Power of voting a tool for change

TELL me why I should vote?" That is the challenge Ben Mafani put to Sipho Masondo recently.

Mafani is a poor villager at Glenmore, near Peddie in Eastern Cape, while Masondo is a reporter for The Times newspaper.

He reported his encounter with Mafani in his paper of March 18.

The villager expressed his profound disenchantment with the new democratic order and chronicled the events and issues that progressively eroded the enthusiasm he and his fellow residents of Glenmore once had for this dispensation.

He declared his intention not to vote in any future elections and dared Masondo to convince him otherwise.

There is nothing new there. How many times have we seen communities up in arms about poor service delivery, frequently threatening not to vote until certain demands are met?

I must say that for those of us who actively fought for emancipation, endured torture, imprisonment, exile, banning orders and buried some of our comrades who died in pursuit of freedom, it is rather galling to see the beneficiaries of liberation turning their backs on the democratic process.

We would have thought the practical manifestation of freedom for individuals is determining how they are ruled and by whom. This is achieved through voting their preferred candidates into state institutions.

Was it not our biggest resentment in the past that we were being ruled and taxed without representation, participation or consent? Why is it that within a few years of attaining universal suffrage, for which we fought for centuries, some among us are getting disillusioned with it?

Of course, there is the notion that in a truly democratic order citizens should be free to vote or abstain. So non-voting is a democratic right.

Fair enough!

During our exiled years in Zimbabwe we noticed a gradual decline in participation rates by voters during elections. This phenomenon was ascribed to several factors, including the predictability of a Zanu-PF win, the increase in corruption, the arrogance of the governing party that comes with the assurance of power and the taking for granted of the masses by a complacent government.

Does it ring a bell?

With the dissipation of the euphoria that came with the attainment of independence and the manifestation of the human frailties of their liberation heroes and heroines, the politics of Zimbabwe went through a "dull" spell, characterised, among other things, by declining voter turnout during elections.

Without commenting on the politics of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), its advent ignited democratic passions among Zimbabweans.

Suddenly there was excitement with politics, especially among the youth and voter turnout at the polls increased dramatically. This happened because the citizens of that country had a sense that they had a good chance to change their government democratically.

People no longer thought their vote was useless. They believed they had the power, through their vote, to change their circumstances. Rightly or wrongly, they sought to remove a Zanu-PF which they thought no longer represented their aspirations properly.

Unfortunately, the heightened political mobilisation in that country was accompanied by brutal violence among their political parties.

If a strong party, such as the MDC, did not emerge in Zimbabwe, Zanu-PF might have continued to rule with a large section of their electorate sulking, staying away from the polls. Of course, the government emerging from the polls would be legitimate, but a sulking population is not a good sign.

In one party states of yesteryear, on our continent and elsewhere in the world, governing parties were routinely returned to power, but the sulking members of their populations later overthrew them.

The recent examples would include Egypt and other Arab countries now in turmoil.

A sulking citizen might be a potential source of instability in a country, and the larger the number of the non-voting citizens, the greater is the potential for problems.

Theoretically, we might accept the democratic right of Mafani and company to withhold their votes in elections, but the South African situation has nuances we should not ignore.

It seems some of our compatriots regard the casting of their vote as a favour for the government or a party, not as their right to choose a government or an instrument to effect change. They seem to think they are spiting the government of the day by not voting.

This is a tragic fallacy.

Due to the high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment, many see being a public representative as a highly desired employment opportunity.

Add to that the crooked tendency of some public representatives to dish out patronage and the conspicuous consumption that is so widespread, then it is understandable why some voters see public office as collective enrichment of political party members.

There is a need for a vigorous campaign to sensitise South African voters about the power of their votes at the same time as we worry about our sulking compatriots.

• The writer is a former president of the Azanian People's Organisation.