Apathy a sad day for democracy

According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, democracy means, literally, rule by the people.

The term is derived from the Greek dēmokratia, which was coined from dēmos (“people”) and kratos (“rule”). The reference to “the people” is taken by most to mean “the majority of the people”.

Democracy in South Africa

By that definition, the local government elections in South Africa in 2021 were the exact antithesis of democracy.

The figures are stark and bear pondering. Just three out of every 10 people who were eligible to vote (that is, all those over the age of 18) actually cast their votes.

The vast majority of South Africans – 7 out of every 10 – didn’t bother. And that is the reality, no matter that the official voter turnout was around 45% of those who registered to vote.

Coalitions

Even that latter figure is shocking because more than half who went through the processes to get their names on to the voters’ roll didn’t make the journey to the polling stations on Monday.

Now that the horse-trading between the big and small parties has begun over seats in councils, and even national policies, the death of real democracy in this country is even more apparent.

These politicians – even those from the ANC and the DA, which took the lion’s share of the ballots between them – are actually, when you look at the numbers, minority representatives of a minority.

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A sad day for democracy

And they get to dictate to 7 out of 10 citizens what happens to them in municipal areas for the next five years.

And because of the compromises and sordid deals which will be struck, these minority players will decide for the country on issues like land expropriation.

One could say people deserve this for not registering or not voting.

But it remains a sad indictment of politics that it leaves so many cold.

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