A president on a train going nowhere this week said people were hoping the ANC would see what was happening and bring about changes. “It’s no longer a fable, it’s a lived reality,” he said while sitting on the stationary train.
This was a strange comment coming from Cyril Ramaphosa. The definition of a fable is a myth or legend. But is the shoddy state of the country’s rail system really a myth to him? Commuter passenger rail services have been interrupted for years by breakdowns, violent crimes, derailment and industrial action.
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Ramaphosa’s “harrowing” train ride — his words, not mine — coincided with a week of rolling blackouts. Eskom is in a dire state operationally and financially. It was one of the state-owned enterprises at the heart of state capture looting.
Ramaphosa has been touted as a saviour, or a messiah, but he doesn’t seem to have answers.
We have heard on numerous occasions how we need to take collective responsibility for the problems facing the country and work to fix them. The term “collective responsibility” irks many, with the question being asked why we must take take collective responsibility for something we had no hand in breaking.
In 2016, following the local government elections and the loss of three key metros to the opposition, the ANC said it was taking collective responsibility for its weak performance, despite it being quite clear that issues surrounding its former president, Jacob Zuma, were at the heart of the problem.
Fast forward three years and Ramaphosa is talking about nine wasted years. Never mind that he was sitting right next to Zuma for five of those. What happened to collective responsibility?
Now we are being asked to take collective responsibility for what is happening at Eskom. During his state of the nation address in February, the president said: “As social partners, as stakeholders, as a country, we have a common interest in finding sustainable solutions to the crisis at Eskom. We therefore have a collective responsibility, which extends beyond our immediate interests, to work together to fix Eskom.” He also said: “The task of building a better SA is our collective responsibility as a nation, as the people of SA.”
Ramaphosa again called on all South Africans to fix what he labelled an “energy crisis” during his Human Rights Day address in Sharpeville on Thursday.
We now 47 days away from elections that are being touted as the most hotly contested since the dawn of democracy. Ramaphosa’s job is to ensure the ANC retains its majority following consecutive declines in support for the party since 2009.
Whether asking the country to take collective responsibility will work in the ANC’s favour is yet to be seen. It is all well and good to ask citizens to be involved, but Ramaphosa’s own party is not coming to the table. That the list of ANC candidates for the elections is riddled with people who were involved in the state capture project is a case in point, as well as the contradictory messages coming from different party factions on policy issues, such as the ownership of the SA Reserve Bank.
The collective responsibility mantra is also in contrast to what Ramaphosa said he would do: fix the country. He has been touted as a saviour, or a messiah, but at the same time he doesn’t seem to have answers, as he keeps asking South Africans to take collective responsibility.
With nearly 50 political parties contesting this year’s election one would think South Africans are spoilt for choice. The crippling of the state over the last decade through the state capture project has led to a declining economy, frequent power cuts and poor services, which have opened the political landscape up to more contestation, with many trying to convince SA that they can do better.
The list of political parties that have qualified to contest the 2019 poll was announced on Wednesday. A total of 48 parties will appear on the ballot paper come May 8, which is 19 more than in 2014. This was a record number, the Electoral Commission of SA said, with a significant number contesting elections for the first time.
Many of these parties, new and some old, have never run a country or even participated in legislative processes before. So, it is easy to stand up and make wide-ranging promises about how they will do better. Among the new political parties is Patricia de Lille’s Good, trade union Numsa’s Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s African Content Movement, the controversial Black First Land First (BLF), and the Capitalist Party of SA.
People like De Lille are tried and tested leaders, but can we put our country in the hands of someone like Motsoeneng, who brought the public broadcaster to its knees? Or the BLF, which is working hard to increase racial tensions, or even the African Transformation Movement, a pro-Zuma formation that has Mzwanele Manyi as its policy chief. There has definitely been an increase in quantity, but very little quality.
What we as citizens should take collective responsibility for is who we put in power. And when we do that, perhaps we should remember Ramaphosa’s Human Rights Day message, when he said respect for human rights happens when elected officials remind themselves daily of the reasons they were elected: to serve the country and not their own interests.
Wise but empty words if nothing is done and the officials themselves struggle to take responsibility for their actions, which have led to the citizens being thoroughly disrespected and all but killed the economy. In the end it is our responsibility to go to the polls to make our mark and a conscious decision about with whom we will take collective responsibility.
In the last election six out of 10 voters were prepared to take collective responsibility with the ANC, but will they be prepared to do it this time?
• Quintal is political editor.
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