ANC’s service delivery has left Luthuli House
IT SEEMS our public discourse is bogged down in party politics 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”, echoed by former minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini.
Before his departure from Luthuli House, former secretary-general Gwede Mantashe stated unambiguously that the ANC was imploding.
So, what are we waiting for? On the other hand, the three main opposition parties that 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.
Bear in mind that big parties were once small parties but because they were supported, they became what they are today. 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. Then they’ll know who the boss is.
Coalition governments proved dysfunctional in SA. It’s not as easy as that though, it needs compromises from us all. In fact, the good things in life are often born out of crises.