Traps came out of the closet lately and pledged his vote to the ANC. I respect his open approach and would like to follow suit with my views.
There are three parties of national significance in the coming election. They are the ANC, Cope and the DA. I will be voting for the DA. Before you jump to conclusions about me voting to my demographic, please hear me out.
Why I will not vote ANC:
The ANC has had 14 years in power. Under their governance South Africa has slowly crumbled from an international success story and an African leader brimming with promise to a largely mismanaged and morally corrupt nation state. The ANC have slowly led us away from the glory days of Mandela and are constantly flirting with our freedom, our non-racial democracy and our hope for a better future. Under ANC rule, we have seen the slow decay of almost all things that are critical to the functioning of a modern state with perhaps the exception of our economy, which will now begin to erode on the back of global events.
Our health system has been in a rapid downward spiral. After massive mismanagement by Manto and a frankly criminal delay of ARV rollout, we virtually lead the world in HIV infection rates. Our health leaders under the ANC have embarrassed us so badly at international level that local and international NGOs have had to fill the gap to get things done and save face for us. Mbeki’s baffling HIV pseudo-science has made us the laughing stock of the world. The TAC was long the only voice of reason until Barbara Hogan finally came to office and seems to be making some long needed changes. Too little, too late. The ANC ignored their people and let them die. They will not get my vote for that reason.
Our criminal justice system is swamped and corrupt to the core. Prisoners escape regularly, crime is rampant and the police chief has been accused of being in bed with organised crime bosses. The ANC elite have disbanded the Scorpions against vociferous public opinion and can’t give a good reason. That’s because there is no good reason. They did it to save their behinds from being prosecuted.
We all know it. They know that we know it but they don’t care because they have no opposition.
Under the ANC, private armies of security guards have come do the work of the police. The state has failed to provide us with adequate safety and security. I will not vote for a police force run by a leader linked to organised crime and an ANC government that protects that structure and the allegedly corrupt people at the top of it. These are not small things. We can do better, much better.
Service delivery under the ANC has been mismanaged to the point where people are starting to protest regularly, openly and even violently. Corruption and BEE at every level has ensured that the money flows to companies owned by the ANC elite and their buddies. They provide sub-standard, slow and expensive services as a result and future generations will have to redo all they have sloppily thrown together to make a quick buck. Our electricity system and our water reticulation systems are in dire need. The corruption at municipal level is legendary. I can’t vote for a party that does not take service delivery seriously enough to actually deliver for their people. Rampant ANC cronyism makes me want to put my X elsewhere.
Our foreign policy is both naïve and detrimental to our international image. Under the ANC, we have descended from “the country that stood up and beat apartheid” to “the country that backs Mugabe through its inexplicable silence and accepts the million of refugees only to murder them”. Our stint on the UN Security Council has seen us block global action to help Zimbabweans throw off their repugnant regime, we blocked a motion on war-rape with a logic so convoluted that it staggers one to believe a grown person could have been involved in expressing it.
I can’t vote for a party that is incapable of compiling a strategically sound foreign policy in which it projects its power and authority in a mature and ethical way both regionally and internationally. The ANC seems incapable of this. I can’t vote for a party that found Mugabe’s elections free and fair. I can’t vote for a party whose delegates give standing ovations at SADC conferences to a murderous dictator that kills his own people.
I can’t vote for a party that squanders our money and spent R40-billion and counting on arms we don’t need. The ANC is wrapped in the corrupt tentacles of the deal and still can’t be bothered to explain to the electorate why it needed the damn things in the first place. Why should they? They win regardless due to a public still drunk on liberation. Not with my vote; not after what they have done to my country and its people. They were trusted to look after South Africa’s people and they have let us down time and time again.
BEE is a racially divisive, enrichment tool for the ANC elite. While we need the wealth of this country to be shared more evenly, this farce is not the way to do it. It is a simple matter of removing race from the equation and implementing policy to benefit the poor of our country of all colours. Fair, non-racial and equitable policy would take us to the next level in this fight and establish a moral basis of non-racial equity for all. But under the ANC, race rules as supreme as it always has here in South Africa. I want a non-racial leadership. I can’t vote for people who can’t see past race and the past. I can’t vote for the ANC.
Consider this: the ANC elite are by far the largest recipients of BEE-generated wealth and are simultaneously responsible for deciding when it should end. It is hardly surprising then that every survey shows how black ownership on the JSE is limp, how the poor stay poor and do not benefit from BEE and how the elite are sitting on so many boards they do not have the time in the year to attend all the meetings. BEE works for a few massively wealthy individuals. It is not a vehicle for addressing the inequality of our society. It never has been.
After 14 years, however, the policy is still unchanged and firmly in place. BEE is clearly not working unless you are in the top echelons of the ANC in which case it is a top performer. Under the ANC little will change; yet it now must change. I can’t vote for people who enrich themselves by exploiting the suffering of others who stay poor.
Education is in the same decay spiral as the rest of the portfolios of government. We are short of teachers, the ones we have are often poorly trained and our schools are simply not improving. Big alarm bells should be ringing here. The people who were poorly educated during the last 14 years will leave a legacy for the next 50. The ANC seems incapable of decisive and radical action on this issue. I can’t vote for a party that spends R40-billion on arms and R300-million on a private presidential jet instead of improving our schooling and thereby our collective future. The ANC have let our children down. I will not vote for them.
Regarding the economy, the ANC has managed to put in a good performance. It stands alone as the only government portfolio not in a total mess. One hit is simply not enough to draw my vote. Of course, our draconian labour laws, stifling legislative compliance for small business and inexplicable lingering foreign exchange controls are all working hard to undermine this area of competence and keep us average. Our economic growth was also achieved during a period of unprecedented global boom. Hard times are here. Watch this space, especially under a leftist government faction.
I can’t vote for a party that drives its fat, smug members around at high speed to the detriment of normal people. I can’t vote for a party that offers people of the calibre of Jacob Zuma, Carl Niehaus and Julius Malema as their best and loudest voices. In good conscience and in the name of all things fair, ethical, progressive and democratic I simply can’t vote for the ANC. They had their chance and the results are less than satisfactory. They don’t deserve our votes any more. We need to give another party a chance to do better.
