POLITICS

Let your vote do the talking – COPE

Party says people must use election to punish political parties that have continuously ignored them

COPE urges communities to let their vote do the talking

11 April 2016

Time for many forgotten communities in our country has been standing still. Some have seen no development whatsoever in their area from the dawn of our democracy. Many communities are also deeply peeved that candidates are foisted on them. Having no ties with the communities they are meant to serve, they show no commitment to them after being elected. Many councillors serve their own cause. .

Communities with deep grievances in places like Vhembe district in Limpopo, Hopefield in Gauteng, Paarl in the Western Cape, Ntabankulu and Umtata in the Eastern Cape and Umfolozi and Escourt in Kwa Zulu-Natal, disrupted the registration process over the past weekend. What adds to their misery is the injustice done to them by politicians who appear at voting time and who are not to be seen after the election results are announced. They have been bitten so many times that they are indeed very resentful of politicians coming to ask for their votes.

Disgruntled citizens have continued to take the law into their own hands. When protesting, they routinely blockading roads with rocks and burning tyres to disrupt traffic. Alternately, they resort to torching train coaches, buses and offices. Arson is the choice tool of protesters everywhere in our country. Even university students resort to arson frequently.

COPE believes that South African citizens should use their votes to register their displeasure rather than destroying property or endangering lives. They should know that politicians fear the polls more than anything else. It is the fear of losing an election that concentrates the minds of politicians. For that reason, communities should punish politicians in a manner that hurts, rather than destroying property and setting them back even more.

Congress of the People is fully supportive of electoral reform in order to diminish the virtually unlimited power of political parties and to give citizens a greater say in holding political office bearers fully, continuously and constitutionally accountable. We should not rely only on the courts to keep politicians constitutionally compliant.

While electoral reforms have yet to occur, individual voters can increase their influence on political outcomes and service delivery by forming effective voter blocs. Worker unions have been voting as a bloc to maximize their power from 1994. Communities in wards can do the same. By acting collectively they can  group their concerns and have the power to have them properly addressed. Strength is in acting together as a collective in each ward and making their votes talk.

The ruling party only addresses issues when a crisis point is reached. That is what the country saw when the #FeesMustFall campaign reached its high point.

COPE urges communities to register as voters while the window of opportunity still exists by going to IEC offices so that they can use their votes to punish political parties that have continuously ignored them. If they strategize well, they will achieve a great deal more through their votes than through their matches. If communities want optimal media attention, they should act in concert and show the power of unity. The ruling party has become arrogant, self-serving and wasteful. Voters need to rebalance our politics by gaining back their power which they had surrendered in the past. 

Issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, 11 April 2016