Johannesburg- South Africa goes to the local government polls tomorrow with a cocktail of grand promises made by various political actors during this year’s election campaign. We are not going to recommend which political party our readers must vote for.
Voters must choose a party or parties they deem fit to deliver on promises. We urge voters to be meticulous when they make their cross on the ballot paper.
We urge them to be extra careful about the many political charlatans, con artists, swindlers and fakes who have either been forced on the communities by their parties or the imposters who suddenly came from nowhere to contest as independent candidates.
Voters must not be swayed by those who offer money to be elected to political office. They must be wary of those who appear in their communities during election season and disappear as soon as they occupy office.
We must never trust those who are always looking for the finer things in life at the expense of the people they are expected to serve. We are talking about those in our midst who make lofty promises before they suddenly acquire luxurious cars and posh houses as soon as they are propelled to political office because they never cared about the squalor the people live in.
Among other things, they are never ashamed as they pursue carnal pleasures and throw extravagant parties while the poor, who mandated them to look after their civic affairs, remain forever plunged in the grip of poverty.
Some have been parachuted at the expense of those candidates who were recommended by their communities. Such candidates must outrightly be rejected at the polling booth for they don’t represent the will of the people.
Others get elected because they are feared in their communities. A case in point is that of one ANC candidate councillor who has been charged with murder, attempted murder and arson, and yet is still vying for election tomorrow after failed attempts by his branch to get regional, provincial and national structures of the governing party to intervene and have him step aside.
It is because of such practices that South Africa’s local government system has utterly failed. It’s been the most corrupt and inefficient of all the three spheres of our government. Many councillors hardly have any clue about the task at hand.
South Africa’s progress and recovery from many years of mismanagement and maladministration hinges on the success of local government, otherwise the country will continue to suffer service delivery protests, which have characterised local governance until now.
We urge voters to identify and endorse those many men and women of integrity in our communities who have put up their hands up in this election irrespective of the party they stand for.
Let us – dear South Africans – make a contribution to improve our local governance system by finally making our choices with our heads and not our hearts.
To stay away from voting is not a solution.
Vote South Africans, Vote!
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