The people of South Africa continue to be burdened and punished by those who preside over our constitutional democracy. Much ink has already been spent on these failures of our democratic order. Those failures are not theoretical or academic but rather have real consequences for the people. 

The constitutional democratic order continues to be weighed down by the inefficiencies of our democratic system (that was intended to be transitional) and the harsh embrace by our elected representatives to prioritise party over people. The pathways for an alternative dispensation appear illusive, and fraught with impossibility given how power and agency has been chipped away with each election cycle. 

The rise of multiparty structures has not enabled grassroots commitment and civic participation. Instead, each successive election has reaffirmed dwindling participation, disappointment and despair. 

It might be easier to blame South Africans alone, but politics and activism are about power. South Africans battle against machinery and systems that are currently wielded without their participation. Power that has been eroded from the people. Power that has been wrapped up in process, and reshaped towards politics of ego and the stomach. 

In this vicious cycle and cesspool presenting itself as democracy, South Africans are both the victims and losers of a system that has been designed to prop up party political structures. 

In the vacuum of civic participation programmes, efforts to deepen/strengthen democracy and real commitment to supporting citizen-led processes and engagement, we will continue to be poorly served by our political system. After all, those systems are not about service to people, those systems are not about commitment to the Constitution but rather they are about power (and its absolute pursuit) and securing the futures of those in its structures. The role of party political structures will continue to dominate our economic, social and political realities as long as we tolerate this broken system.

One imagined after all the continued threats to our democratic foundations and brinkmanship, that more would have taken place. Instead, organisations (local and foreign), businesses and civic organisations have sought to support party political machinery. The machinery is not about empowering millions of South Africans to take possession of their innate power and agency, but rather that money is used to enable the existing players and the cycle of new entrants that enter on the promise of a new beginning. 

The allure of new organisations with compelling leaders attracts the support of the ecosystem that surrounds our political system. One can understand that attraction as it often relies on the trap of the personality, the persuasive personal story and personal sacrifice, and of course the possibility that the system can be redirected from the abyss. 

Far too little money and effort are spent on supporting and enabling communities. We only need to look at South Africa’s Covid-19 period where people and communities sought to convene in order to make sense, provide for those that had very little, and provide some humanity during a bleak period. The extent of corruption and the rush to the feeding trough continues to be uncovered. 

We only need to remember those who stood against those who wished to benefit while tens of thousands died and millions struggled even more. If we had any doubts around the commitment of elected representatives and civil servants, then Covid-19 shone a harsh light on how broken our democratic and governance structures are.

The lost decade under Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma was not simply about State Capture or the erosion of state institutions and capacity. It was a period of heightened disenfranchisement and the entrenchment of systems that seek to protect a few, systems that value party political power above the needs of people. 

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Sadly, consequences and transition from these corrosive and despicable systems have not been properly implemented. The new dawn promised stalled quickly with inefficient implementation, reluctant leadership and a pace of change that can at best be described as lacklustre. 

The lost decade is not the only period that South Africans have had to overcome. Most recently, we have had to navigate the excesses of government power (or rather what should really be power exercised on behalf of people) against South Africans during the iterative stages of our response to Covid-19. 

During the crisis of HIV/Aids, civic organisations such as the Treatment Action Campaign had to battle the government in order to ensure that healthcare was provided to those requiring it most. Activists as young as Nkosi Johnson had to plead for his government to respond with compassion. Those who spoke out against this despicable government policy such as Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge were fired from their positions while the then national Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang stubbornly clung to the crackpot theories of beetroot, garlic and the African potato.

Yet, after all this and so much more, South Africans have not yet mastered the ability to claim back their power and agency. This is not because South Africans have not tried, but rather because the so-called democratic systems continue to use public power, private money, state-mandated money and resources in order to prop up the system that allows our worst excesses and most vocal to rise in the claim that they represent the voice of the people. 

The issues around President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, and the National Assembly’s consideration this week of the Phala Phala report (section 89 investigation) and the inevitable outcome after the governing party structures circled around their leader, should not be our dominating narrative. 

The report itself has a number of legal challenges (including unexplained leaps of logic), but it does raise a broader question around judgement. The political theatre of the Phala Phala issue, and the upcoming governing party’s elective conference at Nasrec highlight how broken our system remains. The elevation of a few over others does not safeguard our democratic foundations or protect the people of the republic. 

Very little has been done to restore capacity within our system. We only need to look to the failings of local government to comprehend how corrosive our politics remains, and what those consequences are. Coalition governments since the local government elections of 2019 should act not only as a cautionary warning to the republic, but urge all of us to fix our broken system. 

South Africa is not going to be saved simply by the introduction of slightly better leaders or improved party political structures, but rather a fundamental shift in how this country functions. The Electoral Amendment Bill farce is simply insufficient to address the rigged system, and once again civic organisations have had to muster a defence in the interests of South Africans. 

Our future must be beyond the political theatre featuring crippling rolling blackouts, coalition governments, Phala Phala and must be far more meaningful than the outcomes of the governing party’s elective conference. South Africa does not simply need the realignment of the party political machine but rather an entire overhaul of it, and to return power to the people. 

Those with power and influence must use their agency and money now to support grassroots activism and civic activism across South Africa. If you have any doubts about our collective survival, now is the moment to support South Africans who continue to fight for justice and equality. Apathy can be overcome. 

Disillusionment and the machinery of the status quo have been overwhelmed by the will of the people on countless occasions, and now is the moment when South Africans claim their power once more.

It is in the people of South Africa that hope and true empowerment will come, and most certainly not from the crop that currently leases our power. DM