Political dynamics in the country are hard to read objectively while the troubling reality is that bad governance puts people’s lives at risk.
If we consider political parties and their leadership, we must ask why this chess game is being played by politicians to the detriment of voting communities, made pawns on their political chess boards.
Think of what is happening in Gauteng’s three major metros – Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. Political parties in coalitions at every turn, wrestling for power but failing to knuckle down to what matters most – service delivery. The faces of voters who bestowed their trust in politicians and got nothing in return for their vote.
Often the residents must worry: “Did we elect leaders with acumen to do what they are mandated to do by the constitution. Why the childish antics, and circus-like behaviour? Why the inability by leaders in municipal chambers to engage in meaningful dialogue to resolve what may appear to be intractable challenges?”
While politicians continue to earn a living through taxpayers’ money, the same politicians give no consideration to the plight of the people they are supposed to serve. They fight tooth and nail to get their hands in the cookie jar of the municipalities and departments they run.
It is all about them and very little about the plight of residents. Power and corruption are often the main driving force in politics. As in other corrupt countries of the world, graft and money laundering is rife. The commitment to improving people’s lives plays second fiddle.
If the ANC governments – nationally and provincially – were run like a corporate business, with every official held accountable for their malfeasance, all the mess we see today would never see light of day. Equally, the DA-run government in the Western Cape, which DA leaders would have us believe is holier-than-thou, is not isolated from acts of corruption.
Last year it was fingered by the Corruption Watch Analysis of Corruption as one of the top four provinces with the highest number of reported alleged corruption. Whistleblowers are even killed for speaking out. Babita Deokaran is but one such tragic example, while many others live in fear and are in hiding. Show me one politician who can boldly stand up and claim not to be tainted by corruption in this country?
Despite them coming from different political parties, they sing the same song of being against corruption but once they ascend to power, the gravy train becomes their primary obsession.
It is time for voters to wake up and smell the coffee, if not, as voters we will continue finding ourselves having to beg and cry for a better life.
We need to be decisive: boot out political charlatans who masquerade as carrying out the people’s mandate when in fact they are driven by greed.
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