So let’s look at Cope:
Cope is comprised of ex-members of the ANC that figured they would soon be out of a job and jumped ship to start a new party. Many of them are personally responsible for the mess outlined above. I don’t believe Cope has the degree of separation required to be believable in what they promise. Cope, therefore, does not get my vote while there is a better option.
From a strategic perspective, if the ANC and Cope were the only two parties available, I would vote Cope. I would do this not because I believe them to be any more capable or less corrupt than the ANC; they virtually are the ANC. I would vote for Cope because both the ANC and Cope would perform better in power if they have a serious opposition. With 75% of the vote assured in every election, the ANC has very little incentive to perform.
It really shows. Let’s change that.
Remove that certainty and the same fatties who have been fleecing us without bothering to talk to us for the last 14 years realise they may be out of a lucrative job with BEE-ensured retirement billions slipping away with it. That means they will have to show something to their electorate. That can only be good.
Why I will vote DA:
Finally we have the DA for whom I will be casting my vote. The DA has long been the object of ANC propaganda. Not being able to find any real dirt, the only way the ANC has been able to discredit the DA is by literally calling it names. That’s not very mature but when you review ANC performance at all levels and its sense of entitlement, it is somewhat expected.
They refer to “GodZille” because they can’t say “Zille, who was responsible for arm’s deal corruption”. They labelled Leon as a white male hankering after the days of apartheid because everything he said in Parliament was incisive and exposed ANC irregularities and questioned their hegemony. Of course he was cheeky and disruptive. He had to be.
The ANC tried to manufacture dirt on Zille, so desperate were they for something to point a finger at. Dirt, they found has a way of sticking to its source when the whole Erasmus debacle was exposed.
I will be voting DA primarily because of what they have done with the little power they have. They are a constant voice of reason, a voice of maturity in a sea of carnage. They have condemned Mugabe from the outset. Helen Zille, world mayor of the year, has massive international respect. She has turned Cape Town around.
You can read the details here and here but all you really have to do is go to Cape Town to see what a great job they are doing there. Crime down 90% in the city centre since 2000. Unemployment down, debt down, improvements everywhere. Housing supply rates doubled, electrification in areas the ANC previously ignored.
So I am thinking let’s give them a shot. They deserve it. If they suck, we can always vote the ANC back in next time. It’s called democracy. Why win the right to vote and never use it to its potential?
And what if the DA is good or even great? What if they start to fix things in South Africa? What if they extend the Cape Town model to the whole country? What if they are actually able to improve service delivery, improve health and education and make us proud in the UN instead of the current lot that make us cringe?
They are the only serious party who can stand tall and say they had nothing to do with the arms deal, the HIV debacle and the Zimbabwe travesty. Their policies are centrist, pragmatic and make sense. They are policies that the developed world can engage with. They have the degree of separation required to form a fresh government. They may have a white leader but are fundamentally non-racial in philosophy regardless of what the ANC would have you believe.
The DA will not abandon transformation but will approach it in a fair and sustainable manner without enriching their leaders. They have shown what they can do. They have experience. They can point to a good track record and they have a leader who could reclaim our tattered international credibility and rebuild it.
I know the DA will not win this election. If conditions prevail, however, where Cope takes enough votes from the ANC, the DA will become the most powerful coalition partner available. In this role, they can amplify their influence and affect policy disproportionate to their size. Discount the DA at your peril. They may also win a province or two and show us more of what they can do at provincial level.
I will vote DA because they ultimately have the best chance of making South Africa into a leading nation with policy that unites and does not divide. That is a nation I want to be part of. That is a nation I could be proud of. I was proud in 1994. That pride has been repeatedly dented and battered by the ANC but I live in hope that it can be reclaimed. The ANC in government has been a monumental disappointment.
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67 Responses to “Why I will vote DA”
Grant,
You have just vividly demonstrated why people are willing to vote the ANC with a 2/3 majority. You start your thought process by a process of elimination and only highlighting the weaknesses of the ANC so that you can paint the positive picture about the DA. This indicates that you originally rather stand AGAINST something than FOR something. Unlike, Traps you haven’t mentioned one weakness of the DA (fightback campaign, lack of ambition)
I would have prefered you to have first told us what are the critical challenges facing the majority of voters and their vision of SA. Then followed by how the DA would be a solution in a positive way without mentioning the ANC first (perhaps mention the ANC last and in passing).
Your article has 52 citations of ANC against 21 citations for your prefered choice the DA. This indicates that you find it difficult to define the existence of the DA without the existence of the ANC. When I write, competitive sales proposals, I write more about my customer’s needs and my solutions that my competitor’s.
You do not place the concerns of the voters foremost in your thoughts but that of the parties. Your argument is that you will drink pepsi because coke has the biggest market share (higher market share means a monopoly, thus coke is bad). You are not drinking pespi because you are thirsty.
Your arguement does not convince the 2/3 ANC voters to change their voting.
I agree with you. Its a pity that you will attract much vitriol for your point of view. I too was proud in 1994. I rejoiced in the announcement that we would not tolerate corruption. I’ve been sadly disillusioned. Apart from the freedom to live and work where they choose, the poorest are NOT better off. What price promises?
I too would vote for the DA for most of the above reasons. Also, entrenched government is just a bad bad BAD idea - 14 years is too long for the same bunch to be in control.
Unfortunately I am a South African citizen living abroad and have been denied the right to vote.
This is fabulous. I think your argument is sound and reflects that you are thinking rather than just reacting.
I have been most critical of the DP/DA ever since they were conned into believing that opposition politics meant opposing everything even if was consistent with the DA’s own principles and policies.
And yes, for many years the ANC (through Pahad & Co) threw the Liberal label around like it was a swear word or a disease; and in response the DA retreated away from the Liberal label; such that today the DA’s constitution defines a Liberal party that never uses the word Liberal.
That is that the DA was scared away from defining itself in terms of what it is supposed to be - it began to deny its own identity. This has manifested itself over the last 9 years, with the DA shifting from its Liberal position to a moderate centrist position that endorses fundamentally il-liberal policies, like BBBEE for example.
As regards the ANC’s approach to dealing with the DA’s relentless condemnation of the ANC, in and by itself, it is not true that the ANC’s sole response is to insult the DA.
