Effective Governance

It is amazing when you come to think of it, that the majority of South Africans do actually vote with their hearts and not their minds. In fact this is true for all the political parties. Unless a political party does something really stupid and hits an irreversible 'self-destruction' mode, it is unlikely to lose a significant amount of its traditional support. If it does lose a few bits here and there it will eventually recover those in the self-balancing paradigm of SA politics.

Think of it this way: South Africans generally loathe reading. They usuall don’t have long concentration spans either. Very few people actually bother to read any of the long election manifestos (and therefore get to know exactly what a party stands for). Neither do they concentrate through an often grammar-disabled two-hour long policy speech. It all comes down to personal preference, rhetoric and clichés. The ANC in particular has mastered this art which is why they continue to win elections easily, followed closely by the DA who also use their own form of shallow slogans that appeal to a different niche to that of the ANC. As a matter of fact so does any other significant political group.

Let's now shift our focus back to the important issue of effective governance. In fact many of us don't really care who is governing us politically as long as we have effective governance. We do not wish for some kind of Jesus Christ to come back to earth and perform miracles. Besides, miracles and magic only have a place in lavish chapels and 'for entertainment' circus shows as far as we are concerned. In the real world we want a government that simply does its job, and does it well.

If they need flashy BMWs to do their work then so be it. Give them the Bimmers. What matters is when the people in power know what they are supposed to do, and do it right regardless of how big their bellies become in the process (as long as they do not break any laws while at it). As soon as this basic modus operandi falls into place the rest will follow. I concede and recognize that politicians will always be politicians and they will always be greedy and self-righteous. Give them a boxing ring if you have to, a swimming pool to play in, just anything to boost their big egos. Let them drown in imported whiskeys for crying out loud. They are human beings after all. But all of these benefits must come after a fair day's work. This is the cliché that needs to be adopted, in my opinion.

As it stands now however people are thriving on persona-oriented rhetoric and meaningless clichés like "a better life for all". Why not "a better service delivery by all in government"?

Let our royal leaders rather focus on developing and maintaining the human capacity to achieve the basics, the "all goals met" kind of situation, and worry about the "goals exceeded" later. Some of us do not believe in miracles therefore in the spirit of togetherness let us keep words like miracles and magic out of it. Let us be realistic, simple and straight to the point. That way we could achieve effective governance regardless of which con artist reads the speeches, drowns the wines and throws the biggest punches in parliament.