With election day looming, I have been contemplating exactly what motivates people when deciding who to vote for.
Is it based on outcomes (ie a proven track record), what the party stands for (ethical compass), election promises (and whether they have any means of achieving them or not) or something else?
Here we have a country that is quite clearly and obviously being run into the ground by the ruling party, and yet year after year the African National Congress get re-elected.
If I had been old enough to vote in 1994, I would have been proud to vote ANC. I was eight years old at the time.
And if the party had continued in the spirit of its original leaders, such as Nelson Mandela and Albert Luthuli, I would be voting for them on 29 May.
But sadly the track record of the past 30 years is glaringly marred by corruption, loadshedding and a dismal failure everywhere that matters – from the ports and railways that no longer run, to our children who can no longer read and write.
Zuma’s continued popularity is another enigma. The former president held the reins for nine years with no commendable outcomes.
His major imports were the Gupta brothers, looting, fraud and corruption. Yet, he remains undeniably popular. Almost one in three South Africans support the former president according to a survey by the Social Research Foundation (SRF) released last week. I surmise that we cannot be voting based on outcomes alone.
But, perhaps the answer is more granular. Voting researchers have noted that poor South Africans commonly state they fear losing their grants should they vote for anyone but the ANC.
That the provision of social welfare is so closely linked to the ruling party in people’s minds perhaps explains its continued support.
The fear of losing your grant, when it’s all you cling to to survive, is a very real motivator. Of course, the irony is that the government’s ability to provide welfare is directly linked to the taxpayers’ ability to make money.
So if the country was better run and market conditions were more favourable for businesses to flourish, then there would be more tax money to put towards service delivery and grants.
Grants would also not be so desperately needed if the poor had jobs and education. Poverty thereby keeps people at the mercy of government handouts, and tragically voting for the party that is keeping them poor.
Zuma’s popularity can then be explained in part by the growth of the social welfare system during his tenure, coupled with investment in infrastructure and public works projects which provided some temporary employment.
In the minds of the masses, Zuma is a quasi-Jesus who provided ‘our daily bread’. The sad truth is that he more closely resembles the biblical Lucifer masquerading as the ‘angel of light’, building his personal Nkandlagate at the expense of the very poor he pretends to liberate.
The majority of people have never read the Constitution of the party they vote for and at best only know the party’s stance on one or two key issues that have received media attention (like National Health Insurance and land reform). So, my theory is that who we vote for is more of a ‘faith-based’ decision than anything else.
Some people religiously vote for the ‘church’ they were born into. Others will vote based on how the ‘church’ makes them feel, superficial things like the coffee and worship music, while others only kneel at the alter of ‘my needs come first’.
But very few will ever consider asking God himself for his opinion.
Despite all this, the future of our country really does rest in our hands come 29 May. Chris Pappas won Umngeni municipality (Howick) by 42 votes in the last election and turned that municipality around, from being bankrupt to highly successful today.
A handful of votes were all it took. Your vote could be the difference between the lights being on next year, or not.
Choose wisely.
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