A VIEW OF THE WEEK: They fought for freedom, not just a Wednesday off

Election season is always a time for introspection. A reminder of where we came from, a check on how we are doing as a nation, and what we hope to change as we head to the polls.

One of the best places to look back is in the pages of Sol Plaatje’s* Native Life in South Africa*, a 1916 reflection on the Native Land Act that was a building block towards Apartheid.

There, after detailing the struggles of life in South Africa and the devastating effects of the Act, he closes his petition for assistance with the echoing words: “Shall we appeal to you in vain? I hope not”

Happy to just complain?

It is a plea to the comfortably numb who hold the power to bring change but seem more preoccupied with convenience and complaining.

A plea as loud in 1916 as it is 110 years later.

So many of us will sleep in on Wednesday before heading out to a braai with friends or recovering from the groove. Booze will no doubt be a constant companion to lubricate the “good times” and help us forget the bad.

Bad times that we have the power to change if we just take a few moments on Wednesday to make our voice heard at the ballot.

The last local government elections saw less than half of those on the voters’ roll actually turn up. Only around 46% of those who could make a difference actually did so, and the number becomes even more frightening, around 30%, when you include all those who didn’t even bother to register to vote

70% of those who now have the hard-fought freedom to vote – a battle that cost more than 21 000 lives over three decades of violence – threw it aside like an old rag.

They prefer, instead, to allow a third of the voting-age population to make decisions for them, while they sit and complain how services have collapsed.

This percentage is only about 10-15% more than those who could vote under Apartheid.

Most people who didn’t vote under Apartheid couldn’t; now they don’t want to.

So if we are, again, allowing other people to vote on our future, are we truly free?

‘Not worth it’

While a lot has changed in 30 years and many communities have been transformed for the better, progress has been slow, and inequality still plagues us.

Many are frustrated that our potential is within reach but lost to incompetence, greed, and corruption.

Defeated or in protest, people now think voting isn’t worth it.

They think their one vote can’t possibly make a difference, but then they see how a party that got less than 1% of the votes in Johannesburg went on to give us not one, but two mayors. Several key and executive positions in the city, which give them control of millions in annual budgets, are held by those who didn’t get an awful lot of votes.

Deciding not to vote does not mean you can wash your hands of the consequences you now have to live with in your community. It does not mean you are not part of the problem.

Your decision, even if it is not to get out of bed on election day, is still a decision. So choose wisely.