MANDLA RADEBE of Norkem Park writes:
With less than four weeks to go before local government elections, one would expect to be bombarded with images of people who want to stand and be elected as councillors.
From Ekurhuleni so far, I have only seen the mayoral candidate for the ANC and one DA ward councillor candidate posters on the lampposts. We already know who the DA mayoral candidate for Ekurhuleni is, but we don’t know who the rest of the councillors are.
We possibly are going to know closer to the time.
Also read:
• Masina is ANC’s Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate
• Ghaleb Cachalia is DA mayoral candidate for Ekurhuleni
All of this is not good enough. What it tells me is that we are stuck with people who either think they are entitled to be elected only because they stand for elections after being nominated by their parties, or they don’t care because the public will go out there and vote anyway, so lacking your own vision can be understood.
Voting for the poster on the lamppost without knowing and I mean, really knowing the person, has gone on for too long and it’s a meaningless exercise that opens us up to all sorts of problems, including corruption. It makes a mockery of our right to vote. We don’t only have a right to vote, we also have a right to know who we are voting for.
Kempton Express has gone some mile into giving us some knowledge about DA and ANC mayoral candidates, but we need them and candidate councillors in Kempton Park to tell us who they are, what they stand for and what their visions are for our city.
They must speak their own words, not give us some “vote for change” or “together we can do more” or “economic freedom in our lifetime” punchlines.
I may sound like a broken record but I am tired of voting for people who get my votes and I never get to hear about them ever after. All you give the people you ask votes from is a poster with your name and your party logos. Are you scared you could potentially be a liability, like some party leaders I know?
Are you scared of a public life but you want to lead people? Are you a coward who will be driven by party behaviour even if the party goes wrong and you are scared of breaking ranks because you may lose this opportunity to stand, in case you say what the party does not like?
Or do you lack a vision for our city? Why do you want to be elected?
Therefore, if you are one of those who want to be elected and you have the courage to stand, why not, in addition to your silent poster, put an advert in this paper and answer these three simple questions and more about yourself instead of hiding behind your party. Be the politician your ward can trust.