We have over the last while begun engaging with the DA on its own mandate, and have proved that the DA’s manifesto is at stark contrast with its constituted ideological principles.
Thank you Grant for a well reasoned and balanced piece.
The ANCs current slogan is “together we can do more”. There is no coincidence in that. The ANC is splitting up. So effectively it is own oppostion party. The funny thing is that between the ANC and COPE they don’t have an answer to our current problems becuase they have created them. Who would you vote for Winnie (ANC) or Boesak (COPE)? Its so hard to decide who is more incompetant. Both of these fine citizens where members of the ANC. We appreciate there efforts towards achieving South African liberation but their record since 1994 is shameful.
Most of South Africa will vote once gain for a liberation movement that tries so hard to a political party. Any guesses who I’m talking about - our beloved ANC. On every issue from service delivery to foreign policy they have failed. Mark my words the party will win but at what price.
Every five years ANC branches around wake up, my area include (Yeoville) and then rally their members them and then disappoint them.
Do I think that DA is perfect. NO. Do I believe Helen is without flaws. Heck, No. However, she has a vision for a nation that if followed will result in properity and competent and effective government.
The DA is the least imperfect party and that is why like you, Grant, I will vote for it.
Christopher-John Bompas on March 5th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
When are we going to start being true to ourselves and stop acting like we are objective while we know that we are not??
Bottom line is; You are going to vote for DA because you are white, nothing more, nothing less. Trying to justify it with a long essay that sounds like it was written by some South African expat in Vancouver/Sydney is total waste of time. Can we at least try to be original!!!
An indication of the hollowness of the DA’s offer is that when I attack the DA using il-liberal methods to question the DA’s Liberalness - none of the DA defenders come forward to defend the DA in terms of its Liberal principles.
This is because the DA’s footsoldiers have been denied their right to civic education from the DA - that is that the people advocating for the DA in the public space, are not au fait with the very principles and ideological orientation which inform the existence of the DA and the development of DA policies.
While you and 2 million others are free to vote for the DA, it would behove the DA to ensure that the DA’s activists are actually able to defend the DA on its own merits and not in terms of the mediated perception of the DA being more competent than the ANC.
The DA cites its success in Cape Town as the reason to vote DA; one wonders what efforts have been made to rehabilitate the homeless people and to rehouse the people living on sea sand and salt flats - so as to break this viscious cycle of anti-social behaviour and poverty.
It is clear that Cape Town has evolved into a class based society, where the vast majority of Capetonians are mere spectators, denied their right to equal citizenship. Actually, I say evolved when in fact this slavery has been the story of Cape Town for hundreds of years.
(1) first things first my friend, your da hardly spends time telling its supporters (you) about its policies or what it would do for ordinary South Africans, other than howling and whinging about what ANC does(n’t).
(2) your party leader is ill-disciplined, she spent two weeks trying to get over malema’s utterances. swearing him with all sorts of names in the book, as an elder you “would” anticipate her to be a bit matured, and leave the howls + insults to the da youth wing but unfortunately, the da has no youth wing, so everything is left to her to solve. command & control technique. however she still failed to do that in a civilised fashion. those were points lost, boet!
(3) now let’s get at the crux of your hollow argument, in your partisan analysis and da glossing, you’ve managed to mention the ANC name atleast 43 times, three times MORE than you did about your DA (15), and 7 times more than you’ve mentioned shikota (6)…this excludes names of ANC leaders, the name: ruling party & other ANC related stuff. That is a straight fail my friend, it seems as if you’re more passionate about ANC than you do about your da.
perhaps you should join ANC, mate…i’ll delightely process your membership form. just name the day & time…i’ll be ready as always.
Well said and many points very true and well done on pointing out DA as an alternative, but you got it all wrong on COPE (see reasons below)
I will personally still Vote ANC, for the following reasons:-
The recent turbulent times in the ANC are precisely as a reasult of ANC protecting the country from being hijacked by COPE cronies who over the period of 15 years were in Government and did every possible thing to oust those who understand the plight of the poor. The economy has been growing uninterupted so was poverty, why ? You said it corruption combined with greedy capitalist who could not invest in labour intensive programmes but opted for capital intensive business models. Pre-Polokwane ANC leaders now COPE were in charge and you rightly pointed it out it was under their watch.
So the ANC voted them out obviously assuming that they will still form part of the ANC organization but what they did, they formed COPE, for that reason COPE is of no national significance ask the masses.
On current ANC leadership and alleged corrupt practices, I am personally of the opinion that Zuma still needs to clear his name some how through our tried and tested justice system.
Scorpions, I really feel sorry for them I would have loved to see them remaining but they have certainly allowed political manipulation to infiltrate them at their inception (Bulelani Ngcuka) this did not do good for Vusi Pikoli, my favourate Director-General, & Mkodedi Mpshe.
Excellent, thorough, one for my files. All too sobering, though, because we know the ANC is going to be voted back into power by a landslide yet again. My fear is that when its supporters finally recognise the need for change, it will be too late. But maybe I’ll be surprised.
Im voting DA for all Grant’s reasons, but mostly they win my vote for their focus on the protection, care, and development of the nation’s children.
Their education policy is a masterpiece of creative interventions that accurately singles out and targets problems and deficiencies in the system.(but then Zille was MEC for Education for years). From my experience visiting dozens of schools around the country the DA’s identification of what is needed is on the button, and their solutions are simply brilliant. Like having master-teachers who cover several schools, and rewarding the good schools (instead of penalising them for their excellence!) And of course, feeding schemes to matric. Its heart-breaking to see how some schools battle to share meagre rations among the whole school because to feed only learners under 14 would be cruel and callous.)
The DA’s Social Development policies also prioritise children in need, and grants are linked to both education and child healthcare. Child Police Units and children’s courts will be resuscitated, and to top it off young adults needing a leg-up into FET or enterprise get an opportunity voucher.
So, my vote is for the children of this country. After all, they have to live with the consequences of my X for far longer than I do.
Just follow the responses from (some of) readers, many those who’re agreeing with him are from similar background…it has nothing to do with policies but everything to do with personalities….typical!
