This means that the ANC - a particular type of organisation/ institution - has ultimate legislative control in South Africa. But, then, who - de jure - controls the ANC? (I'll be honest I don't quite know how their organsiational structure works but) my understanding is that the ANC executive committee has ultimate control on the decisions made by the ANC - for example, whether to fire a President or a member of parliament.
So, then, who controls the ANC executive committee. Well - it is run by the members of the committee, including its leader Jacob Zuma.
And who elects this committee - the ordinary rank and file members of the ANC. So, who has ultimate control over the legislature - the rank and file members of the ANC.
This implies that, in order to best influence the legislative branch of Goverment, it is necessary to JOIN THE ANC and be in a position to vote for the next executive committee/ President of the ANC.
Membership is open to all. Go to http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/misc/members.html
If more South Africans join the ANC, those South Africans will have a far greater say in how this nation is actually run then by voting in the national elections. This follows from three simple facts
- FACT 1: It is clear that the ANC would have won this election pretty much regardless of how appalling their past performance was. As such, no matter how much you complain, or whether you vote or note, the ANC will rule. This is likely to be the case in 5 years time as well.
- FACT 2: ANC members elect the body that controls the majority members of parliament
- FACT 3: There are far fewer ANC members than national voters. As such, your voice/ vote will carry more weight in an ANC internal election than in a national election (where their are over 20 million voters).
Scenario 1. All the whites join the ANC
But this would be mean there would be approximately as many black ANC members as white ANC members. This would clearly have a radically effect on power balances in this country. SO WHY NOT JUST DO IT?
Scenario 2. All of South AFrica joins the ANC
Consider the scenario that the whole of RSA joined the ANC. Then, the Mbeki supporters would have had far more support from the people outside the party than the Zuma supports (assuming that the majoirty of non-ANC members were against Zuma). This would have populated the ANC executive committee with more from the non-Zuma camp. Again, radical shift in power.
Now, you might say: "but rather just have your say in the actual elections? Re read the facts above (facts 1,2 and 3). Facts 2 and 3 cannot be denied. They are simply factual observations of current electoral processes. It is on these two facts that my clever political menouveour relies. Fact 1 is more open to debate (it is not absolute like the others). However, fact 1 is almost equally undeniable, and I dont rely on it to prove my clever political menouveour. However, Fact 1 is my motivation for the move.
So to recall why fact 1 is so obvious. The citezenry of this country would have voted the ANC even if Mbeki had be shot with a bullet, and Mandala after him - at least that is my sense. Perhaps that is going to far (is it?). Anyway, regardless of that, the point is the citezenry of this country returned the ANC to power just shy of a 2/3rds majority. They did not punish the ANC for an appauling performance - the FOUR BIGGIES: AIDS, ZIMBABWE, SERVICE DELIVERY and (the most important if you have half a brain) CRIME. There are only three ways to look at the citezenry in this case
- INNOCENCE. They dont know the facts - they are uninformed voters (most liberal)\
- EMOTIONAL. They know the facts, but their emotions gets the better of them as they here the voice ringing in the backround "never again" (apartheid) and think this somehow means they most vote for the liberation movement (this is UNFORGIVEABLE)
- STRATEGIC. They know the facts, they are not emotional, but they are being strategic and rationale regarding their own financial position which perhpas benefits from the ANC's policies of Black Economic Empowerment (that is just disgusting).
- STUPIDITY. OR, they know the facts, they are not emotional, they are not rationale, they are just stupid (I am sure many are).
One of the architects of the modern political system of which we are apart was John Stuart Mill. Arguably, he was schooled within the utaliterian tradition. He argued that their are no values that a Government should aspire to save the values and wants of its own people. Poetry - in his opinion - was sublime. But that did not mean Government should sponsor it above race car driving, if that is what the citezenry desired. He argued this was the only just sytem. His one caveat was that the citezenry needed to be educated so they could be informed voting decisions.
Our citezenry - for what ever reasons - have made a very poor decision. They should have abondended the ANC in drives and allowed a new political dispensation to take over for 4 years. The ANC could then win the election after that, after their spanking. So, the rest of South Africa should weigh in and vote in the election that counts.
