South Africa is a land of tremendous diversity: From arid desert to rich farmland, from mansions to shacks, from mbaqanga to boeremusiek – and everything in-between.
But wherever you travel across this beautiful land, from our cities to country towns to rural dorpies and villages, there is a common thread of inequality – of hardship, for many. And the hardship is compounded by poor service delivery.
The poorer your community, the worse the level of services you receive. This seems to apply more-or-less equally to municipalities led by the ANC and the DA.
Twenty-seven years after most of us voted for the first time with high hopes, our colour still determines where most of us live. And where we live determines the quality of services we receive, and the quality of our local environment.
Where we live determines whether rubbish is left to pile up in the streets, whether there is decent lighting, and adequate water, sewerage and road systems. Whether ambulances can get to your door when needed. Whether there's anywhere for your children to play; whether it's safe to send them to buy bread... It shouldn't be so.
It is said, Rome wasn't built in a day. Nor could we expect to build a new South Africa completely freed of the damage and division apartheid wrought in a flash. But after 27 years, we should be further down the road than we are.
We should be further down the road in upholding people's dignity, all people, regardless of how they look or where they live.
Holding our councillors and their parties to account for local services and conditions is what the run-up to local government elections at the end of October should be about. Holding them accountable for local non-delivery and corruption, not that of their role-models in national or provincial government.
Set historic political loyalties aside for a moment and look around you with objective eyes. Look down the street.
Ask yourself if the standard of the environment you live in is dignified. Have your representatives succeeded in improving the community's quality of life? Is it suitable for developing children with the capacity to escape the cycle of poverty?
Ask yourself if those you voted for have been doing a good job. The fact is, these politicians responsible for non delivery have been voted in by the public. In a democracy, the only way to change your public representatives and government is to vote them out.
My advice is that you look most carefully at the quality of the candidates and their commitment to your community, not the colour of their posters, before deciding where to place your cross.
If you vote in local elections for reasons beyond local conditions then you doom your community to living with the consequences for another five years.
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