@ Siphiwo …
“.. your da hardly spends time telling its supporters (you) about its policies or what it would do for ordinary South Africans, other than howling and whinging about what ANC does(n’t).”
- media chooses the sound-bytes, Siphiwo, not the DA. Read their policies. They are well-written and easily understood.
“.. your party leader is ill-disciplined, she spent two weeks trying to get over malema’s utterances. swearing him with all sorts of names in the book, as an elder you “would” anticipate her to be a bit matured, and leave the howls + insults to the da youth wing but unfortunately, the da has no youth wing, so everything is left to her to solve. command & control technique. however she still failed to do that in a civilised fashion. those were points lost, boet!”
-Two weeks?? Howls and Insults? From which orifice did you suck this crap, Siphiwo? Helen rightly told Julius that he was immature. Full Stop.
” … now let’s get at the crux of your hollow argument”
… Siphiwo, when it comes to Hollow Arguments, you sure take the cake.
Is this worth the trouble of one’s response, my answer is a big “NO”. Look at his pigment, his profile and what did you expect? He talks as if in 1994 he voted otherwise and who is he duping? There won’t be anything new pal, actually I do not think ANC need your vote. DA needs it most, come back here on the 23rd or 24th of April and I can confidently tell you which vote mattered most your or mine. Hey listen to this “The ANC have slowly led us away from the glory days of Mandela and are constantly flirting with our freedom, our non-racial democracy and our hope for a better future” Ha ha ha ‘Glory Days of Mandela and are constantly flirting with our freedom’ Now to every white person, Mandela was the only black saint as if they all liked the terrorist. Is it not a joke that The ANC is flirting with his freedom. And what do I have to say if we (both this guy & myself) got freedom in 1994. Bro, do’nt lie you were free even before this time. For a black person person ANC have done so much like water, electr., houses etc.. These may not mean so much to you as you enjoyed all these even before ANC came to power, but to Mkhize and Mokoena they mean so much. Good Luck with your DA, or how is New Zealand or Australia, Bye
I stopped reading at “laughing stock of the world”. Who cares! As if those laughing their asses off at us back then has are living in perfectly managed, ethical and morally pure economies. Can the next DA supporter have a go please.
None of the ANC supporters are offering a coalition agreement in order to serve the country. Does that show dictatorial tendencies? Or is it merely an oversight in exploring political options?
If I had a vote in SA, I would vote for the Frogg party, the Flower party or the Blue Moon party any time before voting for another 5 years of ANC. The “C” standing for circus, corruption, clowns, crooks…… you name it.
Madoda and the other word counters - consider the references to the DA and ANC (so touched you bothered to count) as a list of Pros and Cons respectively. Why on earth would one go with the list of Cons (pun intended and enjoyed) when they way outnumber the Pros? Simple decision making 101 guys. Beggars belief actually.
All I am proposing here is that you critically review the ANC peformance and ask if it makes you proud. If you owned a country would you hire the ANC to run it? If not, use the machinery of the democracy everybody fought and died for to make a change. Why the hell not?
This mindless support of an ANC government and worship of its leaders simply speaks volumes about both the immaturity and insecurity of the South African voter. Be critical people. Expect big things from the candidates. Kick them out if they don’t deliver. Remember, they are not your masters but your servants. We pay their salaries.
Avishkar - The DA, being a party of the future and not the past, has realised for quite some time that youth activists are precisely what we do not need in South Africa right now. The ANC is awash with them and gets nothing done. Activists are useful for a revolution; they make a lot of noise and dance around (Malema…proud of him?) but make pretty poor administrators and governers. Thanks for pointing out yet another completely misguided facet of ANC culture and governance.
Great stuff Grant. Just a pity this is only a blog on Thought Leadership and not a short-version pamphlet distributed to every home in three or four SA languages.Viva DA.
1. South Africans votes are swayed by emotion, not logic The most irrational argument that keeps coming up is that the opposition insults the ANC by actually opposing, not supporting, them.
2. Our internet penetration is very low - only 10% of the population. Many poorer African countries have much better stats. Take your pick - is the ANC deliberately keeping the population ignorant (and voting for them) or is this a result of corruption and/or incompetance.
I would vote for the DA too if I was allowed to vote. I am on a two-year contract working in Dubai and thus am not allowed to vote. Trapido is out of his mind to vote for the ANC but then so is anyone who would even THINK about voting for Zuma and his cronies. The Shaik fiasco says it all.
The DA has failed miserably in becoming a viable opposition to the ANC, hence the emergence of Cope - a more inclusive opposition party that can keep the ANC honest.
Seems like the white elephant in the room that no one likes talking about is the racial composition of the DA party. How in the world can one vote for the DA when it is still resembles a country club where the upper echelons of the hierachy is still dominated by whites! In the US and UK, this kind of token integration would still be believable considering their population makeup but in SA this is crazy! Why after 14 years hasn’t the DA reached out to more blacks? Seems like old habits die hard.
Only until the DA is be able to attract more blacks to their party will they regain political momentum. The DA has much to contribute but they need to be shaken from their delusional slumber or face being sidelined by Cope and ultimately rendered obsolete in time.
Siphiwo, Wandile - your posts confirm that many people are voting with party loyalty born out of apartheid race-based politics. It has zip to do with critical analysis of performance in government which is what democracy is actually about.
You then go on to try and simplify my analysis and judge me by your own standards. I have put forward the exact reasons why I will not vote ANC. No colour included. You have no answer to these and like the ANC attacks the DA personally and childishly, so you engage in the same behaviour. You can’t dispute the facts above with anything like a weighty argument so you try to belittle, apply the race card and stoke up the cadres.
Liberation is over. This is the hard work and good governance phase. The ANC was a superb liberation movement; they are a crap government. You suffer as much as I do for not realising that. You talk of how much it means to get houses and water and electricity. Imagine a decent non-corrupt government that could give more people houses and water and electricity quicker without stealing your money.
You are satisfied with the status quo. That is not good enough for me. I ask for more. Your satisfaction will result in an ever-increasing lack of output from the ANC. We will all have to live with it until one day it eventually occurs to you that maybe it is time to try another party.
