Today I cast my vote in the South African general election - from London. The ANC-lead government has kindly granted those South Africans living in foreign lands the vote. It's somewhat ironic that it's the ANC lead government that caused many of those Saffas to head for distant shores in the first place, but while I still have the privilege of voting in a SA election I will do so.
Eventually the okes in Luthuli House (ANC hq) will make those of us with two passports choose a nationality and I am afraid my trusted Green Mamba that gets me into about one other country in the world without a visa (I think it's North Korea) will be tossed in the bin. (All "offshore" voters need to display both a Saffa passport and a Saffa ID book before they can vote; so if the ANC want to cut the queue outside South Africa House by two-thirds (okay nine-tenths) in the next election, well it isn't rocket science is it. (PS I reckon I stood with about 1500 Democratic Alliance voters today...and with ANC voters....hmmmm...one - the South African ambassador.)
Electioneering is gathering full steam in South Africa at present. The Democratic Alliance is the main opposition to the ANC although there is another political animal making a move - the Economic Freedom Fighters lead by Julius Malema, their Commander-in-Chief. The EEF is a populist party so far to the left that it has almost fallen off the edge of the political spectrum. They basically want to nationalise all the country's resources - land and minerals - and redistribute them to...well I think mainly, themselves. Julius is a past master at this having honed his skills in the ANC before being kicked out for pissing off No 1 (No 1 is Jay Zee our estimeed president - more on him in later blogs). Julius is a man of taste though, Louis Vuitton shoes to keep his feet protected from all that township dust and Breitling watches to keep him on time. "The poor need to aspire to something" apparently :)
One thing that the EFF does share in common with the Democractic Alliance is that both of them have had television adverts banned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation - the supposed "neutral" national broadcaster. The ads apparently incite violence which is against the SABC's Code of Ethics or some-such-thing. I encourage you to go and watch them on Youtube (The DA's ads are "Ayisafani 1" and "Ayisafani 2").
I wasn't sure though where the incitement to commit violence came from. The DA ads were typical of any election (Criticise the incumbent party and make extravagant claims about your own) - although the EFF's ad did encourage followers to physically dismantle the new toll road system in Johannesburg - just a hint of things to come then under EFF rule!
But I then I remembered - the SABC is a parastatal and therefore a victim of ANC cadre deployment (this means that the ruling party stuffs public entities with its cronies to generally plunder and pillage until said entity needs a government bail-out - see South African Airways as a classic case study in this regard). So when the SABC broadcast a Zuma rally where he sings a "traditional" Zulu struggle song called "Awuleth' Umshini Wami" or "Bring Me My Machine...Gun", that's fine because instructing your followers to bring automatic weapons definitely is not anywhere close to inciting violence.(The word "Gun" is not actually referenced explicitly anywhere in this song but given that it was practically the anthem of the military wing of the ANC, the inteference is strong! These days though "machine" might reference Bentley or Roller or BMW or Mercedes.)
This all said I got to vote without hindrance - but then I was a few thousand miles away - and my hope is that the election will go off without too much incident. And if you are in a possession of a vote then use it; countless people have made the ultimate sacrifice for this privilege therefore it should not be an opportunity wasted!!
Out.
It's apparently illegal to take pics of who you voted for - I hadn't voted yet but in case you wondered what my voting experience was like see below...I like the Keep it Straight and Simple Party...:)
