Spare us a political debate

Thanks to another unnecessary consequence of cultural imperialism, South Africans find themselves wanting a local version of yet another American thing.

No, not The Voice, X-Factor, Survivor or Idols but the US presidential debate.

Debate is an important form of discourse in every democracy and although the American machine has wonderfully mastered the art of turning it into a spectacle, there is absolutely no need for South Africa to do the same.

The first US general election presidential debate was held on 26 September, 1960 and was showdown between the Democratic nominee US Senator John F Kennedy and Vice-President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee.

Almost 60 years later, the world tuned in to watch Donald Trump and Joe Biden face off – and it was nothing short of a disaster.

The aim of such a debate between the presidential race’s two foremost candidates is aimed at targeting undecided voters, most of whom tend not to be partial to any ideology or party.

This is done by discussing the most controversial issues as a way to allow voters to gauge where each candidate stands on the issue.

Trump and Biden (mostly Trump) did no such thing. Instead, it turned into a one-sided mud-slinging contest with “the major issues” falling by the wayside.

SA is no stranger to debate, it just happens in what is supposed to be a controlled environment. However, even under the guidance of parliament, things tend to get out of hand.

Imagine what would happen if the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Floyd Shivambu had to go off on Natasha Mazzone from the Democratic Alliance (DA) in an SABC studio with veteran journalist Sophie Mokoena as moderator.

Perhaps the country’s biggest proponents for such a debate are members of the official position, whose challenges always go ignored. Shem.

Without dwelling too much on the fact that our electoral system differs from America’s, there are a number of reasons why we should just drop the idea of televised debates.

Our politicians are boring. Such a spectacle would require a personality and some razor-sharp wit, over and above one’s policy position.

You guys already can’t stand to hear Ramaphosa speak about something as important as the coronavirus pandemic and yet you want him
entertaining you while trying to fend off attacks masked as questions posed by the annoyance that is John Steenhuisen?

Even the exciting prospect of seeing the DA’s Mbali Ntuli take on Steenhuisen is short-lived by the realisation that he would barely allow her
to get a word in edgeways.

Despite being a great orator and, quite frankly, an entertaining character, the thought of hearing Malema shout about the things he has been shouting about for the past decade or so are not enough to sell the idea of a live debate on local television.

No matter which politicians one would suggest for such an endeavour, the fact that we are speaking about what a failure the US presidential debate was as opposed to what we learned from each candidate is enough to show that there is no use investing that much time and money into South African political debates as a stand-alone show.

With all the state funds we’ve lost to corruption, this is one item we can afford to penny-pinch on.

Kaunda Selisho.

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