The ANC Is Headed For Another Landslide Victory

"We have a good story to tell." That was the slogan of the ANC as they campaigned for the fifth set of elections South Africans would be voting, in the country's twenty years of democracy. I for one will not disagree with that slogan. It is true for me and I doubt any Black South African who was conscious prior to 1994 would disagree with the story.

While the last few years under the leadership of Jacob Zuma have been divisive; filled with corruption allegations against government officials including our State President, rising strike action in various sectors of our economy and widespread protests due to lack of service delivery, the story remains a good one to tell. It is only the "clever people" who take exception to the performance of the ANC government,  crying foul over the misuse of state resources to upgrade Nkandla as an example.

This is why we have a good story to tell, when could have had a great story to tell, or a better story to tell. The ANC doesn't have a great story to tell because of these shenanigans! The National Party did well to uphold Apartheid, positioning "Die Swart Gevaar", Afrikaans for Black Threat as the reason to vote and keep them in power. Now those chickens have come home to roost, as no matter how upset the majority of the voters get with the ANC, they see it as betrayal to vote for any other party. This is before the added complication of the major opposition party being a "White Party".

This conditioning lies deep, and no amount of intellectual reasoning will get people enslaved to this thinking to change their view. So how do we get to a point when we have a great story to tell?

For one, so long as White people do not sensitise themselves to their fellow Black countrymen, and have empathy as to where they are coming from, Black people will not vote a White Party into power. Arguing against Affirmative Action and advising Black people to "move on, it's in the past" will not result in us having a great story. 

So long as Black people can't trust White people, and see them as having no remorse for the atrocities of the past, they will not move their vote away from the ANC government that did more for them in 20 years than White governments did in over three hundred years of ruling.

Maybe in five years we will have a great story to tell! I saw people of different races and ages in the queues today as I went to cast my vote. So while it is good that we have people exercising their right to vote, which I think is a privilege, roll on another another five years. Today what is important is that people eligible to vote, got up and went to bear it in the queue and then vote. We don't judge what people voted. What's important is that the story they tell themselves when looking at that mark on their thumb is better and serves them. Only time will tell, if in five years' time, the ANC will again have a good story to tell.