GOOD statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General
31 October 2021
South Africans go to the polls tomorrow in an environment of uncertainty, anxiety and despondency.
Battered by years of state ineptitude and corruption, at all levels, and, now, Covid, wherever you travel in South Africa the picture is more-or-less the same: We have failed to address the structural legacy of the past. Race still determines space in society, and the spaces occupied by people of colour ranges between totally inferior and downright unfit for human habitation.
Our municipalities have critical hands-on roles to play in developing a society that regards all its citizens as of equal worth… a society that understands that all people have equal needs for clean water and other basic services… a society that is good for business, investment and job creation.
DA controller Helen Zille, who cast her vote on Saturday in a swirling cloud of denial about inequality in DA-led Cape Town, insisting that Black Capetonians receive better services than Black residents of other cities, would do well to go and look how people are living on the Cape Flats rather than insult them.
Zille should wear Wellington boots to avoid getting sewerage down her socks in this City that wants people to believe it gets things done – and if she’s visiting Gauteng or the Free State she should take the boots with her because things are no better over there.
Besides providing useful punching bags for each other, while maintaining apartheid divisions and injustices, the truth is that the old South African parties have made scant progress on the journey to restructure the divided nation and forge a modern, inclusive and sustainable future.
Instead, they have perpetuated a toxic binary brew.
South Africans are better than the political parties in which they have until now placed their faith. There are good people in these parties, but they haven’t had the power to change up the game.
A restructure is already underway. Both of the old parties are anticipated to shed support on Monday.
The choice voters face is to support a realignment – or sentence themselves to another five years of division and downward spiral.
Our inability until now to develop common purpose is the single most precious missing piece in the South African puzzle.
Common purpose is the best antidote for inequality. Towns and cities developed on common purpose are good for the people, good for the environment and good for business, investment and job creation.
GOOD is ready to contribute constructively to developing a new approach to government, based on developing social, economic, environmental and spatial justice for all South Africans regardless of how they look, where they live or how much money they may have in the bank.
We are asking voters to lend us their votes for five years, and thereafter, if we disappoint, to please vote for someone better. We are saying the time to Fix South Africa starts here. If we don’t move now we risk drowning in the old toxic brew.
Media enquiries:
Ms Karabo Tledima, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 061 794 3819
Email: karabot@forgood.org.za