Path of contradictions to my vote

The nature of my conflicted choice is one, I pray, that God will understand

IN GREEK mythology the thread of Life was spun by Clotho, measured by Lachesis and, finally, cut by Atropos.

The word “cloth” could have its etymological roots in one of the names of the Fates, namely Clotho. It later surfaces in the days of the royalty and their confreres, the nobility. These grandees provided their servants with livery, “clothes of calling”. This custom of wearing a distinctive uniform was extended to certain professions and in time it became the exclusive preserve of clergypersons, the “men of the cloth”.

This week I was rebuked on social media for sharing my thoughts about who I would vote for. I was deemed a wolf in the garb of a priest who was misleading the people of God.

Who do we vote for though? The majority party in government, the ANC, has on the whole disappointed South Africans. Many of its members have succumbed to the clamour of what Saint Paul refers to as our “lower nature”. The virtues of servanthood lie fallow on floors of the National Assembly. Yet as my Spiritual Director once chided me, “kleptocracy is not an ideology”.

It is a pathology greased by access to the national cookie-jar and, as Chris Rock preaches, “you are only as faithful as your options”. We note that the unfaithful, entitled ones are found across the party-political terrain.

Thus our vote, as a means of signalling our demands for change, is a precious resource. We know that we must use it with care, and for those who bow their knee of their heart in prayer, to do so in that spirit.

I share the view that one should not vote against but for something.

During the Zuma years, my vote was my secret, sometimes even to myself until that moment I marked my cross on the ballot paper. I would split my vote, voting national for one party and for my province I chose a different party.

Electoral reform is part of the answer. We could benefit from a constituency-based vote that would hold our local MPs accountable for the decisions they make in our name. The slate-driven party list system ensures that MPs are bound by the dictates of their party and not the will of a broader constituency. But until then ....

At this point, with the information on hand, I have no reason to doubt President Cyril Ramaphosa’s integrity and motives. He has my vote. The path of contradictions leads me, therefore, to vote for his party, the ANC. The nature of my conflicted choice is one, I pray, that God will understand. On election day I will cast my vote in memory of the martyr against corruption and greed, the late Vernie Petersen. Yes, I know that I am “a man of the cloth”; but what do I do, compatriots, when I am alone with my troubling thoughts? Consider my evolving view as part of a necessary conversation where, citing Ryland Fisher, “thinking is allowed”.

In the meantime, Beloved, as Rumi would have us do: “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

MICHEAL WEEDER