A thought about elections

Winston Churchill is always worth a qoute or two.

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life

And...The all time favourite:

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

But the Churchill quote I heard just before elections that really got me thinking was this;  The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

And it wouldn't be too far fetched to suggest that the average South African voter wouldn't do much to change his mind, if the nutters we choose to lead our country are anything to go by....

But what exactly is it that those South African voters have got wrong? What would they say that would make you wonder if putting a ballot paper in their hands is not that responsible? Surely giving everyone an equal say is always a good idea?  Isn't that why kindergarten classes are often put in charge of surgical proceedures; Everyone gets to have their say and feel empowered, and there may be some fun ideas... but the patient who comes around to find their arms sticking out of their knees might have some interesting points to raise.

I don't think South African voters do badly because they are dumb. I've heard a young Zulu man, who went to the same good school I did, who had a scholarship to UCT based on his outstanding academic performance and who is studying to be a doctor, say that he was planning to vote for Jacob Zuma, even though he thought he probably was guilty of much corruption, because... wait for it... "As presedent he won't be able to do whatever he wants. Government will still control him." What kind of reason to vote for a man is that? On that basis we shouldn't bother with elections at all, it should just be a lottery! 

So more education doesn't make better voters. Even people who havn't had a fare chance at education are more than capable of picking a good apple out of bad ones, the problem is what we expect a good apple to look like here. We've been lied to and dissapointed so many times that I'm not convinced many people in this country understand what they should be able to expect from their leaders. There is an assumption that, no matter what, leaders will abuse their position and get rich and that they deserve respect for this. When all the candidates are expected to be greedy, your best bet is simply to vote for the one who comes from your race or clan or town or family, because that's your best chance of benefiting.

In a context where elections are simply a chance to demonstrate clan loyalty, rather than to punish leaders who abuse us and choose ones who serve us, you don't have democracy at all, you end up with a strange aristocratic system with a veneer of socialism and some token elections to keep our international image nice and palatable.

Just imagine young leaders in SASCO, the ANC Youth League, the various trade unions and schools and organizations in this country were to be told something like what Alan Webber recently wrote in the Washington Post

You will be told that you have a responsibility to be leaders. That what the world needs more than ever are leaders. That we suffer from a lack of leadership. That with your education, your values, your ability to apply social media, your global vision, your youthful idealism, you will be the next generation of leaders!


Now. Listen. Very. Carefully.


Pay no attention to any of that. That is what we call hogwash.

Choosing to lead is one of the most rewarding decisions you may ever make. But it’s not about you. Yes, you will bring your unique and much needed gifts to the world, but not for your own sake. Your job is to use your gifts to help others express, make known and fulfill their potential. Influencing others with a purpose, a calling, and with opportunities they never imagined they had.


It’s a mindset of service. It’s a mindset of continual learning. It’s a mindset of growth.


The single biggest truth of leadership is that we build who we are by building up others.


That doesn’t come naturally to us, but it’s your calling, if you would be a leader.


(from Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog by Michael McKinney)

And then Imagine they saw that kind of leadership being modelled by those in positions of responsibility (not power). Then imagine the people of South Africa started believing that leaders could be like this and began to look for apples that looked like that, tossing the others aside, regardless of what clan that rotten apple represented. That would be the kind of democracy Madiba would be proud of!

Well that's what I'd like to think anyway.

Cheers untill next time

Paul