Voting is like cereal: keep changing till it suits you
October 26, 2009 Edition 1
Quentin Wray
This must be one of the quotes of the year for ANC Youth League president Julius Malema. This nugget of wisdom, spoken during a debate on nationalisation with veteran journalist Tim Cohen and Old Mutual South Africa chief executive Kuseni Dlamini and recorded for posterity by Sapa, says more about Malema and the current state of the ANC than any critic ever could.
I have never been a member of the ANC although I regularly voted for it in the early days of this democracy. I had great respect for much of what it stood for and, like so many, I believed it represented South Africa's best hope for a brighter future.
I liked that it was a broad church wherein all those opposed to the horrors of apartheid could find succour.
I appreciated the depth and breadth of its intellectual traditions and the fact that it was able to put the greater good above narrow self interest during the transition to democracy.
A lot of the people who made me believe this still belong to the upper echelons of the party and remain loyal to it.
In public they stand by the decisions of the collective as disciplined cadres should but, in private, they speak out. They despair about the elevation of mediocrity, they yearn for a bit of decorum and they hate the thuggishness that is now part of the public discourse.
These people remain within the ANC not only because their jobs depend on it (although it helps), but also because they can't bear to leave the organisation that gave them a home and an identity when things were at their bleakest.
Quitting the ANC is no more an option for them than nuclear physics is for young Julius. They remain confident the ANC can be won back and until then, they steer the ship of state as best they can.
I am not a typical South African in that my approach to politics is that voting is like buying corn flakes. If you don't like what you've got, you change brands. You do this until you find one that works for you.
If enough people agree with you, you win, and, if not, you live with it. Losing parties try to figure out why they lost, while winners remain vigilant to ensure hubris doesn't set in.
This doesn't happen here. The losers don't change enough to become winners and the winners operate on the assumption that they will be buying taxpayer-funded BMW 750s until the second coming of Christ. I don't understand the fierce loyalty the ANC (or any political party) inspires, but I don't doubt its power.
I've seen it in action, I've seen how blind it can make people and it scares me.
Over the past 15 years the ANC has allowed itself to become just another political party - no worse than many - but certainly no better than most.
The organisation that could once comfortably host the best and the brightest alongside the broad mass of ordinary people has been consigned to the dustbin of history. It no longer exists.
If the only consequence of this was the impoverishment of a political party and the prostitution of a once fine set of ideals, that would be bad enough.
But with South Africa dropping to 129 out of 182 countries in the UN's latest Human Development Index rankings, it is clear it is not only the party faithful who are paying the price.
We all are.
