LINDANI NTENTENI

The electoral cycle for the local government elections is upon us.

My home area, Ginsberg, like many others across the country, is up for grabs in the electoral contest.

Elections in SA, and the concomitant outcomes, are leveraged as a gateway to resources for the benefit of the selected few — hence the high stakes.

People lose lives. Opponents are eliminated for the eyes are on the ultimate prize — unfettered access to resources.

It is common cause that court rolls are bursting at the seams because of malfeasance and corruption in municipalities across SA.

There is pervasive sycophancy in the local government ecosystem.

Councillors have surrounded themselves with sycophants who praise them for jobs and incidental benefits, and this is traded in exchange for loyalty and protection.

Ginsberg is no exception.

Our now erstwhile close-knit community is at war with itself.

The battle is a place at the dinner table. It is less about the service of community and its people.

What seems to be a constant refrain is ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’.

This is the backdrop against which one should understand the culture of sycophancy that defines local government electioneering.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, again an opportunity presents itself for those who leverage the democratic electoral system as a gateway to plundering the already slender resources to further deepen the political turmoil in our country.

The crux of this piece is to highlight how political ascendency is used to gain power and resources, while those who have a legitimate expectation to be served are used as pawns in the game of chess

The advent of democracy in this country has turned into a travesty.

The democracy that was a product of the selfless struggle of the heroes of Ginsberg and the rest of the country.

Local government elections are at the heart of SA’s democratic architecture.

The crux of this piece is to highlight how political ascendency is used to gain power and resources, while those who have a legitimate expectation to be served are used as pawns in the game of chess.

These pawns, used as voting fodder at every electoral cycle, are manipulated into perpetuating the very conditions that sustain their hardship.

I’m not one of the gullible ones, fortunately. I want a prospective councillor to tell me what sets them apart from the other candidates.

Ginsberg is still and always will be a place and home to a plethora of skills and talent.

Ginsberg is, and forever will be, a supplier of intellectual capital among the nations of the world, having “midwifed” figures such as Steve Biko and many others of his calibre.

If you witness what is happening in the Middle East and other parts of the world, it is clear that ours is a struggle that continues to be a noble one.

Today, SA has a constitutional democratic dispensation that created a local government sphere for people to have easy access to their day-to-day services via the supposed servants of their needs and electoral dreams.

However, it cannot be sustainable to hedge your electoral bets on the gullibility of the electorate.

Politics of convenience is an insult to our struggle championed by our forebears who sacrificed their lives not for self-enrichment and patronage but who chose to be on the right side of history and laid a very solid foundation for us to build upon.

A foundation that cannot be wished away for instant political expediency.

There will always be candidates who will be tempted to get their shot at the resources prize, as if it’s a lottery.

The incentive is the loud silence of those voices who are in the space of taking care of the matters of the mind.

Being a councillor is a big deal in Ginsberg because this area is a melting pot of all talent. Test yourself against the failures of your predecessor.

I ask prospective councillors what is the unique value proposition that sets them apart from the rest. Let me be hopeful that the answer will be evident after the elections.