So today Agang joined the DA and instantaneously lost my vote. This is why. Why I cannot vote DA. Over the past 20 years we have come to learn much. We have come to learn, for instance, that building buildings does not lead to schools existing. Its an enabling force, but not the cause to the result. Schools have been built in our country, but many have struggled to become centres of learning. In the past 20 years, we learnt not only that we need teachers, but that this country needs good teachers, dedicated communities, inspired learners, a humanizing pedagogy, and countrywide support for that. Apartheid has a legacy. We have our eye on a non racial society, where everyman is equal, that we all have equal access to opportunity, to discovery, to self actualization. We want to live this new right to be. We collectively realized, or separately discovered, but we have all come to see the scars from this legacy and the new open sores. It is not a lie that an elite exists in South Africa. It is also not a lie that men were slaughtered on the mountains of Marikana, killed and treated worse than dogs. And we all turned with pain, in shame, and have moved on. It is also true that black people do not get seated at most restaurants in Cape Town, that black people are often still regarded as a quarter to human in most parts of the Western Cape. Psychological scars exist in all the communities within that province, but what remains is that the black experience can be very unpleasant in Cape Town. The issues in South Africa cut through the simplicity of race. This is not a race issue. I cannot vote DA because quite honestly, I have to remind people that I’m free when I’m in Cape Town. I don’t feel secure or safe at times. I will say that over the past few visits, there may have been some change, but there is also some change in the South African schooling system. Things are happening in South Africa, albeit slower than we had anticipated, slower than we had hoped. I cannot vote DA because of what it represents to me presently, and from what it came. The National Party was responsible for apartheid, ensured that we find ourselves in this terrible position, where freedom is generational. The guy that could not register this year for financial reasons will not taste the fruits of freedom, unless he tries very hard, beyond what any human should have to, to actualize, to live. Even in this generation, many black people are still not free, and some will not be even in the next. I will not vote for that again. This is not to say that the DA is not progressive. This is not to say the DA is only the NP, no. The DA, its history, for the most part is of progressive non racial democratic thought, full of leaders who fought for democratic principles, even at their own peril. Steven Bantu Biko articulated his clear ideas while at Rhodes, amongst progressives. Black conciousness is not a race issue, it’s a human issue for people who were systematically dehumanized. Agang was new. We are a new society, we need a new democratic and open space. One where the past is important, but where the future is democratically attained. A space where we all share and get along. Presently some have plenty and many have none. The DA still protects white interest in the Western Cape. They do not support affirmative action, majority of the land and wealth in South Africa is still held by a white minority and the ANC now protects its own elitist, exclusive, interests instead of striving to continue to build our country for all those who live in it. I may have my sentiments for the ANC, but what we cannot deny is that there has been progress in South Africa. In this generation more are free than in the last. However, the ANC was a liberatory movement, and what we now need is a developmental movement, a conscious movement that recognizes the past in its entirety. Recognises the work of the progressive party and all the others that have come to build the DA, but also recognizes the debilitating menacing cruelty that was apartheid. The systematic evil that was born of the NP, and recognize it, understand it, and build a nation anew. Agang represented that to me. There were no personalities. If you wanted to build, you had to physically do it. I felt like I was part of something beautiful and new. I could read articles on the history of June 16, that recognized the plight of black people with relatively little white guilt. Progressive white people need not blame themselves for something they themselves tried to stop. White guilt now should be of those who live well amidst poverty. “Freedom is incomplete if it is exercised in poverty”. We all have a responsibility to eachother. That may mean losing a little so that someone may gain a lot. The ANC and the political parties of that day, all knew, they had to stand together and fight for a common cause, a liberatory cause. Many were ready for war, some ready to die. Bantu Biko, slightly older than I now, died for this idea. The leadership of Nelson Mandela created an opportunity for us to be new. To realize this idea. I wanted to stand with South Africans and continue building this new South Africa, as envisaged in the freedom charter, using our existing constitution. Always building this place, as Thabo Mbeki put it, this place of possibilities. I do not believe the ANC will take us there. Very few libratory movements have, if any. The party struggles to move mindsets, even within the organization. The rhetoric of the ANC is presently somewhat developmental, but unfortunately what happens on the ground is quite different from that. Members were trained well to fight, to liberate from oppression, but now, we should no longer believe we are oppressed. We are not oppressed, we are free and the ones charged with rebuilding our country. In a place of possibility, we are not an oppressed people. We need to deliberately stop thinking like we are. A party that is anti ANC will not take us to this place either. The DA is anti