I admit we live in a democracy and therefore whoever is popular almost automatically earns the right to run things on behalf of those who would have elected them.
But imagine for a moment a system where democracy – the rule of the people by the people for the people, is combined with meritocracy – a social system where people advance in direct proportion to their individual talents, skills, and abilities. Imagine that for a moment and see how far it will take us as a nation.
Why do political parties insist on giving us a great number of candidates who would suddenly become unemployable should the position be taken away from them? Should the criteria not be a little stricter than that as parties get into the frenzy of list conferences and so forth?
I am sure parties can find people among themselves who are simultaneously popular and enlightened. If this is not the case, then perhaps it is time they questioned their own recruitment approach. How can a party attract only popular people, people who carry only darkness on top of their necks? Something is clearly wrong with this kind of membership.
Our current electoral system gives political parties greater say in who becomes a ward candidate to council. This leaves one who is not a member of any party to elect on voting day a candidate the party has decided on. So it is thanks to this system that I make this sincere request to parties: please do not cause us unnecessary high blood pressure by giving us someone who has never in his life taken an hour to read a chapter from a good book.
Remember, my good comrades, that your Councillor is going to have to come to the ward from time to time to give us feedback. By ‘us’ I mean lawyers in our midst, doctors, teachers, university students, psychologists, scientists, and so forth. Show us some respect and give us somebody who will know the importance of preparedness, somebody who appreciates knowledge and actually seeks it, somebody who will be able to explain the salient points of the municipal budget to his accountant neighbour.
Please, comrades, try not to insult us by giving us somebody who’s only reading experience is the sport section of the Sowetan. Well, at times I too read about Arsenal and Orlando Pirates, but there is more to a newspaper than stories about goals and controversial red cards.
As millions join queues to vote on Wednesday August the 3rd – why it has to be a Wednesday and not a Friday I will never understand! –please, I beg that you do not give us somebody who does not even have a grasp of the Municipal Systems Act, someone who has no sense of the Municipal Structures Act, or someone who has never heard of Municipal Finance Management Act.
I know the counter argument here will be the ‘transparent and consultative’ manner in which parties say these people are selected, but millions of voters aren’t members of political parties they vote for. So consider that too when you decide.
I am hoping that we shall see a group of preferably young and conscious people rising as Councillors, a group of dedicated people who will strive to deliver electricity to the community, who will deliver quality roads, who will deliver local tourism, who will deliver working storm water systems.
I am hoping we shall see emerging out of August the 3rd election a crop of leaders who will actually keep the lights on.
I am hoping that the incoming Councillors will not spend five long years growing their girth, and then being surprised when a place such as Hopefield suddenly appears on the radar like it became the case now the other day with mayor of Johannesburg and Gauteng Premier.
I am hoping that we will see council chambers populated with people who know that it is not and can never be in the best interest of any political party or community members to have, such as it is the case in my hometown of Christiana, a library building taking years and years to be completed.
I am hoping that my next ward Councillor will not only have a big car and many empty bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label to point to when he is asked what he did his entire term.
