There are three sets of bad news that we have to understand as a country.
The first is that the system of energy production at Eskom is near collapse.
The second is that all announcements of repentant renewals are distractions from the factionalism that is eating the ANC alive.
The third is that despite the first two sets of bad news, opposition parties are still unable to rise to the required statesmanship to challenge the ANC’s hegemony on political power.
By all accounts, the ANC should be defeated in the 2024 poll. The Zondo Report on State Capture, the deepening energy crisis and the Durban political and economic mayhem should be enough to unseat the ANC from power in 2024.
The ANC of 1994 is not the ANC we will encounter at the polls in 2024. It was interesting to read an article dated December 11, 2014, that President Zuma had tasked then Deputy-President Ramaphosa with overseeing the turnaround of Eskom and SAA.
We know today, eight years later, both those parastatals have drained billions from the economy and are now in ICU under his leadership.
The red light on the collapse of political leadership in South Africa did not suddenly come on after we reached Stage 6 of load shedding or after we read the Zondo report. It has been on all along.
The “alles sal reg kom” South African public believed that “if only we had another new leader” at Eskom, or as minister of finance or as president, things would change.
The overdue wake-up call is that there is no superman or super party that can lead us out of this morass of failed policy and corrupt practices.
There is no Moses or Mao that will suddenly arrive to lead a great march to some South African state of nirvana.
Our salvation resides in every eligible citizen exercising their right to vote in 2024 as a sacred duty. It resides in every citizen taking up the duty to interrogate policies and politicians and not docilely accepting podium promises and recycled reports.
There is no shortcut to rescuing our democracy from the plethora of political promises of renewals or the compendium of committees that are established to count the billions that have been stolen. The red light you are seeing is now a permanent red.
The ANC has elected its top seven leaders who will lead the party for the next five years.
Given the data that we have seen since 2008, it is clear it will make no difference to our first two great problems. It won’t solve the energy crisis and it won’t accomplish a renewal of our political culture.
So what about the third? Is there a bravery among all parties, including the ANC, to move beyond political factionalism and power into building a government of competent leaders, drawn from across the political, academic, economic and social spectrums, that will be capable of solving the pressing problems of our democracy?
We have normalised unruliness at successive Sonas and political party conferences. In addition, the destructive nature of political protest in South Africa does not bode well for the winner-takes-all political system.
Perhaps it is time to consider whether a multi-party government, with a Cabinet and ministers from an array of parties, can rebuild the social fabric of our society.
Can the democratic model be redesigned to build a more accountable and representative government?
It is in our best interest that we apply our minds to the redesign of the democratic model.
A facilitated conference of political party leaders and our academic and business institutions is now an urgent agenda item.
* Lorenzo Davids.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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