Let’s cast off the shackles of conformity

IN THE past, people could not understand that there was an option to vote in local government elections for a person of their choice.

When Cope and Terror Lekota filed a court case about our electoral system, the court decided that independent candidates could contest from local to national government.

People were then aware that they could have their own choice – outside of the political structure.

Commonly, independent candidates are mostly the result of factions within political parties.

If you are an independent thinker, most political parties will sideline you. They prefer people who are stooges and will follow them – even when what they represent is not the political or ideological views of the organisation.

Some political parties have made people their puppets. They like to control people, using terminologies like “party-line”, etc. This has left communities without decision-makers and we end up having a cabal.

They dress like people who are liberated or who want economic freedom in their lifetime. This is rhetoric that they use – without implementing any of their policies.

Slowly people have realised that some candidates are hiding behind political flags. They should not look for political colours but look at the person’s personal character and qualities.

This is why there is a massive rise of independent candidates and going forward, our country will have a government of upright people, who have community and people at heart.

As a grouping of independent candidates, we feel we must bring our forces together to prevent the abuse that has been happening for the past 15 years by political parties. We would like to practise our full rights in terms of the Constitution as well as to exercise our civil rights.

It is time our communities take a stand and be recognised as people with a complete voice and enable us to take our position in our communities as the people. We believe that if we stand together in unity, we can achieve a lot.

Most political parties have undermined our people, who are professionals and competent individuals in their fields, by using an omnibus – suggesting that if you join a political party, you subsequently remove professionalism by using slogans.

Even worse, it has been suggested that your citizenship is not equal to membership. If you have a membership, you can disregard people with their citizenship, whereby most of the time political parties believe that doing consultations with citizens is when you are approaching voting time or elections.

Moreover, the voice of the people through the principle of “the people shall govern” has been disregarded. Only membership can have a voice above the citizens.

Most of our people do not know how to exercise their rights as citizens. They want to believe that they can have a voice if they stand in party politics. Whereas, on the other hand, our Constitution suggests otherwise, that as a citizen, you can exercise your human rights and your civil rights without being a party member.

The deployment of political parties also undermines other organs of our government by removing the privileges that are provided by our Bill of Rights that suggests that we all should enjoy the privileges that are placed in our Constitution.

The problem we have encountered with the deployment of political parties is that it carries powers that are not legislated and an authority in our state of organs, which questions whether it is a principle or a policy that supersedes our government institutions.

The political party deployment in South African institutions has subjected itself as a constitutional instrument that wants to make people believe that they cannot object to it, which further introduces corruption tendencies and practices that have destroyed our nation.

The key provision of our Constitution provides that the Constitution is the supreme law of the public for the people by the people and it is to be equal to all. In short, this means that all government bodies are bound by it.

Sibisi is an independent councillor and candidate in ward 103 (Hillcrest and surrounding areas) for the local government elections. He is also the co-ordinator of Amakhansela Omphakathi. Ndlovu is an independent councillor candidate in ward 75 (Lamontville, Merebank, Merewent, Ganges, Jacobs and surrounding areas). He is the convenor of Amakhansela Omphakathi.

The Amakhansela Omphakathi (independent candidates) represents some 30 community candidates for the election in eThekwini. They have committed to serving and putting development at the centre of their communities. For this to happen, they believe they need to have a common cause by promoting community empowerment, co-operation, participation, strengths, independence, equity and inclusiveness.