Making my choice

It is in fact the most difficult thing to choose the party with which one will associate; indeed it is a choice that most have not had to make, given that most of the politicians in South Africa were either born into their parties, or they were recruited at a young age, or they climbed on the bandwagon of their party’s success as it went past; or they are now leaders of their party.

Having, over the last decade, made no secret of my public spats with every political party in South Africa, and of my alienation of my friends, family and community in the name of my crusade for justice, honesty and ethical leadership from my community’s leadership, it is perhaps the political parties which need to draw straws to see who gets the short straw, and thus the burden of my membership.

It is, I suppose, a little bizarre that as a politician you are expected to work 18 hours a day, but you are not expected to work on things which may compromise the ability of your party to do its business, to make money or to secure gains of any sort. Indeed, why would any party-bound politician seek to undermine the potential success of their own party, given that this would undermine his or her career potential?

For instance if you were an ANC politician, would you keep silent? In the face of Chancellor House (and all of the similar stories), in the face of the Ancyl, Sasco, BMF, SACP and Cosatu bullying the ANC at every turn, in the face of glaring irregularities in the way that our government conducts its business? Surely as a representative of the people, these are things to which you should object?

Therefore I have decided to make my choice of political party in public, and then to simply seize control of my chosen party to ensure that when I contest the seat of Ward 23 on the eThekwini (Durban) City Council, in 2011, that my party neither brings me into disrepute with my people, being the people of Durban, nor that my party causes me to compromise me principles.

We have therefore the following “Big 6” contenders, for the honour of being the party that holds my membership:

ANC

COPE

IFP

ACDP

Over the next two weeks I am going to review each of these parties and their technical and operational infrastructure and report to you as to my opinions thereon.

Then I will hold a referendum for my constituents and make my case in respect of each of these parties, and then I will let the people choose. For all I know they may choose another party, and given that my ward voted NNP in 1996 and that same councillor is still in office, my constituents may choose the Minority Front.

This is assuming that I will be able to win control of any and every political party with the research and technologies which my firm owns, or that I am able to start a new political party on the basis of recruiting people who are disillusioned with the other options and who want:

Corruption Free Politics
Active and Permanently Accessible Civic Participation
Efficient Local Government Service Delivery based on Citizen Satisfaction

As these are the things with which I am proud to be associated. Thankfully, my tailor cuts my coat to suit, and my tails (while worn with top hat) provide little room for vendors selling tickets for the Gravy (karri – Tamil; curry – Anglo-Tamil) Train.