R2K Statement – Freedom Week 2019: To Vote or Not to Vote!
Tomorrow, South Africans will be celebrating Freedom Day. This year’s celebrations are particularly significant because we are 11 days away from the sixth national general elections and the burning question for the majority of eligible South Africans is “To vote or not to vote?”
And the closer we get to the 8th of May, the more unclear the answer seems to become. Party manifestos promise a paradise – a tablet for every school kid, a provincial police service that will deal with the gang problem once and for all, R5000pm for every unemployed person… And all of these undertakings are greeted with suspicion as yet another set of empty and untested promises in the run-up to the elections. For those for whom loyalty to the party is more important, the decision is clearer – despite the frustration with the slow pace of change in their own lives.
Transparency on Political Party Funding:
On the campaign trail, political parties offer potential voters and communities lots of goodies – from T-shirts and food parcels to combi-courts and a possible TVET college. With these inducements they hope to buy our votes, and yet they are still to come clean about who has bought and paid for them. Who are the mysterious donors who have given hundreds of thousands or even millions to a party’s election war-chest in the hopes of influencing policy or decisions later when that party is in power? And while the Party Funding Act has come into effect, we will have no information on who has given what to whom in this election, or indeed in the internal party elections (or party list processes) – unless the party were willing to volunteer that information as a sign of trust in us the voters. Currently, only the United Democratic Movement (UDM) has been brave enough to reveal its funding sources. And make no mistake that in this election – at both national and provincial levels – we are voting for a party. It is the party’s approach to issues of ethical leadership, accountability and corruption that is important. We do not vote for individual candidates at provincial and national leadership levels – even though our approach has been to put our trust in the individual as the one who will solve our problems.
Defending the Right to Protest:
Communities are also making use of the upcoming elections as an opportunity to put their frustrations over the slow pace of delivery on the table. Just as in 2014, a spike in service delivery protests across the country, making the failures of local government an issue on the provincial or national agenda. But in choosing the streets rather than the ballot box to do so, they are bypassing at least one of the important mechanisms of the democratic system that we set up in 1994. Even if through protest action, a community succeeds in getting a political leader to listen while on the campaign trail, can one trust a national leader who makes promises about things that are a provincial or local government competency? Especially where the resultant protest action’s destruction of local infrastructure will have consequences long after the election?
The right to protest is critical to ensuring that citizens are able to voice their dissatisfaction and to hold government and the private sector accountable for their actions and obligations. Nevertheless, we must continue to condemn violent protests that distract us from our objectives or worse still that undermine the principle of our activism. It was through protest and other forms of resistance that we manage to triumph over the apartheid system and we must continue to defend the right to protest.
State Capture and State Spying:
As we head into these national and provincial elections, the issue of corruption is high on the agenda. It’s been months since a number of prominent figures and groups were implicated in acts of corruption during the State Capture Inquiry and as R2K we believe that there are sufficient grounds to charge these people but the President has failed to take action. We reiterated our call that all those implicated in wrongdoings must be investigated and formally charged accordingly.
Ordinary South Africans are suffering because resources meant to improve their everyday lives are channelled somewhere else by corrupt politicians and administrators. We thought to remove former President Jacob Zuma was the key to addressing corruption but the reality is that the same people who are fingered in corruption have made it to the list of candidates for the upcoming national and provincial elections. A recent report by the Competition Commission revealed that two South African mobile companies are oppressing and exploiting the country’s poor through inflated data costs. This shows how the private sector continues to loot without any repercussions while we focus the spotlight on politicians only. As we celebrate freedom, R2K calls on all South Africans to stand united and fight against corruption.
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa released a High-Level Review Panel Report on State Security Agency. Amongst other things, the report confirmed that SSA’s rogue unit spied on R2K and other civil society organisations. We call on the president to swiftly act to protect the freedoms and rights of the people. We cannot continue to live in a state where surveillance of citizens, civil society organizations and journalists persists with impunity. We believe this is a tactic that is used by governments and individuals in the position of power who are hellbent on silencing dissent and would go to any length to abuse their power to repress the citizens, reminiscent of the apartheid tactics.
The fact that these are achieved through illegal means shows that we have a massive battle in our hands to depoliticise institutions that are meant to protect the people. The President should ensure speedy implementation of the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on State security and reform the agency as well as hold accountable those who used the agency to achieve their own narrow political interests. Only through decisive action will he be able to restore public confidence in this institution.
It is not just the State that abuses our right to privacy and expression. We are equally disturbed by the private security companies that have no respect for people’s right to privacy. The rapid installation of CCTV cameras in several suburbs across different provinces is of great concern. People’s privacy is being invaded without their consent and this culture of impunity, which prioritizes profit over the rights of the people should come to a halt. We call on the presidency to ensure that the office of the Information Regular becomes fully functional so as to protect people’s privacy and personal information being abused by telemarketers, corporations and political parties alike. We, therefore, demand that the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act be implemented as a matter of urgency.
Defend Democracy – Intensify the fight against corruption and suppression!
On this Freedom Day, as we remember and celebrate our hard-won political freedoms, let us not be lulled into thinking the struggle is over. Freedom is something that we must work at, every day, as active citizens. We must resist those who would silence our words, those who would spy on our actions and those who would steal our future by looting the public purse. On this Freedom Day, as we look towards our 6th National and Provincial elections, let us stop and give proper thought to whom we elect to develop this country of ours for the next 5 years.
During Freedom Week – 27 April (Freedom Day), 1 May (May Day) and 3 May (World Press Freedom Day) R2K will host events in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal. See a list of events here and support the events in your area, invite others via our Facebook page. Remember to spread the word on social media #FreedomWeek