Avishkar - There is an idiotic idea floating around that an opposition should not oppose ruling party regularly and relentlessly to spark debate and ensure that dubious policy does not slip through parliament. What then, precisely is the role of the opposition?
a) to say nothing
b) to agree with everything
c) to oppose proposals by the ruling party to initiate debate and point out flaws and bias.
I go with (c) every time as any thinking person must so lets drop this crude and convenient notion of an opposition that sits quietly on the benches and lets the ANC run riot in parliament as they regularly try to do.
The DA is not a liberation movement. They don’t sing songs to their supporters. In fact they are a pretty boring party with no activists or fire breathing windbags. That is precisely why I want them in government.
Who is in charge of Sweden? Switzerland? New Zealand? Canada? These are some of the globe’s best run, most socially aware, ethical, hard working successful governments and nobody knows who the prime ministers/presidents are. Thats because they are public servants who get the job done. They get kicked out when they screw up. We have a long way to go. Your words “footsoldiers” and “activists” are in direct polarisation to this. They hold comfortable company with “revolution” and “liberation” when all we actually need is plain old boring good governance.
Owen - interesting view. I suspect that the DA members are so surprised when they actually do get 10 seconds of TV time inbetween ANC and COPE hour that they forget their PR training
With a media dominated by the ANC and the SABC virtually a turbo-charged ANC propaganda engine, its no surprise that the DA is blocked at every turn and edited to look the way the ANC wants them to look.
1) They brought freedom
2) They restored my dignity
3) We have had a fair share of white presidents - & i am sorry it wasn’t a good experience
4) Since 1994, I have seen at least 10 Schools built in my township - no learner studies under a tree in my township.
5) Since 1994, I have seen at least 5 clinics built in my township
6) The ANC government installed water taps in almost every household in my township
7) Through the ANC government, my orphaned cousins have a house to live in Through the ANC Government, we have tarred roads in my township
9) Through the ANC government I was able to get finance (NSFAS) to study a degree of my choice at an institution of my choice
10) My entire township has electricity
11) It is the party of OR Tambo, Chief Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu … (what a rich history!)
Grant, did u notice that i make no mention of other parties?
& Grant “Under their governance South Africa has slowly crumbled from an international success story and an African leader brimming with promise to a largely mismanaged and morally corrupt nation state”.
So are you saying that Apartheid was an international success story? i’d advise you go back to your history teacher and demand your money back because s/he miseducated you.
You say that the AIDS denialism was only ended by Hogan. Your ignorance only shows that you are swayed by race to vote for the DA. Madlala-Routledge, Dlamini-Zuma and several other ministers took the helm of AIDS and worked towards alleviating it.
@ Lyndall Beddy.
You’re saying that the ANC keeps people ignorant so that they vote for it. You clearly have a low opinion of blacks so what makes you think they would support a party with people who have such racist attitudes?
In the last election, only 45% of voters turned up. If a substantial chunk of the remaining 55% were to turn up, they would most certainly boost the ANC. That means, even with COPE around, the ANC will have more than 2/3 majority. People are not stupid. They are not fooled by claims that South Africa’s wealth is all in the hands of a few ANC elite. They can see that whites are still the wealthiest while the majority of blacks are dirt poor. How can they not? A great many of them still work as servants in white homes.
Do you live in Cape Town? Have you seen any of these improvements you speak of? Or are you reading propaganda?
In case you’ve missed this, here goes:
1. Did you know that Cape Town is the tik capital of the world?
2. You should know that Nyanga, Cape Town, is the murder capital of SA.
3. You are aware that the housing problem is the most acute in this very city? So where do you come with this ‘Housing is up’ nonsense?
4. Have you ever been to Nyanga where there are potholes in which you can bury a person alive?
5. When it rains in Cape Town, have you ever visited any township? Drainage doesn’t work because it doesn’t exist!! There are plenty areas where they have some; those tend to be the historically White areas. And my goodness, do they ‘preserve’ that privilege!!
There are many more gripe about Cape Town I cabn share with you. I definitely need more than 250 words.
Don’t assume that the rubbish you read in propaganda material is true. It is not. Be a critical thinker. It’ good for you.
I forgot to mention unemployment. It is most acute in Cape Town due to us being largely a one industry town namely clothing and textiles. And it’s been going on for years not just now under the prevailing economic conditions.
The DA doesn’t care about the poor. They want to make sure that there is a constant cheap supply of black labour for priviledged whites. I guess blacks are tired of looking after babies while their own are left often inattended. They want dignified jobs. Whites should learn to clean after themselves, change their own children’s nappies and get used to the fact that blacks don’t want to live in shacks. It might be hard at first but the more we narrow the gap between the rich and poor the better chances we have of reducing crime. So blacks don’t want to vote for the party (DA) that ensures that the dynamics of Apartheid are kept in place. For those who benefit from being white and priviledged and want to mantain that priviledge which they were procured through the suffering of others, ofcourse the DA is an obvious choice, You don’t even need to waste yours and our time explaining yourself.
I work for an NGO in Khayelitsha and my heart bleeds each time I see the desolation, sense of hopelessness and injustice of inequality in this country. As a Jew whose father was humiliated and died gruesomely in Poland, I cannot bear to see others suffer simply because of something they can’t change; that they are black. Racism is the root of ALL evil! Vote for your racist parties. Thank God they won’t get far!
Good points Grant and your reponses to the ANC apologists. Its high time the blinkered cadres wake up. As you point out, the liberation of SA has already taken place, good government is required. The fact that the ANC is unable to move on from the liberation rhetoric of yesteryear shows how politically bankrupt it is. Sadly the poor/illiterate/poverty stricken masses will vote in the ANC again because they still relate to rhetoric espoused by Malema and co, principally because their situations haven’t improved, thanks hugely to their party of choices lack of delivery. The ANC thrives on illiterate ignorance, cadre deployment, cronysim and corruption. They make me sick.
“If conditions prevail, however, where Cope takes enough votes from the ANC, the DA will become the most powerful coalition partner available”.
Cope has to take those votes first!
This election is, or should be, about breaking ANC hegemony, about ending a political monopoly, as any monopoly, be it public, private or governmental is a source of corruption and is bad for business because it is a monopoly, not because of past performance or particular persons.
