaction. Whatsapp, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Instagram as well as many others are responsible for the sharing of a huge amount of data in a minute. Political rallies and door-to-door campaigns, and even TV and newspapers, have very limited reach compared to that of different social media platforms.
A successful political rally draws about 50 000 people. Compare this with the number of people who see or react to US President Donald Trump’s tweets, and their reach.
One tweet by Trump generates an average of 10 000 comments, over 40 000 likes, and an unknown number of people read his tweets.
To put your mind at ease, Trump has 55.1 million social media followers, Emmerson Mnangagwa has 250 000, Evo Morales 450 000, Cyril Ramaphosa 330 000, Julius Malema 2.2 million, Gwede Mantashe 277 000, Helen Zille
1.3 million and Barack Obama
102 million.
Trump is a potent user of social media for all purposes. In fact, he has altered the way politics, democracy and consultation, as well as advocacy and information-sharing, are done.
Unfortunately in African countries, including South Africa, there is a deliberate stumbling block to internet access and related technologies, and to free speech. For the price of data makes it impossible for people to spend adequate time on the net navigating ideas. Let alone spending adequate time engaging with their public representatives. Also, many local politicians and councillors are not using social media to communicate with, or engage with, their constituencies. This is a serious drawback because people are denied the opportunity to raise issues and to create awareness of them.
Social media has the potential to create more transparency and accountability. People and their representatives can interact in real time without having to wait for branch and council meetings – tired and outdated modes of communication. Are politicians afraid to discuss serious issues with people who voted them into power?
Public gatherings (sometimes called imbizos and lekgotlas) are equally ineffective but still serve some purpose because the digital divide prevents millions of people in townships and rural areas from having access to the internet.
Politics has failed dismally to move with the times for a number of reasons. Politics tends to be constrained or limited by space and issues. Politics is focused on matters within certain geographical areas, and issues pertaining to them.
Attempts at making truly regional and global icons, and raising issues, have been thwarted by old concepts of sovereignty, national interest and border demarcations.
For example, it is inconceivable for a Ghanaian to support and vote for the Mozambican political parties Frelimo or Renamo.
Paul Kagame is not elected by Tanzanians, Japanese and Ethiopians. Western Europe has tried to integrate different countries but politics has moved in the opposite direction.
Hungarians and Danes still vote according to what they perceive as relevant to their countries.
The Brexit vote in Britain and the rise of Trump in the US are a serious wake-up call, to remind all of us that as much as life changes, politics is more or less static or is degenerating.