ANC despite their 2009 rebranding. Even Agang tilted that way, and honestly, that is when I started losing interest. Anti ANC movements are outdated. What we need is a party that is pro South Africa, and open to the idea of Southern Africa, open the idea of Africa and open to the idea of the world. A party ready, charged and excited to define this. I do not want the foundation of an oppressive movement that dehumanized me based solely on the color of my skin as my foundation. Sorry, I will not vote DA. The ANC is somewhat to blame for this current empasse though. Poor leadership, especially in dealing with the youth and student structures of the ANC, was present before Julius Malema. I met Julius three times before I came to know him. When I wrote my book at fort Hare, I had been consistently and systematically victimized by the leadership of the ANC youth structures simply because I was a female president and an independent. At this point it was clear that the ANC had began to abuse the power that it had. They continue to do so, and to an extent abuse of power has become an organizational culture. You are either with us or against us! The ANC often meddles with emerging parties and contributes to their failure. Leadership is not easy. When you are a leader, you must make the hardest decisions, but always the best decisions for the people. At Fort Hare, when I was voted in as the first female president in the institutions 90 year history, I had won as an independent. I was not affiliated with a political party, but I did want to contribute to the improvement of the PDI student experience. Over 70% of students at Fort Hare had gone to the polls that year - much higher than the previous years turn out – and had voted for me. I was the students’ choice. The comrades I was to serve however, all made it in on the party ticket. They decided they would not work with me, and in fact spent the year trying to get me out of office… Instead of fighting for the needs of students, tackling NSFAS, leading programs, meetings were held to discuss how I would be overthrown. They had hardly met me, and hardly got to know me. I was not green, black and gold, so they would not work with me… It became about colour. The leadership of the ANC should have taken this opportunity to strengthen this idea of freedom, work with young people, encourage them to continue building our nation. The message of freedom, of peace, was one where we all worked together for a better South Africa. In South Africa, there are few universities, and this was absolutely a first in our new country. Instead, when they did reach out, the leadership of the body in the province told me to come “home”… I thought I was home? In South Africa, this new South Africa, that many liberation movements agreed to come under one umbrella to defeat oppression, such that I could enjoy the freedoms enshrined in the negotiated constitution, and to one day enjoying all the freedoms of the charter. We have to be committed to this new South Africa. Agang, in a refreshing way represented that for me. If the DA had joined Agang, I would still be voting Agang. The DA did embark on creating a new face, a new brand for the organization. They basically decided they would strive to be what Agang managed to represent to many South Africans. I would love to vote for Ramphele, but I want to vote for the party she started with like minded thinkers, the party she garnered so much support for, and the party that game changed the political landscape of South Africa. Helen Zille knew that it was just a matter of resources and she should have made the decision to join Agang. Agang should have coopted the DA, because the DA and mpst of the parties from whence it came, stood against the oppression of black people. But, Helen didn’t, she couldn’t. She couldn’t for the same reason I don’t have land, often experience appalling racism, and why the economy will never be restructured to address the needs of the poor. I’m sad there is no more Agang, today feeling almost gutted actually. How did I get so involved I ask myself. Fact remains however, if the two ruling parties are to remain, then my vote will still be the one associated with only my liberation and not my oppression. While there are 135 registered political parties in the upcoming South African general elections, there are only 4 real contenders. These, in my opinion, would be the ANC alliance, the DA, the EFF and possibly COPE. I will not vote for COPE either because Im no fan of breakaway parties, they do not have a great track record, but, lets keep them in the running, they could surprise. I also am not entirely sure as to what COPE stands for. It is not in anyway shape or form represented by its historic name, the congress of the people. Their manifesto, we are absolutely sure, is not the freedom charter. Then we have the EFF. I’m afraid to vote EFF. That’s the honest truth. Julius Malema has been known to make brazen statements and be down right reckless. I’m not playing roulette with the future. I do however believe that the EFF must have a presence in parliament. There must always be someone willing to die for the freedom charter in the South African parliament. I guess now, for me, what happens at the polls will be determined by debates to come, conversations the night before, over countless dinners. Some of us will raise our voices in jeste, stand on chairs in bars, laugh, smile and probably always be shouting. We’ll probably laugh at the president. Don’t get mad, its ok for us to laugh at who we are. However, our debates, I hope, will move from focusing on the individual to scrutinizing what the party stands for. When I read Dali Mpofu’s position on why he joined the EFF, I understood and even admired him. I am still however, weary of Juju, keeping one eye open. Its official, elections have begun, keth’omthandayo.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 11:43:44 +0000
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