Cope has the best chance to break ANC hegemony , regardless of irrelevancies such as policies or manifestos or past performance of persons but because they are black and embody personalities with struggle credentials…this is the ONLY ‘broad based’ formula in town.
On their own, the DA has no chance; regardless of irrelevancies such as policies or manifestos but because they are white lead and have no struggle credentials…therefore they MUST embody a latent agenda to reinstate ‘Wit Baaskap’ and a return to institutionalized white privilege…sorry!
This election is, or should be, about voting AGAINST something. (ANC hegemony)
Exclusive rule by the ANC is not bad for our country because it is the ANC; it is bad because it constitutes a political monopoly.
The ANC would serve our country and its people much more representatively and effectively if excesses were to be tempered by the influence of an effective opposition…we probably have one last chance to make this happen!
Wandile Dube wrote:
“Is this worth the trouble of one’s response, my answer is a big “NO”. Look at his pigment, his profile and what did you expect?”
The same could be said of Wandile. Is race the only thing of importance to you? It is apparently the only thing you see, anyway.
Mbeki’s stance on AIDS made me wonder if Mbeki’s whole agenda was to reduce the population of this continent. I couldn’t think of any other reason why he would deny his people hope. Now it seems that his only objection was the skin colour of the people who said that HIV caused AIDS.
When you are blind to anything but the colour of peoples’ skins you are walking down a dangerous path. Whether you are white or black.
I will vote DA simply because I believe a more competitive democracy will deliver better services. Yes, I’m only 1 of 23,000,000 registered voters in SA, so my vote is very small, but it is the same for all SAns. If only 3mn other voters who, like me, previously voted for the ANC decide to vote for other parties, the 40% gap between the opposition and the ANC in 2004 will shrink to only 15%.
The solutions to the challenges that face SA will, in 95% of cases, be the same irrespective of who governs because it will be the same bureacrats and consultants who develop the policies, strategies and plans. I belief a more competitive democratic environment will lead to better & more effective implementation of those plans & strategies.
Yes, the DA governance of Cape Town may have been better than the ANC, but there is also many DA run municipalities that are failing their communities. Similarly, there are good and bad ANC run municipalities, as there are good and bad run IFP municipalities. The DA/NNP run Western Cape was also a poor government. But, on average, I belief the DA to better.
While the formation of COPE is good for democracy in SA, they must still proof themselves to me. Most of their individuals have not governed well when they were in government.
Hey Grant, I’ve only really been interested in politics for the past two years and over these 2 years many things have become evident to me. The most obvious one (for me personally) being that the ANC cannot seem to effectively run our country.
As you validly pointed out, they have had 14 years to prove themselves, and have very little too show for their efforts. Almost every week there are stories of corruption/mismanagement in varying portions of the government. I can’t see how the voting public can be happy with things as they currently are. Do they really believe that JZ will solve the root problems in the ANC? (Corruption and mismanagement being the root problems in my mind). The man is facing multiple counts of corruption, yet they expect him to fare better than his predecessors?
My grandparents are 80+ white Afrikaans farmers and in my mind, they are pretty narrow minded on their views of our new South Africa. I’ll stop short of calling them racists but sometimes they do have a point. Their point being that many things have become worse under ANC rule. Our crumbling infrastructure is a clear indication that the current ruling party are not doing their job.
On the other hand we have an opposition party, the DA, which have proven that they can effectively run a city, yet no one seems to think of them as a viable alternative…
Ain’t democracy great! Whatever you think about either the ANC or DA this debate makes me proud to be a South African. Who amongst our forefathers would ever have thought we would or even could have a debate like this!
Nice of Grant to take Owen’s point. However it might be somewhat confusing if the DA were to refer to the ANC as the opposition - even ‘out opposition’ as the DA is currently the ‘official opposition’ and it might sound as if they were referring to themselves. That could be very unfortunate. There are similarities between politics and business, but they are not exactly the same. Importantly, a business exists to make a profit, and everyone understands that. A political party wants to run the country and everyone knows that. But not everyone knows on what principles they intend to work, so the party needs to define these AND show precisely how they differ from those of other parties. CocaCola does not have to bother about what Pepsi is made of, so ‘knocking copy’ is unnecessary and undesirable. This well-know adman principle does not work in politics however.
First - which way people vote is a matter for them to decide and it is all fine by me - just so long as they do vote. Choice is democracy in action.
But by any standard this is a well argued case and I suspect that those who do not like it, like Madoda, because it lists the ANC’s shortcomings, have already made up their mind to vote ANC. Fine. But they should remember two things.
No sensible opposition party is after voters loyal to the other side. It is trying to turn those who are capable of being turned - the uncertain, the floating voters. Floating voters won’t object to hearing the things they themselves think are wrong with the ANC: that is how to get their attention. They will love it.
It is only wrong to attack the ANC to those who vote ANC. It is the right thing to do for the everyone else.
If you do not believe that, you must ask yourself why all opposition parties in democratic countries knock the other side as standard practice. The obvious recent example was Obama’s platform -’Change’. Of course he talked policies also. But you do not win elections by handing out compliments to the guys in power.
A fine piece, Grant. I hope you are trying to get it published more widely.
Grant, I’m not a DA supporter, but political persuasions aside, your argument is logical, well-reasoned and above all, true. (Traps, by comparison, exhibited an astounding display of muddled thinking and non-sequiters in the post which inspired yours).
However, reading the comments on this post makes me despair for our country. Let’s call it like it is: South Africa votes along racial lines, a couple of shining exceptions notwithstanding. For all intents and purposes, the perception of 85% of this country is that there exists one “black” party and one “white” party (with various insignificant Zulu, Afrikaner and other special interest parties making up the rest). The ANC is unique amongst governmnets in that ongoing neglect of its people actually works in its favour.
Come on guys,
race or no race at the end you all south africans. it is time to join hands. come on, all of you ought to be better than that, black or white.
it is a priviledge to vote make it count. you can be pro anc, but you can still use your vote to keep them in check. put your country and your people first.
it is important to see that this are new times. look at other african countries where parties rule for 30 years that is the same thing that weakens the country. south africa is still an example in the countinent. I dont want to witness its fall to african standards please excerce your power. the time is now
Grant this is a masterpiece. It brings to togethger everything that is wrong with the ruling party and does so in a well balanced and unemotional style.
