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Can intellect, dedication and integrity trump ignorance, indifference and deceit – even in SA politics?

20 Dec 2023

As in all democracies, South Africa has both good and bad politicians. For the past 20 years or so, the majority of our electorate have consistently chosen bad politicians to govern our nation.

There are a number of reasons for their ill-advised choices which possibly include traditionalism, racism, African nationalism, personal incentives or just the plain naivety of believing false electoral promises. Whatever the reason, it has had a devastating impact on the socioeconomic circumstances of our country and has led to the near destruction of the country’s once valuable infrastructure designed to service the basic needs of our people.

It is high time therefore for the electorate to urgently reflect on and re-examine what kind of politicians the country needs to reverse its decline and fulfil its undoubted potential to deliver a better life for all its citizens.

A political career should be practised with decorum, transparency, prudence and propriety and an adequate degree of humility and compassion.

A political career should be seen as a vocation. A calling to public service inspired by a personal desire to project and apply ideologies, values, principles and policies that optimally benefit the nation’s socioeconomic well-being.

In South Africa that requires a commitment to our constitutional imperatives of freedom of the individual, the rule of law and the provision of a state of human dignity to all citizens – that is to say, acceptable and progressive levels of security, employment, housing, education, healthcare and basic services such as energy supply, water and sanitation and public transport. It also demands the acceptance, and implementation, of accountability and consequences for incompetence, misdemeanour and failures including criminal or civil charges, dismissal or other forms of appropriate sanction.

A political career should be practised with decorum, transparency, prudence and propriety and an adequate degree of humility and compassion. It can be practised independently or within an established political party. The above describes the nature of a good politician.

The overwhelming majority belong to political establishments that lack the intellect, dedication and integrity to competently extract our nation from its rapid decline to a failed state.

In stark contrast, a political career should not be seen as an opportunity to boost one’s ego and satisfy a craving for publicity. Nor should it be used as a means to promote one’s societal status or to enhance personal financial ambitions. At the very worst, it should not provide the moment for corrupt looting of state coffers and taxpayers’ money for party or personal financial gain. It also should not be an avenue to promote and facilitate dubious international and domestic business dealings with governments, organisations, companies or individuals who promise financial or other forms of personal or party rewards in return for preferential treatment. More often than not these kinds of shady dealings and transactions are shrouded in secrecy, lack the necessary transparency and are hidden from public scrutiny

A bad politician persists in trying to deflect the nation’s attention away from government failures and uses deceit, half truths and lies to fraudulently boast to a naive electorate about their so-called progress and achievements.

In South Africa we have politicians, at all levels of government, who fall into both good and bad categories, but tragically the overwhelming majority belong to political establishments that lack the intellect, dedication and integrity to competently extract our nation from its rapid decline to a failed state, who reject accountability and responsibility for failure and who prefer to practise their political careers with a high degree of arrogance, indifference, deceit and in a state of wilful ignorance. They disdain the rule of law and no matter how grievous their felony, crime or incompetence, believe that they are immune from the consequences that under the same circumstances would befall ordinary citizens.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Shaky coalitions do not inspire confidence but may be the only route forward

As South Africans we are privileged to live in a constitutional democracy which confers upon us the right to vote for our political representatives regularly. However, that right to vote also demands of us to use it responsibly, diligently and in the best interest of all citizens, not just a selected elite, their accomplices and their appointed cadres who only have their own self-serving interests at heart

At the risk of stating the obvious, the electorate should throw out the failed current crop of bad politicians and replace them with good ones. Sadly, the obvious does not seem that obvious to a large proportion of our voting public and consequently our future political and socioeconomic landscape remains precariously uncertain. DM

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