An open letter to local political parties

Dear local political parties, I turned 30 this year. When I grow up I want to be a politician. Don’t laugh. I am fully aware that growing up may well bar me from membership. I would like to join one of your ranks.

Call me naive or optimistic or both, but I believe that there may yet come a time when our — your — political culture is one that is not averse to a crop of young, interested politicos who want to openly declare a desire to lead, to be allowed to express that desire and to debate the merits and demerits of party views openly and frankly without fear of being sent into the political wilderness through the various crafty tactics you use to crush dissent.

Unfortunately, there is a massive disincentive for many of us youngish South Africans to seriously consider the honourable, or what should be honourable, business of law making and public service as career paths. Perhaps it would be useful to be party specific about my lament, since each of you contribute to that unglamorous reality in differing ways.

The African National Congress (ANC) is the worst sinner of the lot. Here is a party whose vision I endorse more than any other. I regard it as something of an ideological home. It is the most liberal party on social policy and lifestyle. While the Democratic Alliance (DA) folk running Cape Town harass sex workers, the ANC leads discussions on improving the lot of sex workers and rendering their rights to dignity, bodily integrity and economic freedom, meaningful. The ANC similarly had the most liberal attitude towards same-sex marriage, unlike the DA, which copped out by giving its MPs a cowardly free vote.

On the economic and socioeconomic fronts, I am attracted to the ANC too. Here a combination of market friendliness (thanks, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, for reducing cost of business through relaxed exchange controls) and serious investment in social projects and welfare signal a classic commitment to social democracy.

Yet the ANC’s internal political culture leaves me cold. I cannot, Comrade Jacob Zuma , imagine joining your ranks. I am bilingual, and the two languages do not include struggle-speak. That alone would cost me. I am also all too eager to debate openly and to declare support for this or that idea. I would want my right to sometimes step outside “the structures of the party” to be respected. Yet, as was the case with old Kader Asmal, violent language would follow suit, or I would be dedeployed or redeployed away from the action. I therefore cannot in good conscience join your party at this time.

DA, you do not perform much better, so it will not do to chuckle quietly at my criticism of the ANC’s organisational culture. In your case, to be fair, there is the appearance of less internal acrimony. I often wonder if this is genuine, since Madam Zille’s dominance does make one question whether the rest of the leadership has real influence — even the farmer in charge of your parliamentary team has already faded into oblivion. (Curious readers who do not recall his name will easily find it through a Google search for old articles published around election time, when said farmer gained momentary fame for being Xhosa-speaking, among other new-SA accolades.) But, even if I assumed that you have a perfect, internal democratic culture, I could still not join your ranks.

My interest in party politics is motivated by ideological conviction. Seriously. Of course, I would get a kick out of debate, public speaking and the like — any politician claiming otherwise is lying. But I could not join just any party. It must be one, like the ANC, whose vision I endorse. Alas, DA, you remain morally conservative (do not think your name or historical lineage fools me) and economically right wing. No South African with a sense of historicity and social justice intuitions could seriously be attracted to this vision for our country. So, Zille et al, while I commend your seemingly decent internal political culture, I’m afraid your ideological convictions, in their turn, leave me cold.

Since smaller parties, such as the Independent Democrats, have squabbled themselves out of political relevance, only the Congress of the People (COPE) remains as a party I might join. COPE has no vision, unfortunately, and so joining it is a bit problematic for a committed social democrat and moral liberal. Until they have an identity, and an agreeable one at that, I cannot claim to be attracted to them. It would also help, of course, if they demonstrated a preference for open contestation of ideas and leadership. Alas, they remain a grumpy Mini-Me duplicate of the ANC, taking the Mini-Me role so seriously that they resist growing up.

I look forward to the day any of you parties gives me a decisive reason to ditch the easy business of analysis for the tougher, more honourable one of law making and public service — before I turn 40.

Surprise me.

Sincerely,
Optimistically grumpy,
Eusebius “would- be-politician” McKaiser.