Election dreams dashed, again

If you are looking for a quick way to suffocate from an air of hope, wait for election season.

Although the hope is a bag full of (unfounded) dreams, it is hope that is sold and bartered on the currency of the voter’s desire for a functional and liveable country.

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From the promises to eradicate the dysfunction of the ruling party to the promises of improved services that may not have failed – that is the good stories can only get better, singing their praises of what is yet to (perhaps) be broken.

If only the dashing of hope and dissipating of dreams did not come as quickly, when the temporary structures of tents and tables are put away, the cleanup crews are wringing the mops and the failures begin to slowly creep in and find the way into the reality of the voting choices made.

When losing parties are quick to remind voters that their reality is their choice and to live with it, is their punishment!

Again, we ask, when do voters see past the electioneering, the prospects of success for targets set and the fertility of the ground where dreams are made? Can we really be gullible enough to not see past the unattainable?

When social grants were introduced, opposition parties lamented them, they reminded us of the heavy burden on the economy – come election time.

They propose a higher rand value, what of the weight on the economy, the dependency state being created?

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Is this an admission that political parties piggyback on the blueprints of a party they claim has failed?

The same ruling party, which has a festering wound of corruption that spreads to a point where infrastructure has been decimated under its watch, where the latter days of their elected officials and leaders are marred by corruption, theft and blatant disservice to the people of the republic.

Who then do we vote for, believe in? This is a country where political parties pop up faster than microwave popcorn.

When the economy has even the most hard-working, penny-pinching middle-class homes in a chokehold, barely breathing, watching on screen as the likes of Edwin Sodi can buy multimillion-rand homes while under investigation, the most honest citizens are ducking and diving from major retailers’ debt collection departments.

It is disheartening, but when you listen to electioneering campaigns, one dares to believe – only for election season to pass and one must loathe the dashed dreams that come with the lies of elections.