Will government finally listen to the voice of the people?

Now that our poorly organised (in some areas) and much-criticised general elections are something of the past, we are supposed to look to the future for a brighter and better governed South Africa, where the interests of the citizens will be placed before the financial interests of some of our elected, but corrupt, leaders.

But a reoccurring problem seems to be that our leaders have no interest in looking to the nation’s future. Instead, they prefer to be stuck in the past and thereby deny us a future. And while they distract us with the past, they plunder the economy.

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Regardless of our country ending up with a coalition government or a government of national unity, three questions immediately come to mind: will the new government strive to achieve unity? Will it look to the future? Where will the true power of this new government lie? Will a government of national unity indeed bring us unity?

Disunity was, after all, something the ruling party worked hard at achieving as it believed in an approach of divide and conquer. It was by developing divisive policies that the greatest pushback came from the voters.

Driven by their insatiable desire to improve their personal wealth, this nefarious approach to politics cost the party dearly at the ballot box.

Will the new government finally start looking to a better future for all of South Africa’s citizens, or will they prefer to hide their incompetence by merely regurgitating the errors of the past? Will they ever understand that the past is the past and it is time to move forward? I doubt that, but miracles can happen.

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Or will they trip over their own egos and ensure parliament remains the joke it has become? Will they continue making domestic and foreign policy decisions based on emotions without considering the consequences?

Now that some of them are back in parliament, will they finally listen to the voice of the people, or will they simply find new ways of trying to destroy this great country?

It is, however, the government’s desire to remain stuck in the past that has resulted in our failing national trajectory. To fix what they broke will require uncorrupted ego-free politicians who govern with sense for the good of the country.

Businesspeople and major investors are leaving, creating economic woes that will be felt for many years to come. Yet, the outgoing majority government viewed the resultant unemployment, increased poverty and escalation in crime, and economic erosion as “progress”’.

We certainly deserve better than they gave us. But the greatest question we ought to be asking is where will the true state power lie?

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State power is the ability of a state to project its authority and exert influence across society and its territory. This includes making and enforcing laws, collecting taxes, conducting good foreign relations, while providing for the common defence of the nation.

State power is guided by the principles of governance and the rule of law to ensure it serves the public interest. The until recent ruling party appears to have lost its way. State power has been abused and exploited by members of the ruling party to plunder and steal themselves into wealth at the expense of the voters and taxpayers.

It is their newly ill-gotten gains that gave them a sense of self-entitled importance and, above all, the belief that their wealth placed them above the state and its power, especially the law.

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Our future will now hinge on what was agreed and decided between the various parties that will constitute our new government. This presents the country with a historic opportunity to do what is right for the nation and not do what is right for their bank accounts.

Much of our future will depend on where the real power of state will now lie. Time will tell.

-Mashaba is an independent political analyst