Not one of the respondents who disagrees with your analysis of the ANCs shortcomings has made any attempt to refute your critical statements on the basis of fact. This should actually be easy if their blind faith in the ANC was grounded in reality. Instead they trot out the usual insults and flirt around the edges of racism with their references to white voters. They are actually quite easy to ignore.
I will also be voting for the ANC, not because I am white (which I am) but because I share the values and concerns so eloquently dealt with in your article.
I went halfway thru your post and had to stop reading. While I fully agree with you, the ANC/South African government is full of holes I have to say your post smacks of hidden racism. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to vote and if I was my vote would most certainly not be cast in the ANC’s direction but your post refer’s to “their people”??? Spend most of your life oppressed the way the black man of yester-year did and then have huge amounts of power given to you … you wouldn’t get things right, would you? But having the right colour skin you couldn’t even fathom such a thing.
Your attitude is destroying South Africa just as much as the ANC and as long as you voice & believe such opinions, any chance of South Africa succeeding as a nation is stifled.
Kudos to you though for bringing to the fore what most of “your people” are thinking but too coward to speak it.
siyabonga ntshingila on March 6th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Grant,
Throwing insults by calling people who vote for the ANC is not a way to win an argument. Words like: mindless; immaturity and insecurity of the South African voters does not persuade voters away from supporting the ANC.
ANC supporters are more critical and effective in criticisizing the ANC govt than the DA. Compare Traps’s critisisms of the ANC to your worship of the DA. You are not critical about the fact that the DA and its supporters lack ambition to govern South Africa. I can only expect big things from the candidates who are prepared to govern and implement their programs.So far, the DA has not bothered to have presence and campaign in areas where the ANC gets its 2/3 support and address the concerns shared by those voters.
Why stand for elections with the intention of not winning? Why is Helen Zille a Western Cape primier candidate and not the the presidential candidate? Why do all the supporters of DA accept that the ANC will win the elections?
Your answers to these questions (together with the DA) is to call voters mindless, immature and insecure. It is not persuasive to voters. Parties must address voters needs and not the weaknesses of other parties. If the DA can win the elections, the weaknesses of the ANC will still be there but poverty, unemployment and economic hardships will still remain. Why vote for an organisation that does not speak to the voters’ concerns but insults them?
I think all you have to look at is the state of our country when Madiba left power and the state of our country now. The leadership of our nation has steadily let all the standards slip to a level that is unacceptable. We need a change, change is good! Change will bring new ideas into the stagnant cistern that is our struggling democracy. We should no longer look to the past to find faults at which to point fingers but rather focus on the problems of now.
For me the party that seems to be the most focused on improving our country for our entire rainbow nation is the DA.
Our government sadly seems too focused on fighting a battle, not to better the lives of its people but rather to overcome an opponent and therefore I feel my vote is in vain. Whatever party I vote for on the day I will be inadvertently taking a side in a battle that has kept our nation from reaching its full potential on an international level since its founding.
We are all one nation now and should stop bickering and blaming white people or black people for our nation’s problems. Rather let’s get the best people we can, into positions where they can make the changes we all so desperately need. For this however we need trustworthy, honest people, which seem to be in short supply in South African politics.
This obsession with COPE is really funny. The only thing COPE has proven over the past three months is that they can’t. Consider: this Wednesday past, COPE contested by-elections in the townships around Port Elizabeth. This was supposed to be their stronghold. They launched their manifesto there, and persuaded 8 ANC councillors to resign their R300k-a-year jobs and stand under the COPE banner. They got smashed, polling only 18% - and this was in their strongholds! Imagine what will happen in KZN, Limpopo, Mpumalanga. My prediction: COPE will get no more than 7% on 22 April. Oh, and I also vote DA, because it’s proven that it can govern, and the candidates refelects our country’s demographics better than any other party.
Lyndall YES YES YES - Proven success not so ?
” is the ANC deliberately keeping the population ignorant (and voting for them)”" AFRICAN SOLUTION
I was interested in COPE until I read this article !
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=120161&sn=Detail
COPE has a duty to the electorate to state unambiguously its position on a post-election coalition with the ANC.
Voters have a right to know whether they are voting for an alternative to the ANC or simply a vehicle that will deliver their vote to the ANC.
My challenge to Dandala [[he left the door open]]
and the COPE leadership is this:
Come out and tell the voting public where you stand. Will you go into a coalition with the ANC or not?
If COPE forms a coalition with the ANC it will betray every COPE voter who thought they were going to get an alternative to the ANC.
This is what the Independent Democrats did when it went into a coalition with the ANC in the City of Cape Town. “”
The voters never forgave them.
A viable opposition party must offer a clear alternative, rooted in a sound political philosophy and vision of the future.
All the things you list were done with taxpayers money not with ANC money. The trouble is that they could have done twice as much if they were not so inefficient and so corrupt, and riddled with cronyism and deployments of unqualified cadres to priority jobs.
Phillipa
I did not say people are ignorant. I said that the ANC thinks that keeping people ignorant gets them votes. However I am not sure the policy works as well as the ANC wants - which is why the voter turn out was low.
Perry
Cope must first break the monopoly of the ANC?
Cope is a breakaway group of the ANC.
As Helen Zille has pointed out, Cope is more likely to go into coaltion with the ANC than with any other party/[parties.
Grant
I will be voting ANC becouse I am a worker and seems I could be for the rest of the my life so DA laws on workers makes ANC permanent choice Zuma or not
In your eagerness to malign the DA and white people you overlook:
1.Tik not a new problem and affects mainly the coloured population on the Cape Flats. It is not a symptom of DA / white neglect. A tragedy and Zille was arrested last year when she supported anti drug initiatives in the area. She attracted criticism from the ANC. No ANC leader has ever become personally involved in this way.
2.Nyanga may be the murder capital of SA but this is a function of runaway urbanisation and illegal immigration which the ANC provincial and national government have done nothing to manage or control.
