I am my own Leader

I have observed on many an occasion how the people entrusted with the leadership of our society have consistently and frequently abandoned that responsibility in favour of sectarian and factionalist interests and gains, much to the detriment of the led.

I should make it crystal clear that this space is not designed to speak ill of the ruling party, the opposition or any organisation or structure for that matter. However, let it be clear that I shall not shy away from expressing my view of things and this is it.
We are said to be a democratic people in a democratic country. I understand democracy to be a government of the people, for the people and by the people themselves. This says to me that we are a people that should be hands on in our government; that we should be our own representatives in government, but sadly that is not the case.

I behold with worry as the electoral system we use continue to undermine and, frankly, oppress us, the very people who should be a government. The system allows for the political parties to nominate a "top six" list of people who shall lead that party. A face of a man or woman is put up the that party's president or leader; a person that is admired by others and despised by others. Granted it should be so.  They then go to the general elections and having agreed at their general congress that a certain individual is fit to lead the lot of us, the put up the name.

The rest of the people in that party whose ideals are not represented by this individual are forced to accept this person as their leader, albeit they hate his guts. That party will have factions because times will come when the elect will engage with the elector and the latter, whose ideals are not represented by this man or woman, and such engagements often lead to factionalism within that structure. Take President Zuma of the ANC for an example, after his victory in Polokwane 2007, those who put him to power in the ANC rejoice, and those who were skeptical remain unconvinced of his leadership.

And then we move to parliament. The National Assembly, a house of representatives. And this is where my dilemma begins. Is it not so that in a democracy, people should represent themselves in government matters, or any other matter except for legal and other technical matters? For if it is so, then we should ask the question that are our interests represented in this House. Take a Rastafari for example. He is non-political, he is peaceful and he is a Ganja user-basically he is all that the modern human is not.

He stays away from voting booths because he realises the vanity of the politician. He stays away from Sunday churches because he realises their mistake. In Parliament, and in the community, Rastafari is marginalised because of his refusal to partake in these joke rituals. He is accused of wanting to be different, as if there is fault in that. Because the people he would have liked as his representatives in parliament did not partake in the elections, realising they would lose anyway since the African National Congress' and the Democratic Alliance's of this world control all the capital and media for propaganda.

From this point, Rasta cannot have representation in the very House that should, by law, recognise everybody equally. Another example is of a man like me who has no regard for politics; if I like none of the political parties on the ballot, I am forced to abide by the dictates of the ruling party regardless of my feelings and ideology and my opinion of that party.
This, then, gives me a dilemma in trying to understand the representation part. If I am a government myself, then why do we have a parliament which, predominantly houses the ANC and DA politicians as major parties? How is my stance to be represented if I have no representative in the National Assembly? The voting and governance system in South Africa is flawed and no provision is made in the Constitution for the Rastafari man (because when they have to legalise Ganja, they say there will be problems for the law enforcers in distinguishing between medicinal, spiritual use and the general smoking; fearing an abuse of the law, but sacrificing the right of Rastafari of Spiritual Meditation and medicine.
Slain Libyan revolutionary and leader Muammar El' Gaddafi also expresses worry over this issue. His argument is that were or are there no other models of democracy in the world if we all have to subscribe to the American version?

Because if this is the case, we should then revisit the time of prehistory and the not so old history of most successful, prosperous African nations and seek their secret. This I say because it is difficult to imagine that all African peoples were thwarted by incompetency, dictatorship and human rights abuses. We should stop looking for Europeans to guide us for we must have learnt now that putting your trust in the European, with sensitive issues like governance and governing systems, we are doomed to slavery and other barbaric forms of treatments as experienced not so long ago.

Africans must accept that theirs is a different destiny to that of the European and thus our ways to reach there cannot be the same. As of this moment, I am ungovernable. Not by Zuma or by Zille or De Lille or any other guy, so long as there is no meaningful freedoms released to the people, all people including Rasta and his ganjah. I am tired of the inequalities that were supposed to have been addressed long ago by the ANC government. I am tired of the inequalities in the Western Cape perpetrated against the poor and the have-nots.
I am my own leader.

My destiny is bigger than this. So, that until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally done away with, I will be ungovernable. That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation, I will be ungovernable. That until the colour of a man's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes, I will be ungovernable. I am my own leader. That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, I will be ungovernable.

So, having said all of this, the oppressive and corrupt system that continues to be a plague in the lives of the Afrikan, will remain as it is and as it was, so long the radical socialist revolution is frowned upon.

I am my own leader.

Let's chat about this!