Thread by @mikestopforth

I feel stupid, and embarrassed.

I grew up, like many white South Africans my age, politically apathetic (and illiterate). I voted with my parents. As I grew more politically aware, intentionality followed. I chose of my own accord to vote ANC in 2009, 2014 and 2019.

Thread...

In 2009 I voted ANC because, well, we seemed to be doing ok. SA had weathered the global financial crisis better than most, and I was optimistic. In 2014, I voted ANC because I believed the organisation's values could trump the influence of even the most insidious leadership.

In 2019, I voted ANC because I believed in Cyril and hoped a good result at the polls would increase his internal influence and power over the cancerous factionism and rampant corruption in the party. That, and the only legitimate opposition was (is) a dumpster fire.

When COVID-19 struck I appreciated the uncharacteristically decisive action taken at the highest levels of government, considering the uncertainty we were all facing. I defended it publicly, to family, on social media, in WhatsApp groups, and to anyone who would listen.

I wrote personal letters of support to ministers I admired - individuals who I knew were taking a stand (and taking political risks) to do what they believed was right. I sympathised deeply with what must have been an extraordinarily trying and difficult time.

What an idiot.

But we are not uncertain anymore. We now have terabytes of data with which to make smart policy choices, that protect both people's lives and their livelihoods. We (our leaders) consistently choose not to, though.

Try as I might - and I have - I can't find any reasons, other than personal gain, to explain our leaders' decisions. I have agonised over this. I desperately want to believe that we have political leaders who understand and appreciate their role as civil servants, but I can't.

I get why people still vote for the ANC. The ANC delivered a nation from decades of living hell. Imagine supporting a sports team because your parents do, and loving it your whole life. You don't abandon that team when it loses or gets relegated. Now multiply that loyalty by 100.

I'm not saying the ANC deserves votes. In fact, quite the contrary. If the ANC were an English football team it would have been relegated to League Two somewhere between Walsall and Grimsby Town. But I understand why and how there could still be lifelong fans in the stadium.

The tragedy of the organisation's consistent inability to address its own hypocrisy, incompetence, and outright criminality is that the citizens worst affected by it are those most loyal to it. Thousands of ANC supporters are literally dying for their continued support.

This is not about party politics any more. It's not about who did what when or how. It is a national, human tragedy and crisis that - catastrophically - could have been avoided. I'm not talking about lockdown. I'm talking about the unmitigated shitshow lockdown has exposed.

We are, like an abused family, completely at the mercy of our abusive Father's capacity and will to change his behaviour. I don't think the ANC is irredeemable, but I also think that the only thing that will force change will be a traumatic shock.

Guess who will pay the price tag for that.

I don't have a back up plan. I'm 100% invested here (literally and figuratively). Happy to be called naive and stupid, and you may be right. But that's my prerogative.

For the first time in 40 years I can't see a way out, unless civil society or big business (or both) can find the momentum (or the balls in the case of corporate SA) to mobilise and create the kind of pressure to force real change.

The only other route (and it certainly doesn't guarantee a positive outcome) is civil unrest. More lives. More loss. More tragedy.

Is that what the men and women of the ANC of old wanted?

I feel stupid, and embarrassed.