Looks like the party is over

We were out to dinner with visiting South Africans when talk turned, inevitably, to the forthcoming general election. “I never thought to ask,” said Himself to me, “but who are you actually voting for? The DA?” I raised a tipsy eyebrow. “That,” I told him, “is the delight of democracy. It’s a secret, and I don’t have to tell you anything.” “But,” said he. My eyebrow crashed down, closing any further discussion of the matter.

The next morning, I revisited the topic in my own mildly hungover head. Who was I voting for? What are the options, South Africa?

The National Assembly currently has 400 members; the ANC has 230 seats, the DA has 84, and the EFF holds 44. We all know the ruling party has coasted on Madiba’s legacy for too long. Despite initially delivering freedom, democracy, and hope – remember the RDP housing going up, the new flag, the rainbow nation? – it has stopped delivering. We all know this; we know that the pundits, brains and dreamers think, for the first time since 1994, the ANC may dip below a 50% majority threshold. The party is over.

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Load shedding and water issues aside, crime aside, upwards of 60% of South Africa’s youth are unemployed. The reality of daily life is not remotely aligned with the aspirations that we dangle in front of our “born free” children. Inequality is greater in South Africa than ever, the highest in the world. Our rich are filthy rich, our poor are dirt-poor. We may not have a famine, but we have so much hunger, so much need – yet our politicians feed us dreams.

Who can change things? South Africa has an ironclad one-persons one-vote system, so we may feel that – like the US – we should vote pragmatically, even while holding our noses. That might mean the DA: a bitter pill, but one that says it holds a cure. Yet I understand completely the urge to vote for those self-proclaimed changemakers, those rowdy disruptors of the EFF. When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. But there are another 11 parties in the national assembly. They could be kingmakers. I’m going to look at their manifestos. I’ll let you know… or not, because it’s my secret. But I will vote because ultimately, we can change things.

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