3. The housing problem is largely a function of poor ANC Provincial government who are the responsible party not the DA city Government. ANC provincial governemnt has made every effort to undermine the DA city managers
4. The Nyanga potholes are a disgrace but what did the previous ANC administration do to sort this out. The DA are working hard to sort out these problems but there is a huge backlog exacerbated by prior ANC incompetence.
5. The drainage problem is a function of the aforementioned uncontrolled influx and the residents have consistently ignored pleas not to build below flood levels. No amount of drainage can deal with homes built in riverbeds.
I live in an “historically white area” and we have seen a marked decline in the standards of maintainance. We accept this as a function of a more equitable distribution of service delivery.
I very much doubt that unemployment in Cape Town is the worst in South Africa. What about the Eastern Cape and KZN. In any event the unemployment in the clothing and textile industry is a direct result of the ANCs unflexible labour policies and far more competitive Chinese imports.
Phillipa - “So are you saying that Apartheid was an international success story? i’d advise you go back to your history teacher and demand your money back because s/he miseducated you.”
Phillipa, I would like to point out that at no point did I mention apartheid being a success story. Thats your take and your fuzzy logic somehow deduced that.
I maintain that in 1994 we stood on the verge of great things that have not been achieved. The reason they have not been achieved is due to an inept and corrupt ANC.I think it is time to give someone more ethical a chance to govern…thats all. At least we could then compare, not so?
To Bonginkosi and others who ply us with lists of what the ANC has done - At no point did I say that the ANC has done nothing at all. I am maintaining that to toss people a dry crust from the bakery window when the place is brimming with freshly baked bread is a travesty. The ANC voter, previously starving, seems happy with the crust however. I know there is bread in there and I want more than crust. We need a baker to open the doors and Zuma ain’t the guy for the job.
I dare say you are not a good reader at all. It makes me ashamed to think the two of us are both electrical engineers. I have not come out in support of the ANC at all in my submissions; maybe you assume it because I am Black!!!!!
The only thing I questioned was the supposed ‘track record’ of the DA that you had read of in Wikipedia!! The postings in Wikipedia are ridiculous; they have been know to be EXTREMELY partisan in recent posting.
GIVE ME FACTS. I live in Cape Town, you live up north. Do not assume anything you do not know. Please, brother, as a scientific person you should at least have some healthy for scepticism. Test all your theories before you committ.
Grant this is an exceptional article and, like a couple of others have mentioned, I really hope you are motivated to make it more widely read. Have it translated into other SA languages and get it out there.
Commentators on this post who say that South Africa is still largely gripped by a racist mindset are validated by the many other commentators whose comments take a racial slant. Sadly such commentators often appear to have an uncritical faith in the ANC as a government despite their obvious failings in government as listed by @Grant.
The ANC’s biggest failing as far as I am concerned is their resurrection of racist legislation in the form of AA and BEE. Racism of any kind at any level from the individual to the government is absolute poison to the healthy development of any society and we South Africans, of all the peoples in the world, should know that, but, sadly the ANC seems to be of the opinion that tempered racism delivered in an attempt to counter the ravages wrought by previous racsim is okay. Racism is poison who ever administers it.
Thank you Grant..for every single reason ..for every single logical conclusion , that you have so clearly stated…I too will be voting for the DA. Heaven forbid..that we as a nation -accept incompetence,corruption,nepotism and criminal acts amongst our politicians - as being acceptable. I believe..Only by striving for better ..do we have a hope to improve ourselves..to accept all the above in our peers - is to condone it..and there is nothing ,to be proud, in that. That is why I will vote DA.
Anyway, got the same problem. DA doesn’t reach out to me and tell me how they plan to do stuff. I’ve lived in Cape Town for 8years and sadly i see a great imbalance to this service delivery. Take a walk down Page street or Nyanga at night and tell me if anything has changed in the past 12 years.
the other sad thing is that certain crime doesn’t get reported to avert a decline in tourism. Constantia is now the house-robbery capital. i perceive the same problems now as under Nomaindia Mfeketo.
And this argument that COPE is ex ANC can be countered that DA consists of large numbers of NP peeps. it doens’t hold water.
but interesting post, especially the comments.
Keep it up and convince me why i should vote DA. Sad that the only face of the DA (at least in the media) is Helen. Who will they deploy when they win?
The election is now past. Unfortunately, Cope is defunct because it is plagued by the same mistakes the ANC has made. However, the article is a masterpiece and as a retired electronics engineer, I am proud of its impeccable logic, clear thinking and excellent formulation. All of those, who violently disagreed showing a mindless support of an ANC government and worship of its leaders will eat their words ones the chickens come home to roost, i.e. when in a few years the tragically failed education, health, water and electricity resource management, environmental degradation due to relentless new mining permits, etc. will emerge to show dire and unfixable results impossible to deny.
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The human brain is made of atoms. Atoms consist primarily of empty space. It is fair to say, therefore, that my head is basically empty. That will please those of you who disagree with what I say until it dawns on you that your head is empty too.
So, based on the undeniable fact that our heads are fundamentally comprised of emptiness, is anything we think or say of any real value?
Probably not.
Remember that next time you are fuming at some point of view contrary to your own.
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Through the ANC Government, we have tarred roads in my township
Grant,
You have just vividly demonstrated why people are willing to vote the ANC with a 2/3 majority. You start your thought process by a process of elimination and only highlighting the weaknesses of the ANC so that you can paint the positive picture about the DA. This indicates that you originally rather stand AGAINST something than FOR something. Unlike, Traps you haven’t mentioned one weakness of the DA (fightback campaign, lack of ambition)
I would have prefered you to have first told us what are the critical challenges facing the majority of voters and their vision of SA. Then followed by how the DA would be a solution in a positive way without mentioning the ANC first (perhaps mention the ANC last and in passing).
Your article has 52 citations of ANC against 21 citations for your prefered choice the DA. This indicates that you find it difficult to define the existence of the DA without the existence of the ANC. When I write, competitive sales proposals, I write more about my customer’s needs and my solutions that my competitor’s.
You do not place the concerns of the voters foremost in your thoughts but that of the parties. Your argument is that you will drink pepsi because coke has the biggest market share (higher market share means a monopoly, thus coke is bad). You are not drinking pespi because you are thirsty.
Your arguement does not convince the 2/3 ANC voters to change their voting.
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