Dreaming of a better country

Yes, I may be terminally optimistic. The lovely Snapdragon is probably right when she calls me a hopeless romantic, a dreamer.

But I have high hopes that next week’s elections may just change our beloved country for the better.

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That after several elections where parties promised voters the moon and forgot those voters and those promises as soon as the elections were over. But I believe things will be better this time around.

We are facing a strong possibility of coalition politics after Wednesday.

Coalitions bring their own problems – it’s a clumsy form of rule, with people at the top being accountable to separate parties rather than the citizens.

In coalitions, politicians have to make compromises and things happen much slower. But even with that in mind, I afford myself the luxury of dreaming of a better South Africa.

A country where everything works, there are job opportunities, the economy is growing, where children have quality education and where a functioning health care system is more than just pie in the sky.

Which party will give me the country of my dreams? I don’t know. Looking at the leaders of existing parties, I have to admit the options are few and far between. There’s the guy whose funding is suspect, who hides serious cash in his furniture.

There’s an armed robber, a man who has cheated on his wife, a doctor who has been accused of having his female patients undress too far for a vitamin injection, one who is implicated in a bank scandal and several who have been effectively axed from other parties.

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As Gayton McKenzie said during the signing of the IEC’s code of conduct: there are only two kinds of politicians – those who have been in jail and those who are on their way to jail.

Will I decide to ignore politicians’ private lives and only look at their manifestos? Will I select the ones who represent the lesser evils?

I don’t know. But I know one thing.

This weekend I’ll think about the issue at hand and make an informed decision. Come election day, I will know where to draw my three crosses.

And I will know those decisions were made carefully and responsibly. I hope your selections will be made with the same seriousness as mine, dear reader.

So that we will be able to dream together come June.