My Choice on Voting

Voting has always been viewed as a privilege but I see it as choice. Voting is not an obligation but it represents patriotism to your country (to a certain extent). Most of my peers couldn't care about elections, the government or its issues. Excitingly enough, most of us simply live to pay rent, going out and 'networking' looking for 'connections'. For the longest time I didn't know who the acting president was after Mr Thabo Mbeki. Call it ignorance, if you want to, but I feel there is enough going on in our homes and communities. I feel that I have the potential to change small things by taking one step at a time and those small steps will make a difference for at least one person or two.
 
In a number of the community projects I have worked on and with, the government is almost invisible. I have seen people taking action without even asking for anything in return. I have also worked in places where the government exploits people and swiftly gets away with it.

My decision to never vote came after I had registered for the first time for the municipal elections in 2005. In the Eastern Cape, service delivery sucks. Everything is quiet for an entire three or four years then mayors and counsellors come out of the wood works to make promises. Community projects began and very few organisations could manage to get funding for projects, those which did were very hard to participate in. During the same year I discovered how much money was sent back to the Finance Department because it wasn't 'needed'.

Clearly the Eastern Cape has a lot of money lying around, enough money to build The Red Location Museum, one South Africa's historical monuments. Evidently a lot of money was spent on this monument located in the Red Location Township in Port Elizabeth. Built after the municipal elections, the community heard a lot of promises on what the structure will do for them and give them a better life. Yet they were not engaged in activities like being educated on how to preserve their cultural monuments, make use of them as resources and to respect them. Many so-called cultural monuments end up being abused by the community then accessibility is limited to a certain few or they have to pay a fee to enter or better make an appointment with a very good reason. The cultural monuments become these big scary buildings that only special people enter.
Officially opened in 2006, the Red Location Museum is in honour of the struggle heroes and the Red Location's community. The Red Location's history began in 1899 as a Boer Concentration Camp to the place where the first ANC MK wing was established in Apartheid Era. This place, like many townships, is impoverished and most of it is made up of shacks. Issues such as unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS affect these people on a daily basis. Every day people need to wake up and look at a huge construction of a 'cultural monument’ that they only have so much access to and they simply hold onto promises like jobs, community projects, etc.    
I have been there several times and I noticed that because of political history, the people of the community have hope in the monument bettering their lives. I believe that the feelings that the community has towards the current government, their municipalities, etc. comes from a very long relationship which was created during the apartheid era and their promise for a 'better life for all'. Mainly, this relationship is with the ANC, despite all the drama. Many people will still vote for the ANC because it has a strong grip on people through its powerful history.         
The opening of the museum was very big and the community was involved but to this day the place is still surrounded by a decaying community while the museum is getting bigger and bigger. Those resources and funds could have been relocated to building houses and smaller community projects and concentrating on the community issues first before the museum. I refuse to vote if my community is still dilapidated while these structures take up space, money and skills.

Last year, I was doing research on Scenario Planning in South Africa, a technique used to forecast the future by the corporate world and the government. It takes a look at the economy, society. Education, etc. and their driving forces - then several scenario's are created of possible futures for the country.  
In 1992, the Mont Fleur Scenario's were created, taking a look at South Africa between 1992 and 2002. As we all know, this was a critical point in South African history. Icarus is the name of one of the Mont Fleur scenario's, which describes how a predominantly black, populist government is in power and everyone has hope in a better society. But we are all slowly but surely disappointed because their lack of service delivery and social development.
When Wits lecturer, Koffi Kouakou told me about this, I immediately thought of the Hercules Disney Cartoon character, Icarus who is Hercules' best friend. Icarus has disfigured wings and his eyes are squint, a great sense of humour and a crush on Cassandra, Hercules' girlfriend. To me Cassandra represented the country South Africa aspires to be like, America. While South Africa is seemingly falling apart but our people don't lose their sense of humour, especially public figures.  
I got it a bit wrong, the story (a Greek myth) of Icarus I  is about how he flew too close too the sun after countless warnings from his father not to fly too close to the sun or the ocean. He one day joyfully flew so close the sun that his wings melted and he plunged into the sea.

This is the ideal metaphor for many African countries; where leaders like Bob Mugabe in Zimbabwe, King Hassan II in Morocco, General Amin in Uganda, etc. have corrupted their own government resulting civil wars and exploiting people and a dilapidated economy. Most of the leaders, where heroes at some point and their followers cling on to 'hope', 'change' and what their leaders used to be.

My stepfather was in the MK. His friends and his late ex wife where also in the MK. Most of them ended up in the defence force after 1994. The government promised them nice lives; they got nice little subsidy houses and cars, their kids education paid for and medical aids, pension funds, funeral policies, etc. Yet, he is the most traumatized person I have ever come across. He has bad dreams at night about dead bodies, petrol bombs and grenades. He curses the country he fought for everyday over some good brandy and beer along with his other MK buddies. My point is, my stepfather has lost hope in his country ever doing anything for him and he has chosen to live his life generously and help those he can when he is not busy drinking and cursing. He votes, by the way.