The author argues that voter apathy has put us in our current situation. (Getty Images)

The South Africans have allowed a party with less than 30% electoral support to dominate politics for three decades because opposition and active political engagement would have been in the way. it’s time to stop apathy written Hermann Pretorius.

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For nearly two decades, the government has extended its powers, stifled the freedom to prosper, and stifled the life of the one thing that can save our country: economic growth.

And through it all, too many South Africans – led mostly by naive businessmen who are foiled by politicians every second – sit around, almost with their arms folded, watching the horror unfold, hoping always aimlessly that something will be right, someone will intervene. , or that an entity or a country or volkstaat or ethno-collectivist to reign in exile, a secessionist chimera or a meaningless patriotic hashtag will miraculously save us.

If you want to know who can save this country, take a selfie. If evil triumphs because good people do nothing, it’s no secret why things are falling apart.

But now when the fires are no longer just in the townships and dormitories “out there”, and the destruction is not just the problem of nameless people in a nameless and nameless place where other people live and die, fear and worry embrace us. our suburbs.

It’s no longer funny or angry.

Miscalculated thinking

You cannot dismiss civic engagement or politics with great contempt and then worry about what is happening to the country. You cannot plead ignorance just because getting involved will be an awkward effort.

Those who called the president to speak to us got their wish Monday night – and found he had nothing to say. Of course he hadn’t. The money is gone, most of the time wasted on unnecessary government expansion. Skills are almost non-existent and institutions are rotting. And it’s our fault as South Africans.

We have allowed politics to become the province of politicians and governance to the province of government. We have fundamentally miscalculated in thinking that organizations that look after the “interests of my people” can somehow save us.

READ | Opinion: Fraud and corruption: our growing apathy is dangerous

And, perhaps even worse, as a country we have swallowed the foolishness that it all happened because of one family. Let’s be realistic. While hundreds of millions have been lost to state capture, countless billions have been lost to government bailouts, dreams and plans, and spending money we didn’t have for policies we didn’t need or couldn’t afford. Our debt is approaching 100% of GDP, but a few stolen millions is the big, big problem? We have become a hopeless case of manufacturing and production, a vacuum of competitiveness and investment, but are the Guptas the real problem?

Do we still believe in this whistle being trotted out by companies and media houses and are surprised or bothered by things that take a bad turn?

Undisputed policies

We let horrible policies go unchallenged because the challenge would have been an effort. We have allowed a party with the electoral support of less than 30% of South African adults to dominate politics for three decades because opposition and active political engagement would have been in the way.

As a society, you cannot make politics a dirty word and taboo around the tables for a century and then wonder why or how politicians are destroying the country. You can’t drip cheap and easy political cynicism into your children’s minds and then wonder why a generation is growing up via Zoom.

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If every person who voted against the ANC in the previous elections could go to the relatively simple trouble of finding just one person who did not vote last time and convincing them to vote against the ruling ideology of the state control and racism, this time we can expel the current lot in one election.

Will South Africans seize this opportunity? Are they going to look beyond the government propaganda and take the reality into account, and see a country worth saving and a people living up to it? I do not know. But I hope so.

Things worth acquiring are never conveniently acquired. Things worth protecting are never conveniently maintained. South African disease has always been political apathy. And no one now could have the excuse of not knowing that it is a disease that kills.

– Hermann Pretorius is director of the Freedom Advocacy Network.

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